panel update

[englishbull]

I am not demeaning your hard work at all, I have said before what a fantastic job you are doing.
I just wondered why you would consider stumping up £25k for a tool that already exists.
If you have spoken to him, then fine. I didn't know you had.
If you can make the sums work then that's great, I need a pair of half wings myself so ill be first in the queue with my chequebook. But if you can sell 25 pairs of wings that makes £1000 each just in tooling and I don't see that demand.
I know something needs to happen, I just wondered if there was a more cost effective way of doing this. That's all.

Alan,

Some members have much more understanding of the issue than any committee has had for some time now. As I have posted before I have asked for the issue of spare parts provision for over twemty years now. I knew it would be important and need time to implement. The stance of "we don't want to get involved in parts" is so head in the sand. I don't know of any other "club" which has gone down this route.

Tooling in store does nothing to help. Finance has been offered but we are still in the same bad state of play i.e. no panel spares. So, I with Lloyd on this one - some action is better than none. I, and some others, will obviously make finance available should Lloyd request it. Perhaps our subs should go towards the project as this seems better value than what is on offer from the "club". No wonder we get break-away clubs needing to form.

No spares = no roadworthy vehicles = no membership.

This is the bottom line.

Kev

Well said Kev...............

And again well done Llyod...........

[Lloydpiestate]

hi gang,

things are going well, had prices back for two pieces of tooling, and im back off to the manufacturers early part of next week.

after doing some maths and a bit of guesstimation and also following talks with alan and other club members, the numbers of 2000 owners that i am reaching with the small media window i have at my disposal ( forums ) worldwide, is a mere 5% !!!! if that !!!!!

i need to up the anti here and reach far more owners to let them know what i am doing, to enable this project to be cost effective.

problem is, as i have nothing to advertise as such, as its all still in its development stages, i"ll need to draft a letter and send it to all the nationwide and worldwide classic publications explaining what i am doing and my intentions, in the hope that they will publish it, allowing the world to see !!! thus more numbers of orders. ( the more orders, the lower the unit costs )

i can fund one or two tools at a time, ( plus i have other backing should i need it ) before waiting to recoupe some sales money to do the next one etc etc, but its no good making tooling for a market that isnt there !!

i know the market is there though, from the orders ive had from just the forums alone, but they are not enough ( times those numbers by the projections ive done, and they are )

kevin and alan are doing a piece for the six appeal on my behalf and dale is doing the same for club torque, enabling me to reach the other 90% of club owners that im not doing at present, so thats a great help, my thanks to them.

ho hum, im off to draft a letter

lloyd

[leesellars]

I would be interested in full wings

Lee

[andyborris]

Lloyd

Can I make a suggestion?

Perhaps a website that pulls all this information together and also be somewhere that we can point non club members towards, they may still want to be involved, but without joining another forum!

It may also draw people in via search engines.

And I'm also sure that you're too busy to design and make a website, so I'm sure that one of our younger members who understand this kind of thing will lend a hand!

Andy

[Lloydpiestate]

sounds like a plan to me andy, top man !!!!!!!

i know someone who could do that for me, cos i certainly couldnt

i can just about find my way onto here and ct

lee, cheers matey, every order helps

lloyd

[ljd]

put me on your list for both mk2 front wings please your doing great work hope it works out for you,cheers john

[Lloydpiestate]

your on the list john, thanks.

and it will work out, it has to, as we all need these panels

lloyd

[Lloydpiestate]

hello guys,

i managed to get to the manufacturers yesterday and had a meeting with the owner and chap in charge of pricing the tooling, letting them know my unhappiness at the slowness of progress, and they are on it, and apologized, its down to jlr swamping the market, i know this to be true as i saw all the pre production panels there !!!!!!! you should of seen the size of the tooling for just one panel, and its only to make 31 no of that panel, jlr will lose thousands on that tooling alone, but thats new car development for you !!

prices for mk1&2 fronts and mk1&estate rears will be with me by middle of week after next.

the front tooling will be done so as half wings can be done, so also allowing for wheel arches, front and rear lower section and arches complete with the lower sections attached.

the rear tooling will be half wings also, again allowing the same as the front.

i need to reach the other 95% of owners that im not reaching at the moment, so as to get the order numbers up, to make this viable, on the projections ive done, its well doable, so that is in hand.

i have flyers going out at the nec next thanks to colin and amanda, also bob at ct, so thank you too them, plus a website is being constructed so the non members / owners can see what im doing.

please dont assume once i have the tooling costs, that i can give you a figure for each panel, because that will be dictated by the number of orders of each panel i get, and that will take time to come through.

it would be spead up if i just put adverts in the classic rags, but its not that simple, as i have no product as such yet to advertise and after speaking to editors of some mags, they are not willing to print an article saying what im doing unless i have a product to offer thier readers, but i will perservere as there are a few people i have yet to contact.

lloyd

[andyborris]

Even if your car has good wings at the moment, it probably won't stay in that happy condition for ever!

So order some repair panels, store them away for that fateful day, even if you never use the panels, a future owner of your car will!

As Lloyd says, the more he can sell, the cheaper they become.

And as the value of our cars seems to be on the up (and about time too, been undervalued for too long!), access to good quality repair panels will only help the rise in value, so by buying some repair panels, you may increase the value of your car even if you never fit them!

Perhaps too, we'll see less cars being broken for what is usually minor amounts of rust.

[Lloydpiestate]

andy, never a truer word was spoken !!!

you tel em boyo