grp doors and bonnets and wings etc

[HAndy]

been thinking about this for a while, and mentioned it to miller at this years national day, with the renault 5 gt becoming older and parts drying up,and getting expensive, would it not make sense to get the ball rolling with grp replacement parts, ive raised the question in the past ,but little came of it , imo now is the time to sort it out, maybe something the club could look into buying/producing, doors front wing with the arches moulded on, boots, grills etc. i might be having a trip to a local grp/composite company in the next few weeks myself just to see if its possible to do certain parts, and at what cost. but club input /backing would be even better, and im sure the weight saving and rust free parts advantage would benefit the club members long term...... thoughts anybody

[Slammed 66]

The way is see it is thus; at the moment the current trend is to make you're car as OE as possible. To be honest I think this will stay as our cars are on the verge of being recognised as true classics. I just can't see a restorer wanting to fit fibre glass doors and wings.

I would if I wanted to build an all out track day car but to restore I'd be looking at genuine panels or good pattern parts.

If anything I'd suggest that the club possibly looks into buying old stock from some of the pattern part manufacturers such as hadrians etc

Though at present I'd still consider this low importance.

Just my opinion.

Ross

[Goobie]

I do see Slammed 66 point, but got to be worth finding out how much regardless.

[dangerous dave]

someone on here does it or has been showing there work.. looks great but i dont think he had any interest

[HAndy]

someone on here does it or has been showing there work.. looks great but i dont think he had any interest

i had asked, no real response from the member, and also he is not living in this country so postage/delivery costs would be a real issue

[HAndy]

looks like i will be doing it alone then

will be starting with my phase 1 almost mint grill then

[dangerous dave]

i had asked, no real response from the member, and also he is not living in this country so postage/delivery costs would be a real issue

was that the guy doing the renult stuff?? there was another guy doing ford focus wings etc..

[phase i 16 v turbo]

looks like i will be doing it alone then

will be starting with my phase 1 almost mint grill then

These have already been reproduced but the initial out lay was alot of money.

[Harri]

R5s being rare, only affordable way is to make them yourself if you can do cheap moulds. People have been asking me a lot regarding these but it always comes to price and postage price. People expect the parts to be really cheap while they have high material and labor costs.

Also postage from abroad is a killer if only one big part is shipped. Shipping R5 glass fiber tailgate to UK would have been 144€ for example.

[HAndy]

These have already been reproduced but the initial out lay was alot of money.

so where are they then and how much?

have you also got grp bonnet mould up and working yet, as im sure that would be worth while also

[michael tierney]

harri',u would definetly sell some phase one grills!!

[TNT ANDY]

harri',u would definetly sell some phase one grills!!

I think the postage would kill it.

We've been waffling on about this for 5 years or so, and if we had done 1 part per year, we would be well on the way to having the ability to have our own parts reproduced and being weight saving. I know Handy is looking into this on Friday and I'll be fully supporting him.

Phase 1 grills on standby,

Oh and light weight bonnets.

It is a great shame that Harri is in another country as his work looks fantastic.

[Harri]

Thanks for the compliments, Im on vacation and just working on prepping moulds as we speak. Project thread update coming soon.

Only way postage would work is by sending multiple items at once. Couriers charge by volume in these cases and when it comes to big parts that's the only way to drop unit costs. Anything smaller than the tailgate, hood, doors etc has tolerable postage costs since national post office sends them which is way cheaper than couriers.

[phase i 16 v turbo]

harri',u would definetly sell some phase one grills!!

The costs as already mentioned make it very hard. The final cost will always be an issue unless we can get a huge run done to make it worth it.

[Harri]

Are phase one grills rare? can someone upload a closeup picture of one?

[HAndy]

Are phase one grills rare? can someone upload a closeup picture of one?

here you go harri
not the best piccs in the world, but should give you an idea

[HAndy]

ops did'nt realise i got a sneaky pic of the family photo in the back ground

no piss taking please

[Harri]

Thanks HAndy, mould making that seems difficult but not impossible. Have you started working on duplicating that?

[HAndy]

Thanks HAndy, mould making that seems difficult but not impossible. Have you started working on duplicating that?

not going to try this item, to much for me, the bloke i spoke to the other weekend,said it could be done, but would involve a lot of effort trying to work the louvers, he also said the support struts on the bottom rail so to speak would need to be thicker to have any chance of getting material inside them, he quoted me just short of £300 pounds to produce a mould.

and he is busy till mid january.

[Harri]

yes, small parts are usually the hardest to make due to a lot of small details and difficult small forms. I learned that the hard way when I did the rear emblem moulds a year ago. There's reason why i did open-mouth version out of my grill and then did mould out of that. Im happy with the result while OE look would have been even better.

[Haz]

I was offering to do these a while ago, item at a time. Minimum order would be 5 to cover moulding costs, 10 to see a price drop but more wont get the cost down due to time/materials.
Half the problem is that generally people want to see the finished product before paying. I had a badboy bonnet mould made years ago, could be used for std bonnets to. The guy made a carbon copy for scoff. It was lighter but the weave wasn't pretty but fine for paint, with that I didn't really get any orders so gave the mould to mike when I cleared loads of stuff out.
There is also the fitting to consider, an arch could be say £40 but to add fittings to bolt on like original can bump it up to £80.
Again for bonnets, some are happy with any strengtheners, others want it to look oe inside making it 2 moulds and 2 halves nearly doubling the cost.
Doors and tailgates would be 2 moulds too, and also a jig fo the hinge points made aswell as the hinges being securely moulded in. It all takes time, compared to dealership prices they may work out fair, but there isn't many who would pay it.
There could be the option of getting batches made and tàking to bigger events to save a bit on postage but takes 3-4 days to produce with drying times.

[stu21t]

Wouldn't most people who want doors and boots be trackday cars not road cars and therefore wouldn't want the oe internals?
I know I wouldn't.
And hinges on the bonnet or boot aren't needed, just use 4 bonnet pins.
Doors might need hinges tho lol. But don't need opening windows, just fixed Perspex with sliders.
That would be the cheapest, easiest and lightest.

Not that I'm currently in a position to buy

[Hammer]

Here's my take on it for what it's worth.

Having owned my first 5 nearly 20 years ago now and only just got back into the scene, I just want my new purchase to last as long as it can. I want it to look original, but I would have no problem with the parts not being oe...if that makes sense?

So basically, as and when bits rotted or were damaged, I would happily replace with a grp item. I'm guessing these would then last a lot longer?

[Phoenix Autosport]

was that the guy doing the renult stuff?? there was another guy doing ford focus wings etc..

that was me doing the focus wings, I wanted to get some R5 parts done but its a huge investment for such an old car with a small marketplace and after posting on the forum i couldnt get anyone to get behind doing any parts with a group buy, its all great having people interested but in order to make anything a reality it needs capital
im currently moulding a parcelshelf to be supplied flocked of which you can see pics of the progress on my facebook page as it comes along but larger projects are on hold until either my finances allow it or enough people are willing to put up money for a set part to make it worth me doing all the mould making work

[Tony Walker]

Wouldn't most people who want doors and boots be trackday cars not road cars and therefore wouldn't want the oe internals?
I know I wouldn't.
And hinges on the bonnet or boot aren't needed, just use 4 bonnet pins.
Doors might need hinges tho lol. But don't need opening windows, just fixed Perspex with sliders.
That would be the cheapest, easiest and lightest.

Not that I'm currently in a position to buy

I agree
Are OE body parts available? bonnets boots doors? as i presume thats what the restoration crowd would prefare?

[Matt Cole]

I mentioned ages ago about the threat of part's running dry and the club needs to do something asap to prevent the cars turning to dust

[Haz]

Wouldn't most people who want doors and boots be trackday cars not road cars and therefore wouldn't want the oe internals?
I know I wouldn't.
And hinges on the bonnet or boot aren't needed, just use 4 bonnet pins.
Doors might need hinges tho lol. But don't need opening windows, just fixed Perspex with sliders.
That would be the cheapest, easiest and lightest.

Not that I'm currently in a position to buy

Yes, majority would be track day cars but imo they would have to be made as close to oe to maximise sales. 4 bonnet pins are not really the solution, yes it does the job but not so easy to just pop the bonnet open at the side of the road, or not really secure enough for those that have to park outside.
With doors an inner skin has to be made, so may as well look like a proper door. Again track cars probably have lexan windows but most will want to open them.

[Harri]

for the doors it's not just the inner skin. You need to do something to the window rails as well..if you want to open the window. I made 4 moulds / door in total because of that. Just my 2 cents..

[HAndy]

for the doors it's not just the inner skin. You need to do something to the window rails as well..if you want to open the window. I made 4 moulds / door in total because of that. Just my 2 cents..

Harri, now that your doors are done ,sell your awsome moulds to me or to the club to buy

please please please please

go on you know you want too

[Harri]

Sorry, not going to sell them. Only parts. Besides good mould is more expensive to make than carbon part out of it.

[Phoenix Autosport]

Mould for parcel shelves that take turbo door grills for a OE look speaker shelf



will be in production soon, watch this space http://www.facebook.com/phoenixautosport

[safehands]

this is amazing door cards look amazing...shelf looks amazing.would be excellent to get wing replacements and god knows whatever else!