98 replies to this topic

[jonnyboy]

Well this has been a mission. First started almost a year ago with a bit of a false start buying a knackered clam. Back to the drawing board and our very own FLD came up with the goods and loaned us an OEM clam (thanks mate!) Off to the paint shop for a bit of finishing and it went into the GRP shop for molding. Bit of a long and drawn out process, a last minute panic about the lights fitting in properly but late on Thursday night we had the first one done:









Absolutely delighted with the result. This first clam was about the same weight as OEM but it feels much sturdier and you can comfortably handle it without fear of the fiberglass ripping. The plan is to shave a bit of weight off so it should be a kilo or two under an OEM. Its a single piece product so although it still has all the OEM support bracing behind the wheel arches the bottom part is not separate so it removes the risk of getting the sections bonded together in the wrong place. The level of finish is pretty much rub down and prime as we did all the work on the original clam the flat the surface back.

A lightweight (circa 7.5kg) one can be made straight off this mold too so a pretty easy 7-8kg weight reduction over OEM.

[The Batman]

how much? look awesome!

[ArticMonkey]

Ruff cost?

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

Great work looks great

[jonnyboy]

Final pricing TBC we were aiming for £700+VAT for the full and £500+VAT for the light versions but they were a bit more involved than we first thought so we might just miss that target. Wont be a million miles from that though and a good deal will always be available to folk on here.

[The Batman]

whats the difference between light and heavy ones? I take it they just aren't as reinforced?

[Zuber]

Great work. I'm still not clear on difference between light weight and full versions. Why would you not go for the light weight one ?

[Rickwoo118]

Good work. Looks pretty good.

[fezzasus]

Looks good, is it moulded as one piece?

[Baron Von Scubadaddy]

Top work ! as usual Now get on with the hinged coupe'd rear clam with pop out bbq

[christhegasman]

Looks brilliant Good job us guys have people like you to keep The cars on the road

[jonnyboy]

Cheers for the comments

OK the difference between these and the lightweight ones:



The strengthening ribs inside the arches are deleted on the light ones and the material is a LOT thinner. They have the brackets under the windscreen but the only other fixing points are under the front so they arent suitable for normal road use. If someone sat on it it would probably fold inwards!

Both options are single piece.

[CocoPops]

Have you thought about coloured gel coats? You could supply a yellow gel coat to ly owners etc... Less obvious stone chips etc.

[The Batman]

if he was going to do that I doubt he would limit them to only 100 vx owners when there is millions of silvers and red and blue ones

[CocoPops]

Noooo, as well as joe Theyd still produce white for stock items, but red/yellow/blue could be special orders?

[jonnyboy]

Well you can have any colour gelcoat to be honest they even have dupont paint codes but the chances of them matching the paint would be pretty slim. No reason you couldnt have a basic yellow product then just paint it the correct colour though. Pretty good idea actually!

[CocoPops]

Especially for black cars... Stone chips would show up bad wi white gel coat etc. I didn't know if there was a cost implication. Also for race cars.... You wouldn't need to paint the clam if it was coloured gel coat

[Gilgamesh]

would it be possible to get them with louvers? http://i55.photobuck...n/dscf0445y.jpg

[jonnyboy]

There would be no additional cost for different colours. Louvres had occurred to me but I didnt want to tread on any toes with them! When the clam is fresh and still off the car they can easily be added though. As it happens the original clam didnt survive the tooling process too well so we probably wouldnt have bothered tying to cut it up to stick the louvres in and remold again anyway.

[Nev]

Blimey, top effort. This will help keep more VX's on the road too as the cost is so much less than OEM. Well done Jonny.