Carbon door handle surrounds

[steble]

Hello all,

I was looking at my tired old door handle surrounds thinking I could get some new ones of those made in carbon.

Conveintly I am a design engineering at a composite company that supplies F1. (my office is above a machine shop )

So the question is if I design and get manufactured these as a carbon item (real carbon, none of the wet lay S***) would people be interested???

As you can probably imagine, they are not likely to be cheap. So an idea of what people would pay for them would also be handy.

Bear in mind they will last a lot longer than the plastic ones do.

here's an image so everybody knows the part I am refering too



Cheers Steve

[Fredjohn]

You may or may not be aware that these have been re-manufactured (in plastic) as a group buy on this forum and the take up was quite high. They are I believe still available either direct from wayne or via ebay (UK). Search the group buy section or see here or here

They were priced very reasonably at around £25 a pair. The bulk of the cost was getting the moulds made rather than the actual production/material costs, as is always the case.

Good luck with your project, but I suspect you may not get huge numbers.

[steble]

I was not aware no. However I did see some for sale on ebay for £30+postage. However they were from Bahrain and also not carbon. :p

[Fredjohn]

I was not aware no. However I did see some for sale on ebay for £30+postage. However they were from Bahrain and also not carbon. :p

They are one and the same. wayne, who was one of the people involved in organising the group buy, is based in Bahrain. Hence the ebay location. The LEC group buy price was £25 plus £4 postage. The ebay price is for obvious reasons higher, as a lot of cost still needs to be recovered.

[steble]

I see, is the the same reason for the carbon seat protectors for sale in Bahrain lol

I was thinking of producing those myself but there is no way I can compete with that price lol

[rip]

There was an earlier group buy for these in carbon fibre.
I can't remember who arranged it, how much they were or when it was. I was not a member on here when the old site crashed so the thread should be on here somewhere but I can't find it.

I have a pair in my garage to prove it. I should really get around to fitting them one day.

BTW, they are called escutcheons.

[chrisP]

Thanks to Steve A for supplying a mould, I have been working on the escutcheons amongst other parts, with RTM. They are fiddly to make but slowly getting there. But I wasn't wanting to step on Wayne toes as I know he invested heavily in his moulding

[steble]

That looks pretty good.

How are you making them? wet lay?

What is your mould made from?

[chrisP]

Thanks, they are made using resin infusion and the mould is a basic gelcoat / fibreglass one as it was given to me. I normally make moulds from a high temperature moulding solution

[Elanlover]

Gloss or mate finish?????

[steble]

Thanks, they are made using resin infusion and the mould is a basic gelcoat / fibreglass one as it was given to me. I normally make moulds from a high temperature moulding solution

I don't suppose you fancy passing the mould on when your done? so I can make pre-preg ones?

Or making me a set of yours will be even better haha

[theelanman]

I cant remember who made these first time round but I still have mine fitted......
they've been on the car for at least 10 years and they're as shiny now as they were the day I bought them.....


gloss....

[chrisP]

Sorry the mould would not be any good for prepreg, it is not made from resin that will stand the elevated temperatures. I am investigating a new infusion mesh that should allow for a better end product, currently because of all the sharp corners, i get resin rich areas.

Will keep you updated
Chris

[ebguitars]

Hello, If there are any door handles left, I would like to order a pair too. I am located in Madrid (Spain). Please let me know how to proceed. Regards!

[Scott]

If someone here has sources, he should go for a new design fascia maybe or just a brand new same fascia and all plastic interior in general with better materials so we could update our cars for real.