Hood and door seals

[Fredjohn]

Any news on this thread? I'm up for a complete new set.

Progress is being made but slowly by Wayne. Please see his thread. See also Dromong's thread as an alternative: he found some sets of seals in a scrapyard which fitted the Elan after some modification. Unfortunately no-one has as yet identified the source vehicle of these seals.

[Lotus54]

Where is Wayne's thread?

I need a set

[Brit-Car-Nut]

There is no specific thread.

It has been discussed ad nauseam in several topics including earlier pages of this thread. After the falling pillar seals arrive, the project will probably be put on hold since it is doubtful the costs of production can be recovered.

We also have a firm quotation for intermediate seals, but the minimum order quantity is around 4 times the expected quantity that will actually be sold.

"A" Pillar seals are still available from Lotus for 77.25 each plus VAT and shipping if going to an EU location or plus shipping if going to the US. They were never considered because Lotus still has stock.

All you need to do to get a set is call a UK dealer, any dealer in the UK - email is a waste of time - and order the parts, pay their price and they will arrive in a week or two.

We would have to sell 150 to 200 header seals to just pay for the tooling for that project. I don't see that happening quickly enough to justify asking a private enthusiast to underwrite the project.

A company with long term sales potentials can look at the project differently but Wayne needs to move the parts quickly and recover his investment.

Wayne might log in and contradict this but these were the decisions we arrived at during our last verbal discussions and emails.

[jonathand]

Hi,

Appreciate the efforts being made to manufacture these seals. Like most owners, I could desperately use a full set. Has anyone considered using a crowd funding site (e.g. Kickstarter) to raise the capital for the manufacturing run? That way all prospective purchasers commit the cash up front and manufacture only goes ahead once enough buyers have committed. This would prevent Wayne or others taking a personal risk with the investment. Considering that the production run of 150-200 represents less than 10% of the potential customer base, most of who will have some or all seals that need replacing, and some who would purchase an extra spare set too, I'd have thought this should be possible if the funding link is adequately publicised via the various forums.

Just a thought...

[TOWATL]

A good idea!

But how much of a fee does Kickstarter charge for a project of this kind and size?

I would buy two full sets of seals, just to get the funding going.

Cheers!

[jonathand]

If a project is successfully funded, Kickstarter applies a 5% fee to the funds collected.

For US-based projects, pledges will be processed by Amazon Payments, while pledges to non-US projects will be processed securely through a third-party payments processor. In either case, these payment processing fees work out to roughly 3-5%.

[Fredjohn]

This type of funding arrangement sounds a good idea and has certainly worked in US for several projects.

To put a bit of perspective on it though, 6 figure sums (£s) have been mentioned to me for the just one of the moulds, never mind all 5!

No doubt Wayne or BCN will chip in shortly with their views.

[Elanlover]

I seriously doubt we would have success with Kickstarter or any other crowd funding organizations. The people who throw money in are doing so primarily to incubate tech start-ups (although not exclusively) in the hopes of getting something in return. That something usually means a heavily discounted product, shares in the company or the like. In other words, they are looking for a return on their investment in some fashion. Few are simply giving significant sums of money away for absolutely nothing. We're not a start up operation and we certainly aren't pedaling new ideas. We're a bunch of car owners looking to find cheap ways to make replacement parts for a long-out-of-production car with an extremely limited and declining market. Not much of a business proposition there.

More importantly, who will be willing to throw their money at our projects with no hope of ever seeing a return on their investments.? Wait! I know..................us! The entire group buy concept has always been a "kickstarter funding" project in a sense. The "idea" is posted on LEC, people commit to giving their cash away to help reduce the cost (higher volumes) and get the project going and they receive a heavily discounted product in return (no wholesaler or retailer taking profits).

Obviously, we were WAY ahead of our time.

[Fredjohn]

[wayne]

More importantly, who will be willing to throw their money at our projects with no hope of ever seeing a return on their investments.? Wait! I know..................us! The entire group buy concept has always been a "kickstarter funding" project in a sense. The "idea" is posted on LEC, people commit to giving their cash away to help reduce the cost (higher volumes) and get the project going and they receive a heavily discounted product in return (no wholesaler or retailer taking profits).

Obviously, we were WAY ahead of our time.

The mould for the falling piller seals was finished a few weeks ago. Unfortunately they are in the middle of a very large order. So our low order quantity means we have to wait untill they are not busy They are supposed to be ready sometime next month.

I have not been posting any updates about the seals as I have no idea of the current interest for them.

I stopped production of the other seals as I wanted to see the quality of 1 part before agreeing to having others made. And, it seems that interest has shifted to the rubber parts that another member is making. I do not see the point in spending a fortune remaking OEM parts when there is a cheaper alternative available.

As I have already paid for the falling pillar seals they will be remade and made available to LEC members at the lowest price possible.

The resurection of any of the other seals is possible but it will depend on the interest the falling pillar seal recieves.

[Lotus54]

I need everything but the A Pillar and windscreen header.

I saw some discussion on other seals, but nothing really avalaible for what I saw.

Mark

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I need everything but the A Pillar and windscreen header.
Mark

What specifically do you mean by EVERTYHING? The intermediate and falling pillar seals were on the aftersales list for years and just now were taken off (you missed a good deal):

A100V0121H NO LONGER SERVICED (18.06.14) £69.26 (Falling Pillar LH)
A100V0122H NO LONGER SERVICED (04.03.14) £10.68 (Falling Pillar RH)
A100V0123H NO LONGER SERVICED (10.02.14) £11.75 (Intermediate LH)
A100V0124F SEAL-INTERMEDIATE RH (available) £51.75

Wayne will eventually have falling pillar seals but he is waiting for the manufacturer to fit our SMALL order in around much larger orders.

I believe DBE had some of those available a few months ago but he wanted $159.00 for each Falling Pillar and $65.00 for each Intermediate.

Are looking for door surround, hood stowage cover surround, bootlid surround or other seals? DBE might have some of those, but Lotus UK has obsoleted everything except the "A" Pillar seals and the LAST qty 2 of the early deck seals that are on the Aftersales list. When they are gone, they are gone too.

[Lotus54]

Yes, I wasn't clear at all.

I need the hood seals that go around the window.
I get a bit confused about what part is what- part of the reason I didn't try to order on the after sales thing- plus it seemed only part of them were listed.

I need the one that goes along the top of the side window then the one that curves along to the bottom. Both sides.

Mark

[Brit-Car-Nut]

The parts book is available for all LECers under the upper heading manuals. The illustration gives reference numbers that match up to descriptions on the following plates.

They had one side of each seal on super discount and the others were available for their normal prices. The stocking suppliers like SJS and Mattey have grabbed all the final stock. You will probably have to look there for your seals.

Better to have gotten some of the seals instead of none.

[Lotus54]

Yes, you are completely correct. I should have figured it out- living out in the sticks does make it a bit more difficult. Being cheap is another

Mark

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I understand cheap. Maybe you can "add" some to the existing seals to bolster them for a while. You can still get the others installed since they don't overlap the ones you still need.

[mrpmarchant]

I have had some success in redirecting my deckseal (it was clamped in position by the hood with the rubber jammed inside the car for some time and adopted this new shape) by removing the central part of the seal with a narrow nosed pliers and replacing it with RTV black silicone, left to harden overnight with the hood closed onto polythene protection to the deck. Perhaps similar technique can be used on other seals, always remembering to leave enough of the original to provide the required flexibility.

[TOWATL]

Hi guys!

I have just been accepted into the Official Austrian Lotus Owners Club, which is very well organised (almost as well as us ). They might be able to help with finding willing third parties and suppliers, with their many connections.

I will approach them about this at the first club meeting next month.

Keep you updated!

Cheers

[wayne]

Falling pillar mould.

seal.jpg

[LotusEnthusiast]

I'd take a RH falling pillar if possible