Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Stu, I received the first type from the UK last week (it looks the same as woolies). it appears to be made for a metal edge as its fit on fiberglass is not good especially around the top ledge above the sunvisor area. It will probily work well on the fhc. It the area above the windsheild that is giving me grief. The 15mm that attaches to the fiberglass is not long enough to get a firm grip. It's difficult to figure the second type that they suggest for the elan. I would like to see a picture (maybe they would e-mail) me one.
Thanks for the info

James

Chancer wrote:Baines will make a die and run off a batch, it just needs a company who wants to invest in the tooling, buy and stock the minimum run to resell.

A bit more info which may save others wasting their time.......

I spoke to Baines about reproducing the double lip type seal......they would want ?4000-?5000 for tooling and a 50,000m minimum order quantity. I concluded they did not want the job !

Also spoke to Capital Rubber and Plastics who manufacture seals and they too can't or won't reproduce it.

Still looking..............

Tooling charge is not outrageous, are you sure that the minimum run was 50km?

Years ago when I was a designer it was a similar situation for small aluminium extrusions, the big companies had machines with a die capacity for the large double glazing sections etc, my sections were only just bigger than a windscreen seal, the minimum slug of aluminium that they would run through the die taking into account the downtime for the tooling change would have given me 20 years stock of what I wanted.

I had to hunt around and find extruders who specialised in smaller sections to get what I needed, the tooling costs were higher but then the bigger extruders would offset some of the cost against their margin on the production, what cost a lot more was the unit cost of the smaller extrusions or cost per volume if you like but then thats the way of things.

Given that Baines' whole business is small die extrusions, they dont turn out miles of the stuff for the new car industry but focus on the classic market particularly Jaguar I am very surprised at the 50km min production run.

I bet one of the directors is a Jaguar specialist! ?5000 is not out of the question for a lotus specialist if they can envisage selling over 100 sets, ?50 profit of each going to recover the investment but then we are talking about what 600 meters or so? A long way from 50KM

Chancer wrote:Tooling charge is not outrageous, are you sure that the minimum run was 50km?

Yes that's what they quoted -enough for more than 8 thousand Elans. As I said I don't think they want the job.

Chancer wrote:Tooling charge is not outrageous, are you sure that the minimum run was 50km?

Years ago when I was a designer it was a similar situation for small aluminium extrusions, the big companies had machines with a die capacity for the large double glazing sections etc, my sections were only just bigger than a windscreen seal, the minimum slug of aluminium that they would run through the die taking into account the downtime for the tooling change would have given me 20 years stock of what I wanted.

I had to hunt around and find extruders who specialised in smaller sections to get what I needed, the tooling costs were higher but then the bigger extruders would offset some of the cost against their margin on the production, what cost a lot more was the unit cost of the smaller extrusions or cost per volume if you like but then thats the way of things.

Given that Baines' whole business is small die extrusions, they dont turn out miles of the stuff for the new car industry but focus on the classic market particularly Jaguar I am very surprised at the 50km min production run.

I bet one of the directors is a Jaguar specialist! ?5000 is not out of the question for a lotus specialist if they can envisage selling over 100 sets, ?50 profit of each going to recover the investment but then we are talking about what 600 meters or so? A long way from 50KM

On my recent visit to Baines warehouse they told me that the vast majority of their considerable stock is windscreen surrounds, for every type of road vehicle- cars, trucks, coaches...

AHM wrote:The single flap seal is readily available from the manufacturer - don't panic!

I looked at getting the tooling made for the original two falp seal - You have to pay for the tooling and buy a couple of thousand meters so it doesn't make sense.

I have the sectons for the elan, I'm just not set up for selling them online - it can't be that difficult. Give me a couple of days and I will post something in the business and vendor section.

PM me if you are in need.

Simon

Simon, I'm unable to PM you however Did you ever find a source for the Flap Seal? I've been looking for these for 2 years now.

-Jeremy

Do any of these help?

http://www.indrub.com.au/rubber-product ... -seal.html

Hello gentlemen
just been reading this thread.
Is anyone any further ahead in locating a source for the correct door seals for a SPRINT FHC? or at least seals which are lookalike and seal satisfactorilly???
Here is a picture of my ORIGINAL door seals removed from a '71 vehicle in 1973.