It should be a piece of cake for a bloke in the foam business and there is a market out there. How many 30 year old HOS out there do you reckon have disintegrating seat foam? I reckon the vast majority!
Leave it with me, will be a long term as oppossed to short term project unfortunately. It's quite a big job to make a plug and then the tool. The biggest challenge will be to find somebody to Foam it. You need a high pressure foaming machine to give the best results and they start at around 150,000 Euros for a base machine. I've got some contacts so will hopefully be able to use them when the need arises. I wonder what the chances are of finding the original supplier in Italy and if they still have the tools. That's another avenue that could possibly worth pursuing?? More homework to do.
try a company called camatic engineering, they are seat makers and have all the Nylex equipment. www.camatic.com.au
the orginal owner the late Brian Fisher, raced these and won a few offshore races with a Magnum 28ft powered by a 500ci Chev. His sons now run the business. The father gave me my 1st real job. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I reckon if the original supplier was still around they would be making the stuff now. I checked all the seats on the UK parts site. Every one is out of stock. They made about 15,000 or so of the various 308's and I would think the foam in most of those seats would be cactus with age. There is definitely a market here. Surely there is somebody in Oz with one of those foaming machines? Geez these OHOS are a PITA At least my instruments are finished and are better than new now
Everything but the speedo IS new. All the instrument lights work, the glass is clean. Gorgeous At least as good as the day the car was delivered!
You might be ale to buy new instruments from UK spares. Otherwise search ebay or suppliers like Ted Rutlands for replacements. Also make a post in the 348 section of F-Chat looking for them. It took me 6 months to round up all my instruments in this fashion. The speedo was rebuilt using 3 second hand units that I supplied. It was done in Melbourne. I am still looking for a clock, then I am done
Yes, there are and I built and installed one of them here in Oz. Hence once the tool is made I will make contact with one of the manufactures. Nowadays with all the OH&S issues you have to make sure that your tooling will fit on their lines. Just out of interest a normal tool for a car seat costs around $20k. When I worked for a car seat manufacturer back in NZ in the late 80's we made fibreglass tools which were fine for small runs and I should be able to make one for aorund $3k and the plug should be around $2k. That's my plan when I can get around to it. As you say there is obviously a market for it. Don;t hold your breath though, it could be a while before I get around to it. Have some other options, will tell you about them at the next dirve at the end of the month.
