badgerman

mee too - kinda, sometimes. . .

Ok dude, I will keep you posted. The hand is much better now so I will be at it again soon - with new prices too. Thanks for the kind words dude, I am glad you like the work.

Bugger, really sorry mate. I am sure with some rest it will be ok. Clicking a mouse all day at work and then coming home and pushing needles through tough leather hundreds of times has clearly knackered my finger temporarily. To re-iterate. . . . bugger.

Quick note people - I am not going to do steering wheels for a while for 2 reasons. . . One - They take ages and I can't charge you lot what I need to charge to make it worthwhile. Two - I have buggered up my finger a bit (tendonitis kinda thing I think) from all the hand stitching. On that note what a perfect opportunity to share with you the offending articles!!

I seem to remember I have a a switch back at my folks place. I will dig it out tomorrow for you ;)

Might be there for this if I can get the C fixed before then. . . .

Time for a Corrado update. Having got the car back and got over my melodramatic 'its a write off stage' I was able to be far more rational about its repair. Its too good to strip and although I would never condemn someone for breaking a C because they couldn't sell it complete for as much as they could in bits (as I nearly did this myself) I certainly didn't want to take another off the road if I didn't need to. So. . . . I got out there today and made the most of the sunny weather by replacing some bent bits of my C's suspension. Fortunately I had a Subframe and another rack so I could replace the tie rod that was on the wang and the wishbone that had crumpled. It appears that the ARB was not bent beyond its limit as it seems to be fairly happy now that it is all back together. I did however decide I didn't need any skin on my knuckles and promptly bashed it off on various bits of the car. On completion I realised I was a little too optimistic about the suspension struts lack of damage and the pictures highlight a rather satisfying (if intentional) but undesirable camber to the wheel. I have a single corner that has 'stance'! Not knowing the cars suspension history and not being sure if it has been lowered or not, I think my best bet is to get a set of coilies and replace em all along with the top mounts. Anyone got a set kicking about? Anyway, in the meantime here is my substitute ride until I sort my sh*t out. I could get used to this VR malarky. . . . . . .

Alright you lot - I just bought a center tunnel (humped), a set of pillar trims (minus the passenger A pillar :( ) and a dashboard. . . . . . .

sweeeeet. Ok, hopefully tomorrow I will find that there is little other than cosmetic damage - then I can resurrect the C! Thanks for the responses guys.

Hi all, Now that I am over the initial dispair of my 1.8 16v getting hit and it is back with me in Cornwall, I am looking into getting it road worthy again - if possible. it may be lucrative to strip and sell the parts but with all the freelance work I am doing right now I don't have time. And TBH I don't think I can live with the guilt of dismantling a pretty decent wagon. I know the wishbone is boned (no pun intended) and I have a complete 2.0l 16v sub frame sat doing nothing - so my question is can I just swop em over? Is it slightly wider track? Hopefully the rack and drive shaft is ok leaving only the shock - which I doubt has been un damaged. Either way I want to get it running again and will let my old man have it as he has taken I shine to it!!

Thanks for posting them buddy.

No Mega rush mate, I have one and a half steering wheels to do before your stuff!

Guys, you have to stop courting each other on the thread!!! :camp: :luvlove:

Nope but I do have some waiting for me to have a go at. To be honest I am struggling to keep up with requests as it is!! As I say to others - its on my list but not quite yet ;) How much was your quote?

dude, really - don't feel bad! I might be getting a dash soon dude . . . . .

Ok Chaps, I have just got a cream cow hide in to do a Storm centre tunnel. This means I will have a fair amount left over from the job so I am looking to see if anyone else wants some cream parts trimmed. Because the hide has not been supplied at the preferential rate I usually get, it has increased the cost of trimming a bit - £170 posted for the centre tunnel £150 posted for the pillar trims If anyone is interested send me a message and we can sort something out.

cheers buddy, hopefully you'll see something fairly soon ;) and TBH I hope that eventually I can manufacture this kind of thing because my dayjob is p*ssing me off now and I am so tempted to go freelance!

TBH mate the last thing I want to do is tread on anyones toes (i.e. Spoonfed) as they clearly have top quality products that are proven already. If I manufacture parts I do it as a hobby-ist , like the trimming work I do. I like making stuff and have no intentions to manufacture these parts for a living (in the short term). However what I will say is that whatever I make will try to be as unique as possible i.e. not ripping off other designs just to undercut them price wise. And if it is cheaper it is because I am not charging my time at a professional rate (like I do my freelance design work). I do stuff like this to acquire new skills, because I want my work to be out there and I also want to contribute to the scene in my own way. Most of the time I make things because I don't want to pay retail for stuff I can make, if I can make some more and help others get a step closer to their dream car - thats cool. Sorry for the disclaimer but I realised from your message that my hobby-ist exploration might be viewed as trying to undercut someone (Spoonfed) who has already had the initiative and worked hard to get a product out there. It's not what its about - in fact I am not sure what its about yet. . . . . . but keep an eye on the thread - soon I will have scanned a spoiler and will be creating my own variations on my computer for critique on the thread. As for timescales and indicative costs for these bits - I have no idea. But when I do it will be on here ;)

Thanks mate, it is useful for me sometimes to get ideas straight in my head by putting them on this thread and it also brings knowledge that I wouldn't otherwise get. Keep an eye out for updates dude, I have loads of projects on at the moment (including the recent demise of my 16v a la hit and run style) so progress will be sporadic but as you can see with the scanning it could be interesting. It might be a slow burner but I hope the results will be worth the effort.

I might be interested dude as someone trashed my 16v at the weekend. Got any pics? Where you at? etc. . . .

Cheers buddy, I will keep you posted.

Thanks for the support guys, I am pretty gutted but I am more sad that there is potentially one less on the roads. We'll see but I don't hold much hope.

yeah, I am looking into it now but I suspect that it the body repair will cost more than its worth in total. I am looking into it now.

After driving up to Chichester and having a really nice evening with my girlfriend I woke this morning to this. Apart from the obvious body damage the suspension is shagged (arm, shocker and driveshaft). I haven't assessed the other side and the effects of it being forced to mount the curb. Not sure how the alloys faired either. The last picture shows how far the car was pushed back as I was parked near where the girl is standing. The plod pretty much said there was nothing they could do and there had been no reports. Probably not going to claim on my insurance so there might be some 16v parts available soon!! But if anyone saw a bent up silver ford estate around chichester with a bunch of guys in it report it to the plod - my girlfriends housemates saw a wagon of that description acting suspiciously around 3 in the morning near the car. Might be totally innocent but seems like too much of a coincidence.

So, last time I posted I was planning all sorts and not really progressing on the carbon fiber front but I was trying to get going on the 3d scanning which might potentially open some doors for me. And there has now been progression. I thought I would show you a little case study I did for a guy from work. He is putting a 2E lump from a mk3 golf into his T25 and has grafted an MR2 exhaust on to it! He has lashed up this exhaust manifold but it is pretty dodgy (mainly due to his shonky welding) and when he pressure tested it it leaked like a sieve. So I said that I would have a go and see if I could do better. The first two images below are the fused 3D mesh files I compiled from the scans. The messy and wobbly surfaces are a result of interference on the scans and the fact that I have reduced the mesh resolution to a more manageable size. But it still does the job. Having completed the scanning I measured some key dimensions on the more defined parts and on average there was only +/-0.25mm difference between the scan and the actual piece. By raising all the settings - and not rushing like I was - a much greater accuracy can be achieved. After the scans are fused I take it into solidworks and model my version of it using standard weld elbows. I Next week I am going to scan a corrado spoiler but also go and visit Kayak guy to discuss me digitising one of his designs in exchange for a set of front wing tools.