FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

We are trying to gauge the interest out there for plastic FC seat surrounds  upper and lower made as per original at around $220.00 per set
Les

i would be keen for a set

Les, Harrisons regularly sells the lower surrounds for around $119 on E-Bay in fibreglass.

Not sure if that helps...

From first-hand experience, they are a very poor reproduction.

hi SpeciFEcation,

These parts are extremely difficult to reproduce in fibreglass due to their shape.
I have a set of moulds however to get a good set takes about 3 attempts.  Problems encountered include mostly bubbles in either the gel coat or glass matting and when breaking out of the mould causes surface blemishes.

you could make a 2 part mould however this would leave a casting line down the piece... not very nice when you are trying to repro the original finish.

in my garage I have a few sets of these with blemishes, I won't sell them because the person paying for them would be unhappy with the quality of finish.  Most of the blemishes are on the bottom side of the pieces anyway and would never be noticed.

Les,
if rares can make a good quality plastic finish that would be great.

Cheers

Ed

Les,

When you say "FC Seat Surrounds" as opposed to "FE/FC" is that because they would be black only?

And is $220 the price for all 4 pieces? Or per side? Or upper/lower?

I've made this a poll as well.

cheers
RET

Yes Ret only black and all 4 pieces, thanks for the poll

Is that including the little chrome line around it?

Agreed. And this is where they fall down in quality - the join in the two part mould is clearly visible.

A single piece plastic one is what is needed....

At $220/set (all round), that's fine by me.

really a 2 part mould for seat aurrounds?? interesting..

never having seen the items I would have thought a one piece more suitable.

as mentioned I do have a one piece mould but reproducibility is disastrous.  There are a few sets floating round tho, see if you can tell the difference.
;)

Cheers

Ed

so is rares making these ?

Nes, early days yet.  Samples are with Rares for evaluation, and quoting.  Poll is to guage buyer interest.  If all things come together then a product may become available.

Ken

  Hi Les, I would also be very keen for a set.
Cheers, Rob.

Plastic seat surrounds are close to production and now rely on club participation to get them to happen.  What we need is for each club - that is Vic NSW SA WA QLD & ACT to commit to buying a set amount so that we can achieve a bulk order of 100. (we have 70 committed so far but need 30 more) Individual orders of 1 are not much use, get your committee to commit to a purchase of 10 or 20 and they will then on-sell to members for a small profit but the club selling price will be LOWER than the Rare Spares retail price by a considerable amount.
The boot badge inserts are a good case in point since the Vic and NSW clubs were the main 2 clubs to purchase the badges, and the members of these clubs bought boot badges for a considerably lower price than the Rare Spares retail price.
If you want in on the deal, then get your club to participate!
So far the 70 orders once again has come from Vic and NSW - where's the support guys?
Rare Spares have been a huge support to the clubs over the years and this is another area where they support us, but we have to show some committment!


Ken

dunno bout QLD club but put me down for a set

I'll buy THREE sets if it helps go into production...

Well here they are!

The prototypes have just arrived and I must say that I am VERY impressed.  These are as close to original looking as you can possibly get.  They are slightly thicker plastic than the repros that were around in the 70's and of which there are still NOS ones floating around here and there, but not quite as thick as the genuine ones.  Shape is very good and grain finish is excellent.
They have very slight dimples where the chrome stripes would be attached so that putting those on would be very easy.The dimples can just be seen in the 2nd photo.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/mcl1959/IMG_1243.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/mcl1959/IMG_1244.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/mcl1959/IMG_1245.jpg)

no indication on price yet but after approval they will go into production and sales will not be very far away now.
Let me know what you think

Ken

Looks very impressive Ken. I'd definately buy a set. Cheers Dave.

wow Ken.

fantastic stuff, looks like a dimple free set of new covers.

Cheers

Ed

Looking good Ken
Great stuff
Cheers,
  Tony. ;D ;D ;D

They look Great ;D

Can't wait till I can replace my crappy broken ones and have my seat looking how it should.

Any word on how long before we can actually buy them?

Cheers :)

I have to trial fit these on a car and then return them to Rare Spares with my report. At that time manufacture will begin (as long as the trial fit goes OK) I would estimate 6 to 10 weeks from now but I don't have a specific time frame yet.

Ken

Thanks Ken we all really appreciate all the work you do with rares for us. They will look great on our cars.
Cheers,
Graham

Ken
If the final product is as good as the proto type looks, I would buy two sets
regards
Weddo

Fantastic Ken.Definitely up for a couple of sets. :)

WHERE CAN I PUT MY NAME DOWN. HERE OR RARES?

Nes - here's where it gets interesting.  The participating clubs who have made this deal happen - that is Victoria and NSW, are basically funding the enterprise, and as such, members of these 2 clubs have the opportunity to purchase the surrounds at a special price which is much lower than the normal Rare Spares price. I would suspect that if there are any left after members of the 2 clubs have all had the opportunity to buy them, then others may be able to purchase them, but there is no guarantee that there will be any left if the boot badge example is anything to go by.  All clubs were invited to participate in this venture, so there can be no complaining that we did not make the offer. If you are not able to purchase a set at the special club price then purchasing direct from Rare Spares is the next best option.
Ken

Hi All
 Is there any date on when these will be ready.
THANK YOU
WAYNE

Wayne still waiting on first shipment to arrive. I expect that it will not be very far away.

Ken

Ken

I'm a little disappointed that throughout this post you make cynical remarks about not getting support from other Clubs and also that other Clubs had the opportunity to purchase and now they miss out.  Yes, we had the opportunity - but we simply do not have the funds to enable us to bulk purchase.  We had two members wishing to purchase but you made it quite clear in your earlier post that that "was not much use".

The ACT Club has a membership of under 40 with a membership fee of $40.   I'm sure you are aware of the costs of running a club - you do the math.   We essentially live from pay to pay and we simply are not in a financial position to stock a range of spare parts on behalf of our members.  

Don't forget, our Club only has about 10 or so FE/FCs of which many have either already been restored or have been modified with other styles of seats.  

The ACT Club is not like Victoria and NSW with a much larger membership base and FE/FC model specific.  I, and I am sure the rest of our Club's Committee, would appreciate a bit of understanding before comments like yours are made.

Maybe it is for these reasons that other Clubs didn't come to the party too.

Thanks
Kathy
Treasurer
FE-HR Holden Owners Club ACT

Kathy, I can appreciate your position, but the Victorian and NSW clubs have worked hard to raise money for these projects and our membership fees are lower than yours :o
The Victorian membership fee is $35.

The job of car clubs is to promote the rebuilding and use of the models that the club caters for including both modified and restored vehicles.  Part of this is to make available parts which are no longer obtainable. Sitting back on our hands and saying "we don't have any money for that" gets you nowhere.
Rare Spares have come to the party after many years of not being interested in reproducing parts and if we told them "sorry we're not interested" then the deals will dry up!!
So whilst I have sympathy for your finances - it is all a matter of priority. We have built a business out of making and supplying parts for early Holdens and we offered other clubs a way to get in on a small time basis to build some revenue for themselves.

If after our members have had an opportunity to purchase the items and there is still stock left, we will offer them to other forum members.  But I am sure you will agree that belonging to a club entitles you to privilidges and if that means our members get the first option to buy rather than non club members then so be it!!!

Ken

Kathy, I don't think anyone would reasonably expect a club the size of ACT (for which FE/FC models are only a percentage of the total membership to begin with) to participate in a venture like this on a large scale.

Having said that, let's not get too sensitive about it. Ken has put a lot of effort into making these projects happen, and the support at a national level from the FE-FC clubs has been less than stupendous. There's a lot of "put me down for two sets" style posts here on the forum, but that's not exactly commitment. (Believe me, there's plenty of people who "committed" to buying boot-pins when I proposed them that never actually bought a set.)

I think it's also worth pointing out that the agreement between RS and the two clubs who chose to get involved is a commitment to purchase the items following any testing and QA that needed to be done, when they were ready. In other words, we did not have to put any money into this enterprise up front. The NSW Club polled our members, took names of people prepared to buy a set or two at the discounted rate, rounded the figure up a bit and let Ken know how many that would be. Those additional "rounding-up" handful of sets is the limit of our exposure in this exercise. There was no prepayment or significant carrying of inventory involved, so it is indeed a shame if that misconception has led to other clubs not participating in this venture.

Our previous agreement with RS to buy the boot badges meant they sold the badges to us at a significantly discounted rate, such that we were able to make a few bucks on them, and our members still save quite a bit of money compared to the RS list price. The NSW Club made a few hundred bucks and our members collectively saved even more. Members of clubs who didn't participate have ultimately paid more for their boot-badges when they've bought them retail. It will be the same with the seat surrounds.

cheers
RET

I'm sure if there are members from other states wanting these parts that the NSW or Vic club, if they had spares would be happy to sell them to your members. And by the by we are all very gratefull to Ken for the efforts he puts into having Rares remake these parts for us at a good price.
Cheers,
Graham

I think my point has been missed.  My "disappointment" is with Ken's criticism of Clubs for not taking part.  

Clubs should not be criticised without first knowing and/or understanding the situation those Clubs are in or the reasons those Clubs decided to not take part.

Comments such as "sitting on their hands" or "sorry we're not interested" etc are very unfair and unsubstantiated.  

Also, I am not having a go at the hard work that Ken and others have put in to make this happen.  I just find it disappointing that assumptions have been made that the Club's don't care.

All I was trying to do was defend my Club's position and the negative comments that were made.  And if that makes me sensitive then I'm happy to wear that tag.  I'd rather be sensitive than not care about the Club to which I'm a member.
:-[

Yep, you have to be careful when saying things about clubs, all clubs have "movers and shakers" that keep things going, then there's the "gunnas" and of course the "hangers on" who are just in it for their own benefit.

Anyway, we are straying off-topic now, this discussion is for elsewhere on the board or PMs.

I am a member of the Tassie club which has had a name change (Classic Holden Car Club - Tasmania) and we have had to open up our membership to all early model holdens  :-/ because the FE-FC vehicles only numbered 5 (of which I have 3 of them)  :D This means we are unable to participate in the funding of any reproduction parts.
I recognise the valuable effort that other clubs have made in the developement of these items and also respect the fact that any discount in price to these club members is warranted. Our reward is in the fact that we now have items not prevously available.
As an avid FC fan I have allways been willing to purchase through R S any item that is required for our vehicles.

regards
Weddo

Can't we just buy direct from the club and stop all our feelings getting hurt.

I said I'd buy two sets and I will. (not for personal gains but for my next project)

I am VERY grateful that some one from the NSW club has offered to purchase a set for me when they are produced and forward it on.

Just my thoughts...

I would like one set and willing to put my money up front.

Keith

Hi
 Any news as when they will be ready to buy?
WAYNE

Hi, would this be something l could use on my fe. as well,?? replace my busted up ones , paint these black ones the right colour , and fit my old chrome rails?? would that be o.k? if so put me down for a set, Thanks

                                ?

News from Rare Spares is that they are now at head office and will be ready to go in about 1 to 2 weeks - just sorting screws and washers to suit.

Ken

Hi
  Thank you Ken for that. How long before the clubs will have them?
WAYNE

how much would a original pair be worth i've got some in the shed

what about non members

They'll be available (at full freight) over the counter at Rare Spares outlets.

cheers
RET

Hi All
I cast my eyes over a set at rares today they are amazing and only cost $235.00 - club discount.

Cheers Jim