Well composite central, my days in composites are becoming numbered…I recently sold my business to a customer of ours who was growing big enough that they needed to move production in house, with the fear of losing them as a client as well as some personal health issues which came up recently, it was time to let go and settle down into a 9 to 5 scenario after some much needed rest. I was lucky it worked out in the end, it was not ideal, but given the circumstances it was mandatory.
Because of this, the new owner did not need all of the tooling we had, some of the tools were specific to my company alone, so, I hate to see these things end up either shelved or worse, tossed in the bin, so I thought, who could potentially make use of these and garner a little “bank” along the way.
Here is some background, the tool for the trunk posted below (finished product pictured) produced 184 units, that was from June '10 to June '12, on average the expectation was approximately 90 units per year as “we would of been happy” and we were. These are specific to the BMW platform, an E46 M3 to be exact, the famed CSL bootlid. About 80% of the sales were US based, 10% into Europe, etc…and the balance in Canada.
Pic of what the mould produces (being the trunk)
The picture was of a clients car who openly posted this on-line, this is to show the fitment.
Side angle shot:
Here is the mould which produces the trunk:
The above ^^ shows the top deck and back side of the trunk in mould form, the surface is the CIBA silica for strength and wear with 10oz tooling cloth as a backer along with about 1/2" of epoxy dough and an additional 6 layers of 10oz tooling cloth again. The tool is very strong.
Inside of trunk mould:
The above^^ would be the interior of the trunk, mind you the mould is dusty, we are in composites so that is expected, I should of wiped it down but didn’t have a chance. Anyways, the mould is as accurate as it could get to be honest.
I can forward links from client reviews over the fitment and product quality, we were often referred to as “if you can’t afford OEM, then buy this one”. We were the supplier of choice for this line…
They were sold for $1,465.00 a unit, produced in epoxy with no gel coat, all done VARTM via this mould. If you do the math, you can see the value of the mould.
Some pics in carbon form:
Included with the mould is the following:
Lay-up schedule
Master plug OEM version from Germany (value $2,500 new)
Top, back and inner moulds
Lock housing mould
Trim jig for lock housing
Mould has trim lines scribed into it
I am not looking for alot in my opinion, $2,000 for the above as well as nearly 100 digital pictures for marketing purposes of the trunk installed on all different cars as well if needed, client references, etc…
See next post for next mould info…
