Rear quarterlight seals?

[DavePoth]

Does anybody have any ideas/update on these at all? The ones that I've got are falling to pieces. I saw that some people were looking at sourcing them last year but I couldn't find anything more recent.

[Carledo]

I don't know about new ones. Since Chris Witor is well into Dolomite stuff now, he'd be the obvious guy to approach about remanufacture!

In the meantime, I might be able to scare up a pair of decent used ones for you.

Steve

[DavePoth]

Doing a little bit of an investigate on my own at the moment, and I've found a few companies who might be able to help. No prices yet but there is an indication of a minimum run of 50 per side - and looking at the worst case I can find anywhere online (£100 per seal) would be a £10k investment. Not good.

However, I see that the front quarterlights that the Stag Owners club do are for sale for £34 the pair. If that's the sort of price we'd be looking at then it's a lot more possible.

https://socspares.co.uk/store/25-body-seals-rubbers?p=2

I emailed the company that did the seals for the Stag Owner's Club but no answer as yet. I'll try to follow up in a couple of days to see if they can help.

Here's who I've approached so far:

J. Coker (www.j-coker.co.uk) - Did the Stag ones, no answer yet
C O H Baines (https://www.coh-baines.co.uk/) - minimum 50 per piece, waiting for an idea of price
Fairham Mouldings (www.fairham.com) - waiting for pricing info
Edgeware Motor Rubber (www.rubbertrim.co.uk) - said no
Techmould (www.techmould.co.uk) awaiting reply

The other thing that sprang to mind is 3D printing. I'm aware that you can't do proper rubber but there are rubber-like materials that may do the job, especially since it would only need to be flexible once to get the glass in. A company like this one:

https://www.3d-alchemy.co.uk/3d-printing-in-rubber.html

has the capability to make something big enough, but it would require a CAD model of the seal. That looks like a tough job especially since any seal we have now won't be quite the right shape or size compared to the original. I wonder whether the engineering drawings would be available at BMIHT? If I could get scans of those it would even be within my CAD skillset to digitise them.

[RSi]

I'd be very interested in front sets and rears too.

[Galileo]

I've got a 3d printer, and the likes of Ninjaflex flexible filament is good stuff for printing seals and gaskets but I'm not aware of any UV stable flexible filament.

[GTS290N]

I have a pair of good used rear seals. Open to offers or they go on ebay.

[DavePoth]

I've got a 3d printer, and the likes of Ninjaflex flexible filament is good stuff for printing seals and gaskets but I'm not aware of any UV stable flexible filament.

Apparently there's a filament called Maker Flex that is UV stable.

http://makergeeks.blogspot.co.uk/2017/0 ... inter.html

Admittedly I know exactly nothing about this stuff though.

The other thing I was looking at is rapid prototyping - this would be sort of a bridge between 3D printing and full tooling. Depending on the method it would be either a resin or soft steel tool so would only be good for somewhere between 25 and 100 pieces - but then the mould would Be much cheaper. that almost entirely eliminates the tooling cost, which is the big issue - the "per item" cost would be higher but I think people could probably live with that?

[xvivalve]

James 467 looked into this earlier in the year; had some shocking prices back!

[DavePoth]

James 467 looked into this earlier in the year; had some shocking prices back!

I saw!

I think a plan is starting to form in my head. Something like this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ1A7ZjTsx8

get a 3d printed seal in hard plastic, cast a silicone negative mould from that, and then use that mould to make the seals. There are pourable UV stable rubbers available in the appropriate hardness (seals look to be 70 shore)

It might take a bit of fiddling to get right but given how expensive the alternative is, this seems an OK option especially given the limited run.

I guess the problem is going to be finding someone who can do something like this - I don't have a big enough shed - or any skill! Does anyone have any thoughts?

[Galileo]

Good find with the flexible filament, but your second thought was exactly what I was thinking of doing, print a 3d cast that could be used with pourable rubber, or a similar silicone based material.

[SprintMWU773V]

The problem with seals is they tend to be extruded rather than poured.

[RSi]

Surely with the amount of remaining Dolomites on the road it's worth it to someone to manufacture them, and then there's all the ones overseas.

And more people are pulling them out of the woodwork and restoring more and more of them.

Why are Stag parts easier to get - are there a lot more of them on the road.

[James467]

£25K for tooling

They have to be extruded, moulding wont work have investigated this. The shape is too complicated, especially on the fronts.

I can get the fronts made but expect to pay upwards of £250 per pair.

However I won't be beaten and am still investigating as well as seat covers.

[SprintMWU773V]

Surely with the amount of remaining Dolomites on the road it's worth it to someone to manufacture them, and then there's all the ones overseas.

And more people are pulling them out of the woodwork and restoring more and more of them.

Why are Stag parts easier to get - are there a lot more of them on the road.

There's many many more Stags that Dolomites still around, around 9000 or so. There's probably a few thousand Dolomites in total. Stags do fetch significantly more money and as a result people do tend to be willing to spend more on them.

[DavePoth]

Good find with the flexible filament, but your second thought was exactly what I was thinking of doing, print a 3d cast that could be used with pourable rubber, or a similar silicone based material.

That's the next job. I have an enquiry in with a 3D scanning company to see about getting a digital model made. Looking at videos on the internet I think the most cost effective thing will be to have a positive solid model, then a negative silicone cast, to make a positive rubber model from that.

That way the expensive bit (I guess a 3d printed model that size won't be cheap but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it) only gets used every 20 casts or so when the silicone negatives wear out.

I am entirely guessing though, so if anyone with knowledge or skill would like to cut in please do so!