Ralph wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 6:35 am
Apart from price, how do the seat foams the club has made differ from the ones that Newton Commercial have just introduced. Are the HL and Sprint seats different to the late Dolomite 1300 seats. I am asking because I already bought a seat base foam from Newton but have not yet got around to fitting it to my Dolly 1300.
Ralph
Until last week, we weren't sure ourselves just HOW much difference there was between the HL and non HL seats, just that there WAS a difference visible from the outside of around 2" in width. We had hoped it would be possible to alter the HL foam slightly and make it work as another new mould would be considerably more expensive in tool costs. Having now disassembled a non HL seat, that just ain't gonna happen, the non HL mould is 2" narrower, 2" thinner, and is missing the prominent raised front top face of the HL seat. We are going to have to have a second mould made. This won't affect pricing as the HL foams price includes a small amount to help recover tooling costs. the non-HL one will be the same.
The diaphragm is also a completely different construction and size to the HL one. Some research has turned up a Ford Capri diaphragm that is ALMOST identical, but they are prohibitively expensive at almost £95 each incl VAT and carriage! The Capri one is also a tad too narrow, which may be critical, as the construction method of this diaphragm is less forgiving than the all rubber HL diaphragm. Research is ongoing to find a more budget friendly alternative.
Since you have already bought an HL style foam from NC, It might be possible to carve it up and adapt it for your non-HL car, a talented trimmer could do it, but there wouldn't be much recognizable of the expensive original when it was done, it'd be just as easy to scratch build one. But my thought is, it would be better to contact NC, inform them of their marketing error (they probably don't KNOW there are 2 different seats as they are NOT Dolomite, or even Triumph specialists) and ask for a refund. We are hoping to be able to offer the non HL foam somewhere around Easter.
HTH, Steve