I bought all the tooling they would sell me, not a lot unfortunately
You would not believe how hard and long I tried to purchase the Mini tooling when they closed Enfield, in fact I offered a lot of money for the tooling, and I offered to sign a contract or agreement that stipulated that I would not use the tooling until such time as they had exhausted all the stocks in what they called an all time buy. and even then if they wanted to they could borrow the tooling from me to make more, and return it when they had made the Qty they wanted, I would only use the tooling when P&A decided they no longer wanted to carry the parts I had tooling for,
I thought I had made a generous offer, and I had some support from some heavy hitters at P&A and some at the manufacturing division. However it was explained to me at the time that the ultimate decision was made in the UK
I still have a vivid memory watching the tooling being tipped into scrap bins @ around $20.00 dollars a ton from memory .
I suppose it must be remembered that people from the same country that made that decision many years ago sent people to Australia for punishment
( punishment! living in Australia?? )

_________________
" A Hundred Years From Now It will not Matter what my Bank Acount Was,
The Sort Of House I Lived in, Or The Kind Of Car I drove ... But The World May Be A Better Place
Because I was Once Important In The Life Of A Child"

Hi John,
Do you have any plans to have the wide style Cooper S flares made?
Thanks Dave

Yes Dave I am, I will keep everyone informed as they progress
Regards
John

_________________
" A Hundred Years From Now It will not Matter what my Bank Acount Was,
The Sort Of House I Lived in, Or The Kind Of Car I drove ... But The World May Be A Better Place
Because I was Once Important In The Life Of A Child"

Geez, you try to poke a bit of fun at John for not buying all the tooling.......and blow me down, he actually did try and buy it all!!!!

I am also after the wide style Cooper S flares.
Looking forward to them being available.
Thanks Nathan

_________________
Nathan

1965 Mk1 Cooper S
1967 Mk1 Cooper S
1968 Mini Deluxe 998cc competition car
1968 Mini Matic
2010 MINI Cooper S JCW
1925 Model T ford
2015 Audi SQ5 (Tow Car)

Just chatted to John about this and he is still having troubles getting a suitable manufacturer for the original style flares at an acceptable price as the original supplier is winding up the business for personal reasons. Personally I think he's trying too hard to keep the price down to what it was last year. In my view he should go with a manufacturer that will provide a good product with reliable supply, even if the price increases significantly. It's not as though we enthusiasts have any sensible option as they are not available elsewhere.

He has a set of the wider Australian factory flares that will be used to create the tooling once a supplier is found.

What do others think? Would you be prepared to pay say $400 for a set of four round-nose or Clubman flares made in the original moulds to the original specification? That is just a figure I plucked out of the air and not one John has mentioned. If I needed a set I would pay that amount but I'm just one potential customer.

_________________
ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

The price will be whatever it needs to be. There is no other good looking option so I would pay, but I'm sure others wouldn't.

My downside is I require 3 sets so that will suck paying that much. Oh well.

_________________
1963 Morris 850 Smoke Grey
1963 Morris 850 Shadow Blue
1965 Morris Mini Smooth Van
1966 Morris Mini Van
1969 Morris Mini Deluxe Resto
5/72 Clubman Gt

I have been keeping in touch with John and he is loosing sleep over this. He wants to get the flares and sell to all of us but cant get the quality of product good enough. Teething issues I guess. We just need to be patient and it will happen.

_________________
1963 Morris 850 Smoke Grey
1963 Morris 850 Shadow Blue
1965 Morris Mini Smooth Van
1966 Morris Mini Van
1969 Morris Mini Deluxe Resto
5/72 Clubman Gt

I am keen on a wide set also. I am patient and know John is doing his best and I trust his judgement. I have learned you forget the price but never the quality!

_________________
Cooper S Mk2
Cooper S Mk1
ex Cooper S Mk2, various Morris 1100s, 1300s, 1500s, Leyland Sherpa!

I'd be happy to pay... Two sets please

It's great to see others really understand the situation. For those who haven't met him, John is the most obliging and honest small business bloke I've met. A more ruthless individual in his position would've virtually ignored the enthusiast (i.e. you and I, the customer) and just used simple business economics to sell stuff at the highest price they could get away with. John is not like that. He lives and breathes Minis and always tries to satisfy everyone with the best quality and the lowest price, hence the delay with the flares. He refuses to stock shoddy parts and will bin inferior products if he discovers them.

I'm sure he appreciates everyone's patience and understanding.

P.S. His on-line store is (hopefully) just weeks away from going live. Lots of New Old Stock parts for Minis and Mokes that he purchased from BMC and Leyland decades ago, and that I never knew existed. About 1500 parts will initially be available on-line (at last count). His brake pipes are made to the dimensions specified on the original BMC or Leyland Australia factory engineering drawing (yes, he is the only one who has access to these rare documents) using quality materials, tooling and workmanship, so they fit exactly in place of the original without the need to bend or twist.

_________________
ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

mmmm the joys of original drawings, seem to me that it's not the same for buildings, older drawings for our company are a nightmare, even if they are in metric, you still have to draw it all from scratch, at least they are better than napkin sketches. With the advent of 3D printing I think that the classic car parts industry will be "saved" in a sense, that we can reproduce the parts in plastic or metal to make new tooling, I don't do much 3D part modelling at work but I did have a go at my bonnet prop retaining clip (on my mini build log in signature), will see how it goes when I get my 3D printer,

On a side note shame John didn't offer the scrappy a good price for the tooling after Leyland.....Unless he did??

_________________
Nick

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86675

I understand he did !! But the scrappy, who was a friend of John's, had to sign a destruction order before accepting it from Leyland, so into the smelter it all went.

Good point about the possible use of 3D printer to help create new parts from old. Of course my reference above about brake pipes is that the drawings for these shows all the lengths and other dimensions, the component parts, the material used, the standards to be met, etc., where a 3D printer wouldn't be of use.

_________________
ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Yet, But you could print the fittings if it ever came to that, as they are already 3D printing metals. But to make sacrificial items for tooling it opens up alot of fun, and tweeking for items. Hopefully Most of the little parts I buy I will try and model up even if it is a little rough just so I have a record of it.

_________________
Nick

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86675

I was over at Johns today
while I was there he showed me two samples of the original flares that he has had produced .
to be honest , Good on John for not giving the go ahead on these , they are not up to the standard that he would even consider selling to you and me , We have enough inferior , bad quality products
being presented to us as is , When John is happy with the quality of the end result , I am sure we will be as well.
Patience , I am sure will put a smile on our face

Mark