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Old 3rd August 2012, 04:25 PM
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alga alga is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Posts: 1,249
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It's a long story.

The price quoted by spud69 was in the range of £230-250 for shipping a 6-piece set of bodywork to Lithuania. I toyed with the idea of making my own bodywork, but in January finally pooled up on shipping with another dude making a roadster in Lithiuania. Then we arranged transport by someone who could pick up both sets and bring them down to Lithuania for 100 quid. We paid for the 2 sets from Saturn on 11 January. Then 5 days later Andy announced he'll be transfering the business to Nathan/NTS.

In mid-February Nathan sent a note that the bodywork is ready. We started arranging to get it picked up, and eventually in early March or so it finally brought to Lithuania. But at the moment I was on holiday in Tenerife. In the end of March I returned and finally got my bodywork. The other guy we ordered together with got his set from the guy who arranged us the transport, so we have never met.

The quality was disappointing, especially given the high expectations set by all the praise Andy and SSC got on this forum. I was not sure whether I'm being too picky, so I made some photos and sent them to Nathan and an impartial expert in GRP, MarkB. Nathan admitted that the panels "do look like crap", and MarkB replied that I it's totally appaling, he had binned panels that looked better than this, and I should get my money back and think about buying from Voudou. MarkB wrote that the moulds are obviously in a very bad state and he's sad to see that. Apparently, also MarkB sent some abuse Nathan's way privately.

Nathan expressed his intention to put it right numerous times, initially he offered a refund or a replacement set, but later wrote that he didn't see any of my money (I paid to Saturn), and he's started making a replacement set anyway. This was late March/early April. Nathan didn't want me to publicize the photos of my bodywork, but asked for evidence of defects on the second set. I made the Picasa album with my photos private.

As shipping the bad sets just does not make sense, I offered to buy at least my set for a fair price for what it is, and pass them on to other builders (there are a couple of people who could be interested). Nathan suggested that I use the bad set to progress with my build, practice drilling it, and then just replace the bodywork once it's done.

Several months passed, Nathan decided to close down the operation. He acknowledged several times both privately and on the forum that he intends to make good on his promises, in fact one of the sets is done and just needs some elbow grease to ensure that it's top notch this time.

The last time I've heard from Nathan was 6 June. He promissed to have the two sets ready for the first week in August (this week), but, apparently, it did not pan out. I still believe he's intends to fulfill his promise, but I feel the urge to share on the forum, too... It's been almost 7 months since I paid...

Anyway, here are the photos of the disappintment that came after the initial euphoria of offering the bodywork to the chassis:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1008810...eat=directlink

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7722909...7629458919298/

Now I'm really blocked on bodywork. I want to mount the front indicators and rear lights, but if I intend to recoup my costs for the seconds set, I want the visible surfaces to unspoiled if possible.
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Gallery, build thread in Lithuanian / via Google Translate.
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