Saturn / NTS Bodywork on eBay

[wylliezx9r]

Originally Posted by alga

It's a philosophical issue. On the one hand, hand made products will have some imperfections, on the other hand, the most perfect show cars (also, knives, mirrors, art, etc) are a result of meticulous manual work. We were led to believe we are to expect show-car-like perfection, and we clearly were not getting it.

I bought a full set of panels when Andy was running Saturn. I was never told that the finish would be perfect. There were some marks on some panels but to me that was obvious of a hand made part.
On a side note I work in the aerospace interior industry, we use a lot of hand laid up composites which cost astronomical amounts, and guess what ? The quality is crap, and that's from a host of different suppliers.
Alga, I think if thats the sort of quality you are looking for maybe you should be investing 20,000 plus in a Caterham ?

[Not Anumber]

Its good to see you back on the Forum Nathan and I hope the family issues are all settling down mate.

[Davidbolam]

Welcome back Nathan

I will most likely go for the Saturn bodykit now as soon as am ready for it.

I remember when Spud was selling off the seconds and people were comenting on how good the quality was!

David

[vmax1974]

Welcome back nathan

To all you people with negative comments about nathan my personal experience with him is that he is a friendly and helpful chap and he did deserve to succeed with nts however as I also know when you work too much you sacrifice in other areas he is still working on doing the right thing and all the people who where let down will still be satisfied in the end but remember he has not got the business or the income to do it all in the next 10 mins so please be patent with him he has gone through enough stress without everyone here giving him a hard time

Just my thoughts

[SeriesLandy]

Welcome back Nathan i'ts great to see you back on the forum. I've never had any dealings with NTS but if the quality was as good as saturn then I don't know what the problem is. OK Saturn wasn't perfect but it was good enough for me, I know I couldn't have done half as well as Spud.

Originally Posted by wylliezx9r

Alga, I think if thats the sort of quality you are looking for maybe you should be investing 20,000 plus in a Caterham ?

Caterhams body work is only as flawless as its mainly ali and then painted. I would never expect that from a gelcoat finish.

[K4KEV]

I also welcome Nat back and will say that if you want an immaculate "show" car
go ask some one who has built to that standard ....I would be shocked to find any that do not have at least several 000's not 00's on their build costs remember this is the book that came after "build your own sports car for £250"
ALL the body work suppliers are giving you the option of the complete body for less than a grand, the time saving aspect alone of this is absolutely immense....give all these guys a break eh.....go make your own if you are not satisfied then show one of yours next to theirs (this decade) and I will eat a banana in front of them

[MikeB]

Interesting thread,
Welcome back Nathan hope stuffs better for you now.

Must admit I struggled to know what to expect when it comes down to quality of fibreglass stuff.
£800 is a lot money to me but not much for the time it takes to make the panels. How picky should we be? and what should you expect for that money?
Some people will want better than others.
I'm a picky buggar but don't often moan honest!

But I'm happy with the quality of the AGM kit, its white so any marks/specs in the gel coat would show, but it's absolutely spot on, I just got the impression the guy really knew how to make FG bodywork (note the design and how well it fits the chassis is the other peice of the puzzle). Hence I think the quality can be there for the money. But is that a suprise if he's been making bodywork for different race cars for a long while and its what he does?

If you go to someone who is trying to make everything and is new to it add to that rushing around due to being really busy you may get more varied results (fair play for giving it a try though).

I think the only real fair test is to look at a suppliers promo/demo work that they advertise if yours doesn't look near to that I'd have an issue. (this can be difficult to do in practise though)

[robo]

The finish on any fibreglass panel is a reflection of the mold. Molds with imperfections will just relay them to the job. Invest in the mold,iron out the bugs and hey presto top quality products. Its not firking rocket science.Sounds like spud has had a sort out and is back on the case so good luck to him. I wish him all the best. The geography plays a big part in all this because the hairy arsed postal/courrier employees like to play parcel football with everything , for this reason alone I will look for the nearest supplier so that I get to collect and inspect prior to accepting the goods. Saves on the whodunnit and ensuing blamefest later on. Watch out equinox

Bob

[mgglep]

i also think customer services plays a big part

[alga]

Originally Posted by wylliezx9r

I bought a full set of panels when Andy was running Saturn. I was never told that the finish would be perfect. There were some marks on some panels but to me that was obvious of a hand made part.

Andy's parts have been repeatedly described as "top notch", "highest quality", "brilliant", "perfect", etc, by forum members. My expectations were mostly set by this feedback.

Alga, I think if thats the sort of quality you are looking for maybe you should be investing 20,000 plus in a Caterham ?

As a matter of fact, I'm not. Trim, finish and detailing is not my forte, that's one of the reasons why I abandoned the efforts of making my own GRP bodywork, and paid money to people who are supposed to be good at it.
I would be fully satisfied with any reasonable job. Problem is, 8 months later I'm still stuck with panels that "do look crap" by Nathan's own admission.