I’ve had a few emails back and forth with Westfield regarding making me a new replacement Rear clam
Basically I’ve got a few marks and cracks appearing and thought I’d enquire into to how much for a replacement before I try rectifying with say a boat company specialising in fibre glass and gel coats etc.

Ive got as far as the moulds are in storage off site and they seem reluctant to give me a price to make another mould but will get back to me when the covid -19 situation settles down and they are back to full staff (sounds like half a year away tome) This all sounds expensive to me but they are classing this as a one off to be made. Out of curiosity is anyone else thinking of having a new clam as I could try and push through a group buy. I could enquire into front clams as well?

In fairness it’s taken about a month to get this far so it doesn’t sound like they are to interested in GTM. I would had a guess it’s not cost effective for them to continue

I've no plans to replace mine. GRP is pretty repairable but probably hard to get a perfect gel coat match due to fading over the years (especially reds, maybe less so for yellow?) but I guess even if you had a new clam in gel coat it wouldn't match the rest of the car so might be into painting everything. GRP specialists can do a reasonable colour match with pigment blending whereas I guess if Westfield did make one they would just use a standard RAL gel colour.

It would be good to know if whole new clams are viable in case serious damage occurs, otherwise a damaged clam could equal a written off car in the eyes of insurers.

Regarding repairs, might be worth giving Andy Westgate a call, Westgate Composites - just the other side of Swindon. https://www.westgatecomposites.com/ Andy is a member of Kitnet and a really nice bloke.

Don't hold your breath Colin My last correspondence regards a front clam was back in July 2019 I got an answer in August saying 'Thank you for your patience. Unfortunately I do not have an update. Due to work commitments within the establishment. No fixed date has been arranged yet. I am asking and requesting a date so I can at least have items priced correctly, then I can advertised.'
Gosh they must be busy
My damaged clam was repaired at DS Dalgleish in Galashiels, Borders (yes its a Nissan & Subaru dealer, but I know the owner and my daughter works there!) and they did such a good job even with the gel coat from East Coast Fibreglass that unless you knew you would not find the damage.
Repairs are always possible with GRP

I think they are worth a call, cheers

I just thought it was worth a punt to see if they are making any movements, you are more than likely right though

It's a sad situation.

Since buying GTM they seem to have mothballed the entire thing.

They have all the moulds but refuse to use them to make replacement panels and they won't release them so that other people could use them instead.

It really is, I've often thought that the club should approach westfield with a view to securing the moulds for the good of the club members, if Westfield had any respect at all for the heritage of the name they would at least give it some consideration. We'd ideally need someone like Alan at Rossabits to take on the Libra stuff as well

Does anyone know if the club has ever approached Westfield with such a request?

What you’re really asking is would they sell the rights of gtm not so much the moulds etc, as I can’t see them letting the moulds go without the rights/ownership of gtm going with it
I could ask, or if someone else feels bold enough to ask?

This has been discussed several times before, even if Westfield would sell the moulds, it was deemed not to be a viable option for the club to purchase them. The club is not a business, has no premises and therefore no storage facilities. If the club were to purchase the Libra/Spyder moulds (which would most probably bankrupt the club anyway) it would have to purchase the moulds of all GTM models if/when they become available as only about a third of club members are Libra/Spyder owners. Storage would have to be paid for, which again would probably bankrupt the club after a short period as we do not have a large number of subscription paying club members and therefore have a limited income (most forum users are not club members).

Yes, ideally we need someone like Alan or Derek Hambly to take on the Libra/Spyder project.

We went through the same problems with the Ginetta Club as the new company under LNT had no interest in supplying body panels for all the old models however Lawrence Tomlinson after lots of discussion donated all the moulds to the club but as you say storage is a problem fortunately one member has a spare farm building where they are stored FOC. Such a shame as i could do with a new front clam for the libra
Ian

I think we all just have to accept that Westfield will never supply any parts for a Libra/Spyder. Perhaps if someone with deep pockets had taken them to court before the cars had been out of production then maybe something could have been done, Even then I suspect they would have squirmed out of the 10 year parts supply commitment that all major manufacturers have to support and now I suspect its too late. Something of a sad and somewhat acrimonious way for such a promising project to end.

I think that an approach to buy the moulds would result either in disappointment or a major bill which wouldn't be affordable.

For anyone thinking of making parts I would advise caution. When I was running the coupe project I wrote to Westfield requesting their permission to use the term Classic GTM and received a response indicating in no uncertain terms that that would not be possible. By implication plenty of funds to see you in court but not enough to support the Libra/Spyder business.

Just my 2 'penneth.

Regards
Steve

I’d be interested in now how much money they’re thinking for purchase of moulds or interested in what they would have to say.
I don’t think it would be that much as it’s only really worth what they think they could get away with and as it’s not a running company making profit then it really shouldn’t be worth a great deal.
I have a spare 40ft container at my yard if it had to store moulds but I would prefer it to be owned by the GTM Club and then used by a specific company to produce moulds as and when required for everyone. Just imagine if everyone contributed a one off payment each, I think it could potentially be a viable plan.

I might ask the question via email just for a punt.

Seriously - good luck with that -- if you sort it you'll be doing all Libra/Spyder owners a great service. Which is more than Westfield have ever dome!
Rgds
Steve

There is nothing stopping you making your own moulds for personnel use. Probably cheaper than buying them and I dread to think what condition the original moulds are in now. The RDM era cars required painting as the moulds weren't kept in good condition.