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And, one more rant...


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After 40y of faithful service (to other owners...) the passenger side sunvisor finally gave up the ghost.

Ah-"easy fix" I thought & just the thing for a mechanically untrained & semi competent idiot to try to sort out.

 

Thought I'd get 2 new ones from company A sent over & fit them. When they arrived, drivers & passengers vinyl were different from my CR coarse grain ones-that's ok, they said they would, that's why I bought both- but they differed from each other too! Plus when fitted the LH passenger visor has a serious case of the droopies that even viagra wouldn't fix. Trying to tighten up/crimp the metal tubing internally just destroyed the visor entirely...

 

Putting that down to a case of muppetry on my part I figured I'd try company B and ordered the entire visor kit. I decided the complete kit should just be a screw in replacement.

 

This time, at least the vinyl matched. Having carefully removed the old & fitted parts together it became obvious that the visor arms are set about 10-15 deg off the old design so they won't clip into the rubbers... Getting them to line up will require hammering/beating/heating and I expect on track record I'll just destroy them as well. Conveniently the old arms fit this new visor though. Not a cheap exercise all up given the end result.

 

How do these guys get away w supplying such rubbish trim? Am I missing something or are they just shipping out the rejects to the antipodes bc it costs so much for us to send them back?

 

Or am I just being naive?

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Lots of parts are that way in my opinion.

Asked myself why i did not notice that before

until I restored a full TR6 some years ago.

 

The answer was that if you replace a single part

you are more willing to spend some work on the item

"individualizing" it what means make it suitable.

 

Even brake parts failed and thats a serious issue!

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Thanks Roger. Never knew PQI existed (n00b), though the fact it does makes me concerned that this is a common theme. I understand from lurking on other threads the main suppliers are good w returns, but that's not so simple from down here & I'm not expecting a local branch will open anytime soon...

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I'd suggest that there is nothing accidental about the proportion of less than satisfactory parts landing on our friends in the Antipodes.

 

There are two incompatible attitudes to sending stuff halfway round the world.

 

In my book, you make sure that whatever you're sending is spot bollocks on, simply because the last thing you want is a return and send a replacement situation . . . . halfway round the world turning into one and a half laps of the planet . . . . .

 

The other approach is to palm the poor bloody colonials off with items that you can't sell over the counter, at least not to a bloke with eyes in his head. It gets shot of the cr*p, and no bar steward in Oz or Middle Earth is going to stump up the carriage back and maybe still not get a refund . . . . .

 

I've had the latter approach explained to me by senior people at three major specialists - in each instance the kiwi or kangaroo merchant had been treated with disdain, and yet the moment I got involved with the problem, the problem became immediately capable of resolution.

 

I'm not sure what the best solution really is. I can't say I'd be keen on buying parts from UK specialists if I lived down under. The only way I'd feel at least hallway safe is if the stuff was delivered to a reliable mate in the UK, checked over thoroughly, and then relayed on to wherever. Given the excessive amount that some specialists charge for shipping to NZ or AUS, that's maybe not unrealistic cost wise - specialist delvers by carrier in the UK, and the recipient ships using a good value broker, parcel2go, interparcel, one of those.

 

Cheers

 

Alec

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Unfortunately Alec, we are a victim of distance in more than one way as there's no other option down here. It's the usual suspects from UK or the usual suspects from US (and arguably many of them don't know where NZ is...besides we have PI not TC cars here). And I suspect my cousins will get tired of TR bits appearing on their doorstep, espl as their car tastes/comprehension doesn't stray far from euroboxes and I suspect they think their antipodean relations are mad enough as it is.

 

The initial visors which didn't even match each other got sent w a large job lot to the TR register NZ too... And the 2nd lot's arms look fine on initial examination, it's just they both ate 10-15deg out. GOK why-what's the point? Did the visor design change that much over the production years?

 

Roger: looking at the PQI-will fill in as best as I can but "phone calls" to address the issue from +13h GMT & toll rates have obviously not been undertaken. I have visions of the phone charges out weighing the parts... A couple of emails may be in order though.

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Alec is being a bit cynical on our (southerly) behalf.

 

My southern hemisphere restoration used mainly bits from Moss. the service was incredibly good.

One time I ordered bits from Moss and a book from Western Australia on the same day, and the Moss bits got here first.

The chrome beading that goes across the top of the panel joins caused one problem, they arrived with the last 3ins bent to fit the packet. Same with the replacement.

An email and photo to Moss got the new bits here intact. (Turned out there employment policy uses some handicapped people in part of the packing area, and my bloke used his noodle to get the trim/beading to fit the packing tube.) I was never asked to return the bent bits.

 

I was grateful that I could still get bits for a car of that vintage, from a book that listed everything clearly with part no's and price, instead of having to rat round Australia to see if there was still one in existence here.

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Matttnz

I had the same problem on my 6; duff originals, well past their best

I went to TRGB (www.trgb.co.uk) who, before I placed an order, explained that the new ones were highly likely to be 'droopy'.

This, they said, was because the component parts (tube inside the visor) were metric and the original bits were imperial. They suggested that, if the existing fittings were in good nick (they were) I should try putting a steady curve in the fittings, so that they were a tight fit in the new, oversized metric tube.

After a couple of tries (I started with not a lot of curve), it worked well and 6 months later, they still stay up and are firm to pull down!

As for the finish of ths vinyl, mine were fine, but, I am not too sure about the varieties available

 

Hope that this helps

 

John

Edited by wjgco
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Ah-I like that idea John-Where were you a few months ago? ;) In the end, company A: droopy. Company B: no droop to be found, even using the old bar-go figure...

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