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carbon fiber dash


Crimsin

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Crimsin: I purchased a fibreglass dash from a fellow in Mesa Arizona. It is for a Datsun being converted to a Ferrari. I really like the dash BECAUSE it has a vertical dash pod right in front of the driver with considerable realestate for custom gauges. Before doing anything with it MAYBE there should be a plug made from this dash such that a carbon fiber dash can be laid up from the plug. Just wondering. Your thoughts?

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Crimsin: I purchased a fibreglass dash from a fellow in Mesa Arizona. It is for a Datsun being converted to a Ferrari. I really like the dash BECAUSE it has a vertical dash pod right in front of the driver with considerable realestate for custom gauges. Before doing anything with it MAYBE there should be a plug made from this dash such that a carbon fiber dash can be laid up from the plug. Just wondering. Your thoughts?

 

 

Thats sounds good, do you have pics of it? I can then send the pics to this guy and see what he says for a price

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are we talking like 1-2k?

 

No way :-)!

 

There is all sorts of different grades of Carbon Fibre, from the cheapest stuff at around $30/m to the stuff you find on the A380 or in an F1 car at $100-$125/m or more (These are AUD Prices).

 

The process of actually making the CB dash wouldn't be any different than making one out of Fibreglass, you seal up a dash and paint it, wax it and maybe cover it in PVA release - use a stronger tooling gel (so you can make numerous "copies" without f#cking the mould) and your ready to make yourself some copies!

 

If you look at costs of materials, $2/m for chop stran FB mat, about $10-$15 for better quality FB - $30/m for cheap CB, which for a dash you would need about 1.5 to 2sqm's, the cost of the CB is not what makes this sort of thing expensive, because no one would be using the same grade you find on an A380 - what makes it expensive is all the prep work in getting the item to be copied perfect, then making the mould!

 

Actually making the finished dash is the easy part :-)!

 

Therefore basically everything is the same until the time you make the finished product!

 

BUT...........there is one big difference, if the mould dosen't quite seperate properly or something happens to the finished article in FB, no big deal, sand it, bog it, prime and paint it - you won't do this with CB as most people want the CB look if they pay for a CB item (or whats the point :-))?

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I will write to the guy when I get my replacment dash on Monday, and see what he says for price. My dad worked for Cessna building carbon composite planes, he said he could make some mold of some of the interior parts. I am going to try and make some door panels

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Crimsin: I purchased a fibreglass dash from a fellow in Mesa Arizona. It is for a Datsun being converted to a Ferrari. I really like the dash BECAUSE it has a vertical dash pod right in front of the driver with considerable realestate for custom gauges. Before doing anything with it MAYBE there should be a plug made from this dash such that a carbon fiber dash can be laid up from the plug. Just wondering. Your thoughts?

 

Hey guys, this is someones intellectual property. You are talking about ripping off John's design and then making money by selling copies of it. And you're dicussing this on a public forum. Bad idea. :nono:

 

Maybe you just didn't think about that at first. I'm sure you're not the stealing type. Send John an e-mail with your idea. I'm sure he would be willing to work out a licensing agreement for a very reasonable fee.

 

john@reactionresearch.com

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Hey guys, this is someones intellectual property. You are talking about ripping off John's design and then making money by selling copies of it. And you're dicussing this on a public forum. Bad idea. :nono:

 

Maybe you just didn't think about that at first. I'm sure you're not the stealing type. Send John an e-mail with your idea. I'm sure he would be willing to work out a licensing agreement for a very reasonable fee.

 

john@reactionresearch.com

I do not know who john is, but I doubt having someone copy the stock dash after it hasent been made in how many years is going to mess up someones intellectual property

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rsicard, "...I purchased a fibreglass dash from a fellow in Mesa Arizona. It is for a Datsun being converted to a Ferrari. I really like the dash BECAUSE it has a vertical dash pod right in front of the driver..."

 

rsicard is not talking about the stock dash. The "fellow in Mesa", I'm certain, is John Washington. He produces the Vello Rosa, a body kit for the S30 that looks like what a Ferrari 250 GTO Spyder would have looked like if Ferrari had made a convertable version. And, yes, the dash John supplies with his kit has a pod right in front of the driver with lots of room for gauges.

 

That make sense?

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I do not know who john is, but I doubt having someone copy the stock dash after it hasent been made in how many years is going to mess up someones intellectual property

 

If it's a stock dash, then yea, no biggie, but if it's John Washington's design, being copied, in CF w/o his knowledge, I think is a biggie.... right ? :)

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If it's a stock dash, then yea, no biggie, but if it's John Washington's design, being copied, in CF w/o his knowledge, I think is a biggie.... right ? :-)

 

I don't know, either way your ripping off someone :-)!

 

Seriously though, I doubt you could patent something like this, and it wouldn't be that difficult to change the design just enough to claim that the product is "different", so I seriously doubt you could get pinged for stealing someone's intellectual property in an instance like this?

 

Also, it would be fairly debatable about who actually own's the intellectual property (if there was any to own) in the first place, John Washington's dash, I assume, is modelled on the original Nissan Z dash, so in effect you would be copying a copy even though JW's dash does differ significantly from the original.

 

I think you could only get into strife for "passing-off", ie.......sold similar products and passed yourself of as working in conjunction with John Washington in the process of selling said product!

 

Like in your advertisement you put!

 

"Reaction Reserch Z Dash: Now in Carbon Fibre!!!"

 

But this action would be taken in the name of the individual who purchased the item, not the person's whose original ideas were copied!

 

I am not a lawyer though, so my opinion may not hold much water!

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Well if yall dont want to thats fine. I just want to look in to doing it

 

I think there would be a market for this sort of thing, but as the middle man you aren't probably going to realise a whole heap of $$$ from this enterprise because the person you pay to make it won't to it for free and unless they whip it in in China you are going to have to pay them in Paper money!

 

Having said that, you should also be weary about flat out copying someone elses product, even if it is not illegal to do so, which I really think it isn't as long as you advise people that you are in fact a different vendor, you could possibly put people offside by nicking someones elses idea. John Washington is a very nice fellow!

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If you build your own plug from scratch and you model it after Johns dash, even if it looks a lot like his, that is completely different from pulling a plug directly from a dash he owns the rights to.

 

"...Before doing anything with it MAYBE there should be a plug made from this dash..."

 

That's the sort of thing that will get you in trouble.

 

Don't kill this idea. I think it's a great idea. Just do the work yourself instead of copying Johns dash. We need more products like this. And, yes, John is a great guy. If you sent him an e-mail and asked for advice about how to do it he would be happy to help. Like I said earlier, he would probably even license copies if you were up-front with him.

 

Just don't go behind his back. Why make an enemy of this great guy?

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For the last time, Im not a middle man. I just want a C/F dash, the only way I can afford it is if a bunch of people go in with me to bring the price down. Im not trying to make money here, just have a carbon fiberd out interior. As for copying other peoples things, its done all the time. If Nissan truly didnt want us to do this they would have had a lawyer in here threatinging a law suit, Some people need to ease the anal retention here

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