easy money I suppose if people are daft enough to pay for it

I bet it doesn't cost Aston much to buy the part. To me, they are just making a big profit because you guys have no choice. Someone would be better off finding out who makes it and you can then go direct. I'll ask about.....

Boats are not made from carbon fibre. Not sure how they could help?

Karl perhaps I should elaborate.

That is a very small split that he could fill with clear resin easily, I was only questioning how a GRP specialist charging a few hundred quid (not a CF specialist) would be any better help in reality. I am not trying to kick someones helpful suggestion, merely offer a counter argument that I cannot see the benefit. It would cost him £10 for some clear resin and a couple of hours to fix.

If someone suggested contacting mb1 on here who is currently building a number of us a CF replacement for the plastic key, then he is an expert and would be able to offer some expert advice.

Seriously how many production boats are made of CF? I am not particularly the argumentative type, but I am currently sitting on my GRP built boat in a marina of GRP & wooden boats. Not a CF boat in sight...

My mistake, next time I will not respond from a phone with limited time and not offer a full explanation.

Hi Guys.

The kind of cracks and damages I have seen are repairable. However they would rarely look good. You can seal and make nice enough from a distance but you would never get the weave look good again. At least not to the standard I want on my cars. You know it is always that little detail that you only know about and annoy you each time you come close to your pride and joy ;-)

Doing an after market splitter is possible. The part itself would be way cheaper than the AM part.
Main issues are: CAD geometry (do not really fancy reverse engineering) and tooling cost.
With the ECU I am doing at the moment, the tooling is cheap enough to be easily spread over 20 orders.
With the splitter, the cost of the tool is going to be substantial. Unless we do some soft PU tooling that can make a small run of 20 sets or so.

Ah, makes sense to me now. Thanks.

Update

I have been approached by a UK guy who is involved with RC Tuning in US; www.rsctuning.com In essence they want a genuine V12V splitter to use as a mould to produce an aftermarket part and if I give them mine, they will collect and ship it to US and build a mould and send me back FOC a new splitter complete with the CF seam in the middle as per original. Compared to the circa £3.5k max I think I would be into, this seems like a good way of solving my split problem.

I seem to have little to loose as its pretty certain that any form of repair will always be visisble and to me it will stick out like a sore thumb every time I walk up to it. If the part is inferior they will lose the opportunity to build a reputation that would doubtless lead to the many other V12V owners who might be possible customers in due course as I would publish the details of my experience. I would only really be worse off by the 4 weeks car will be off road waiting, otherwise I will be buying the new part as I would probably do anyway.

RC Tuning are happy for me to put this information up on PH and unless anyone knows otherwise they seem very genuine to me.

They believe when finished the part would cost circa £1.5k.

Any thoughts?

Does the teeny weeny engined Vantages have same splitter are proper Vantages? If so then I imagine it would be a snug fit but I would hope someone with a bit more knowledge than I can confirm this. Thought V8's had plastic splitter made of old recycled plastic bottles?

I have asked RC Tuning as they definately know more about this than I.

Result if it is as imagine there are many more V8VS's around than V12Vs.

I will probably get this done while on summer vacation which we have not booked yet; Bahamas if sons do well in exams, Bournmouth if not!

To wind you up further Aston have already made a plastic copy of the V12V carbon one and fit it to ALL new vantages now