Trim around the door release..

[kapone]

Hi, anyone know where I can get 2 of these to replace the broken ones on mine? Are there any aftermarket ones?

Oh and while on the topic of parts, I had gone to Criswell (Gaithersburg, MD) to find how much the "glass/plastic panel" (the one behind the AC controls, which has the black Turbo Esprit sticker on it) will cost. The cost is $160!! for a plastic panel?? Anyone know of a better solution? (Mine's cracked a lil bit).

Thanks.

Kap.
89 Non SE

>>> Edited by kapone on Thursday 22 July 22:09

[paul c]

Hi,

Think you mean the two piece bezel that surrounds the door handle assembly in the car?
If so then they are only £3 a set of two from SJ sportscars (i've just bought some as mine were missing). Probably light enough to send as ordinary mail too.

HTH

Paul C

[kapone]

Thanks Paul, yes, that's what I needed. I'll go ahead and order them.

[DrieStone]

Kapone,

I destroyed my plastic HVAC panel fairly well too. There are a couple solutions. If you wanted something that looks OEM you could probably make your own for about $25 or so.

Go to Home Depot and get the thin plexiglass, scan the old one in and touch it up in Photoshop. You can then either have it silk-screened onto the plastic piece, or if you're really cheap (and have time) you can print it out on a laser printer and us it as a template. Lay down a number of strips of masking tape on the plastic, tape the template down and very carefully with a very sharp x-acto knife cut out the letters, etc. remove everywhere that will be black and lay down a coat of matte black spray paint. Let it dry and remove the rest of the tape.

You should be able to find semi-transparent color rub-on colors at an art store. Rub the colors on the back side of the plexi to allow the light to show through in the proper colors.

What I am going to do is actually have one cut out of thin(ish) aluminum (or aluminum as the Brits say,) on a water jet which will be slightly more expensive. Of course I'm also going to move the controls around a little.

[kapone]

There's some interesting thoughts! I'll have to get creative, there's no way I'm paying $160 for a plastic panel, for cryin out loud!

[tje111]

Those door-handle bezel pieces are sourced from the MGB 1968-on. A good USA source is well-known British parts supplier Moss Motors (800-667-7872, Part #402-375, $2.75 ea [two required per door]).

Best,
Tom
'89 non-SE

[kapone]

Thanks Tom, that's probably faster than getting it from SJ anyway.

[f1karting]

Alternative for the heater control panel... I have the tooling to produce high quality carbon fiber veneers, so for my esprit heater panel, I plan to have the graphics elements made out of computer-cut vinyl graphics by a sign shop. Ill apply the graphics to the CF, then shoot a few layers of automotive clearcoat over and polish it. Downside is lack of backlighting unless one first carefully removes the veneer on the backside of the graphics and re-fill with clear epoxy before applying the graphics.

If anyone is interested, I have the graphics panel already produced as a vector drawing, to scale, in autocad. Simply convert it to *.eps and fire it off to the graphics cutter.

Jan 83 ET