Epic Croatian Steering Wheel Group Buy

[evilrob]

Against my better judgement, I'm going to try and organise this. I don't know about anyone else, but I need a "Croatian" steering wheel in my life:

How cool is that!?

COST: £10 for wheel from Ian G + £40 / number of participants shipping box of wheels to Croatia from UK + £60 for retrimming + £60 / number of participants shipping back to the UK + £9 shipping retrimmed wheel from Ian G to you. Back of a fag packet guess - budget for £100, be pleasantly surprised if you get some change.

Here's how I envision it working:

• A bunch of people say, "Hell yes I want one of those too!"
• Ian G boxes up a bunch of steering wheels from his pile of steering wheels and ships them to Croatia on our behalf, charging us appropriately for wheel and shipping (both to Croatia and to your door upon their return)
• Alternatively, if you already have a steering wheel you want retrimmed, you send that (plus any special materials if applicable - like Alcantara in the case of FRP wheels) to Ian at Puma Bits HQ in Liverpool at your own cost, and Ian only charges you for your share of the shipment to Croatia plus the cost of returning the retrimmed wheel to you
• Wheels get retrimmed by Wild E. Coyote's mate and returned to UK looking minty
• Ian G distributes to individuals from Puma Bits HQ in Liverpool
• A few lucky people end up with badass steering wheels

To Do:

• Confirm Wild E. Coyote's mate is still up for it - CONFIRMED 29/06/2013
• Confirm Ian G has enough steering wheels and is up for it - CONFIRMED 30/06/2013
• Confirm price per wheel from Ian G - CONFIRMED £10 30/06/2013
• Confirm shipping from Ian G to people - CONFIRMED £9 30/06/2013
• Confirm cost for Ian G to ship a box of steering wheels to Croatia - CONFIRMED £40 30/06/2013
• Confirm colour options available / prices - IN PROGRESS 30/06/2013
• Devise some system of recording people's colour choices and wheels to avoid a logistical nightmare
• Confirm shipping back to UK from Croatia

Interested:

• evilrob - Midnight Black - buying from Ian G
• The Arch Bishop - Alchemy Blue - ???
• BentleyA - ??? - providing own
• Blue3
• gav.
• grayfox
• Questy
• alexwilliams840
• Qwertben
• russv
• Van_Dammesque
• ewizzy
• CartMan
• Flying Scotsman
• trueblue
• mikeFRP
• jifflemon
• Dave93.marsh
• fairlight
• PumaNoob

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Think you may have to organise which colour steering wheel people need as well - ie: Blue for early cars, black/charcoal for later ones. Obviously the rim is covered but the centre won't be.

Just to add a layer of complexity! :lol:

 

[evilrob]

Obviously the rim is covered but the centre won't be.

First of all: FNAAAARRRR! :-D

Secondly, Ian will just (I assume at this stage) be providing the wheel sans airbag/cover in the interests of weight saving (and I'm not sure the legalities of shipping what is essentially an explosive device anyway!) - you would whack your existing airbag/cover in to keep the consistent-trim-OCD under control.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

FNARRR!!! Indeed!

Yes, but the back of the wheel centre is also blue to match the front airbag cover. I'll knock up a quick picture in a sec...

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Here you go -

 

[evilrob]

I think you might be the only person that cares what colour that bit you never see is! :-D

Or at least you *were* until you brought everyone's attention to it.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Maybe, but it'll look a bit weird with a blue column and half the top of the steering wheel centre black and the airbag cover being blue again. It's very visible from the top of the wheel. :-(

 

[evilrob]

Bugger it. OK - you win. I'll figure something out. I guess all interested parties will need to specify wheel colour or provide reg no./VIN so Ian can get the correct trim off ETIS if you don't know what trim you have.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Soz mate. Am I being a tool about this?

I'll make you a lovely cuppa tea to make up for it...

 

[evilrob]

:lol:

 

[Bentleya]

When you buy a new airbag from Ford, the airbag gets delivers in a metal wire cage with card board wrapped around it.

I'm possibley interested in getting my 2 Fiesta steerings wheels done. Not sure if I would risk sending my alcantera to another country. So I will pass on getting the FRP steering wheel done.

 

[Cartman]

Hells yes I want one my wheel looks like s***

Been looking for an escort lether wheel, but this looks awsome

Count me inn, need to know the cost before i fully commit, but yea, I'm inn

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Hey Rob, Stick me down as interested.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Ok, guys! You will be, as I see, pleased to hear what I am about to say. I HAVE ALREADY contacted Mr. wheel retrimmer (Mr. WR) about two weeks ago. He is all for it. Also I asked him to prepare ALL THE colour and material options which will be photographed by me next week. I would already have done this, but I was just way 2 busy to afford myself 2 hours or so needed for the operation (including drive to him and back). I promise I'll do it next week and post the images here along with some sort of coding system to make it easier for him and you and also to avoid any possible errors in the process. Unfortunately, his English is not very good so we'll have to apply a KISS system (Keep it simple, stupid).
I propose to divide a steering wheel in 4 sections: the upper being A, the right middle (i.e where is the grip for your RH) being B, the bottom one C, and the left middle D. If you take a look at the steering wheel you can see that sections follow the direction of a dial of a clock (I hope you understand what I wanted to say) with A being 12 o'clock, B being at 3 o'clock, C is at 6 o'clock and D is at 9 o'clock.
I'll takje photos of all the material options in all colours and will post them here, along with dedicated numbers reflecting ONLY one material and colour option. So, black leather would become option 1, grey leather would become 2 etc.... Hopefully for all the FRP owners there WILL BE a blue suede option (checked already!) :wink:
After that it will be very easy and straight forward: you will just order your steering wheel option like this: A-1, B-2, C-1, D-2.
I hope this makes some sense; if you have a better system feel free to post it :lol:
I will print this coloring system for Mr WR and you will put a sticker (a good one that will stick to it during the transportation) with your prefered options on your steering wheel and thus (hopefully) will any confusion be avoided?

Cheers from sunny Croatian coast where I have got away for the weekend. Needless to say, in my puma and, BTW, have discovered interesting fact; I drove it on motorway 120-130 kph (reflects 3500-4000 rpm) and have managed to do 5,9 l/100 km in process (A/C was off most of the time). It seems to me that is the sweet spot of engine and car, that speed range...

 

[trueblue]

Rob, Put me down as interested please.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Maybe, but it'll look a bit weird with a blue column and half the top of the steering wheel centre black and the airbag cover being blue again. It's very visible from the top of the wheel. :-(

Would you try to explain this to me? I am not sure it affects the retrimming process as I have proposed it, but I guess it will do some added complexity? On my steering wheel I just retrimmed the wheel itself, not the airbag housing, if that is what you were driving at? The airbag is taken away and not touched until it is all finished and put back together.
After all, you have to take it down to unscrew the wheel itself. Retrimming the airbag is not possible, I am affraid; in case of depployment it would need to open up in predefined areas; the leather Mr. WR is using is uniform; no1 can be sure where it would (and would it at all!) crack if needed...
Feel free to explain it to me using some pictures, I am not sure I got the point? :?:

 

[mikeFRP]

Be interesting to see what the Frp version he can do with suede. Will it be a good colour match etc?

 

[Ian G]

Original trim colour can be matched, that's just an issue for supply of each colour of donor wheel. If we run short on any I'll just try to source more.

Needs recording as well but that also shouldn't be a big problem.

PM replied Rob.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Maybe, but it'll look a bit weird with a blue column and half the top of the steering wheel centre black and the airbag cover being blue again. It's very visible from the top of the wheel. :-(

Would you try to explain this to me? I am not sure it affects the retrimming process as I have proposed it, but I guess it will do some added complexity? On my steering wheel I just retrimmed the wheel itself, not the airbag housing, if that is what you were driving at? The airbag is taken away and not touched until it is all finished and put back together.
After all, you have to take it down to unscrew the wheel itself. Retrimming the airbag is not possible, I am affraid; in case of depployment it would need to open up in predefined areas; the leather Mr. WR is using is uniform; no1 can be sure where it would (and would it at all!) crack if needed...
Feel free to explain it to me using some pictures, I am not sure I got the point? :?:

Don't worry, it's just that the older Puma's have a blue interior (including steering wheel) so the bits of the wheel that don't get re-trimmed need to match. It's just something we need to sort out at this end.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

He said he had blue suede, last time I asked him. Also forgot to mention, there is an option on thread colours too....
I'll picture what he has and post it.... To be honest, FRP's are now 12-13 years old, or even older. Do you really see the colour as it was?