Madrilleno wrote:

So, went along to see Carl after work today. Thoroughly nice chap, and has a good amount of experience in sheet metal work.

The sliders looked to be of good quality for the price. The welds appeared to be fairly consistent and neat. Materials were as earlier a stated, 4mm plate an 3mm wall tube. He has used mild steel for construction, comensurate with the cost. Powder coating was well applied and even. The choice of mild steel will mean that corrosion will be a problem later if scrapes are not treated regularly.

There are two detrimental points.

1. The tubes do not protrude far enough to protect the doors from careless opening of car doors.

2. More importantly, the bottom seal strip on the doors stands off by about 5mm at the extremities, and about 10mm in the middle. Whilst these strips are not part of the wading seal system around the door opening itself, i believe that this will allow salt spray in winter to enter under the door more than it should.

I also suggested that he lengthen the tubes as far as possible.

Carl is aware of these points and is giving thought to how he can change the design to address them.

As for me, I'm going the hang on and see what he comes up with.

Thanks for doing that. the key thing for me is to have them protrude sufficiently from the doors. Is he looking at doing this as well as other possible tweeks?

Russell wrote:

tayaste what ones do you have fitted and do they protrude out past the doors given them car park protection as per side steps.

Probably the Mk1 version, that this guy hasn't been able to copy........ No 'car park' dents on my D3

  

radders89 wrote:

Madrilleno wrote:

So, went along to see Carl after work today. Thoroughly nice chap, and has a good amount of experience in sheet metal work.

The sliders looked to be of good quality for the price. The welds appeared to be fairly consistent and neat. Materials were as earlier a stated, 4mm plate an 3mm wall tube. He has used mild steel for construction, comensurate with the cost. Powder coating was well applied and even. The choice of mild steel will mean that corrosion will be a problem later if scrapes are not treated regularly.

There are two detrimental points.

1. The tubes do not protrude far enough to protect the doors from careless opening of car doors.

2. More importantly, the bottom seal strip on the doors stands off by about 5mm at the extremities, and about 10mm in the middle. Whilst these strips are not part of the wading seal system around the door opening itself, i believe that this will allow salt spray in winter to enter under the door more than it should.

I also suggested that he lengthen the tubes as far as possible.

Carl is aware of these points and is giving thought to how he can change the design to address them.

As for me, I'm going the hang on and see what he comes up with.

Thanks for doing that. the key thing for me is to have them protrude sufficiently from the doors. Is he looking at doing this as well as other possible tweeks?

Kingmav66 wrote:

Russell wrote:

tayaste what ones do you have fitted and do they protrude out past the doors given them car park protection as per side steps.

Probably the Mk1 version, that this guy hasn't been able to copy........ No 'car park' dents on my D3

  

Robbie wrote:

tayaste wrote:

I was going to ask the same question, they look to sit wider, even if only a tad, then my current sliders?

Curiosity compelled me to measure my original bars and the new Prospeeds from the flat of the sill to the outside of the bars. Quite a difference:

Original bars:

112mm

New Prospeed bars:

150mm

The extra 38 mm makes quite a difference as the bars are now wider than any part of the Disco (including the handles and upper wheel arches), with only the wing mirrors protruding further.

My best attempts trying to line up the front and rear wheels exactly:

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge