I am going to be completely honest with you all here and let you know where our progress is at. ASTI is comprised of basically two individuals(both engineers) that have a passion for creating things. We both conduct 100% of our designs and 100% prototyping of our parts. Carbon Fiber fabrication is an art form that takes time and patience. The “time” portion of the equation is the challenging part since we both have demanding day jobs. I am sure that many of the other popular vendors on this forum can understand where I am coming from since they too have day jobs. When we started down the path of our Carbon Fiber adventure, we found that it quickly became time consuming and pretty much took away most of our free time (afternoons, late nights, weekends, etc.)…it still does.
So before taking on the full responsibility of full production of saleable parts, we went hunting for suppliers that could fill our demands. We were lucky enough to find one that was willing to make “niche” vehicle parts instead of the usual import tuner stuff. We really were impressed with their products and are generally excited to move ahead, and so are they.
What we didn’t expect was to pretty much hit a brick wall with our pricing announcement of $330 for our custom Carbon Fiber engine cover. This was a major blow to our motivation because we pretty much have been funding our projects from our back pockets. It adds up pretty quick when you model your own part, prototype, CNC cut a plug, create molds, create first off parts, test fit, make changes to the plug, make more molds, etc. It’s hard to start new projects when the first one has had a bit of a hiccup.
Since that route didn’t work too well, we decided to rethink our direction. I have recruited another fellow engineer that shares the passion and has enthusiasm to start another phase of this endeavor. We have acquired our tooling for our engine cover and fuse box parts and will begin manufacturing the parts ourselves! This will suck up our free time, but that is the sacrifice we are willing to try. This, of course, has helped the pricing of our parts dramatically. We just hope everyone appreciates the effort and understands what we are trying to do here.
**********OUR NEW N/A ENGINE COVER DETAILS*********
-2 layers of 2X2 Twill Pattern, 3K Carbon Fiber
-2 layers Black Fiberglass
-Wet lay up, epoxy construction
-Vacuum bagged at elevated temperature to ensure void free construction
-UV clear coated
…………………….Drum roll please………………… *********$200 + $10 shipping********
If a large enough crowd is interested, a group buy discount can be arranged.
__________________ ASTI - Aftermarket Solutions Through Innovation
Well, 50+ views and not one reply. We've been working really hard to get the price down and I felt that knocking $130 off the introductory price would get someone excited. Hmm....
__________________ ASTI - Aftermarket Solutions Through Innovation
__________________ http://www.myspace.com/squirrel_boy1
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Pontiac is car...
Saturn has rethought it's image...
The time has come for the enthusiasts...
NASSOA
Founding Member # 21
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Is the cover a brownish yellow or is it just a poor picture?
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WooHoo!!! Ordered a loaded Deep GXP (minus smokers package) on March 19th, 2008. Order number 0814D93708
Event code 3400 on April 12, 2008
Born April 30, 2008 (VIN 1G2MF35X58Y130283)
Delivered to dealer May 23th, 2008
Delivered on May 27, 2008
I think I'm in love...
Mods: lose the chicklets, VentureShield, Dual horns, AfterShock spoiler, Weathershield cover, Lil Chromies and red calipers with black Solstice stickers!
OK, I will respond. I don't have an N/A anymore, but even if I did an engine cover would be last on my list for an expensive mod. Are you sure there is much interest in this? Most people are just spray painting them and they look fine.
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'07 GXP - Loaded 3/19/2007 - 5 Speed auto
Black - Charcoal Leather red stitching- LSD - Monsoon - MP3 - OnStar - XM - A/C - ABS - Cruise - 5 Speed Auto- Fog lamps - GXP Floormats - Chrome wheels - Sport pedals
"Original Sol" 2006 2.4 - 5 speed manual
Black - Sand/Steel leather - ABS - A/C - Power windows/locks - Magnaflow exhaust - GMPP CAI - Vector ECM tune - Delivered Oct '05 - Said goodbye Mar '07 - It was a hell of great ride!
OK, I will respond. I don't have an N/A anymore, but even if I did an engine cover would be last on my list for an expensive mod. Are you sure there is much interest in this? Most people are just spray painting them and they look fine.
Thanks for the reply. I understand that this type of mod may not be for you, but there are many different modders out there.
Is there interest for this....who knows. We pursued making this because a while back many members on this forum really wanted a CF engine cover. I remember seeing several posts about people wanting to buy the plain CF cover from Saturn Motorsports, and then get all bummed out because it wasn't available.
__________________ ASTI - Aftermarket Solutions Through Innovation
Can't really give you a straight answer on this one. Seeing how there seems to be little support for our N/A version it is hard to justify the expense of tooling up to create the GXP version. We're more than happy to get going on it, but not if there is only one or two people intersted.
So Yes we want to, but No we don't want to if no one wants it.
__________________ ASTI - Aftermarket Solutions Through Innovation
Can't really give you a straight answer on this one. Seeing how there seems to be little support for our N/A version it is hard to justify the expense of tooling up to create the GXP version. We're more than happy to get going on it, but not if there is only one or two people intersted.
So Yes we want to, but No we don't want to if no one wants it.
with the cost of things these days I totally understand.
__________________ http://www.myspace.com/squirrel_boy1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pontiac is car...
Saturn has rethought it's image...
The time has come for the enthusiasts...
NASSOA
Founding Member # 21
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe you want to ask for people to post if they are serious about the CF Eng cover on the GXP.
How much would you sell it for if you get 10 people etc...
You may want to ask for a deposit once you have the 10 etc..
__________________ Aggressive GXP at $25,995.00 shipping of $600, Manual Transmission.
Options:
Air, $960; Chrome Wheels, $545; PCQ, Premium Package (Leather), $525; Radio, 6-Disc with MP3, $495; Monsoon, $395; Premium Acoustic Headliner, $150; and Sport Metallic Pedals, $115; all totals $29,180.00. No XM/OnStar and NO Spoiler. MODS (RKSport/Magnaflow dual exit exhaust system, K&N filter, Ventureshield.
First 1000. Aggressive with everything, NO XM/OnStar. SOLD
~~~~~~~ NASSOA
Founding member
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Regarding the indent where the 4 bolts are located, if you are keeping your N/A engine simple N/A, nothing will be bolted on top of or across the cover, correct? So my question is, to ease up on the appearance of a CF cover with 4 pimples, could a small piece of metal be fabricated to match the bolts and sit in the CF cover indent held in by the bolts? And an image could be engraved into the metal or vinyled on. That will IMHO make the bolt pattern easier on the eye and give your cover even more customization to reflect your own personality. You see what I'm getting at? I would surely buy the CF cover for my N/A... as soon as I get it!
Please keep in mind the following picture was quickly done up in the Paint program - since I don't have PhotoShop or anything - so it looks like crap, but a picture is worth a 1000 words, right? Basically what I was implying at was a piece of sheet metal cut to the right dimensions to fit in the indent, with the sides and corners rounded off, and a picture placed on it. Shouldn't be too hard, right? If possible at all...
