Hi everyone. As part of the TWOA team who purchased the visor tooling, I can shed some light on this. Brad at Wedgeparts had, long ago, worked out a deal with Aldridge to produce a set of golden tan visors with tooling he owned. A number of orders were placed and delivered but some of the vinyl hadn't aged well, the vinyl on some of the visors wasn't quite up to par, and the whole project simply stalled as Brad lost interest and dealt with the few bad visors. However, many members still have those golden tan visors from that initial run and are quite happy with the quality, waiting to install them on their next project. Wayne Simpson for example. I covet his visors for my new Aran Beige car.
TWOA wanted to get visors back into production and as Brad didn't seem interested, the TWOA Board discussed and offered to buy the tooling from him using TWOA club funds. He agreed. We then began a conversation with Aldridge and worked out an agreement with Aldridge to get visors back into production. As part of the agreement with TWOA, members get first crack at these and then Aldridge opens up sales to everyone. Before the blue visors became available, we also inquired to see if TRDC were interested, in fact Aldridge produced a number of blue RHD versions (same tooling works for both) for our UK wedge folks across the pond but there seemed to be very little interest which mystified them (and me too). Aldridge has since worked a deal with Rimmer Bros to carry and sell RHD visors, I'm not quite sure of the arrangements, but TWOA is just happy they're back into production. Oh, as part of the agreement with Aldridge, TWOA gets a small rebate on each pair sold, hoping to eventually pay BACK the cost of the tooling to our membership.
As for colours, Spider owners were the beneficiaries of the first run, black on black. The quality was top notch and Aldridge sold out of the first 50 pairs in about a week. They have since continued producing black on black visors and sales of those have been pretty steady. Quality is simply top notch. Some of our members have spray dyed the black ones, the results are acceptable but a discerning eye can tell and frankly, it just isn't "right". Aldridge still has a generous supply of black vinyl of the correct sort so these will continue to be in production. Blue visors were next, another production run of 50 pair was produced and when we alerted our members, those 50 pair sold out in 2 days. Aldridge also produced a number of pairs of RHD visors in this run as well but those have not sold very well. Alas, we're told they've just run out of the proper blue vinyl so until they source more, LHD blue visors are unavailable. RHD versions still exist in limited quantities however (try calling Rimmers or Aldridge directly). Coupe Black/White visors are next in line, the white coupe vinyl is a different grain but Aldridge has access to that material as well and it's just a matter of making sure there is enough interest for them to run a batch (which we expect will be their next production run).
Ah, now how about Golden Tan?
Lots of trims used this colour and there is no golden tan vinyl of the right sort left either. We've searched, quite a lot. We can get the proper vinyl made but it requires a substantial investment of funds. A minimum of a few 1000 meters from a mill is typical and at about $5 a meter, that's too pricey for a TWOA project. We're still working on that and Aldridge is still seeking a vinyl supplier that can furnish smaller lots, now seeking both blue and golden tan vinyl of the correct sort. We're still optimistic we can work some sort of deal to get golden tan visors made though.
and that's the way things stand as of today! - Jim
