Fibrelyte tubs no more

[RichieRich]

I have a cf front worlds tower and its great. No problems at all dealing with Steve.

[EvolutionRevolution]

Methinks Profit trumps quality at Fibrelyte. Ive heard their 2d stuff is rough on one side as well, but I have not had any experience personally.

Their 2D parts are cut from carbon fiber plates that are smooth on both sides. Of course, like with 99% of other cut CF parts from other manufacturers, the edges may need some post-processing in the form of wet-sanding and/or a bead of superglue.

[LTO_Dave]

Seeing some of the auto parts that FL makes on their website, it makes me wonder why the tub is so difficult to make look decent?

[Asso_man!]

I had the chance to buy a NIB FL tub a few years ago and it was one from BITD. I used it to build my MIP 4-10 Legend car and all I can say is that it is beautiful and very well finished. At that time, FL wasn't reproducing them yet and when I saw the first ones pop up here I immediately noticed how different and thicker the new ones were compared to the "vintage" ones. I don't know exactly what happened inbetween, but it looks to me that they kinda lost know-how in the meatime or at least thay used a different mold/process to make the new ones.

Here are some pictures of what they used to do (everything is old stuff, no repops)



Notice how thin the tub is compared to a re-re:



Here is a prototype I bought right away from Steve at FL:



Naked:



Bi-level wing from FL (prototype as well):



The car after a proper resto:



A family picture, all FL tubs except an RC10 with a FusionSpeed tub:



Another vintage FL tub, this is one has seen some use:



Yokomo Works '93 FL tub:







And another proto wing from BITD:







All in all, I've never been dissapointed with the vintage FL tubs I've acquired, the only one that I ever got NIB had to be massaged a bit before everything was silky smooth, but I have no problem with that. In terms of look and finish I've never been dissapointed either but I agree that the re-re ones were not as good. Having also a FusionSpeed tub, the latter is by far the worst carbon tub when compared to a vintage FL one. It still is a historic RC brand and they did awesome products some being still produced today for us to enjoy. I also had great email exchanges with Steve and he was always very helpful and responsive.

[DMAT]

*jawdrop*

[bearrickster]

Those are some sweet cars.

[CAT3K]

I wonder if it's because they are using thicker carbon nowadays. It definitely looks thicker than the vintage tubs. Maybe that makes it harder to work with?

I've got a vintage Fibrelyte tub on a Cougar 2000, and the quality is top notch. It seems a shame they won't be making any more



Paul.