I’m interested to know, what are people’s experiences with Curley? Their carbon fibre products, Communication, and customer service.
In November last year I placed an order with them for exposed weave Bonnet, roof, & boot skin, and a non exposed weave front end without the bonnet.
They eventually arrived in March this year!
Though out this time I felt ill-informed and it was only after chasing multiple times I got any form of vague response with excuses for delays and revised delivery dates!
The first task I tackled was fitting the front end!
My mini is in good condition the door gaps are all even around the frame and ‘A’ panels.
Fitting the Curley front end was hard work to say the least! When lined up along the ‘A’ panels it really did not fit the scuttle panel, no matter how much twisting and manhandling I did, it touched at one point and was a good inch or more out further round. In the end I finished up building up the gap with resin, at least this will be painted so you will not be able to tell of the poor fit and the effort it took.
The bonnet was to long for the front end, so I had to cut the front end ‘Slam panel’ to relive it, one because it has no shape to it, like the bonnet and two so I could pull it out to meet the bonnet flush.
The exposed weave bonnet finish is in my opinion appalling, the front edge has a big wave in it, along with scratches that you can see under the clear coating and a rough patch where it looks like its been stuck in the mould, furthermore when you hold it up to the light either side of the pressing down the centre of the bonnet the carbon weave is distorted and stretched, this stretching means there are hundreds of small holes along the pressing!
The roof skin appears to be very flimsy! I have had no experience with roof skins before so I visited a few garages and asked their opinions, neither of them had fitted mini roof skins before but both had experience in fitting on other race vehicles, both are of the opinion that they had never seen anything so flimsy before and would not be happy fitting it! One even though that it will sag/deform when it gets hot in the summer!
Anyway after talking to Curley on the phone they assured me it was suppose to be like this, so I have fitted it.
Again the fitting was not great, you are suppose to leave an inch or two of the original roof around the edge to bond the skin too, doing this means the roof skin leaves a large gap before the gutters that has to be filled! It’s like the mould they use is for the original roof and not to allow sitting on top around the edges. Anyway this has been overcome with filler and will be painted black along with the gutters.
The boot was actually Ok!!!
Curley have agreed to replace the bonnet, that was a couple of weeks ago, since my email and follow up call to them I have had no communication or been given a time when it is likely to be ready.
I’ll give them another couple of weeks to contact me with an update on when the bonnet will be ready before I start chasing them again.
So back to my original question, what are your experiences with Curley?
