Tinkering at its finest!

We are always developing new products to test and put into production for the website. On top of everything already being sold, there are no less than 5 more products going through development, R&D and testing. We will place them on the website with photos that adequately describe them as soon as they're ready.

It's a real toss-up for me to make my mind up to step into the office and knock out another blog, or be out in the shop fabricating another prototype. Tough call. I do enjoy reading our messages from you in our company e-mail. Now if we only had a Keurig in here! Please feel free to e-mail us at spitfireupgrades@yahoo.com any time. I print them and staple them to our corkboard.

I feel that I have brought this particular topic up a little too often, in trying to see it from your point of view. But since it is a safety issue I will continue periodically. A quick-back-story:

In 1997 I entered my '78 Spitfire in a rather large car show in Lenexa, KS. Sprawling hillsides were full of Italian, German, Early American, and yes, British cars. I always have the boot lid and bonnet up at car shows. A man brought his 10-year old son and stopped to talk. As I was answering questions for the guy, we hadn't noticed his son fiddling with the bonnet prop rod.

Gosh, was this young man just like me at 10 yrs old! Full of wonder at how things work. You pretty much have to pull on a prop rod to see what its function is. Before his father or I could make a conscious decision to act, my knee-jerk reaction was to grab the falling bonnet before it dropped very far. No harm done to child or bonnet.

This put a question in the back of my mind about the integrity of our bonnet prop-rods. But mostly it just seemed like a one-time thing since I'd never witnessed it happen or even heard it being discussed. Then it happened again just about 5 years ago in my own driveway. As a fabricator with an engineering background, I set about to design some sort of locking device to do what I could to prevent any more victims.

We could contemplate what exact conditions had to be met simultaneously to make a bonnet seemingly spontaneously drop like that. But the best source of information is always the collaborative minds of the members of forums. Turns out my radiator cap was just close enough to the underside of the bonnet to cause an 'outie' in the sheet metal and paint job.

Now I knew this tragedy isn't just a one-time thing, and surely various causes must be to blame for off-centering the hinge of the prop. And I had just recently joined a number of FaceBook forums for Spitfires. The members of the forums were always ready with good advice and repair tips any time I'd had questions, so I poised the question to at least 3 forums: "Have you ever experienced your Spitfire bonnet suddenly crash down, and what caused it?"

I was not quite prepared for the abundant responses. I remember being so taken aback by the few people who blatantly stated with authority that it cannot and will not happen unless the prop rod is either faulty or installed incorrectly. These few responses were far outweighed by the many who even went into detail about their injuries. Personal accounts were plentiful with minor to major injuries, plus a host of causes.

So... backstory now complete. I developed the prototype (first generation) Slide-Lock TM and made mentioned of it on the forums that I had developed a device that prevents the hinge from being able to move until you were ready to lower your bonnet. Oh Boy, did I learn that some people can be quick to claim you're a scammer.

1. I blame myself for being naive, but still, hate-replies stated that I had made up the whole issue of failing bonnet props just to sell an unnecessary product. Well, in conclusion, The Slide-Lock was my very 1st patent. I was advised by a business mentor to send free samples out to willing participants in a product / market research, asking only for feedback on the quality and usefulness of the product. And participants all got to keep their Slide-Locks TM.

This is where negative replies help you way more than the ones that said it was great. I learned that the first generation Slide-LockTM caused minor scratch marks on the upper half of the prop rod (above the hinge). An Immediate change was made by lining the inside with a rubberized dip, then later by a powder-coating process. I couldn't thank my participants enough for their insights and testing!! the 3rd generation Slide-Lock TM is still the sweet spot.

One year later I out-did myself by developing and patenting the Magna-Lock TM. Same story during market research. I had a guy inform me that one of the magnets had come off. Immediately I found a superior product that has 3 neodymium magnets in a 'cage' of their own. The 3rd generation Magna-Lock TM is the final revision. And it requires zero installation like the Slide-Lock. Below are replies to my question on the forums:

Thanks Nick.