Who owns the Attex Molds

[LarryW]

...what do you guys think? any opinions?

LOL, that is actually pretty cool. I like it. I would keep the yellow though, and maybe a dash of green ones.

[femmpaws]

I wish you luck with trying to make a go of making molds. I offered to but nobody wanted to talk with me and plenty of guy were shooting it down. I guess because I live out on the left coast and I'm a woman I don't know jack ****, about working with fiberglass. I happen to be a shipwrite and worked for a number of yacht builders in the Puget Sound area and I'm not talking about no Bayliner. I learned my trade from my Dad and working with the hard nosed guys at Uniflite in Bellingham Wa. before Crap-Craft took them over.... OOPs chris-craft

Anyway I hope you have better luck then I did. And just a word of warning don't use chop!

Kristine

still cannot contact the guy who i was told probably has the molds. i emailed him once a month ago and also last night...probably the best idea is to create a reverse mold and start making fiberglass bodies to keep costs down before actually making plastic bodies...

on the other hand, no trademarks and patents exist that i know of, but can someone give me the printed patent number on an attex trans so i can look up the number and see if something exists?

this morning, i also decided to purchase the url www.attexatv.com...copeland still has AttexATVS.com but pulled his site down, so i have the one above reserved...maybe i can put an all attex board on there for the time being...to swap parts and a little classifieds section...i don't want to take away from this site though, i just don't want to have nothing up...

anyway has anyone heard anymore about these attex rumors lately?

[AndyL]

i'm actually surprised i'm not getting any more feedback and action from this topic...maybe a "new" attex isn't what people want after all...or maybe people just don't have time to check on here too much lol

[ES-hustler]

i'm actually surprised i'm not getting any more feedback and action from this topic...maybe a "new" attex isn't what people want after all...or maybe people just don't have time to check on here too much lol

I'll put my two cents out there...I think the idea of fiberglass is the downfall here...It's heavier and more brittle. For instance if you hit a rock, fiberglass is going to crack while HDPE is a lot more likely to flex and withstand damage. Now don't get me wrong fiberglass has advantages like easy repair-ability (which is huge in my book) and I purposely bought fiberglass over poly. I just don't think a fiberglass Attex if very appealing to most folks...
With all that and as negative as it may have sounded I'm not trying to discourage you. One thing I've learned is it doesn't matter what other people want, it's what you want!

[AndyL]

Thanks for The input! I have been contemplating the same thing, but as far as producing these, I want to make sure that I am making something the market wants too...so it's sellable. Thanks!

[George]

I have to add my two cents here too.

I brought this very subject up early this year on behalf on another 6x6World member. I asked the very same questions you did Andy. I got a call from Matt O. (maker of the Mudd Ox) and got a lesson on the start-up cost of a project like this. To do it right would cost just over $100,000 to make 100 Attex bodies. You could knock about $15,000 off the price if you found the original molds. You might think "Well, what if we only make 20 bodies?" It does not work that way. You have to buy the HDPE in 2 ton units. You also have to pay the formers to set up there shop for the production run. It would cost just as much for a job of 20 bodies as 100 bodies.

I love Attex. I'd buy a new body in a heartbeat. While I believe there are many people here who also love the Attex and would jump at the chance to get a brand new HDPE body, I do not believe there would be enough demand to produce 100 bodies costing $1,000 each.

Ideally, it would be great to see Attex open its doors again but I don't think that's likely to happen unless demand for AATVs suddenly jumps through the roof.

It seems to me the only practical choice us fans have is to wait for our machines to pop up on Ebay, Craigslist or Don's Attex Emporium to get the HDPE bodies we want.

I'm not interested in fiberglass. It's too heavy for me. It seems to me that fixing an ABS body would be easier than building a fiberglass body and it would be much lighter.

Andy, please don't destroy the nice Poly body you found to build one out of fiberglass.

Now, going forward, when this thread is reborn (again, and again) all I'll have to do is cut and paste this response the next time the idea is met with a cool reception.

Andy and Kristine, I will happily buy a brand new HDPE Attex upper, lower, engine cover and floor pan from you for $1,000 if you are able to make them available. If you could do it in Recreatives blue, that would be really sweet.

George

[AndyL]

Thanks George. As of now, HDPE is ruled out because of costs. Fiberglass is the only option at this point to make a new design (prototype), and I will not destroy the poly body...especially a green one at that. I am still talking with people and have a few helping me hunt down the molds. It has been narrowed down, and I hope that it continues.

FYI, and I know you already know this...some of the most durable 6 wheelers back then were fiberglass, granted, they were considerably heavier than ABS...probably not much more than HDPE though based on what I have read.

I am going to make some calls tomorrow to find out the strength a fiberglass body can withstand and how much this thing will weigh...anyone have an idea how much a HDPE body weighs??

[AndyL]

Also George, as I said earlier, HDPE does not need to be bought in 2 ton rolls.

Below is a link I attached of a supplier after searching online for 5 minutes...they offer black and clear HDPE in sheets 60"x120"...

.125" thick = under $100 per sheet
.188" thick = under $150 per sheet

I can guarantee you there are more suppliers out there with colored sheets too for a little more and whatever size I need.

For forming HDPE bodies, the most expensive part is constructing a reverse mold to accommodate shrinkage rates, etc, then testing it to make sure it will work.

If I can find the original molds, that would save a LOT of time and money and make this project a possibility, especially if I supply the thermoforming company the plastic and everything.

[McCoy]

I'm like George, show me a new blue HDPE Attex body at a reasonable price and I'm in. But as long as I have my poly superchief and plastic welders are produced, fiberglass is not an option for me. On another note, I have my frame out and everything stripped from the body with the exception of the gas tank, so if I can find a scale to weigh it, I will.

McCoy

[AndyL]

noted, and thanks for the offer. let me know if you get a chance to weigh it as i am curious.
thanks!

[whipper-ag]

[AndyL]

Thanks whipper!

As of now I have come up with a conclusion as to what my plan is based on current conditions:

1. use the dimensions from the green attex body i just bought to make a "new" attex design...dimensions overall will be different, but it will heavily resemble the old attex. this can be more more utility/practical use like a max II/argo 6x6.

2. i can also use the same prototype mold i build for #1 to make a "new" 8x8 version of the attex.
what's better:
a. a 4 seat version like the max IV or cargo area like the argo 8x8?
b. rear or mid engine for an attex 8x8?

keep in mind an attex 8x8 would probably be a more light duty/recreational machine. it will be a complete different machine than a mudd-ox and even an argo for that matter, based on my understanding.

3. if/when the current owner of the molds pops out, that could be a "classic" model and it can retain the original dimensions, headlights, etc.


whipper, i'm with you. my first choice is black. next would be blue. you guys all have good taste on here lol. and one of my cars back home (my first car in high school) is a 1977 corvette...all fiberglass lol. i would definitely not call it durable, but i had brae failure once on a wet road and hit an 07 lexus LS 430 and ruined his bumper, and i only had a few chips lol. i was fortunate though.

[AndyL]

One more thing to keep in mind...

Even if we do need to order 2000 lbs of HDPE at a time to mold, doing one color for tops and bottoms would make it go faster...like all yellow again or all black, etc.

[femmpaws]

A friend showed me photos of a four seat ATV that strangly looked like a them Max 4... The rig was yellow with black hull, and had Attex on the front of it....

I've also done thermal forming and you are best to use a male mold for doing that.

As for what is better for the bodies it all deppends on what you are doing. You get poly real cold and it shatters like glass. Well done fiberglass you can beat on it at 20 below and nothing happens I know this from working in a cold storage. We never took the poly totes into the deep freeze area, most all the time we used paper or wood boxes, with a heavy poly liner that was made for the cold, but even it would brake after it got down to 30 to 35 below. Yet we used fiberglass totes everywhere.

Oh well have fun

[AndyL]

Femmpaws,

The only drawback that I first thought about with fiberglass (and other members too) is the weight of the body compared to an HDPE and running it across rocks in rough terrain. After looking at some of the strongest built 6x6 back then, I see that fiberglass can be made to take a beating, but then again it will weigh more. I think for a utility mode or an 8x8 version, fiberglass should do just fine. For a racing version, something more flexible and lighter should be used. I'm looking at all three, so I will still explorer fiberglas more, and I have been doing more research on vacuum forming again.

Andrew