As for the issue of manufacturing replacement parts, on another list we had
a similar discussion. In this case the part in question was a simple nylon
glide/pulley thingie, now unavailable. An engineer on the list showed a
picture of the part to his purchasing manager, with the following result:
>> Just for the heck of it, I took a print-out of the roller picture
>> posted the other day to my main man in purchasing. I asked him what
>> it would cost to have the tooling made for it. He estimated $5-10,000
>> if made in China. The actual piece price would be less than a buck
>> once the tooling is made. Taking the low estimate of $5000, and if
>> 100 pieces were sold, the price would have to be $50 each just to
>> recoup the tooling costs. I could whip up the Pro/E CAD model in
>> about a half hour. The model would then be sent directly to the
>> toolmaker as an IGS file.
That's $50 for a 1-inch piece of plastic. Of course the cost goes down as
the quantity goes up (in this case the total universe of applicable vehicles
was only about 20,000), but how many MGA grilles does Moss sell in a year?
The total possible market is 100,000, divided by the two grill types, minus
attrition (probably 25% at least), and minus good existing grilles, and
owners who don't care about a few flaws, or can't afford it at whatever
price it winds up. The main thing is, tooling for a large, complex metal
item is going to be a lot more, possibly by a factor of ten.
Sure, it could be hand fabricated by a master metalsmith... for a cool $1000
apiece, probably.
on 9/13/02 7:31 AM, Ajhsys@aol.com at Ajhsys@aol.com wrote:
> I would someday like to own an A, so why don't youz guyz borrow the BEST
> fitting grill you can find, and MAKE YOUR OWN replacements?!?!? If the only
> grills available are crap, you could corner the market. Aren't they just
> chrome plated castings? (I really don't know.)
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
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