Jay:
I definitely would like to offer these. The white faces and "R" type SS grille
mesh were two projects I wanted to complete after seeing the Cosworth powered
MGB in MG World. I sourced correct samples of the SS grille mesh a couple of
years ago at Silverstone in the UK, and that project did get completed as can
be seen in the most recent catalog and on our Supercharged MGB.
The problem with these type of projects is the limited market for the parts.
The companies making the faces for modern cars are looking at a huge potential
market which means that production costs are low. The MGB market is the
biggest potential British car market, but it is still pretty small. The SS
grille is an example of the costs of a limited production project. The grille
material is water cut by a local company and this procedure is expensive per
piece because of setup time. The brackets to install the grille material into
early chrome grilles (plastic grilles have brackets that can be reused) come
off the repro grille production line offshore and are cheap enough to throw in
at no extra cost. Inventory costs of the grille material make it much cheaper
to carry one part that fits both applications, by throwing in extra parts at no
cost. Rather than carrying two part numbers.
I think we may end up having to go to someone like Margaret to do a limited
production run, which would still be much cheaper and easier than someone doing
a one-off. We did have good luck working with Autometer to produce custom
faces for add on gauges, and one other project I'm also looking into is to
build modern electronic conversion gauges that will make typical modifications
easier such as installing a 5M MGB engine in an MGA. It is getting tough to
find rebuildable 1966-67 MGB tachs, so I think a need exists.
sorry to ramble. but I am listening and am interested in keeping MGs exciting
and fun.
Kelvin.
> > I sent a set of stock late B gauges to Mo-Ma in Albuquerque. They
> > re-conditioned and re-faced them for me for something close
> > to $900, as I
> > remember. (Big numbers like that I try to forget!)
>
> In the hopes of finding a source of light B gauge faces
> without having to come up with 9 large, I wonder if Kelvin,
> the Moss lightning rod for list attention, has considered
> offering such a product? These are readily available for
> many other cars, i.e., lots of producers, and set-up and
> production can't be too expensive, and the B gauge size
> didn't change that much during its production life, so
> perhaps it is worth considering as new product?
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