Projects Making custom reproduction parts

Tri-five Nomad/ Safari liftgates would have a market. The pot metal chrome pits badly and the torsion rods cause them to straighten out over time so that they no longer follow contour of the roof.

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I found a need for '57-'58 stainless trim for the upper series '57-8 Plymouths. The factory used a steel mounting stud that inevitably would rust through in wet climates, causing the elbow piece to fall off. E-bay prices for these in good, used condition, was getting as high as $500 for a good pair a few years ago.

With a custom made press and die set, and locating fixture for the studs, I can make exact duplicates from stainless, using a stainless stud for mounting, the only process that takes any time is polishing them once completed.

I sell these for $100/pair, obviously I cannot make a living with these, but an extra $400/month helps in this economy.

---John

 

John, I love that part, it gives me an idea for another part I know there is a demand for. Not yours, but a piece of trim for a completely different car.

 

I was watching an episode of I think "Wrecks to riches" a couple of years ago and they bought a '64 fairlane 500 to turn into a thunderbolt...and they lost the trim and they mentioned that the trim is "non-existant" especially the side trim pieces, for some reason I always remembered that would be good parts to reproduce in the future..

 

I find that most of my business ideas are bad ones. So I try them out on a small scale first. In other words, don't go into debt. If it fails, it fails small. Also, don't stop doing whatever it is that you're doing now that's already making you money. A bird in hand is worth nine in the bush.

If you manage your risk, it won't defeat you. If you ignore it, it's still there. I think you should take the risk but in a small way. Make one or two on the weekend or after work so you haven't comprimised your income. Put them up for sale and see how it goes. If you can get orders before you produce them, even better! (I'd put the preorder money in the bank until I sent them the part. You don't know what might happen in the mean time - fire, health, regulations, etc.)

Sometimes you can learn from the failure, tweek it a little, and have a success.

Even though most of my business ideas don't pan out, enough of them do. When they do, I can confidently throw more resouces into it. I can have 20 small failures if I have one big success. I would never survive 20 big failures.

I can't wait to see what it is.

It's pretty cool when one of your ideas nets you nine birds in hand. Good luck!

 

You know, I've always thought there was a market or these. 73RR here on the HAMB makes the Hemi--to-Flathead mounts, but as far as I know, no one makes the others.









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I think you're in the right place for input, but the wrong place to market. Drake and Carpenter, all the Chevy places-they're big and they've got the cars with the big numbers. Antique cars guys are OLD, hot rod guys are aging. If you want a viable market with a real number of potential customers, you need to look at the 60/70's and the tuners. Those are the young guys who will be around for a while.

As for the more exotic hotrod brands, look around and see just how many there really are. Couple thousand of those Mercs needing inner panels? Just how many will really buy your product? For a decent living, you'll need to make either really top end stuff for big ticket cars or something so small and common that everybody needs it-and chances are, someone's already making it or will take your idea and undercut you. 97 carbs,anyone?

 

I'm not out to become a millionaire. I just need something to supplement my income from my "normal" job, which has it's ups and downs.

The part I am thinking of is a part that is fairly fragile and in a vulnerable part of the car and in it's stock make up , pot metal, is well known to break in pieces. I plan to make it out of stainless steel. It should outlast the car and the owner. I see the market as the people who are still pulling these cars out of the barns and fields and the guys who already have their cars restored but can't find this part that is not damaged.

 

I'm gonna guess '55 Nomad fender trims. Am I right?

 

No, nothing that high in demand. It's for a production car had the record for the highest produced car up until the late '50s so I'm fairly certain there are pretty many out there.

If I was more specific some other entrepreneurial type take the idea and run with it. Although '55 Nomad fender trim is an idea

 

Bob, I had to get back to you on making something no one else does. I purchased a rare 60's muscle car. The manufacturer is no longer. This model set over one hundred 1/4 mile speed records in 1969-70 at Winter Nationals and a few others. An entrepreneur has been trying to keep up with the demand for his suspension product for this muscle car, for the last few years. I am on his list to get the next available. So, go for it!

 

I think he's talking about "Uncle Sam" 1969 AMC AMX..

 

www.FreakRide.com??

 

The one thing I would have to say is if you really think the part is going to be popular you better be set up to produce them quickly. Way to many times you see small businesses start selling a manufactured product and then demand outstrips the ability to produce the part and owners start doing things to try and secure the business of all of the customers that are asking for products. They start making promises that can't be kept and it leads to poor customer service, unhappy customers and a bad reputation.

 

You nailed it!

 

Also, nobody makes THESE (1948 - 1950 Ford truck) hood stainless badges:

 

My family is a manufacturing family. Dad owned a 800+ employee company. I started my own company a few years ago.

Over the years I have learned one thing, guys that make money take risks. The larger the risk the larger the potential for reward.

Never once did my Dad buy equipment knowing he could make parts with it. He bought it first, took the risk, and aggressively built a market piece by piece. His equipment was in the hundreds of thousands per machine.

If we knew we could buy equipment knowing the results the risk would be gone and so would the money.

Personally, I'd find something you would both enjoy and where there's a market. Then focus like a son of a ***** to get it. Master it. Own it. Dominate it.

Specialized manufacturing is much easier to market and capture market share than a company that makes all different items.

Start going through the forum posts and identify commonalities in the problems people struggle with. Fill the void.

Good luck.

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To be a "going business" you would need to offer items that people can't make themselves or can't justify for their own projects. Often this involves an investment in tooling to make the parts (casting dies, stamping dies, injection molds, etc.). You would have to select the correct piece and the correct application to have a reasonable opportunity to recoup your investment in the tooling (let alone to consider making a profit). As others have said, even if you do that then there is the marketing and sales portion of the "pie". It's a huge gamble.

 

I've been making patterns and casting parts for a few years now, mostly of parts you just can't buy and usually just one part. I make good money making the patterns, but some take me up to a month to do in my spare time. Hopefully one day I find that one item that will make me rich. Until then domestic beer only. LOL

 

theres plenty of parts we could all use that arent reproduced, problem is the cost to make those parts here in the usa, most are made of seas and they ****.

 

Gor for it Bob!

You got the idea, you got the talent, let it rip

 

Probably goes without saying, but don't quit you day job. Develop the business on the side and move into it full time as sales permit. Doing a business with a huge audience is a snap with the internet. Good luck

 

Look at just trim clips. It's incredible how many cars are missing clips that hold trim on the body.

All the vendors would carry it in the catalogs and do the selling for you.

Or how about American made trim? I ordered cosmetic trim for my Chevelle and it was such **** I returned it. Chinese garbage.

Dash cluster gl***/plastic with silk screened print? Same thing. Chinese garbage.

I can't speak for everyone but I'd pay quadruple to have a quality American made part. I've had this discussion with others and we all agree..... remake the same parts but better quality could be a business in itself.



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I think this is highly emotional, but not really practical. What's the market and the markup on trim clips? How many would you really sell? I think the OP really better get some real business consulting before going out on a limb. I just don't see a real market out there. Parts not being produced now have a really limited demand on the cosmic scale of things.

Just to expand, let's say you could be comfortable taking home (before taxes,even) $50K a year and you have a pretty good set-up that netted you 10% of your gross.

So, that means you've got to make and sell $500,000.00 worth of goods to make your comfortable living. That's a hell of a lot of trim clips, or bumpers or anything else. What exactly are you going to sell that will get you those kinds of sales numbers? And then, of course, you have to sell them again-either to new customers or repeat customers who need to replace what the bought previously, EVERY YEAR.

As for Abomination's suggestion-anything with an existing company name on it-Ford,etc. is going to want a licensing fee to use their name/logo-further eroding your income.

 

And THAT is why nobody makes them! LOL!

But if someone ever did make a couple, you know, just for "personal use" and for "friends", they'd have a bunch of said friends show up pretty quickly, wanting to pay them for their time and materials. Because they'd never want to give money for a product that was being sold without licensing/permission from the parent company first!

Just sayin'...

~Jason

 

I've never paid a licensing fee...funny thing is, one of my vendors does and repackages the items I sell to them with "Licensed by Ford Motor Company" stickers!! even though they are not EXACTLY identical duplicates, so no infringement on patents, etc. And I've sold thousands of parts...

 

SO a guy COULD make that Ford script (like above, for the sides of '48 - '92 Ford trucks), and Ford wouldn't sue the pants off 'em?

That's seriously one of the very few parts not made for those trucks. I always figured it was because of licensing issues, because it had Ford's name/logo on it.

If a guy made a batch, LCM and many other companies Bob and I are intimate with would buy a couple of batches for sure!

~Jason

 

Using the company's name to sell their parts might be a different story. If you noticed my website, there is no mention of "Ford" anywhere, just the use of the model that they fit, this wasn't done unintentionally. There are many ways to skin a cat!

 

I think if you plan on making the parts for "friends" (ie: vendors) and not selling them in a retail environment to the public and leaving that to the vendors to license the product, I think you'd be in the clear, then again I'm not a patent lawyer!

 

Maybe, but this wouldn't really make you a living, which is what I think the OP is asking about.