Feeler fiberglass patch panels.

[jszucs]

Fine you don't want to do it but a body shop can do it easily. The problem with what you guys are suggesting is you are only thinking of what you want. If they are made with the wiper and antenna deleted then the guys who want to keep the wiper and antenna like myself wont buy it. On the other hand if it has the wiper and antenna holes, those who want to delete those items can easily fill it and those who don't will have the holes there. It needs to be made so both schools of thought can use it with little prep.

 

OK then you drill the holes and prep and paint. I would guess more would like them without then with. and to make them easily sand out able would mean that area if not the whole thing would need to be rather thick. I am thinking of the masses and last time the masses wanted that stuff gown, but the G/P never happend.

[ucw458]

OK then you drill the holes and prep and paint. I would guess more would like them without then with. and to make them easily sand out able would mean that area if not the whole thing would need to be rather thick. I am thinking of the masses and last time the masses wanted that stuff gown, but the G/P never happend.

 

 

It's not just holes. There's a big channel for the wiper that would have to be milled out. Very easy to cover those with fiberglass and touch up minor imperfections with bondo. It's not gonna flex much at all so bondo will work as long as it's kept to a minimum. Besides if the guy is strapped for work the person making these can fill the holes easily. It's a custom piece anyway so you could order it with the holes filled or not. That way one mold covers everyones desires.

Edited March 26, 2010 by ucw458

[jszucs]

I was more making the point that the work could be shifted ether way. I would use cream filler on minor inperfections to. I would just mod the arm or shaft to not need the bumpout for the whiper. Actuly I would just remove the whiper but that's just me.

 

I still do belive when the last list was started for 101's more people wanted it without though.

 

Ether way for me it dosn't matter cuz I would want a functional one if one was going on, so that instantly put me out of the running.

[Chrome_Rush]

There are points on both sides, the fact is though it would be MUCH easier to cut off the bump smooth and fill the hole in than it would be to add the spots for the wiper and antenna. Making both wouldnt be very economical either, would cost alot more to have 2 more molds made that i would have to pass on to the parts cost. Best idea I can come up with is I can have them made with the stock locations on them, and if you want to do the wiper or antenna delete or both I can do it before sending it out for an additional charge of course. I can fiberglass the spaces in like they were never there. It would cost a little more to get one with the stuff deleted but this way everyone could get what they are after. Plus im sure there are a few people that would like the antenna deleted but not necessarily the wiper to. I could just not fill in the wiper space and you have an antenna delete and keep the wiper. Strength in numbers, the more people buy them the cheaper they will be, so even though I may charge extra for filling in the spaces for those who want stuff deleted and smoothed out but because more people would be interested making the initial price lower it would probably work out to the same amount anyways and more people would get a part they want.

[Chrome_Rush]

Alright, I think this could very well be a go if the interest is high. Id kind of like some ideas for the spoiler DESIGN. Just because somebody designed an extended spoiler at one time doesnt mean thats all that can be done. Anybody have an idea for or would like to see something a little different? Personally I was thinking something that swooped upwards a little more on the back edge instead of sticking out farther, leave the inside about the stock height so it would be kind of a pocket effect, would make alot more down force. Im probably not explaining it all that well. But its an idea. I will try to find a pic of something to show what im talking about.

[jszucs]

Alright, I think this could very well be a go if the interest is high. Id kind of like some ideas for the spoiler DESIGN. Just because somebody designed an extended spoiler at one time doesnt mean thats all that can be done. Anybody have an idea for or would like to see something a little different? Personally I was thinking something that swooped upwards a little more on the back edge instead of sticking out farther, leave the inside about the stock height so it would be kind of a pocket effect, would make alot more down force. Im probably not explaining it all that well. But its an idea. I will try to find a pic of something to show what im talking about.

 

Well it's not as easy as just filling the hole. Your going to have a large area to cut/sand down and will there be enough behind that so as to not cut or sand though? Then you will have a larger area to fill.

 

As for the spoiler sweeping upwards more it might surprise you but you might actualy make less downforce depending on how it curves. You could end up creating a low presure area like a wing on a plane.

[BC_99]

The downforce thing is really a non-issue. None of us are traveling fast enough to worry about having more downforce on the rear of the car. You arent going to be going fast enough down a curved road where you could run out of mechanical grip with the rear suspension and have enough speed for the spoiler to assist with rear grip. The spoiler is more for aesthetics. Just my thoughts on it. If you wanted it to swoop up a little more and such, that should be fine, as long as it still flows with the lines of the car and appears period correct, styling wise.

[Chrome_Rush]

ALright, I have been extremely busy lately, I barely have the time to get what I have to get done down, let alone extra, im going to try and come up with a different design. If anybody else has an idea of a way to redesign the spoiler a little im all ears, something done in photo shop or even a sketch would be cool just for the visual, I really dont know what I will have time to mess with it.

[jszucs]

Just tossing the idea out there. But you know the extended one's for g35's something like that might work?

[Burton]

I think the rear spoiler idea is gonna be your best seller, but I think the shaved one would sell the best. Shaved rear spoilers is probably the mod I do that people want the most, with most of them wanting the 3rd brake light gone too.

 

 

That being said, I still only sell maybe 4 sets a year and that's for $200 plus shipping, including the OEM parts that get modified.

 

 

Personally, I think it will end up being a waste of time myself tho. There's a lot of time and money involved in the R&D of something like this, and to be honest, in this community you won't sell enough of the parts to make it a smart financial move.

 

There was a similar thread to this a while back where I posted a theoretical "life of a new SQ part". I've watched what others have gone thru and have gone thru it myself, and have a good realization of how 80% of the parts that get brought up as a possibility, never happen. I'll have to see if I can find it again.

 

 

I myself have pretty much decided against making any new parts, since the the ones I already make barely sell, and when they do, I'm lucky to make $5/hr for my time. In the meantime, I'm turning away work that will pay me $20/hr just to lay some paint. I've realized that if I do make some new fiberglass parts, I'm better off making them for another kind of car- one where there's more people buying, and people who realize it takes good money for cool stuff for their car, not people who expect to get parts for the same price as those mass produced for Civics.

 

 

I'm not trying to discourage, but there's a reason why many ideas have been brought up, interest shown, R&D performed, then when a final price is given, most of the interested parties aren't interested anymore, and the part never comes to be.

[Burton]

Here's the "life of a new SQ part I was talking about...

 

I think I have the life cyle of a propsed new SQ part figured out...

 

1. Somone posts what they want to have made, 100 people say they are "in"

 

2. Person spends a number of hours working out details and contacting suppliers, posts that they can "probably" sell the part for $300, now only 50 people are "in"

 

3. Person spends many more hours reseraching and making visits to suppliers to take prototype parts or whatever. They find out the final tooling costs, which are now a bit higher due to unforseen engineering problems or whatever. Person posts that due to this, the part will now cost $400, and now only 25 people are "in". The other 75 people are now talking about how expensive the part is because they've seen TONS of the same kind of parts for Honda Civics for under $300. Person puting the deal together begins to get stressed.

 

 

4. The tooling has been built, and a good prototype produced. The supplier will need some payment for the tooling before any production begins. The tooling cost $2000, and once that's paid, production can begin. The supplier will produce the parts for $250 each, which means after factoring the tooling into each part, he will have $350 into each (as long as at least 20 parts are purchased). The person starts a GP Needing payment to pay for tooling and getting the hoods started, so he asks for 1/2 down with a 4-6 week build time. Now he finds out half of the 25 who were still "in" are actually out because they were strokers, or money isn't permiting now like it was 6 months ago. Dude now has 14 people who send him the cash, so he has his 2000 tooling cost, and can put the other $800 toward production.

 

5. dude goes to the supplier to get the production run started, but finds out now that he only wants 14 parts, instead of at least 20, the price per piece went up to $300, and also the tooling price per part is up to $142 instead of $100 each (since it has to be divided amongst 14 pieces instead of 20). So now the person has $442 into parts he sold for $400.

 

 

 

At this point the person has 3 options.....

 

 

- Bail and screw people over

 

- Go back to the GP, explain the situation and change the final price to $450 each, making sure the GP goes thru, but also enduring some serious flaming. At this point the person has been stressed for months, did a bunch of R&D, running from supplier to supplier, and spending time packagaing and shipping the parts- all for $8 a part profit.

 

- Pay the $600 extra out of pucket to make sure to keep everyone happy and make sure the GP goes thru. At this point the person has done all that reserch, running around and stressing, only to pay people $42 to take his parts. This will no doubt ensure that the person never wants to mess with making these parts or anything else ever again.

 

 

 

Realistically, the only people who seem to make things take off are people who want a part made for their own car, and pay out of pocket, only to recoup some of their money by selling other parts- cost be damned, or have the skills to do all the tooling and production themselves. From there they can do their best to try and recoup their money/time. Even then, it's not like you're gonna get rich. When I did my fog light covers, it took me about 30 sets to sell before I ever broke even.

[BC_99]

I think the rear spoiler idea is gonna be your best seller, but I think the shaved one would sell the best. Shaved rear spoilers is probably the mod I do that people want the most, with most of them wanting the 3rd brake light gone too.

 

 

That being said, I still only sell maybe 4 sets a year and that's for $200 plus shipping, including the OEM parts that get modified.

 

 

Personally, I think it will end up being a waste of time myself tho. There's a lot of time and money involved in the R&D of something like this, and to be honest, in this community you won't sell enough of the parts to make it a smart financial move.

 

There was a similar thread to this a while back where I posted a theoretical "life of a new SQ part". I've watched what others have gone thru and have gone thru it myself, and have a good realization of how 80% of the parts that get brought up as a possibility, never happen. I'll have to see if I can find it again.

 

 

I myself have pretty much decided against making any new parts, since the the ones I already make barely sell, and when they do, I'm lucky to make $5/hr for my time. In the meantime, I'm turning away work that will pay me $20/hr just to lay some paint. I've realized that if I do make some new fiberglass parts, I'm better off making them for another kind of car- one where there's more people buying, and people who realize it takes good money for cool stuff for their car, not people who expect to get parts for the same price as those mass produced for Civics.

 

 

I'm not trying to discourage, but there's a reason why many ideas have been brought up, interest shown, R&D performed, then when a final price is given, most of the interested parties aren't interested anymore, and the part never comes to be.

 

 

uh, wait a second....Mark, you do these? Well, if this GP goes down in flames, then I will be in touch.

 

BC_99

[jszucs]

Burton and don't forget about people like me. I know it takes time and money and then more money to get a custom part. I've been through it on other cars then this to.

 

You will also get the one's who will punch holes in it when the part made is not up to snuff (or what they were expecting) and there's fall out form that to.

[Chrome_Rush]

YA, thats why I havent done any actual work yet. I have been through all this to, I figured this was a bigger community with alot more activity than there actually is when I first got on and figured selling a decent amount wouldnt be a problem. I see now its really only a few people that just post a whole lot and a few stragglers that come on now and then just when they have a problem they cant solve. The last post i did was kind of my test, I wanted to see how many people would come up with at least suggestions, and if there was alot of interest i would have got some input, some opinions, something. Thats appears to have not happened. While i do have the means to make it happen and produce all the parts that have been put in this post if I cant sell enough to at least make my money back why would I do it. I did it on the last set of parts i was having made, went through everything, got the final pricing, dropped off the original parts to be modified and molded than everybody backed out. I would have laid out around 2k bucks extra for a body kit I already paid for once just so a few other people could have it also, not going to happen. SO the couple of people who were still interested with money in hand were disappointed. People have to understand the more of a part you run, the cheaper it is per part. If they can set up the mold in the machine and run 100 parts, the tooling setup cost is divided by 200. If they are making 3, that tooling and setup cost is divided by 3. Thats why you can buy stuff cheap for a focus or a civic. A low production run is pricey. Plus the more you sell the cheaper you can sell it for and still turn a profit. IF I sell 3 I have to divide all my costs of having the parts designed and produced, by 3 just to break even, if im making a civic part and sell 200 I divide that same number by 200. ITs really not that hard to understand is it?

 

What I would personally like to see is somebody get with a metal fabricator and have patch panels or even full quarter panels reproduced from steel. FOr a full quarter panel fiberglass even work. Thats the one thing I see alot of need for. I need some patch panels for the quarters myself. That was the whole point at the beginning of this thread, I figured if im going to have it made for my car, why not make a bunch and sell them. But apparently fiberglass patch panels werent the greatest idea i have had lol.

[BC_99]

Yeah, We all know how that works, I've seen it happen about a dozen times since I've been on here and Im sure most of the older members have seen it way more times than that. What you have here is a community of people who can be very passionate about their cars but are also very cheap about getting stuff for their passion. So you end up with a ton of interest and about 3 of us who actually have money and are willing to spend it on quality parts for our rides. Good luck with it and if you end up getting the spoiler thing going, shoot me a pm.

 

BC_99

[jszucs]

Yeah been there to. I feel your pain. Didn't you say you have a welder? and if so why don't you just weld in steel to patch what you need?

[Chrome_Rush]

I need way to much replaced to be able to make it from steel, I need a cut out panel. Way to many curves and angles to get it right without years of metal fab experience.