Parts wanted to be reproduced

[HemiTom]

This is a repost from 1971-1974 Dodge Charger.com

http://wichargerguy.proboards101.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=3445&page=1#25263

The other day I was browsing http://www.beaparts.com and saw a link asking for ideas for them to possably reproduce...well i decided i would send them my request...here is what i wrote


"Hi there, I currently own a 1972 Dodge Charger SE. Looking through your catalog and as well as others, im seeing alot of stuff for 66-70 and 73-74 chargers but not alot for 71-72,especily the 72 SE's.
I would like to put in my request to see parts get Reproduced. first i would like to see the taillamp lenses for the 72 SE(the one that has the metal trim). 71-74 metal sill plates for the same car...and the upper door panels for the "Brougham" edition on the 72's. if you need pictures of what im talking about....just email me back and ill send some to you.

Im really looking forward to somtime being able to restore my car without having to get parts from junker. it just seams that the 3rd Gen Chargers get no respect...

would you personaly respond to my request so i wont think my email goes nowhere....lol"

well i got a response back




Got the email Tom. Alot of the parts you are refering to are for limited production cars, so reproducing those parts probably will not happen. I thought sill plates were already done by someone else? I and searching for good bumper fillers right now to reproduce from with no luck.]

I was really hoping for a better response. what would you all have done diffrently??? any ideas??

[Mean 318]

Hows about making parts that the working class guy can get his hands on! Fenders full 1/4s shouldnt be over a grand!

[rick@laysons]

71-74 B-body sill plates are already available, in fact, I have them in stock.

The major factor to consider before tooling up to make a particular part is if there is enough potential sales to justify the tooling costs. A person has to consider how many cars were built that could use the part, and how many of those cars are still left today. It's possible to reproduce any part, but if the potential to sell enough units isn't there, then the per unit cost puts the part out of reach for all but a very select few who don't care what the part will cost.

[HemiTom]

ok there Rick, take the 72 se taillamp lenes for example. compared to the 73/74 lenses. how meny of them have been sold compared to the amoount of cars produced??.

Now i know they built over 22,000 SE Chargers in 72, and if you look around on ebay and a few other sites the 72 SE's are becoming more and more popular...the Rally and RT lenses i think arent that diffrent then the reg/SE's so why couldnt the dies be altered to do the SE lenses??

now if you look at other companies they even have lenses for late 50 and early 60's cars that they made less than 1/2 of what the se's were. whats up with that???

[Nacho-RT74]

73/74 bumper fillers and headlight fillers

Rick, one factor to consider is on mostly of cases THE SALE PRICE is not according. I will preffer get an OEM set of mirrors for example than repro ones if they are on same price EVEN NEEDING RECHOMING. Original over repro EVER!

thats maybe something to consider if the part will get success on sale.

73/74 tail lights for example are not according with market and that's why maybe are not getting enough sale ( as far I haven known )

Another stuff to consider is WHY THE HELL I need to get a set If I just need ONE lense ( I had that problem on parking lenses ) beside that, lense repros are nice, right, but gaskets on set DOESN'T WORTH ANY PENNY, so I hade to get gaskets from Detroit Muscle!!! so I didn't pay its price, I paid more at the end!!!!

I need ( or I wish ) fillers, but I won't pay an insane price for all the set, sorry.

is not fair than Chebby and Phord guys can built a car allmost from the bones at better prices than Mopar Guys.

[rick@laysons]

ok there Rick, take the 72 se taillamp lenes for example. compared to the 73/74 lenses. how meny of them have been sold compared to the amoount of cars produced??.

I do not know...do you have any numbers on that? We do not repo those lenses, somebody else does, but not us. And just because the 73/74 lenses are available now doesn't mean they have sold enough to recover their costs. Who knows...they might never be reproduced again...ever....so if you think you might need any in the future, you might want to grab what you can get now, because they may not be there when you really do need them.

Now i know they built over 22,000 SE Chargers in 72, and if you look around on ebay and a few other sites the 72 SE's are becoming more and more popular...the Rally and RT lenses i think arent that diffrent then the reg/SE's so why couldnt the dies be altered to do the SE lenses??

Sounds good in theory, but if you alter the dies for the Rally/RT lenses in order to make reg/SE lenses, what are you going to do if you need to make another run of Rally/RT lenses?

now if you look at other companies they even have lenses for late 50 and early 60's cars that they made less than 1/2 of what the se's were. whats up with that???

I do not know what's up with that. I'm not familiar with the other companies financials......maybe somebody has a lot of money they want to spend while not caring if they get their investment back or not.

[Mike DC]

   

This is gonna get me flamed, but I don't think a lot of these parts are all that overpriced.

Look at how much of the entire car you're getting for a full quarter panel.  That's a big chunk of the body, of a car that's generally worth about $30K in perfect shape.





If you bought the whole car in reproduced parts, would it add up to WAY too much compared to just buying a complete car?  Well, yes. 

Just like with almost any other mass-produced item on earth.

     

[suntech]

Feel free to flame me too, but:
Honestly i don´t see the problem. For a company to be willing to reproduce a part, they will need to calculate on an estimate of sold units against the production costs, and make a profit!! that is what running a company is all about!! If not, it would hav been charity, and nobody can afford to do that all the time. We all clock in for work, to get payed, right??
No disrespect for the 71-74 guys, but in GENERAL (based on the majority) the 68-70 is the most desireble model, and we will see most reproduced parts for those models, simply because more people will be buying them, hence a better chance of making a profit. Don´t get me wrong, i like the 71-74 Charger also, but i own a 68, cuz personally i like THAT year best.
We will never see the prices on parts for us as we see on 55-57 Chevy, and 67-69 Camaros, simply because we can not match the # of cars of those models getting buildt/restored (and thank God for that  )

It is a little like: why does a Rolls Royce fender cost more than a Volvo fender! 

[captnsim]

I aggree...you will never see parts for mopars like for chevy or fords. Hell you can buy a new 67 or 69 camaro body, hardtop or conv, for 13k. As well as a new fastback mustang body 67 or 68 for 15k. And if they ever do repop a mopar body I'm betting it will be a E body...

[Charger Aficionado]

Here are some Re-Pop '73-'74 ones...   I noticed them looking for part the other day... This eBayer makes TONS of Charger parts.  Maybe ask them if they have a plan for your year?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1973-74-Mopar-Charger-SE-Taillight-Lens_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713Q2em153Q2el1262QQcategoryZ140728QQihZ002QQitemZ120374921703


Repop Charger stuff:
http://search.stores.ebay.com/P-G-CLASSIC-STORE_charger_W0QQfcdZ2QQfciZQ2d1QQfclZ3QQfromZR10QQfsnZPQ2eGQ2eCLASSICQ20STOREQQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsaselZ63535520QQsofpZ0

'71 R/T Lenses: 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1971-1972-NEW-Mopar-Charger-RT-500-Taillight-Lenses_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ34207QQihZ002QQitemZ120374929650

[Blakcharger440]

I think the prices on full quarters are waaay too high also. But this is a free market and if they want to sell their product that is out of reach for the common mopar hobbyist then so be it. ...but in this economy it is not wise and they will not sell very many. IMHO.

[HemiTom]

I tried, i keep getting the same old answer...."they arnt interested...it wouldnt sell and it cost too much to reproduce" so ill just might as well give up.

[426HemiCharger]

The Dual Snorkel Air CLeaners for 1969 440s with Air Conditioning.  Something else cool would be 1969 Charger Grilles.

[Mean 318]

well I see your side of it but you cant get any young guys or guys with kids into the mopar hobby cuz of the prices! Dont give it away but I dont see why a 1/4 to the lip is 500-600 but a full one is 1000+, there isnt that much more to it to say the price can be twice as much! Maybe I am just  about the whole cost of doing a mopar. Not to rag on you, I still love the fact that there are guys out there making parts! 

[426HemiCharger]

that's true but I am an exception. 

[Khyron]

Dynocorp... Full 2nd Gen bodys  [/thread]

[426HemiCharger]

agreed but it is Dynacorn.

[Khyron]

I like corn

[Mike DC]

     
I don't know why everyone acts like the repro companies can wave a magic wand and decide to sell something cheaper. 



Tooling up a major panel like a fender costs like a million dollars per panel.  If they're selling at $750 each, then a set of fenders would have to sell something like 2600 panels just to break even on the tooling costs alone. 

(And this is not counting the incurred costs of production after the tooling has been made.   Suppose the original 1960s tooling had just been found in a warehouse . . . we wouldn't expect the parts to be FREE then, would we?  No, we'd assume several hundred bucks was acceptable even then, to cover the costs of production & shipping alone.)


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But we act like these reproduction parts are "selling fine" as soon as 3 or 4 guys (out of this entire worldwide Charger-specific website) purchase them. 

         

[Mean 318]

I just want to know then why ford and cheby parts are so much less.... sounds like the cost to tool and make is the same.... dont mean to be rude but that is where my side of it comes from

[Ghoste]

Because they made so many more of them.  There were what, 200,000 69 Camaros?  500,000 65 Mustangs?

[maxwellwedge]

Us Mopar guys were underdogs even when these cars were new - The joking and the laughter from the Chevy and Ford guys was constant. We ALWAYS had to pay more for parts and performance stuff. We all knew this and stuck with our Mopars anyway because we loved them and we loved being the underdogs. If you are relatively new to this Mopar stuff I have one word of advise......Get used to it - It's the way it always was and always will be. This is not meant to be a dig - these are the facts.

[Mean 318]

I wasnt around when they were new, but have always been mopar! Just get to me how momma chrysler treats us mopar guys and on top of that how we seem to get the shaft to re build one!

[Mike DC]

                   

Mopar's bankruptcy in the early 1980s caused them to scrap a lot of muscle-era tooling that we'd love to have back now. 

GM and Ford didn't destroy nearly so much of their old tooling.  They weren't forced to liquidate every non-esssential item in the warehouses that wasn't nailed down in order to help convince the Fed that they were serious about turning the company's business situation around. 

Hence, cheaper GM and Ford repros because of more existing original tooling.


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The raw production #s are a big killer for us too.  Sell 2x as many panels and you can do it at 1/2 the price for the same tooling payoff.

And that example is still understating it.  The difference between the production #s on a Mopar is often much worse than just half of the equivalent Ford or GM model.  It's common for a Mopar to have barely 1/4th or 1/5th of the eqivalent Ford/GM car's production total. 

The # of the most desirable Chargers or Challengers produced (like, the total from 1968-70 or from 1970-74) is generally less than the # of equivalent muscle-era Camaros or Mustangs or Chevelles produced EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

[426HemiCharger]

That is very true.  There were only 96,096 Chargers made total for US and Canada (Chargers, R/T's, 500's and Daytonas) so we all share something in common: I have a less produced car which is more desirable.  This fact unfortunately drive's up the cost of parts that are made for our 69's

Makes you want to when there is a part you want or need.