Here it is!!! Our new Charger 69 center grille reproduction!

[bobfist]

1

[terrible one]

When you say "each" do you mean per piece or for a center piece and two corners?

[bobfist]

To have any chance to spit them out we mean the center piece.
We want to know what you guys are willing to pay, i read about Plastic Premier and we are not like them.

Just talked to my coworkers and we made a decision just to sell in Europe to keep the production rolling

[AdamMopar]

You haven't answered what material these are made out of.  All that we've seen is a picture so far, so I'm still fairly skeptical at this point.

[bobfist]

We wrote that it was made out of the plastic type 8051 Polyolefin, High Heat Resistance High Rigidity
I understand that someones are critical and thats nothing we can do about that.

[charger Downunder]

If it's as good as my 92 Volvo 240 it will be a great piece.
Why don't all the 69 guys look at a volume order or group buy that my help keep the price down is it $1200 Us dollars or 1200 Sweden money.

[Brock Lee]

1200 SEK would be about $180 US.

[69 OUR/TEA]

bobfist,let me say again,great job for what you guys have accomplished.You have to think numerous ways about the product as far as pricing goes.You first have to make it real correct(which it looks dam good already),show test fitting(I mean bolted up all together with the rest of the componenets and installed in a car),get some real public unbiased feedback from people,etc.Then you have to price accordingly to the crowd that has a busted grill and is trying to decide on yours or fix their broken one.Personally,putting aside the investment you are in debt to now,$1,200 seems alittle steep for just the center section needing to be finished off and painted.
Let me give you some examples, the BE/A 1970 Cuda grill comes complete..... the grill,both headlight buckets,all the SS trim,and parking lights,and painted,ready to rock n roll for $1,299.The AAR grill with the chrome inserts for $1,399.
To give a more fair example of a grill in the same type of format as the 69 Charger,meaning just one pice,as I am into Buicks, saw the long awaited 1970 Buick GS grill come out in repo,painted and ready to install is $499.00.
You have to ask yourself this bobfist,do you want to sell 3 of them @ $1,200 or 30 of them @$600.00 ?

   I can geuss  how most would think ,$1,200 for a new one or fix mine???Large portion will fix theirs,..... $600 for a new one or fix mine,SOLD!!!!! 

  Just some food for thought.

       

[Cooter]

Many have tried to do what you've done and while I commend you on your effort and accomplishment, the problem lies in selling them...

I too reproduce a few parts for the 1957-58 Plymouths and while there's a sea of folks begging for the parts and complaining why nobody has repopped them, come time to recoup the investment [Private money as well], therein lies the problem...All of a sudden, I see my parts offered for about $100.00 LESS than beat up originals on Evil Bay, yet they are selling those and my repops sit...Good luck selling your parts as they appear to be good repops.

I guess eveybody said the same thing when reopop fenders came out at over $700.00/fender...Now, they are selling like hotcakes. Hold onto about 30 repop grile sections and sooner or later once the entire stock of beatup, smashed, cracked, and generally overpriced originals dry up to nothing, You can bet yours will sell...

[bobfist]

HI!
Yes thats the hardest part to get it rolling.
Its the cost for the machine that is the problem.
I see what i can do

[resq302]

honestly, for $180 american dollars for that piece, it is not that bad.  The thing that will probably kill us is the shipping over to the USA.

[doctor4766]

Maybe Bob should clarify whether he meant 1200US or 1200 in his currency.

[Brock Lee]

I guess eveybody said the same thing when reopop fenders came out at over $700.00/fender...Now, they are selling like hotcakes.

While there were surely some people complaining, the rest of the world knew they were fairly priced. I needed a fender within a year before they were released and $700 might get you a solid fender, but it wasn't going to be straight. Rusty ones were going for $400-500 all day long. Super clean ones would often go over $1K (NOS ones were CRAZY money). AMD got them out there in a median price range.

In this case, you can buy a decent complete used grille for $1500. In fact, there was a guy at World of Wheels this year that had fully restored grilles, 1968, 1969, and 1970's fully restored, all the actuators, headlights, new trim, etc and the 1968 and 1969's were $1600. Done, ready to drop in.

[Cooter]

I guess eveybody said the same thing when reopop fenders came out at over $700.00/fender...Now, they are selling like hotcakes.

While there were surely some people complaining, the rest of the world knew they were fairly priced. I needed a fender within a year before they were released and $700 might get you a solid fender, but it wasn't going to be straight. Rusty ones were going for $400-500 all day long. Super clean ones would often go over $1K (NOS ones were CRAZY money). AMD got them out there in a median price range.

Honestly, I guess the ones I saw at Carlisle for the past 14 years going for $200.00/fender needing a little rust work must have been a fluke then....
I don't mind having to do a little work to a fender/grille if it means getting it cheaper...I guess the rest of the Charger world doesn't see it that way and is willing to pay the price for using the "easy button" when it comes to bolting on rust free/dent free panels...

[BIGBLCK11]

If the part is accurate to the original, fits correctly and is durable, it will sell.  Please do not exclude the U.S. from your sales market, as any/all orders will help get the production ball rolling.  Especially, if only due to a few comments on the cost.  Everyone would love to get nice re-popped parts at a huge cost savings, but how realistic is that?  You can't buy a old broken, cracked grill for $180, so I assume that the 1200 was in US dollars.  But, it would help just to make it clear.  It is a focal point of the car and prone to broken parts, so the desire to have a good, quality part is there.  Making it affordable, but still profitable will be the key.

As others have said, it would be a huge help to see it installed on a finished car with the other original parts.  I believe from the original grille thread you have a project car in progress, I am not sure how far out until completion for a demo.  Any semi-local volunteers in your area?  I know there were a ton from this site, probably a large number in the U.S..  

It would be HUGE for you to find someone reputable and trustworthy from this site, that could show this part(as a loose piece or in a grille assembly) for you, at a large event like Chrysler's at Carlisle or the Mopar Nationals.  People will want feedback from at least somebody who has seen and touched the part in person, especially to spend that kind of money.  I am not sure what kind of deal would be needed to get that accomplished, as you would have to send one over the the U.S..  I bet some of the long term members, who others would surely backup their character, would show the part for free and send it back to you or better yet find a buyer.  I do not have a 69, nor am I in the market for this piece.  If I did, I would love to test it out for you.  I am close to both of these events, but not sure if I can attend either.  If so, I will surely let you know and volunteer.  But, I am not as well-known as some of the other members, who are attending Carlisle as a group and may offer to do the same, if you are even interested in something like that.

Best of luck with this next phase and cheers on the effort and product so far!  

[Lennard]

Please do not exclude the U.S. from your sales market.

If this would be the case I can get some to the U.S.A. through my families body shop in The Netherlands.

[bobfist]

2

[BIGBLCK11]

Yep, as it goes "You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."

You are doing a heck of a job so far, just trying to be encouraging.

[GordonGriggs]

We are paying for this production with private money so if we should be able to continue to produce the 68 and the grille corners
we are able to sell them for 1200 each.

If someone are interesting of buying contact me at tony@bobfist.com

Is that 1200 in U.S. currency?

[resq302]

I would also like to know how much this would be in US dollars.  I am confused if it is $180 or $1200??

[bobfist]

2

[resq302]

Tony,

Just to clarify, you are saying $775 US dollars or your currency?

[Cooter]

If the $775.00 US dollars is the asking price, then I could see a few being sold here. ...It does look good in the pics. Made of newer/better materials...

[bull]

If the $775.00 US dollars is the asking price, then I could see a few being sold here. ...It does look good in the pics. Made of newer/better materials...

And I bet a lot more than just a few would be sold here if it were quite a bit less than $775. Something like this I could see being a good volume seller if the price were right. I would think a center grille would have to be pretty mangled before many people would spend $700+ US on one. Who knows? That 69 center stick out there just waiting to get pounded so maybe it is worth that to a few people.

Either way there needs to be a third party review on the piece before it's worth even a nickle IMO. I'm of the opinion that the outer headlight surround pices will sell best because they'll work on both the 68 and 69 and frequently the corners are lost when broken so repairs are very difficult.

I'd still like to know the production process involved here. The piece might be heat resistant and rigid but there needs to be some density and thickness too. How does the plastic compare in the thickness compared to the original? How does it compare weight-wise? I can't find much info on 8051 Polyolefin.

[Lennard]

Tony,
Just to clarify, you are saying $775 US dollars or your currency?

It is $775 US dollars because Sweden has no Dollars but Kronen as currency.