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What reproduction parts are still sorely needed?

Side note, Browsing ebay last night it sure seemed like prices for 73 74 parts are up from last year. New and old.
 
They are (slowly) on the rise. I am betting AMD will still do a one-shot run of quarters for 73/74 Charger.
 
Just an update, I wound up speaking with one of the AMD reps online last night. I didn't expect much but explained that I wasn't happy with the way the sale had been conducted. They explained that the response was huge and they stopped the sale to sort of catch their breath. They went on to tell me that the sale would resume today and to call customer service this morning and to ask for a price adjustment on the order.

So, just after 8 o'clock this morning I called AMD. At first I got some push back but they did eventually agree to price match the order. I think they might have declined to if the parts had sold out completely but everything I ordered was still in stock.

It was more hassle than it should have been but I got the parts I wanted and I got the discount so everything worked out in the end. Thankfully common sense prevailed and they didn't make me cancel the order and place it again this afternoon. Since I got several hundred dollars back I also ordered a pair of trunk gutters at full price.

I did ask about the possibility of seeing 73/74 Charger quarters and got a flat no. So there's that. It's too bad that they didn't give the 71-74s a fair chance with roof skins, full quarters, tail panels, and rockers.

Thanks again for the heads-up, Nacho
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This info came out from a thread posted at DC.com and here, same as there I continue my rant:


I knew they wouldn't reproduce anything else because in their therms there are not enough customers to make the "profit". Sure there are not enough customers if Mopar repro parts are still being sold at those outrageous prices. While a Pontiac GTO Owner gets a grill on $150-200 rate ( $350-400 for the pair ) we have to pay $1K for the grilles. While a Mustang Owner can get a front valence into $90-140 rate, we have to pay $250. And this list can be quite long as you want. They never think on the long therm profit but the instant profit.

So, the first proove THERE ARE enough Mopar customers is they got allmost sold out the "discontinued parts" in one morning being sold on the special price. So this "profit" deal is not more than a price speculation. This makes a regular Mopar being not a worthly restorable unit, but just having an Hemi, 440+6 or any other low production numbers.

While many 289 Mustangs are being restored with a minor investment, a 273 or 318 Barracuda can't be restored without huge investments imposible to justify.


then the reason I started a facebook group long time ago

https://www.facebook.com/groups/149414152185365/
 
and if there is not enough customers for Mopars you can imagine how many customers for AMC ? which is REALLY low

but you can get an AMX grill in $400

http://www.americanpartsdepot.com/grilles.htm

so all the profit deal is BULLSHIT

Nacho, it could be that some of the AMC tooling is still around. Don't forget that Chrysler scrapped back inventory and all their old tooling for pennies on the dollar to claw their way out of bankruptcy. I don't know for sure but existing tooling would change things considerably.
 
Yeap but how many dollars do you need to make one mold? $4K? Or maybe $100K?

Nonsense

Aside this, everything is being made in CHINA! The CHEAPER place to make it!
 
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It was all Gary could do to get them to make the parts they already make for the 71 72 B bodies. I figured that the 73-74 B bodies were a long shot, but when they listed them as coming soon, I was optomistic. They may still be in the pipeline, don't take one service representative's word for it. As I said before, we just placed a good sized order,that is due any day now, and they told us that they are moving to a new facility now, so asking them for anything new right now is probably the farthest thing from their minds.
 
Yeap but how many dollars do you need to make one mold? $4K? Or maybe $100K?

Nonsense

Aside this, everything is being made in CHINA! The CHEAPER place to make it!
As I stated before, we were told right from the source that the Mopar line as a whole has not covered the tooling costs overall. Sure some of the better selling parts are turning a profit, and the ones that don't will be discontinued or made in limited runs. Business is business, and most are in business to make money!
 
Selling quantities whch needs to be affordable for customers, not getting the profit on small quantities.
 
All of the businesses that are continuing to bring new product or to keep a current product on the shelves are required to make money to pay the daily expenses to stay in business. It is simply the economics of business 101. If you have the potential to sell 1,000 units to the GM market and you can only sell 100 units to the Mopar world and the cost to develop the product is the same, what is the cost per unit difference. It is the simple fact that numbers will drive the price and availability of a given product.

We already produce the various washer bottles and one overflow bottle for the Mopar applications. @Nacho-RT74 I know that I have relayed this information as you were interested in the overflow bottles for the 71 and up B-Body applications. Looking into that particular piece for say the 71 B-Body, we were looking at close to $40,000 in tooling and development cost. Lets say that we have another $5,000 to make a run of 200 units. Without any other cost like packaging / labeling, a 7 to 12% license agreement with FCA, shipping or warehousing cost, we would have at a minimum $225 in each unit. Factor in the extra cost that I mentioned and that unit cost is approaching $260 per unit or $52,000 sitting on the shelf, before the first unit sells. If we want to make a 30% return on that investment, we would have to sell that overflow bottle at $338. How many will you sell at that price point? That is why that project was put on hold until someone stepped up and agreed to help in the cost of the run.

You can go overseas and have the part done and cut the cost by 50 to 60%. But now instead of running 200, they will want you to run 500 units. Then you have to worry with shipping cost, etc. Secondly, many of these overseas vendors will only agree to doing a run based on a second run say for example 100 units two years from the delivery of the first run. So sales do not justify a second run for you. You still have 20% of your product sitting on the shelf as the demand decreases. The next thing that you know, is that the manufacture will go to retailer XYZ with the product at X amount of dollars. Retailer XYZ has only the cost of the product now which the manufacturer will sell to keep themselves busy. So the next thing that you know is that same part is popping up retailing for a third of the cost of your part. So what do you with your part once again?

We are all car guys deep down, but the financials do not lie. Unless you can do the part on a very small scale and control the cost yourself, then it can be a very risky road.
 
At this moment I'm not searching for any overflow bottle althought could be interesting having the option to 73/74s ( I hope won't be needing it anytime soon ).

But I still think more customers will be reached at better prices making it profitable
 
No matter what widget that your making, the greater the quantity that you can sell, the lower your manufacturing cost and most probably the retail price will be lower. We would love to be able to sell more of any given product, but the demand typically will not justify the availability or pricing. If I should run 1000 units and I speculate that I can realistically sell 200 units within the first 18 months, I cannot justify my pricing on producing 1000 units. If I did, then I would be so deep into the cost to never recoup the investment. Secondly, what do I do with the other 800 units sitting of the shelf?

With any given product, you have to evaluate what is the potential demand of the product? For every given new part that you make, you will have guys lining up wanting to jump aboard and purchase the part. But in reality, when the part comes availability you can only hope for at least 60% contacting you in regards to making a purchase. Then lets say that your competition comes out with a similar product priced comparable to yours. You could easily see your sales drop 50% in the days to come.

I am not trying to bad mouth or prop up one side of the industry. Just trying to give some insight from my perspective of the hobby / industry. Hopefully this dialog provides some insight into these areas of valid concerns with the recent decisions by AMD to discontinue or to put on hold doing certain projects.
 
Many of the parts on sale are still showing inventory, so either demand is truly in the toilet or they ordered way too many pieces. I do think the aftermarket as a whole makes some bone headed decisions about what to offer. Let’s hope they make a couple more for us 71-74 guys.
 
I just got my AMD order in yesterday and I have to say that the new Ramcharger hood is nothing short of amazing! What a nice piece! I want to thank AMD for making such a nice part, and Gary and Pam Bieneke for loaning their Ramcharger hood to AMD to make this happen! Gary and Pam have a lot to do with all of the 3rd generation B body parts that are available from AMD. I also bought three 71 Charger rear quarter panels, and they look great.
 
We already produce the various washer bottles and one overflow bottle for the Mopar applications. @Nacho-RT74 I know that I have relayed this information as you were interested in the overflow bottles for the 71 and up B-Body applications. Looking into that particular piece for say the 71 B-Body, we were looking at close to $40,000 in tooling and development cost. Lets say that we have another $5,000 to make a run of 200 units. Without any other cost like packaging / labeling, a 7 to 12% license agreement with FCA, shipping or warehousing cost, we would have at a minimum $225 in each unit. Factor in the extra cost that I mentioned and that unit cost is approaching $260 per unit or $52,000 sitting on the shelf, before the first unit sells. If we want to make a 30% return on that investment, we would have to sell that overflow bottle at $338. How many will you sell at that price point? That is why that project was put on hold until someone stepped up and agreed to help in the cost of the run.

You can go overseas and have the part done and cut the cost by 50 to 60%. But now instead of running 200, they will want you to run 500 units. Then you have to worry with shipping cost, etc. Secondly, many of these overseas vendors will only agree to doing a run based on a second run say for example 100 units two years from the delivery of the first run. So sales do not justify a second run for you. You still have 20% of your product sitting on the shelf as the demand decreases. The next thing that you know, is that the manufacture will go to retailer XYZ with the product at X amount of dollars. Retailer XYZ has only the cost of the product now which the manufacturer will sell to keep themselves busy. So the next thing that you know is that same part is popping up retailing for a third of the cost of your part. So what do you with your part once again?

We are all car guys deep down, but the financials do not lie. Unless you can do the part on a very small scale and control the cost yourself, then it can be a very risky road.

Richard are you talking about this one? If so I believe it would be a very hard sell as you would almost have to make the all the brackets also. I also believe it was 72 B-body only not a 71 deal..
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/nos-1972-b-body-overflow-bottle.134121/
 
Sometimes when you look at what is reproduced verses what is actually needed is crazy.... 73-4 Charger grilles?? I had clean pieces for years I could not get $75 each for now someone will spend a grand? I ended up selling them to Vans 2 years ago so he could reproduce them don't know if he ever did get them done but he bought all the nice grilles I had. Then look at 1971 Plymouth 2 door B-body side markers why make the housing??? Just the lenses would have been perfect and affordable as there are thousands of OE housings that are nice with BAD lenses... Just my viewpoint..
 
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