In a message dated 08/27/2002 12:58:03 PM Central Daylight Time,
Ofarrell.Fergus@hitco.com writes:
> As far as the economics vs quality, if a manufacturer realizes that normal
> usage is wearing particular parts quicker than projected, they may spring
> for a large-number run of parts, which dramatically drives down the raw
> material price, spreads the tooling and set-up charges, making the price
> very low.
Hey Fergus...you're absolutely right. Everyone seems to be on this subject
right now because they don't want to buy the expensive engine parts,
including the timing setup, for the U-20s...I wasn't crazy about spending it
either, but I did it. But that's irrelevant. The point is that when 10 sets
a year are sold, the price is high. But it would be possible for an
enterprising vendor to have the parts made, IF there was sufficient demand.
I recall "a vendor" telling me that he was trying to have one of the gears
made, as he had no trouble getting most of the other parts, it was only the
one gear that took forever (in my case, 6 months) to get. There's no real
difficulty in having the gearsets made; I would imagine that the tensioners
and the guides might be more of a pain. Even at that, I was seriously
considering taking my old guides, removing the rubber, and having some UHMW
(Delrin) or PTFE (Teflon) machined and installed. It wouldn't have been that
hard to do. I just didn't have the time to spend on it, and I had to buy a
complete set anyway.
Sorry, I just can't understand why so many people seem to be so frugal
(cheap?) and would rather install a non-stock wimpy pickup truck or family
sedan engine rather than keep the original motor (OK, I know, I'm letting my
bias show!!!! And yes, I know you can hop up a L-series engine! Be nice!
Be gentle!).
So, my 2 cent's worth of opinion. Yes, I'm trying to keep mine stock, and
that's just me. I don't begrudge anyone else wanting to install a VG-30 or
KA-24, and since it's taking me many, many years to resto my car, I don't
have too much business telling anyone else what to do with theirs. But the
parts will be available at "reasonable" prices if there's sufficient demand.
In my case, after I spend many, many thousands of dollars I'll have a car
that I could get maybe $8-10K for when I'm done...but it's still cheaper than
buying a new Miata or S-2000.
Fred J.
'69 SRL
WI
/// datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net mailing list
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|