At 01:29 PM 5/7/2007 -0700, Max Heim wrote:
>Yeah, yeah, I'm not completely ignorant of basic economic
>principles, but even our local Northern California wire wheel shop
>told me it wasn't economical to "rebuild" them (not even including
>complete respoking, just replacing "as necessary" and truing).
Yup, usually true. Cost of labor is prohibitively expensive in North America.
>So I was curious as to why Paul's mechanic thought he could afford
>to completely respoke them (and subsequently, true and balance them).
Maybe hard up for business and workimg real cheap that day, or
otherwise he thinks he is very fast.
>Around here, it would take only about three or four hours of shop
>time to equal the cost of a new wheel, not even including the parts
>(think -- how quickly can you replace 60 rusted-tight spokes?). I
>also failed to include the cost of 60 nipples. Obviously, the wheels
>Moss sells are assembled in a lower-prevailing-wage region.
Wire wheel assembly is not always 100% manual labor with small hand
tools. Anyone in the business should be using some jigs and
fixtures. 60 rusty spokes and be cut out in a few minutes. Factory
should use automatic feed power nut drivers for the nipples. The
larger operations may even have torque and tension sensitive
automatic spoke tighteners. The largest part of manual labor might
be sticking 60 spokes into the holes. You would likely be surprised
to see how fast a wire wheel can be assembled in mass production.
>I might further note that it looks like you are accusing Moss of a
>800% markup on spokes (or some similar large percentage). I am not
>sure that was your intention, but ....
Not that large of markup in any one step. It starts with the primary
manufacturer adding a markup over cost for a profit margin. Even if
Moss did buy direct from the factory there are still packaging,
export, shipping, import, unpack, inventory, repacking, and shipping
to you that all add to the cost, not counting a variety of markups
along the way.
In auto manufacturing it is common for the price of a part to
increase 5x beween cost to manufacture and the new car on the
showroom floor, or 7x over the spare parts counter. Competitive
parts like fan belts may have a smaller markup, while unique parts
like a sculptured hearlamp could have outrageous markup.
>At any rate, you don't explain how a local mechanic could get a
>better wholesale price on tiny lots than Moss does on its relatively
>huge orders.
They don't (probably), but they might think that they can work fast or cheap.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com
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