In a message dated 11/22/2000 6:26:05 AM Mountain Standard Time,
wallaces@superaje.com writes:
<< Should I just be quiet and get used to this? I thought I was restoring a
car, not the new parts.
Sorry for the rant - you're the folks who understand.....
Thanks for your ears,
Jim
>>
Jim;
I would be sure to let Moss know. Believe it or not, they actually are
concerned about what they sell and welcome feedback from customers. They do
want to get it right and the first time not the second time. Ther is a
tendancy to portray the suppliers as sitting around deliberately producing
poor quality parts and laughing abut how they are deliberately screwing us.
Given the number of parts they stock they seem to do a pretty good job. Yes
some of the parts are of marginal and perhaps poor quality, but remember the
suppliers try to find manufacturers who can economically produce parts of
acceptable quality. There is always a price/quality playoff. If that pipe
was a hand fitted Ferrari part you might pay 5 or 10 times as much.
A little historical perspective is sometimes useful. Some of you out there
might remember when parts were not readily available, anywhere except the
wrecking yards. Those were the lean years. There was a time when the sleeve
assembly from the early starters were non existant. Pretty hard to use your
car when you have to crank it, but some of us did. Finding good rubber stuff
was next to impossible. Complain about the quality of the chrome stuff
available today, but compare that to no spares at all.
I am still absolutely astounded when I go through the catalogs ( mostly Moss
but that's because TRF has none for the early TR, besides Charles took me off
his mailing list :) and see all the parts we can have delivered to our front
door, overnight if needed. Compared to not too long ago, we are a little
spoiled today. Even in the middle 60's living in NYC, I had to wait weeks
for parts for the old TR2 I was driving. As we get a little further into the
marketing cycle for early TR parts, my guess is they will become scarce
again, then back on the market at a much higher price because they will be
produced under much lower demand by smaller speciality producers. Then if
this list is still around the topic will be the price and availability of the
parts.
The other thing that I notice is, that many who are relatively new to the
marque seem to be trying to create a Ferrari or Maserati out of a TR. They
never were fancy cars, the build quality was solid, but they were not hand
built. They have always been wonderful cars to drive, better than most of the
competition. Tweaking parts to make them fit has been part of owning the
cars. Why else keep a BFH and a selection of pry bars?
Now before I have to put on the Nomex, I am NOT saying accept shoddy parts. I
AM suggesting that it might be unreasonable to expect the opposite extreme,
hand made and polished parts shipped individually in a box packed in cotton
wadding. I have not seen the part you are unhappy with. It might be very
poorly made. If you don't like it, contact Moss, send it back, tell them
what is wrong with the part, give them the opportunity to replace the part,
give them the chance to make it correctly.
Flame the Supplier has been a thread before. I think it comes about because
in the world of today we feel we have so very little control over our lives.
That makes it easier and easier to point out what someone else is doing
wrong. If nothing else we can do that, complain that is. Gives us a false
sense of being able to control our lives. And of course when there is a
group with many willing to squirt a little fuel on the fire you can get quite
a hate fest going. It's not a real satisfying process though. You just end
up feeling both helpless and outraged.
I don't have a spare pipe, but if I did it would surely be a rusty 30+ year
old one in questionable condition, a little bent, ends nibbled back by rust,
chipped paint, maybe cracked bracket, certainly needing a new compression
fitting, and maybe a pin hole or two. I'd probably trade you 3 or 4 old ones
for the new one you got, stainless would be nice. Could use it on the TR2
project or the Ambro special.
All the Best
Bob Paul
Corrales NM
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