Kelvin,
So, If I understand you correctly,
- In the interests of economy, it is better to offer a poor fitting repro than
an expensive but correct replacement part.
- In certain cases, your company is unable to find suitable manufacturers of
correct replacement parts.
- You wrote: "Many of the parts we supply are made by cottage industry companies
in the UK and elsewhere." Why is your company so afraid to mention the name
Taiwan? You don't mention it here and to my knowledge, you don't mention it in
your catalogues.
- For the sake of discussion, let's accept all of your statements at face value.
How does that account for the poor quality soft goods that are sold? I purchased
a tonneau from your company. It "fits" the car, but is not really for the model
specified and has large plastic zippers that look like something from a ski
shop.
I have no problem with a company selling such items, but you should inform the
buyer. Fancy catalogues that mimic factory parts manuals and list or picture
almost every part for that vehicle create the illusion that all parts are
available, correct fitting, and of high quality.
Jay Fishbein
Wallingford, CT
"Dodd, Kelvin" wrote:
> Andrew has some very valid points.
>
> At this time all suppliers are under the gun to supply good quality parts.
> Unfortunately in many cases the market will only handle one poor quality
> reproduction item. The alternative is to restore original components. Many
> times this costs much more than an equivalent new reproduction item. I had
> a vendor complain that someone almost throttled him for asking twice the
> price of a repro bumper for a straightened and "show" chromed original.
>
> The MGA grille is a perfect example. There is no "definitive" original
> shape. We have the factory drawings, and a grille made to those
> measurements will not fit any MGA. The reproduction unit on the market is
> not made by Moss Motors, and the market will not support two manufacturers.
> There are some quality issues with the reproduction that we are very
> concerned about, and there is a wealth of documentation flowing between we
> the vendor and the manufacturer. The reproduction however retails for a
> fraction of the cost of restoring an original. There is no question that a
> restored original grille will probably look better and last longer than the
> reproduction, but how many of us are willing to shell out $5-700 for a show
> quality grille?
>
> The answer is brand named quality goods. Unfortunately the brand names that
> we have relied upon are no longer supported. Lucas, AE, Vandervell,
> Holbert/Eaton are a thing of the past, many have disapeared, others have
> been diluted with sub-standard parts. N.O.S. is not the answer either, as
> Kai has pointed out. I don't care how good the parts were originally, I am
> not going to put 25 year old seals in my brake system.
>
> We have been in the process of taking a very hard look at the parts being
> supplied, and purchased. We have a one year satisfaction guaranteed
> warranty period which gets to be very expensive if the parts we send out are
> substandard. There are enough problems supplying parts for old British cars
> without adding known poor quality to the equation. Many of the parts we
> supply are made by cottage industry companies in the UK and elsewhere.
> Unfortunately in many cases there are no other alternatives as production
> runs are small. Many of these parts may have fit problems, we have a team
> who tries to document these problems and correct them. Once we know a part
> is "good" it would be nice to identify to the trade and public that this is
> a part you can depend upon. That is something that I am working on.
>
> regards
>
> Kelvin.
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