J Replace Rep Metal S13 Fenders

[Thursday7]

Originally Posted by AKADriver

Because as mentioned above "J Replace" didn't just start making this fender, it's been something that a contract manufacturer in Taiwan had the tooling for already ages ago.

Originally Posted by Enjuku Racing

On another note. These were made with a brand new stamped steel mold.

Lol who'd of thunk

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by Thursday7

Lol who'd of thunk

the initial R&D is the expensive part, so once that is done then everything becomes easier.

so my statement still stands. very few companies can come out and reverse engineer this with precision, and given the (cheap) customer base of the owners of this car the investment does not justify the return.

the new stampings can cost $1M for all we care, but if the cost of that is already accounted for or not passed to the customer, that is a moot point. at this price point, it is definitely not passed to the customer.

[Corbic]

Originally Posted by mav1178

the initial R&D is the expensive part, so once that is done then everything becomes easier.

so my statement still stands. very few companies can come out and reverse engineer this with precision, and given the (cheap) customer base of the owners of this car the investment does not justify the return.

the new stampings can cost $1M for all we care, but if the cost of that is already accounted for or not passed to the customer, that is a moot point. at this price point, it is definitely not passed to the customer.

I'd have to see the die but I'm sure you could do something using a zinc based tool for $40-90k setup on nitros. Internet a vendor in Detroit was doing the whole read skin of a CRV off a $200K tool.

You don't need production rate steel dies since you will never churn out +30k a year.

Hopefully these cars can build a restoration culture like vintage muscle did. I'm skeptical however as millennials and zoomers are way to "throw away". Hot rod restoration began almost immediately in the early 80's (barely 15 years removed) and took off in the 90's. We're now 30 years out and it's still not taking off.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by Corbic

I'd have to see the die but I'm sure you could do something using a zinc based tool for $40-90k setup on nitros. Internet a vendor in Detroit was doing the whole read skin of a CRV off a $200K tool.

You don't need production rate steel dies since you will never churn out +30k a year.

Hopefully these cars can build a restoration culture like vintage muscle did. I'm skeptical however as millennials and zoomers are way to "throw away". Hot rod restoration began almost immediately in the early 80's (barely 15 years removed) and took off in the 90's. We're now 30 years out and it's still not taking off.

Even if the tooling was $20k each, that still has to be spread out to the cost of the product, and very few companies actually have access to new or mint product in the first place to do this.

As for the availability of parts, that's all dependent on the market. People are still in a 2010/"too cheap for new parts" mentality...