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.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Pursey [mailto:MorrisOxford@s054.aone.net.au]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 2:48 PM
> To: 'type79@ix.netcom.com'; J.E.A.Rich
> Cc: Roland Dudley; british-cars@autox.team.net
> Subject: RE: Bad PARTS from Moss WAS Bad "RUBBER" Parts from Moss
>
>
> I think that Jay is correct in some respects, but even the smaller
> "specialists" can be a problem. The "rebuilt" water pump
> (shipped up to Sydney
> from Melbourne) that was installed on my Isis last Saturday
> morning had failed
> by Saturday afternoon - but a return is under way with a
> replacement going in
> this morning.
>
> Probably the most scary thing about all this is that whilst
> some components may
> look perfect, if you do not know what material has actually
> been used and/or
> how the item has actually been manufactured and/or stored
> then you could be in
> line for a component breakage at a most inopportune time. If it is a
> safety-related component and it breaks, then you could be in
> real trouble.
>
> Also, another problem is that there are a number of
> counterfeit components
> going around (particularly in high demand and high value
> items) and sometimes a
> reputable supplier can end up with a batch of these in good
> faith - resulting
> in the potential for the end user to suffer serious problems.
>
> I guess that "caveat emptor" will always apply, but it would
> be nice if we
> could have a higher degree of confidence in the quality of
> what we are buying.
> I suspect that most members of this list are prepared to pay
> for "quality" as
> they want their cars to continue running for a long time - if
> the original part
> last for "n" years then the replacement part should last for
> "n" years also.
>
> Don't see an easy way around this, other than continued
> discussion on lists
> like this - we may only be a small group, but we do seem to
> care about our cars
> and our fellow listers.
>
> Regards....Andrew Pursey....1955 Morris Oxford, 1956 Morris
> Isis and 1958 MGA+
>
>
>
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