I happen to work with a company in China that makes metal parts for our
business. They are good at making machine tool parts, and other odd shapes
that have to be bent, stamped, etc. If there are parts to Healeys that the
group thinks is desired enough to reproduce, I could get them to price out
something for us. As usual, quantities are needed also. Currently we order
stuff in the hundreds to thousands of parts at a time. The best deal is to
fill a 20 or 40 foot container. They are used to working in steel, aluminum,
brass, Stainless Steel, tungsten, and I am sure most any other metal. We
always get samples sent before production starts. We would also need someone
to make a drawing of the part needed. There are also companies in the US that
do this sort of thing. Here is one web site that looks interesting.
http://www.emachineshop.com/faq/general.htm
Note that if Moss or the other suppliers don't make the part now, the
quantities may not be there for it to be economical. Also, as many pointed
out, if you make a part like the heater control and it is a piece of $#$#$,
that does nobody any good.
I had talked to Bill Bolton about this subject a few years ago and he
suggested the latches for the hardtops. You can buy repos, but they did not
have that quality of materials that was desired. But, there are just not that
many hardtops out there.
It is an interesting plan making parts for old cars. But I would imagine, it
is not as easy a business as it seems. Somebody has to stock the parts till
sale. It would seem that there are companies already in business to do this
and unless you had many different parts to sell, not a high volume business.
Jerry
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