datsun-roadsters
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RE: Collector Car

To: "Jim Tyler" <jtyler29@idt.net>,
Subject: RE: Collector Car
From: Marc Tyler <mtyler@hctc.net>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 99 18:48:41 -0500
> the more popular the car, the wider the supply chain will be
Exactly,when you have millions of examples of a car there's a market, If 
it's an extrordinarily rare piece of work like a Bugatti, you've got 
people like Ralph lauren who can afford to have them.  We're in an 
awkward middle ground with our cars. Low numbers, low collectibility, 
inflating the value won't help.

>That is why you still can buy virtually everything you need to restore a 
>Mustang.
>       There are alot of reproduction parts made because there is a market to 
>support it.
There is a market because they sold over  a  *million* Mustangs, not 
thirty-some thousand.  Try finding a fender for an Allard, that's more 
the prod. run we're talking about.
And they're very collectable. As desireable as these cars are, the low 
production #s make parts an exclusive boutique business. 
     On the matter of bodywork, you can get fiberglass fenders and such, 
but the tooling for metal bodywork would just not be financially feasible 
for a market of a few thousand customers *at most* . Running gear, same 
deal.  
How overblown would the value of these cars need to be to justify the 
tooling and setup for repro parts? Remember now, the market is by 
neccesity just a few thousand customers, 'cause they 'aint making 
roadsters no more.  Some repro parts, like Dashes, ragtops, etc, the 
stuff that rots in the sun is readily available, but fabric patterns 
Fiberglass molds and Vacuum-form tools are inexpensive to produce.  Once 
you get into sheet metal tooling, metal casting, assembly-line machining, 
and injection molding it's a different animal.
-Marc
     

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