[Healeys] water pumps and other repro parts

[Michael Salter]

Actually Jean that is probably a very good case in point.
Although I have sold quite a few of the horn rims
<http://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/?p=1335> I am far from my target of
recovering my costs for the whole project .
In an effort to recover some of those costs I have offered those rims to a
number of the usual suspects at discounts of up to 50% (making their actual
cost lower than what I paid for them) if they were to purchase sufficient
quantities.
To date they have, without exception, rejected my offer and I find that
very revealing.
I would have thought that close to a 100% mark up on cost would have been a
reasonable margin, I know that if I had been able to achieve that when I
had my parts business I would have been elated.
Perhaps the ultra cheap, rubbish components that we have become accustomed
to purchasing have given many of us a misguided impression of what quality
parts are actually worth and therefore when somebody actually goes to the
effort of reproducing something accurately they are very likely to "loose
their shirt".
Michael S
BN1 #174
<http://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/?p=1335>

On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 12:39 PM, Jean Caron <
vintage_roadster_restoration at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Michael,
> I think a perfect example of that is the batch of early Lucas Horn rings
> that you commissioned, they were an excellent reproduction of the original.
> I am sure that you inspected the samples(s) sent to you before you ordered
> a quantity of them.
>
> Jean
>
>
> *From:* michael.salter at gmail.com [mailto:michael.salter at gmail.com] *On
> Behalf Of *Michael Salter
> *Sent:* March-01-15 5:12 PM
> *To:* josef-eckert at t-online.de
> *Cc:* John Davidson; Healeys, Forum
> *Subject:* Re: [Healeys] water pumps and other repro parts
>
>
>
> Hi Josef,
>
> In your post you said* "Most parts are ordered from China. You get a
> sample, you order a batch of 100, 500 or 1000 pieces."*
>
> I really believe that the fault lies largely with the company ordering the
> parts.
>
> If a sample is supplied it behooves the purchaser to thoroughly inspect
> and test the sample. The BJ8 water pumps are a classic example. Anyone with
> just a little experience in the rebuilding of water pumps could easily have
> disassembled such a sample and determined that the internal parts were not
> the same as the original pump and were just not up to the job.
>
> As an individual I have managed to source the original seal and bearing
> from reputable suppliers.
> Using those parts it would have been a lot easier to have the castings
> made to the original specifications and an exact replica pump then
> produced.
>
> The pumps that BMC produced were developed over many years and to casually
> discard all that experience and think that one can easily design an
> externally similar pump using adapted modern parts that will be reliable,
> without extensive testing, is total folly.
>
> On another note Bob is absolutely correct in that owners will opt for
> reproduction parts over restored originals every time in the mistaken
> belief that "new is better". Unfortunately the "disposable society" has
> conditioned the most people to believe that new is always better!!
> From hard learned experience I will ALWAYS opt for a good restorable
> original component over a new replacement every time even if it costs a lot
> more.
>
> Flame away!!!
>
> Michael S
>
> BN1 #174
>
>
>
>
> *If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.*
>
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-- 
*If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.*
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