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BACKGROUND
This
was another nightmare part to have reproduced. We went
through a number of manufacturers over a number of years.
Samples were "lost", financial shenanigans took place, and a
huge amount of time was wasted by companies that either had
no real intention of following through on the part, or were
overwhelmed by the task. It is one of the most complicated
rubber parts on the market for any car. We kept plodding
along like the proverbial tortoise. The final company gave
us some options on a pricing structure and how long we'd
like to have the tooling as ours for this and the 68-70
w/strip we made at the same time. They ranged from $6000 to
$26,000. It was hard to justify spending over $12,000 on
getting a part made, when we didn't have permanent control
of the tooling, but the control would have just raised the
price of the part up. I'm happy that I was able to afford
putting up the money to get a long nonexistant part back in
production. To retool and remanufacture a part is extremely
difficult,expensive and financially risky. Sometimes a
manufacturer will pay the tooling costs themselves but this
is rare. As most manufacturers don't even know what a Datsun
Roadster is, it can make things difficult.
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