The Future of Reproduction Parts.

We are going to change the way we bring parts to the Maverick/Comet Comunity .
We are going to have a sample of the reproduction part made, send it to Either Dennis Marten, Ray Parish or Craig Selvey or all 3 at the same Time, to have the new part looked over, and post there Opinion,, If changes are needed these 3 can tell us what changes will need to be made,..

We will then post the Minimum number of the production run, and the unit price,,, Our Dealers will then be excepting pre-orders on the part or parts,, When the minimum number is reached they will be produced and shipped to those who have pre-purchased them, an extra 10 of every part will be purchased By RPS for those who have not heard or know about the Maverick/Comet Forum,, these Items will be placed in the RPS E-bay store,, To help out the other Maverick/Comet Owners around the world.

We want to get parts out to the Comunity,,, and we Know many people need them so this is going to get things moving allot quicker,,:Handshake,,

If any one has any questions please coment on this thread, any of our Dealers can PM me or give me a call directly,,,

Joe

 

I think that's the only way you can make this thing work! This way you can give an exact price which seems to be everyones holdup. I also suggest to not get too deep into this. Try one or two of the most popular requested items 1st (such as the badly needed door panels) and see where it goes from there. Pre-Orders is the ONLY way to make this work!

That's the way they did when they had the Maverick valve covers made and it worked well then. I didn't mind waiting on mine when I prepaid because I was able to see the example up front and of course I knew the price. I was very pleased with the valve covers when they came. They have also been discontinued and will likely become pretty valuable in the future. The same may apply to any of the parts you are hoping to get made in the future.

I'm assuming that if you don't get the required minimum order prepaid withing a certain amount of time that the particular item will be scrapped and the money will be refunded? That's the only question that comes to me at this time.

 

I have no problem pre paying for a part I need. I will buy spares, just as I did with the battery trays. I think this is the way to go. Thanks.

 

The main problem is there aren't enough Mavericks that all need the exact same part to bring the order up to a number big enough to mass produce. The only parts I could think of that might get decent numbers are:

1) battery side fender apron
2) lower 1/4 panel patch
3) lower fender patch

It's easier for most to make do with used or self-refurbished parts or track down NOS.

Also .. since lots of guys like to customize their Mavericks and are not necessarily concerned with being factory correct that minimizes the market for appearance parts like door panels and such.

Another issue ... most people who buy Mavericks do it out of economy and don't want to blow thousands of dollars on reproduction parts that cost 10X more than what they paid for the car in the first place.

We all appreciate what Joe is doing but it will always be an uphill battle now matter how optimistic everyone tries to be.

My 2 cents ..


PS ... I don't think Chuck would agree that the valve covers were a success ... It took him many years to sell the small run that he had made. Not sure if he broke even or not.

 

All very good points!

 

In all of the years I have been around this forum, one main re-occurring subject seems to be the problem with rust. Cowls, floors, frames, fenders, quarters etc. I went as far as to buy 2 complete quarters from Autokrafters. Even though I now have the quarters, I hate to cut them up for just the lower patches and I really don't want to change the whole quarter out. So if a patch piece came out, I would still buy it and re-sell the quarters.

As far as pre-orders go, I look at a pre-order as a commitment to purchase an item before it is made, but without a price to go by, I would have had to back away from it if the price was too much for me to afford at the moment. So I never put in any pre-orders for that reason.

Having a way to get a price out front is a good idea.

 

i think the small bumber stuff would definatly be a popular seller , espically front valences, next to the rust parts. i had a really hard and expensive time getting it all together for my 76 last summer.

anyway good luck joe

 

With a pre-order you do have a price. That's the whole idea. Joe will have to commit to having a set number of items in order to get a price to us. He then has to collect that price for the set number of items and place the order. The money will already be there so there will be less cash output for him to begin with.
Example:
Joe gets a price for 100 deluxe door trim panels for 71-72 Maverick.

Company quotes Joe price for 100 sets. (Lets use $100 for easy example)

Company makes a sample.

Several respected members examine the sample.

The members post info and photos of the sample panel with cost.

Anyone wanting this particular panel would then be required to send in a prepayment of $100 (remember, example price) until the orders reached a set amount of maybe 50.

Nobody pays any money till they see the part and knows an exact price.

This example would give Joe $5000 minimum to place that initial order without having to take 100% of it out of his pocket. I have no idea how much more he might have to invest but likely would be a good bit. He still would need to sell all 100 sets but we all know that will take some time.

Okay, I certainly have never done this and am not 100% certain that it will work like this. I know some others have and may chime in and that's all good. I for one would like to see it work as we need these parts badly. Let him know what you guys think and I suppose Joe will decide if he's willing to go on with this tremendous project.

 

Agree

 

See, this is the problem, no offense Tony, but everyone has their own ideas about what is needed.
Anything for a Maverick/Comet can be found for a price, some people don't have the money to buy things some do, and as we all know 97% of Maverick/Comet people are cheap! People post auctions on here all the time about what they think is a crazy price for a Mustang part, Mustang people might think otherwise.
When you can find a used rear valance for $80-$150 and an NOS rear valance for $200-$400, why would someone buy a reproduction one for $300?
Why would someone buy $400 door panel for their car they bought for $1500??
Battery trays were an awesome idea, and the quality was amazing, but you can buy a Mustang one for $29.99 and weld it to your Maverick bracket, and if you don't have a welder you can screw them together.
The most common requested parts are what Dan and Mav1970 noted, but then again, a few people have used Mustang floors to repair their Maverick, and if you goto a car show who's going to know? maybe the other Maverick guy that just happened to be there? Theres a way around everything on these cars, and a very little market for anything on them.

 

well just looking through alot of the for sale and wanted ads on this forum some of the most popular sought after parts are grabber hoods, grabber spoilers, disc break spindles, V8 swap parts and small bumper swaps.

 

These Maverick/Comets are so susceptible to rust, especially here in the North East. If easily obtainable repair panels existed, more of these cars could be restored to a point that an owner would start to think about new bumpers, trim, weatherstripping, grills etc. I just think that we need some help in the war on rust.

 

i think high want items like small bumpers and all the parts attached to them would be worth while, grabber spoilers and hoods also as long as they are reasonable in price, as they are really hard to find right now.

 

And all that can be found used, so there is no advantage to having it reproduced, and as long as it can be found it's still cheaper than new reproduction parts.

NOS bumpers are still around, even good used ones, ask the right people and you can find everything, trim can be found NOS & used, Weatherstripping is all available new, with the exception of quarter windows, which still can be found used for cheaper than it would cost to make new ones, lots of NOS grills around, even away from Ebay there are NOS suppliers that have them, and $250 for NOS is cheaper than a new reporduction one would be. Rust is the factor, thats why alot of these cars just aren't around anymore. Around here they were rusted out junk in 8 years, but cowls can be fixed with Mustang pieces, and if your skilled enough to tackle a job like that, you can make it work.

All those can still be found, Maverick Man makes brand new Grabber hoods,and spoilers and the price is awesome. "reasonable in price" is what get you, nothing reproduction done on the scale that it would be for Mavericks will be reasonable in price compared to used.
I've been buying and selling Maverick parts for 20 years, whats reasonable to me isn't to someone else, I once had a guy ask for a full black bucket seat interior, which I have. I told him $425, the seats don't need to be redone, the door panels are like new,along with the armrest, full dash with a non cracked dash pad, everything, you could swap it out in a few days, but he thought I was nuts asking $425, I tried to sell a perfect windshield to a guy once for $40, nope too expensive. I don't sell many parts anymore because of that.

 

I know this sounds silly and it is a non-Maverick part...sorta...But has anyone thought about doing a Granada console....I scoured junkyards, searched EvilBay and looked at the forums for the better part of a year and a half...I found one luckily...but I know alot of members that would be willing to spend $200-$300 (from watching the few on EBay)...I know we are throwing stuff out there and I figured it was a thought.......