Hoover Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Since I am restoring a few z cars, we ended up contacting him. He answered his phone and told us about his business. I did not order anything as I know these types of small businesses too well. Is there really a market for z car fiberglass/carbon parts? The reason I ask is that I could do this. I've for a full shop, employees etc..... But it has to be worth my time since I have a ton of work.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I sold CF and glass hoods and hatches for the S30 and S130 for 10 years. There's a small market that can be a bit bigger if you're willing to under price MSA and your other competitors. That will keep the margin thin (25% gross) and you'll need to sell 10 to 15 parts to recover your tooling costs - if you build real production molds. If you build cheap molds like most of these folks do you quality will suffer and after about 10 parts you will have to replace the molds or sell junk and ignore the complaints. The biggest issue I found was shipping costs. These are large items and are charged by volume not weight. So a 5 lb. CF hood in a cardboard box was charged as if it weighed 165 lbs. because of the volume. 50% of my sale were outside the USA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 thanks, John! And, thanks for the email yesterday. I purchased a used R180 and will replace the side gears to make it all work. This is mainly for my own cars. We build full panels for purpose built race cars etc......That market is able to sustain and we don't have so much of a reach for ROI. Here you can see wet lay up and vacuum bag part for a large project we have currently. I spoke to my front desk man about his conversation with Datsun Z Fiberglass- One man shop with too many orders- plain and simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 And more... 5 piece gnose... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 5 piece gnose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 ......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 You can take the threaded buttons out of your 240z r180 and put then in your 720 R180 and use the bolt in side axles. There are a couple posts here that discuss that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyanrudger Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I spoke to my front desk man about his conversation with Datsun Z Fiberglass- One man shop with too many orders- plain and simple. No. Dude is a scam. Here's a stickie I had saved on my computer while my order was in limbo. Info gotten mostly from whois.net domain info and searching bits of information from there : James Jenns 2015793077 - (number he uses for Datsun Fiberglass) 50 Spring Street Ramsey, New Jersey Wayne Tile Co (also located at 50 Spring Street. I called them and they verified there was no auto business in their block. Been there for 15 years) (201) 825-8000 fiberglassfabrication@hotmail.com 0 West Ramsey Industrial Park (not a real address) Ramsey, NJ 07446 - View Map Phone: (551) 579-4921 (number he uses for below business with no website or actual physical address) Email: exoticsupercars@outlook.com (another business) Fiberglass Fabrication of New Jersey Ramsey New Jersey 07446 FiberglassFabrication.NJ@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 wow!!!!! people go through a ton to make a living. I was really hoping that there was a real market for these parts..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 image.jpg ......... Oh....that black G-Nose in the back looks like the one on my 73 after I made a spoiler for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I see a lot of people asking for carbon dash and console. why not just hydro dip it for that carbon look? or maybe at minimum a carbon dash cap? thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Oh....that black G-Nose in the back looks like the one on my 73 after I made a spoiler for it! i'm going to buy one of those jdm replica air dams. the black gnose is modeled after an IMSA style. I've had this for many years...needs some tlc....I think I'm going to use the white one. I've found all the hardware and can make all the mounting brackets...... it's not easy to fit...i bolted the headlight extensions and center section together......this FRP is a bit thin as well....not sure I trust it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Or if someone would charge the same prices as the other vendors but the parts actually fit. I'm sure once word got out about better quality everyone would buy from said vendor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyanrudger Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 wow!!!!! people go through a ton to make a living. I was really hoping that there was a real market for these parts..... I would gladly re-order the fiberglass parts from another vender if they were available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoover Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) what parts do people need? I'm going to make my own carbon parts...... the problem is that parts are only as accurate as the piece you make them from and the quality of the mold. If there's a perfect part to tool off of, it should fit. Edited March 16, 2015 by Hoover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 I sold CF and glass hoods and hatches for the S30 and S130 for 10 years. There's a small market that can be a bit bigger if you're willing to under price MSA and your other competitors. That will keep the margin thin (25% gross) and you'll need to sell 10 to 15 parts to recover your tooling costs - if you build real production molds. If you build cheap molds like most of these folks do you quality will suffer and after about 10 parts you will have to replace the molds or sell junk and ignore the complaints. The biggest issue I found was shipping costs. These are large items and are charged by volume not weight. So a 5 lb. CF hood in a cardboard box was charged as if it weighed 165 lbs. because of the volume. 50% of my sale were outside the USA. Having purchased a FG hatch from you (excellent quality & well worth the price) & having it shipped to Toronto, Canada my only sort of gripe was not so much in the shipping cost to my door but the extra $150.00 the shipping co. charged for filing customs clearance papers which they faxed me to fill out & then I refaxed them back. The only other option was to take time off work, go to the other end of the city where the airport/customs clearence warehouse was, file the paper work myself & pick up the shipment at the same time which would have defeated the cost of purchasing "to my door" delivery. I also do remember talking to you on the phone about the twice the required size shipping box that you used to ship the hatch in as you had a one size fits all box since you were also shipping larger items out to customers then the hatch at the time. I'm not sure if this contributed to your found shipping costs by volume vs weight. Out of speculation this may have put off potential customers as this is what I'm reading from your statement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 My take on Datsun Z Fiberglass is its just another Show Cars-Body-Parts operation. Meaning - has a website with all kinds of products that uses ripped from the net photos to illustrate the product but actually has no moulds made for the products advertised. The lag time between ordering & beyond said fulfillment deadline would indicate that this individual is running around trying to find a part to make a mould from or is making it from scratch to no avail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 The shipping boxes cost me about $53 each in lots of 10. They were custom made and were designed to handle a 280zx hood. Unfortunately I couldn't afford to order or store a lot of 100 which would have cut the price in half. Multiple sizes would have added to the cost. I made no money on picking and shipping, I just tried to cover my costs. I used to get much better pricing on shipping but the two carriers I used stopped shipping composite body parts due to damage claims. In 13 years I never had shipping damage claim but they didn't care about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 My impression as a furriner is that the S30 market in the US is too picky and too cheap. This sort of market is really niche, it should be more about supporting those who are prepared to supply a very small market with never any chance that that the suppliers will bring in the big bucks for their trouble and risk. It's not like dealing with a big corporation where a few dollars here or there don't matter, that is the message which needs to be be accepted by customers who individually need to realise that they are part of a small community and act accordingly. The US is a bit of a stuff up in some ways but by gee there are some individuals who really do go above and beyond 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 BTW... The company that made the composite parts for me is still selling S30 and S130 hoods and hatches using my molds. Contact info: Benchmark Composites Stan Meleski 12024 Centralia St # D Hawaiian Gardens, CA 90716 (562) 860-7769 stan@benchmarkcomposites.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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