Making Parts... Specs

[z bomb]

Looked at quite a few forums that "suggest" that some z car parts suppliers might be a little expensive.

 

Has anybody looked into something like emachineshop or your local machine shop to make rear disc brackets, r230 rear and front diff mount, etc?

 

All I need is measurements, I know and personally own CAD, so I can draft up parts, but I don't want to step on any toes or take away anybody's market share by making some brackets, and getting the specs to do so here.

 

Looking for rear disc conversion brackets, rear and front diff mount, camber plate hard parts, and anything else you can think of that looks simple to make but costs alot. Specifically the rear disc brackets and how much "offset" the flange has to the caliper mounting bolt holes, and also can help calculating for different calipers and rotor widths.

 

Please let me know if I step on any toes.... or I'll know when I can't find the thread....

[Corzette]

Short nose R200 and R230 front mounts are highly sought after but no one has produced anything...just ideas and one was produced but never duplicated as far as I know. I am sure they would sell if they were strong and tested before selling them..... I want 3.....

 

Terry

[240hoke]

A lot of people don't realize the cost of having parts machined, especially in small quantities, the cost of the part though usually isnt hte biggest expense, somebody has put a lot of time in designing and testing most products this is what you pay people for.

 

Im not knocking what your doing, but make sure what you do you design on your own and not copy whats been done. Then see how the prices look and if its worth it to you.

 

I would NOT take somebodies "measurements" and make parts from them especially brake parts, unless they have them drawn up in solids works or cad. You never know how precise people measure.

[Lunar240z]

I dont think modernmotorsports or arizona zcar are getting rich off of our niche market car... have you looked at BBK's for other cars? I'd call the kits available to us inexpensive, you can do all four brakes for about the price you could do just the front for most any car.

 

and I'm glad they even choose to make such parts available to us.

[z bomb]

Thanks for the replys gentlemen..

Let me first say that I am definitely not trying to copy anybodies hard earned work. I should have made that clearer.

I am trying to seek people who have made their own parts and brackets to post their measurements for the benefit of the community.

Not only that, maybe someone can post the measurements to certain stock parts that are commonly replaced, or hard to find.

My first thoughts were front and rear caliper mounting brackets. If I can get the offset needed from flange to caliper mounting position, the extra plates can be made for cheap and welded together by a competent welder, and will be strong enough with the right metal. Not only that, other calipers can be measured and the width can be modified easily.

That being said, flanges should be easy to have made for cheap. Making brackets are easy. Hell welding heim joints or other stuff you can get from mcmaster-carr isn't that hard.

I'm just one of those people who wants to do everything myself. It isn't that hard if you know what your doing. That's why having everybody on this site working on their own stuff is so cool.

Maybe I'll rethink what I'm looking for and start anew.

Oh, and BBK's? are you talking stoptech?

[johnc]

Deisgning the part and testing it are the most time consuming aspects of product development. Actually amking the part is reasonably inexpensive if there's enough volume to make a production run. A vendor (like me) needs to recoup his design and development costs over the expected sale slife of the product.

 

In the S30 world, most production runs are for 10 to 25 items so development costs are a pretty high percentage of the cost of each part sold. In most other (profitable) automotive markets, development costs are a very small percentage of the thousands of parts produced. From research I've done, the entire Datsun and Nissan aftermarket is smaller then the market for any one of these three brands of cars: Civic, Mustang, and Camaro.

 

The fact that any vendors tries to service this market is suprising. I question my market choice every day...

[wonderllama]

Deisgning the part and testing it are the most time consuming aspects of product development. Actually amking the part is reasonably inexpensive if there's enough volume to make a production run. A vendor (like me) needs to recoup his design and development costs over the expected sale slife of the product.

 

In the S30 world, most production runs are for 10 to 25 items so development costs are a pretty high percentage of the cost of each part sold. In most other (profitable) automotive markets, development costs are a very small percentage of the thousands of parts produced. From research I've done, the entire Datsun and Nissan aftermarket is smaller then the market for any one of these three brands of cars: Civic, Mustang, and Camaro.

 

The fact that any vendors tries to service this market is suprising. I question my market choice every day...

 

while this is true, i think a fairly good point is that the hardest part of making a part like a brake caliper bracket is manufacturing the bracket. in this example, you are either going to have to machine it from stock, or weld two pieces together at the correct offset. either way, you'd have to be fairly decent at either skill to make a usable part.

 

and while brackets will have research time involved, i'd say that anyone capable of fabrication is also capable of engineering the part. i'd wager that most of the posters in this forum are lacking in at least one of the three main categories to manufacturing their own parts; skillset, time, and tools.

 

 

that's why i don't believe that having a drawing will do most people any good, and they will buy the parts from the vendors like always. the people who will benefit from these specs will be the people that would have built these parts themselves anyways.

 

either way, it doesn't seem like anyone is interested in doing this anyway. especially since i had made a similar thread eariler that didn't even get a reply: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=127533

[JMortensen]

Just a warning in advance, there are some very anal retentive people who will naysay just about any new product with or without cause. So many people have been torn a new one when they come up with a new product that it really is kind of upsetting. Some of the criticism is justified, some of it is (in my opinion) people demanding a level of testing that isn't really feasible for such a small aftermarket.

[rztmartini]

you might want to look into the cv adapter (ZXT cv -> S30 companion flange) that someone posted a drawing of. seemed pretty straight-forward...as long as it was made out of a strong stainless. maybe the person who drew it up might post the pic again.

[z bomb]

Wow, thanks people,

Especially jmortensen-read probably 25 posts of yours a day.

So testing seems to be the biggest issue.

I don't want to make a business out of it, and I'm thinking if there's any welding involved people can do it themselves or have a competent individual do it, if there is a preference for that instead.

So let me put it this way and see what happens.

I want to make my own disc brake brackets and such listed above.

I would be willing to make extras of course, and provide them for as cheap as I can.

I would love to hear from some people who have done this.

I will compile a complete list and add.

[Careless]

Just a warning in advance, there are some very anal retentive people who will naysay just about any new product with or without cause. So many people have been torn a new one when they come up with a new product that it really is kind of upsetting. Some of the criticism is justified, some of it is (in my opinion) people demanding a level of testing that isn't really feasible for such a small aftermarket.

 

i noticed that too, but it guess it comes with the market these people choose to produce products for.

[z bomb]

I'm going to redirect people and start this up again on wonderllamas aformentioned post. I was thinking that is a better idea.

rztmartini refer back to his post because I need to do my suspension upgrades soon since the car will be out of paint.

Thanks everybody for the posts.

[mull]

Anyway, here are some turbo flanges I came across.

 

 

T25:

 

T3:

 

T4:

 

T4 pulse split:

[bjhines]

How about some Aluminum Door Hinges.

[Careless]

How about some Aluminum Door Hinges.

 

Home Depot already carries those