For the people that REALLY want or need them, yes, I think selling a 100 sets in a year could happen. There are a lot of Hurst, Sport Fury GT and 300 collectors that want these as do others with very nice fuselage C Bodies.
AMC Volcano Center Cap vs Chrysler Road Wheel Center Cap
- Thread starter 330dTA
- Start date
For the people that REALLY want or need them, yes, I think selling a 100 sets in a year could happen. There are a lot of Hurst, Sport Fury GT and 300 collectors that want these as do others with very nice fuselage C Bodies.
I don't know. Honestly, I don't think that would fly. Maybe, maybe at $100 ea, $400 a set, you might get that number, but I doubt it at any price over that. Even then, there's a lot of guys that say they want them, then when push comes to shove, they aren't opening their wallet and spending their confirmation money.
I've wondered if making them out of a different material would go over. I'll bet we could make them from resin plastic, poured into silicone molds, then plated. The cost would be cheap, probably less than $20 each, which could be a price point of $40-50 each.
Mine is on the car, so it's a little tough to get an accurate measurement. I'll try tomorrow, but maybe someone else with one off the car can do better.
Samplingman
Old Man with a Hat
Hope this helps.
71Polara383
Kid with ballcap
@polara71 you are a smart fella.
I lost the thought process during this thread somewhere.
Motor Wheel made the one piece aftermarket center cap on their own to sell to the general public.
AMC just put a band around their aftermarket cap and called it a day and maybe had to pay royalties to Motor Wheel - don't know.
Motor Wheel also made the Chrysler production two piece center cap for them. The dimensions of the two versions of the similar looking caps are completely different.
The tooling costs for a quality (as far as China goes) reproduction Chrysler cap plus up front costs exceeded $100,000 so it was concluded this was not a feasible project (plus as I recall, Bob was unable to find a company in the U.S. willing to take on such a low volume project to even give an estimate).
If we are really serious about wanting a reproduction cap, I believe our only reasonable source would be QQE since they do have a significant amount of reproduction resources (but their staff is currently laid off due to the virus, and they are already overloaded with Gary Goers old business as well).
I would never settle for a one piece reproduction of the center cap nor would I want a plastic reproduction either (one piece or two piece). For me, it would have to be just the same as original made out of metal.
As big John said, C body guys seem to be nortorious for saying they want a part reproduced and when it happens, few really ante up to buy them. Bob Baker has experienced that first hand, and really stays in business from the B and E body parts he reproduces - not the C body stuff.
Motor Wheel made the one piece aftermarket center cap on their own to sell to the general public.
AMC just put a band around their aftermarket cap and called it a day and maybe had to pay royalties to Motor Wheel - don't know.
Motor Wheel also made the Chrysler production two piece center cap for them. The dimensions of the two versions of the similar looking caps are completely different.
The tooling costs for a quality (as far as China goes) reproduction Chrysler cap plus up front costs exceeded $100,000 so it was concluded this was not a feasible project (plus as I recall, Bob was unable to find a company in the U.S. willing to take on such a low volume project to even give an estimate).
If we are really serious about wanting a reproduction cap, I believe our only reasonable source would be QQE since they do have a significant amount of reproduction resources (but their staff is currently laid off due to the virus, and they are already overloaded with Gary Goers old business as well).
I would never settle for a one piece reproduction of the center cap nor would I want a plastic reproduction either (one piece or two piece). For me, it would have to be just the same as original made out of metal.
As big John said, C body guys seem to be nortorious for saying they want a part reproduced and when it happens, few really ante up to buy them. Bob Baker has experienced that first hand, and really stays in business from the B and E body parts he reproduces - not the C body stuff.
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330dTA
Senior Member
My initial idea was just to show the AMC repop caps that I had to settle for, as it’s practically impossible to source the ’69-’74 Chrysler caps from where I’m standing. Not absolutely impossible, but very unlikely, i.e. practically impossible.
However, I was very quorious to find out, what kind of differences exactly are there in their measurements. I’m the sort of person who does not settle for offhand remarks. I want numbers. And thanks to the wonderful members here, I found out. I think this thread clarified things quite a bit.
As to the remanufacturing possibilities, I have no such pretensions. Which does not stop me from making an effort to have a 3D model made of the Chrysler cap. It would be one step towards the remanufacturing.
I truly hope, and I’m sure many members here share this thought, that someone, somewhere pulls off with the remanufacturing. Be it QQE, or somebody else.
3175375
Senior Member
I concur. However, I don’t believe that the NRE / setup would be in the six figure area. Good grief! I had a custom ram air intake machined from a solid block of aluminum (a pair actually) for less than 50k. That included a stereolithography model and burying it in Imron. (It was a ram air intake for a liquid cooling system heat exchanger that we added to a dead spot ona transition faring in the wing root of a 727-200). That price also included FAA material cents!
That would make a lot of sense as to why the tooling still exists and is available for use. If AMC owned it, I would have expected the tooling to be controlled by Chrysler after the buyout of AMC. If it belonged to Motor Wheel, it might be a different story for how the tooling and work was contracted.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Just wait until somebody buys a super high-end 3D printer...
3175375
Senior Member
I am researching....
Hmmn. Could they be made out of polished or chrome plates aluminum? Just a thought.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Not the thermo plastic ones. The metallic composite ones.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
I am absolutely dead serious about the following.
I truly believe a laser scanning and a cnc program could turn out these things from a chunk of aluminum billet and could be made for not much more than a pair of fuzzy dice.
I truly believe a laser scanning and a cnc program could turn out these things from a chunk of aluminum billet and could be made for not much more than a pair of fuzzy dice.
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commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Polished and clear anodized.
Still not convinced on the durability of chroming aluminum.
3175375
Senior Member
I am thinking of making a mock-up from a cheaper 3D printer and then migrating to a CNC machine that will make it from billet aluminum. Finishing could be done as a final process...
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
We had aluminum chromed all the time for any of the aluminum emblems we made. They were farmed out though because we didn't do much copper plating. The ones we stamped in house from the copper alloy were plated in house and didn't need the first copper layer.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
So, because this was your field all your career, do you think this route is economically feasible?
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