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71 SS Monte Bumper Pad Survey


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A company in California called Proud Inc (owned by a very nice gentleman) was reproducing the rubber strip. He retired a couple of years ago and sold the mold etc to another company in called Precision Replacement Parts. My conversations with the President of Precision has left me with the impression that IF he decides to reproduce this part, it will retail for $300 to $400. I get that it is a rare part and might be worth that to someone doing a concourse restoration but it is still a chunk of rubber with a metal strip and some bolts in it. Considering he already has the mold and the basic amount of raw materials involved, in my opinion it is worth a couple of hundred bucks (Proud Inc was charging less than that)

If Precision decides to reproduce the rubber strip(he emailed me back today saying that he hasn't decided whether to reproduce the part or not)and it ends up with a retail price of $400 or more, as far as I'm concerned, he can keep it. I have a back bumper in mint condition with bumper guards also in mint condition and actually prefer the look of them over the factory SS bumper strip. There's a bumper strip on Ebay right now priced at $395 and take a close look at the photos of it. It looks grey instead of black and I question how it would look installed.

Cheers,

Larry

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That's what I wondered as well Andy. I don't know much about the rubber injection molding process but my brother in law certainly does. He used to repair the machines that are used for making rubber parts and now he sells the machines. I will talk with him about it. The machines are extremely expensive and so are the molds. The guy at Precision already has both so I don't understand why he wouldn't just go ahead and produce the part. I suspect that the problem is this. The part is so specific for a limited number of cars that he would only need to produce say 50 or so. But once the press is running, lets say he goes ahead and makes 100 of them. Based on the demand, I'd say he would sell about 40 right off. At $300 each retail, he would probably be looking at about $200 in profit per rubber strip but I'm guessing at that. So on the run of 100, he would see and immediate return of $8000 profit approx. on the initial 40. He is a businessman and not a passionate Monte nut like we are. Is $8000 enough for him to go ahead with the production of them? I have no idea but as they say....a bird in the hand.... The mold is sitting there anyway and the raw materials are cheap so I don't understand why he wouldn't just do it.

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You think he is going to make 66% profit??? If so I'm in the wrong business. Nobody makes that kind of profit that I'm aware of.

 

 

Oh, unless your in the Government business. grin

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Hey guys , this one that Rodney posted has ended but is relisted again. Now it was mentioned here by someone that it doesnt mentioned weather its a repop or not and at 395 maybe not worth it and also mentioned that it appeared the wrong color too.. Upon further looking into details and searching the seller joparts it seems that A the color should be right as when you look at the one on Toms 71 copper car and zoom in from this thread it IS the same dusty color of grey with gm used as a coating on the rubber moulds as often the bumper gaurd rubbers and 70 chevelle ss pads came that grey looking you just had to remove the film to get the solid black you want it. B. if you look at all of joparts other items for sale all 8 pages there is not 1 repop item.. They are either all nos or just slightly used but still oem parts. With that said and its relisted again i would say it most likely based on all that info to be a real nos item and with the prices of repops nowadays at the guessing of $300 how could this most likely nos one not be worth the $395 as oem or nos parts are usually way higher look at the sheet metal gm prices like a rear quarter, some $2000. So if this is real then $395 for a gm part nos or not in its shape and the existance of them still is less then sheet metal then it should be worth it isnt it.????

Just my 2 cents worth and the fact mine is a 70 and it wont fit plus there are 2 different posting on this item and 4 pages of threads and its still up for grabs... Haha

Darren.

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Buckhorn Rubber Products has a plant here in town and at least one more in Michigan. I worked at the one here for 9 1/2 years. They have injection molding machines and compression molding where the raw stock is placed in the mold and then the halves are pressed together. I wonder if the bumper strip mold is for injection or compression. Maybe if the current owner won't reproduce the part, he would sell the mold to help out the Monte nuts.

 

The actual process of making the part isn't quite as simple and cheap as some may think. The metal parts to be embedded in the rubber must first be prepped. Are the embedded bolts all on one metal strip or are they individuals with no metal connecting them? Any metal embedded in rubber must be cleaned and then coated with a product to allow the rubber to adhere. I don't remember the name of the coating. It's been 24 yrs since I worked there. The metal part or parts must be hand loaded into the mold and then the part must have the flashing trimmed by hand after the rubber cures. They'll be checked for quality and then sent to the shipping department. I doubt many large rubber plants would be willing to stock them and ship single parts to individuals. They normally ship by the hundreds or more to companies like Caterpillar, Kenworth, Ford, GM.

 

My brother is the assistant plant manager at a rubber products plant in Keokuk, Iowa. That's only an hour from here. If the mold owner would consider selling it to a group of "investors", I'd check with my brother and see if his company may be able to help us out.

 

Just throwing out another angle.

 

Dan

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Hi guys, I stand corrected on the Rubber SS strip he has for sale and this is the response i got..

Hey Darren, thanks for the email. You are correct with your guess as all my parts you have seen listed are either NOS or OEM stuff from GM some with boxes and some with wrapping But with this item it is neither NOS or OEM GM as it is the only repop item I have for sale. its condition is Brand New and never used but is the closest reproduction one at that time and still today as it looks identical to the one on the back of my 71 when I had it. I bought it as a spare but have found I never used it and is now up for sale. considering there is none out there being repopped or eom I should still get $395 and thanks for asking

joparts.

 

Thats all he said but it is new and is a repop and he is right there are none out there it just depends i guess if someone wants it for $395 which isnt too high i guess seeing how the price on tires per set is and what i spent on door panels and weatherstripping then $395 would be the cheapest part i would have bought..... smilesmile.

Darren.

 

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3 years ago I got one from OPGI, and when it ended up being back ordered, I assumed it was never really going to come so I found a second one through Leo. Both were about $300. Based on the fact they are not being made anymore, $395 sounds cheap.

 

As much as people will suggest they are in for getting new ones made, when the time comes, many of those people will back out for whatever reason. If someone steps up to make them, I doubt they'll do it on spec or based on committents from people on this site. I suspect they will want a significant deposit. For those of you who really want one, you're nuts not to buy that one on Ebay. JMO.

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