Making molds of a part or 2
are you planing on selling these? and if so what kind of legality steps need to be taken? I have a guy that wants to look into repopping some parts but I dont feel like getting sued....
Nope I'm not interested in putting them on the market to sell exclusively. but I have to do something with the extras don't I? I've always wondered about the convertible top people and the carpet people. plus if china does the legality thing. did they pay each and every company a fee for making convertible tops ,carpets,door panels and seat covers? I know of at least 3 interior company's that have taken patterns from old seats,side panels and door panels and never once have they had to pay a royalty fee. some of these companies sell to legendary and year one. I have no idea what steps are involved in licensing the part for a chrysler logo or exact reproduction part and don't think it's worth the effort to do it for a low volume part. now if it was an E-body convertible side panel where I could get thousands for the thing them I'd have to look into getting it licensed so I could make mega bucks for that and not have to worry some one will repop em cheaper. for my lowly A-bodies MEH! I'll do it cause I want to and love every minute of it.
I'm building the molds for me. I've looked for a pentastar or a part number stamped into the part and can't find one , so it was a small aftermarket/parts supplier that originally made those. I'm not making an exact copy of the side panel for purist's but a replacement part that fit's better and will be thicker +.010 so it'll last longer. plus not made out of the same material.(they used styrene) I'm shooting for an ABS run. It'd be sort of hard for them to sue me , not that they wouldn't try if they could, and might. but for a limited run of parts to fix My darts with some extra's I don't think they'd bother me.
I have 2 darts and in order to get the part made by the vacuformer guy I deal with he need to make 15 sets to use all of his machine and not waste plastic. yeah I'll have extra's but that the price I'm willing to pay to get good covers. later I'll decide what to do with the extra's to recoup some of the money I'll have to spend to get them made. I've seen them on ebay and the cracked ones go for 100+ and they want stupid prices for the complete panel WITHOUT the SS trim! I can even get him to mold up the panels out of 1/4 or 3/16 plastic so that they would never crack or rot again (if I make a mold first. again this one 's a 30 minimum set run, so it ain't happening soon. same with the modified kick panels with speaker kick outs. (these ARE happening since I want some of the speaker kick panels that won't rot from my wet feet hitting the side panel) again I have to make the mold for him to save cost and match it up to the dart, at 50 bucks a change I'm going to be pretty sure everything is perfect before I get him to run 30 sets of those.
ohh and a real form fitted glove box. like I had in the original dart instead of the fold up cardboard one. I finally scored a good one to get a mold off of that too! again not a perfect reproduction since I'm not making the grooves on the outside of the glove box and a completely new material and not putting in the stiffener since .120 HIP plastic is Wayyyyyyyy stiffer than the pressboard was.
