I have done some but not alot. What does it do to you? Allergic reaction?
Cley
Cley
Yeah, in summer it gets in your pores and itchy itchy itchy. Winter not so bad.I have done some but not alot. What does it do to you? Allergic reaction?
Cley
Those logistics were also going through my head... I was sounding like such a Debbie Downer that I didn't want to mention the logistics that come through my head...I have been in negotiations with the guy but I fear I may not have enough room to store all the molds etc. Still undecided. It's still up in the air.
Cley
I really do appreciate your comments! I have heated space to work on them. I have many work benches and saw horses to work on. I have the majority of the tools needed already. Realistically I will likely only be using a small portion of the molds, at least off the start. I will not pay to store my molds that I am not using. That is just pissing money away in my mind. I will consider buying a trailer for storage because I have places to keep it for free.Those logistics were also going through my head... I was sounding like such a Debbie Downer that I didn't want to mention the logistics that come through my head...
I really want to encourage you on whatever you choose to do in life cuz I know you're a straight shooter...
Well the molds are one thing like you're saying where do you put them and where do you work on them? Do they need to be temperature controlled and not just an old cold Barn? Time to work on them between family work other hobbies and so forth... I'm sure there has to be a laundry list of personal protection hand tools workbenches and probably a lot of it needs to people at least.... Beyond the fiberglass the resins the release resins for the forms cleaning everything....
Experimenting and throwing stuff away as if your very first ones going to be perfect....
I would wonder about keeping all the molds like you said for a sell-off but doing something like specializing in something that's easily shipped easily produced in a quality manner that can be extremely cost-effective for the customer and yourself.... You know like just specializing in bumpers and hood scoops and stuff like that... And some custom designs...I also have ideas of some new items I could produce if I go this route. Mostly A body mopar stuff.
Cley
If you are going to be a one man band with a deal like that you’ll lose your *** right quick. You will be doing everything including shipping and answering phones. You won’t be able to price the stuff high enough for the volume of product you can produce to make it worth while.
It’s one thing if it’s a hobby, but from the looks of the number of moles it’s not a hobby business. If you run it like a hobby business it will surely fail.
And the tire kickers have already chimed in. Price it so it’s “affordable”. And that’s the problem bringing most anything to market in this hobby. They have no clue how long it takes to produce the product, the cost of materials to make the thing, lights and other overheads and then boxing the part up well enough so the block headed morons in the trucking industry don’t kill the part getting it to the customer.
And, if it doesn’t come out of the box ready for paint the bitching will commence pronto. Most guys have never worked with fiberglass, so they haven’t a clue how much labor it takes to get that stuff straight enough to even remotely look like steel panels.
And if you do make them even fairly close, you shoot your price point right in the ***.
I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m saying spend a bunch of time looking at what it really takes to make a fiberglass hood (as one example) from the raw materials to the finished product and then add in shipping costs. Shipping is a killer on stuff like that.
And don’t forget the budget some time for every sale you actually make. And for every sale you do make, expect to budget time for the 50 tire kickers who will call and blow your ear off and never buy anything. And budget some phone time to deal with all the issues that come with selling someone something.
You can go broke very quickly doing a onesie, twosie deal when you add up all the time it takes. Or you actually take money out of your pocket to build and sell parts.
Just my opinion. Tread carefully.
Fit & finish is the greatest problem with some of the glass pieces out there. If you have GREAT MOLDS & GREAT QC before they leave your facility you have half of the battle won.
I don't know that's that balance... While it seems like there's 10 times more market for Brand x maybe your niche is in Mopar..That's a buttload of molds, but what's the quality of them?
Without putting a lot of thought into it, you would need to staff approx 6 people in various aspects to make it functional/profitable.
I bet you could make as much profit selling off the brand X molds as actually making the parts?
Good luck!
And I think AAR=Stinger?? If so, their rep is going downhill fast from what I've read here.
I don't know that's that balance... While it seems like there's 10 times more market for Brand x maybe your niche is in Mopar..