Car Parts / Bumper Manufacturing in the USA

First, you have to make them in the USA. You don't say where you are, or where your car parts will be manufactured.

Brakes, belts, hoses, air and oil filters are all high volume items. Capital investment in factory is relatively low.

Thanks for your reply.

Sorry, I forgot; I live in Connecticut. However at this point I am really not sure where I can establish business. From what I have read on the internet: CT seems to have a higher tax rate on businesses, land is expensive and the state does not care to bring in businesses unless it is high tech. I could be wrong in my assumption at this point. Any ida will be appreciated.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

KK

Get the Chinese to stamp MADE IN THE USA on the products

Bazzer

Keep in mind you are competing with the Chinese, who can copy anything in the world practically overnight! Seek something they can't do for some obscure reason.

My suggestion is replacement headlights made of glass. The plastic ones dull and get dangerous.

Thank you Mike K. Your idea is quite novel. There's got to be glass headlights manufacturers somewhere in the US. Please let me know of any other idea/thought you may have. Seems like there are less and less manufacturing options left for us in the US. I will run your suggestion by someone I met recently; he was head of manufacturing at Pratt & Whitney in CT and when P&W shipped all manufacturing off-shore, he was moved to the Q/C dept.

Chinese also manufacture after market glass headlamp units that replace the plastic headlamps.

Have to think of something that is a lower volume niche.

Custom tailored tires perhaps?

In factories.

Part likes bumpers and tyres are in demand.

I have a friend in the South of France who makes replacement engine parts for older rare cars. He has a very nice business and seemingly makes a good living. He probably charges around $1000 for a new coolant neck for a Ferrari. He does drive a Ferrari himself. I have another friend who makes parts for WWII warbirds. A coolant neck for a P40 goes for around $1500.

Besides the licensing problems you may have from the auto manufacturers (they took down a large number of reproduction parts suppliers some 20 years ago), you will have a serious distribution and marketing problem. In fact, distribution and marketing will turn out to be harder problems to solve than making parts.

The one place that might work is to make parts for automobiles for which nobody has stepped up to the plate. Example:

I have a 1988 RV with a Chevrolet 454 engine. During a session to get the carburetor working properly, a solenoid valve that keeps engine speed up when the vehicle comes to a stop, failed. GM had sold all their older smog components for this engine to a company that specializes in reselling old parts. Their price for this simple solenoid that just bled vacuum was $ 365. Fortunately, I was able to clean it up in my shop and deliver it back to the mechanic.

I remember when I was restoring an Opel GT that I went to the Buick dealer to buy some body parts and they told me to order everything I wanted right now because GM had recalled all Opel GT parts because they had sold them to another one of the companies that would then overcharge for replacement parts.

Niche products might be a profitable area.

Otherwise, I think you will find, if you attend a large hot rod show, that the SEMA manufacturers have got almost everything covered. You can even buy all the parts to make a brand new Camaro, a few old Fords, etc. It is a big bucks arena.

So what you are saying is that YOU would have absolutely NO problem whatsoever if your employer knocked 25% off of YOUR wages. I may be wrong, but if I understood your reply , you feel that if everyone simply took a 25% pay cut , everything would be peachy keen and the Chinese problem would just disappear. Seeing as how the government does not have much to do with how much money someone is paid for most factory type labor , except for the fact that there IS a federal minimum wage law, one would assume that you feel that the greedy thieves who are working for minimum wage are about 25% overpaid, and should have NO problem working for less than six bucks an hour .If they are union workers , well then they just HAVE to be overpaid and should gladly work for less, right?. My question to you is: Since this is YOUR idea of what is wrong and YOUR plan of how to fix the problem, hows about it if YOU be the first one to gleefully accept the 25% pay reduction?

It seems strange for some reason, everytime that I hear someone spout off about USA workers making too much money, the guy doing the talking for some reason, NEVER seems to think that HE should have to take any type of pay cut, as HE , naturally ,is NEVER ,EVER part of the problem. This type of guy ALWAYS thinks that everybody except HIM should take the pay cut.

By the way, I am self employed and do not work for minimum wage, nor do i carry a union card. I DO, however see people EVERYDAY who piss and moan about problems in this country, but will still ,when given a choice, buy the cheapest piece of garbage , made in China, just to save a couple of bucks, when they could easily buy a better American made product for more money. They are just TOO DAMN CHEAP to do so. Strangely , these also seem to be the same guys that bitch about EVERYONE ELSE making too much money

I think the idea is that there is no point in spending $X to make something which can only be sold at $3/4X. If it costs $X, it doesn't get made, and the labor force is out of work. If the cost of labor can be reduced, more people work.

[p]Of course, one way to reduce the cost would be to reduce the taxes and other imposed expenses. Nah! Never happen!

[p]Historical note: March, 1921. As Wilson leaves office unemploymeent is about 15% (statistics are "soft"). Harding cuts taxes and government expenditures, reverses "progressive" Wilsonian policies. Nine months later, unemployment is down to 2.4%. Why don't the fools in Washington read history?

Don't you realize they KNOW what "works" and what doesn't? The Globalists really don't WANT this country to recover, because if we can't generate capital, then the dollar will fall, and the Globalist "Powers That Be"(--which Joel Skousen uses in his brilliant letters informing about the Globalists, and the World situation, in his "World Affairs Newsletter") will "throw us the bone" of World Socialist Government, which they've WANTED since Weishaupt's Illuminati were formed way back when. Wilson was told what to say/do by the Globalist-advisor, "Col. House", and, as a "Progessive", Wilson (House's)'s policies were a disaster. When govt. interferes with economics, it is ALWAYS a disaster. FDR INVITED Pearl Harbor as a means of getting us into MORE govt.-spending/power( by going to war). A recovery of sorts occured because we still had means of production in '40s America. We'll probably go to war with Iran, maybe leading to WWIII, because that's the PLANNED, 3rd World War,--a sufficient "shock" to cause us to embrace World Govt(-the Globalists think), so then the Globalists will have WON! Satan will have won (temporarily), because the Globalists at the top are kept in harness and not talking about their perfidy due to those members being filmed observing Satanic rituals/pedophilia/other reprehensible conduct. Now that anything can be fabricated in film, the members that wish to "break-away" OUGHT to be able to tell us what's going on...if they will. Sometimes love of power/money is sufficient to "hold" Conspiracy members in silence, as we move towards a Soviet-style, Global Governance. Who ARE these members? They're in: the Bilderbergers, the CFR, the Tri-laterals,--other organs, and they move in and out of business & govt. Clinton had the "triple-crown" membership in all three. Sometimes the "top-guy" is just a puppet. O'Bama RUN by Soros/Greens, Bush RUN by Cheney/neo-cons, FDR by the Communist Party. So make your car parts/bumpers as a pay as you go hobby, maybe only using a 3-D as a "prototyper," but if you made un-obtainable(NOS-sources dried-up, gone) "high-line" (--Classics, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, etc) parts, you probably could make a living either conventionally or via 3-D, because the MONEY charged for a "high-line" part is a LOT or it wouldn't be called, "high-line."

You don't "know" me at all! I'm NOT Saying what you THINK I'm saying! I'm NOT against unions, just their globalist leadership, which, if you REALLY were an entrepreneur, you'd object to also, imo(-which you haven't done...Hm...). I'm in FAVOR of the German-form of running unions. I'm ALSO IN FAVOR of TARIFFS which BUILT the Middle-class of this country(-and would PROTECT & GROW unions!). We don't NEED anything from any other country, and a strong middle-class is disappearing in this country, DUE to the Globalist-Media-laborleader-Demoncratic-"Commie-party"-government-Conspiracy-Complex. The Red Chinese and their ilk CANNOT be competed-against, because the Reds utilize SLAVE LABOR, so at the END of eliminating the Middle-class, you ALSO could cause the deaths of millions, HERE, which you have NOT addressed, have you? I GAVE a solution(3-D replication)--what do YOU offer but comments about what you THINK... I'm saying? Your apology, sir? I won't hold my breath waiting.

Intellectual property laws DO NOT stop those from the middle kingdom manufacturing non-OEM parts.

Dear Phil: What is the "middle-Kingdom"? Those that want to ignore property-rights/intellectual...property rights(-patents)? The Japanese have been doing that when they use high-priced lawyers to dispute patent-rights from elsewhere of something they want to copy. Is that what you meant?

The term "middle kingdom" is a name used for what is commonly referred to as China - Xinhua.

That is true, but they can be blocked from entering the USA, if you can find them entering.

There have even been helicopter crashes when faked parts were introduced into the helicopter parts supply chain. These were very good copies, with copies of the carton, carton inserts, paper wrap etc. copied exactly from the original maker.

As s result, most of these parts can be purchased only from the listed suppliers provided by the helicopter maker. This has produced a huge increase in the cost of these parts.

A huge increase in the cost or just proper exposure to the real cost of producing and supplying a reliable, predictable component?

I've found that same same costs same same. There is normally a reason why things are cheaper.

What aren't you getting when you are paying less? Does it really matter sometimes?

With a de-facto monopoly the supplier can charge a large premium because the client is unable to buy from another source. The barrier to entry of a second supplier of certified parts is enormous, so much so that other entrants never emerge. The USA requires that the makers of helicopters supply drawing and specifications to other valid suppliers so that a degree of competition can ensue, but these are MIL-SPEC parts and quite costly anyway. MIL-SPEC inspection procedures are complex and have a number of tiers. I have even found 1/4 watt resistors that are a civilian item at $4-5 per thousand, selling for over $100 each, with each one with it's own x-ray film to show zero defects.

Those resistors may be functionally identical but they do come with a "proof" of reliability.

Then again having an xray in the first place didn't stop a failure and the need to have a certified spare ...Hmm.

As much as monopolistic practices are abhorred in modern economic teaching there is still mention in the texts of what are known as "natural monopolies" where it is in everybody's best interest that a monopoly exists in some sectors.

I don't think that helicopters as reliable as Chev Cavaliers would be a good thing.

These parts were for the fabrication of gyroscopes by Sperry. The USA procurement process required 100% test and certification of all the components going into the build.

A contract cancellation resulted in enough parts to build almost 1000 of the gyroscopes being scrapped and sold at a bid sale by the USA military. certain parts had to be destroyed as sensitive, others were sold. I remember getting these resistors in a parts lot in the 80's

Thank you all for the information. It is possible that some Chinese manufacturer may be interested in setting up manufacturing shops in the US. I am going to check with a few auto parts dealers to see if there is any demand for headlight lenses made of glass. My big question is: if Chinese can make every concievable auto part in China and legally export and sell it in the US, why can't I do the same in the US. Does using a manufacturer's part's schematic for reproduction violates copy rights? Is this a legal question? Has GM authorized certain Chinese manufacturers for parts and would not allow me to do the same in the US? I mean, beside competing against cheap Chinese-made auto parts and auto bumpers, what else do I need to worry about in the US?

Well, the unions would hate you from the day you opened your doors and would try to unionize your factory, union stooges would apply to work there and they are trained to make the other employees question why they can not get the same wages as the union plant in Detroit. Greed and the desire to better themselves will make some sign up, maybe enough to get above 50%?? They would then bargain/strike for a first contract and start the march towards $75 per hour total compensation package (wages and fringe benefits etc at Detroit area shops) then away goes any hope of competing with Chin. You will be portrayed as a rich and greedy capitalist, making millions off the workers, and you could easily afford those wage rates. Workers in auto plants are not a brain trust, they are people who can not (for the most part) compete in the workforce in the real world. Their job has been fragmented into many simple and brainless tasks to such a degree that a worker can be trained into a task in a few hours. That said, the work may well be tiring, because you must keep up the pace, but it is not mentally challenging - rather it is stultifying. The UAW will not allow high order automation to further reduce the labor input, but each year more jobs are lost to high order automation.

Then you can not copy the GM/FORD/CHRYSLER parts exactly, you would be charged with copyright infringement. There may be patent issues as well. Then you must sell them to the makers or NAPA shops - it is a stern chase. These things are in a decline in the USA/ROW - save for China/India and a few other low wage places. All done by the holy grail of free trade

Thank you Aurizon. Your point on legal matters and labor union well taken. I have a question: How do manufacturers engineer aftermarket auto parts? Case in point: I have a 2003 Maxima; someone bumped into my car and broke the rear driver side tail light. The dealership quoted me $210 for the OEM part and $86 for the aftermarket made in China. Well, I chose the aftermarket and now, my tail light looks like new. My question is: How did people in China decide the geometric/schematic shape of the 03 Maxima driver side rear tail light and made one that is accurate to a +- 1mm. If I am the owner of Nissan, can I take an aftermarket mufacturer to court for selling an auto part that looks, fits and behaves just like my own OEM part? When I build a new computer, I study numerous designs, options and manufacturers and then, I put together a system that comprises both OEM and aftermarket parts. Car manufacturers I am told do many of these things as well - components built by companies that can be anywhere in the world provided the components fit and are cost effective. Your thoughts.

Happy Holidays.

KK

I suspect you will find that it is not a precise copy, it just looks similar.

Dealers have huge racket in replacement plastic, which costs about $2 per pound, as made. Car makers use it to sustain the dealer network.

Check the OEM part. Even money says it was made in China.

You've noticed that too?

Original and aftermarket parts are made in the same factory.(in China)

Some go out through the front door (with a nice badge) and a lot goes out through the back door.

Of course some of the backdoor items are QC rejects. Only some of them and they have their own price that closely correlates with the good to bad ratio.

You can order good unbadged widgets or badged widgets. The extra cost is in the badging.

Any fruit peddler can be a high tech manufacturer with their own badge.

You may also have a so called "gray Market" part. The Maxima is sold in many countries, some of which have a far lower standard of living. They also have lower fuel, safety and other standards, and sell for less. Similarly replacement parts also sell for less.

Manufacturers have failed to enforce design/copyright laws (but they have tried mightily) to prevent trans shipment of genuine parts from these third world countries.

One big example, is Viagra, which sells for $20 per pill in Canada and about $2 in India. Same stuff. They make the color different and use that to claim it is a different drug, and they win, in part. Indian pharmacies sell millions of them into the USA for $3 or so. They recently busted a pharmacy in Toronto for selling "fake" Viagra. When it cam to trial it emerged that it was genuine viagra, but made in the USA for the Indian market with a different color being the only difference.

There are also many fake meds made in Africa of powder of no value, so care is needed. The Africans fake any and all medicines, so beware...

Then there are the '57 Chev body panels that are made in Taiwan. Nothing is sacred.....

Dear Friends: Taiwan? I thought that was Indonesia? There IS a "saving grace" to USA manufacturing, and that is the 3-D replicator. Usually used for design/modeling/prototyping, Jay Leno has kept members of his 200+ car fleet going by using the 3-D replicator to make, I believe from a drawing, a water-pump for one of these brass-era cars that only two exist, in the World! Starting at $14K, the 3-D replicator could do glass-parts, IF you had the right glass powder. The really cool thing about a 3-D, is inventory is your CHOICE, NOT a requirement, because if you were supplying exotic-parts to some Ferrari, that had a front-end impact, you could easily replace, within an hour, the glass headlight covers, making them the day of the order. They have metallic substrates/powders available, but I guess most use a plastic to reproduce what they later want to machine in metal, as others say, in Red China. The 3-D replicator, is probably the ONLY way the USA will ever get its industry back, because the "Powers That Be" are Globalists and the Globalist agenda is to DE-industrialize all western nations and move production to the Third-world, so that if we are attacked again, like might happen from Iran/N. Korea,shortly, to re-elect O'Bama, we will NOT be able to "win" any world-war, next time, because we have moved our arsenals overseas. Labor is complicent in this. The Germans had a system WE put in place, where some labor-leaders HAVE to sit on the corporate boards to ensure that the labor-contracts don't KILL the jobs/production in Germany. Here, some of big labor are penetrated by the Globalists, so they don't CARE that production moves overseas, trashing future union jobs, because they WANT govt. to "take-over" all production (socialism). Right now, 3-Ds are too small to make long pieces of work, being no larger than a dishwasher. 3-Ds need to be made larger(or longer), so frame-rails, full-size engine-blocks and body parts can be replicated. I don't know how expensive the metallic powders are, to be able to figure-out how much you'd have to charge to PAY for the purchase/running of the 3-D you'd use, yourself, plus... a decent income(profit) on top. When you DO decide on a product and place to do your manufacturing, also plan for a significant loss of power, as our electric-Grid will be taken down in an attack of any kind, against us, and once(if) it comes back, power WILL be "rationed". Oh, there is not now, but WILL BE, a HUGE demand for transformers, --new/re-conditioned, as an (EMP)attack would trash all of those, and they have no known domestic production. Remember the US Constitution defends all people BETTER than any other system, especially the fascism that is currently Sharia.

mercendarian: 3-D Replicator is an excellent idea. Can you tell me where I can locate the makers? I looked on the internet and noted that almost every manufacturing outfit in China is using replicator technology but I dod not see any that you may be referring to. As for the glass powder, I heard that Corningware in upstate NY has the largest glass museum and they specialize in all kinds of glass. Maybe it will be worth to contact Corningware and ask? Not sure who else would provide pur glass powder.

Thank.

I'm afraid you don't understand how expensive 3D printing can be.

The machines are expensive, the software to drive them is expensive and the supplies are unbelievably expensive.

Plus, of course, you have to have some sort of 3D MCAD software to either develop the design or to clean up a scan of an object you are reverse engineering.

When you move from plastic to metal printing, the price escalates again. I have not heard of being able to print in glass (yet).

Consider 3D printing to be another career by the time you get done learning all the ins and outs.

Before you go further, talk to a few service bureaus.

I've had a set of patterns and core boxes printed for a scale model marine engine I'm making. The 4 pieces, less than a foot long by 4 by 2 inches with quite a bit 'scooped out', came to $1400. If I'd know a bit more about what I was doing, I'd have made the patterns and core boxes as shells on the backsides so as to save the cost of the consumables. Still, you cannot make something and charge the customer what it cost if you are trying to make tail lights or headlights. Way too expensive.

Thank you mrehmus. 3D printing can get a bit too expensive from what you explained. Do you have and link(s) to get me to see what these things look like? I cannot find/see them in my Google search when I key in 3D printing; maybe Google on my old computer is also getting tired of me. This is something I can leave for ongoing research and maybe perhaps make it my next profession if I have time and money.

Regards.

3D Printing as a search term brings a lot of hits.

The term, Rapid Prototyping is also a good one.

http://cadcam4u.com/ is the company I used. BTW, the $1400 was a discounted price. A commercial price would have been about $1900.

Here is a free idea that might have some merit.

Ever note the number of cars on the road with a caved in bumper? Or with heavy scratches on their bumper?

Why not make a thin plastic overlay that would restore the original bumper contours and colored in original factory colors. Wouldn't have to 'cover' all cars, just the most popular.

Or, how about a thin horizontal bumper strip that could be attached to bumpers to keep them from being scratched?

Good advice - don't do it. Or rather, don't do it unless it's a hobby and you're prepared to lose the money.

I have a successful background in entrepreneurship and now I work with early stage businesses helping them commercialise technology. I meet lots of very clever people with great ideas. Maybe 5% can turn them into profitable businesses.

I think you fall into the group of people who don't actually want to run a business. They want to work with a particular technology. If you want to make stuff for fun that's brilliant. If you want to run a profitable business you need to be excited by all the stuff that goes with it - marketing, sales, operations, logistics, cashflow, tax provision...... all the complexities of a business operation.

By all means do this as a hobby business. A friend of mine manufactures specialist handles for fun and sells them online. He doesn't make much money and when we added in his time, the capital cost of his home workshop, HLP & everything else he's actually making a small loss. But he's enjoying himself and that's what counts. So by all means spend your cash having a good time, however you want to do that. Please don't 'invest' it in this business though.

Happy New Year. Manufacturing jobs are rolling back to the US but with less money.

I heard that GE is bringing its manufacturing jobs back from China to the US and is rehiring workers for its factories. GE kept most of its core manufacturing products (Refrigirators, stove and dish washers) in the US and is starting to fill the factories back up. This is happening in Louisville and (if I am right) in Michigan as well. And the hiring is still going on. So I hope that 2012 brings hopes and jobs to many in America. From what I have been reading, it seems like the costs in labor per unit manufactured is going up in China and thus some corporations are realizing this variance and are starting to get their old workforce and core businesses back in shape in the US. Nontheless, GE did the following before it decided to start rehiring: A. It got substantial tax breaks from the local/state governments and, B. it made a contractual agreement with the local workers/labor unions that it (GE) will rehire the laid off workers at a shrunken rate of $10 to $15 per hour less than their comparable workers still working at the factories; part of the contract also states that the rehired houlyr wage workers may not get/expect an increase in wages (until economy gets better). In this regard, the local governments and the workers unions are hush-hush about this whole scheme. The consensus is that low pay is better than no pay. One thing that must also be kept in mind that the latest trends in Lean Manufacturing and automation would perhaps never allow an increase in labor as much as it happened in the 1970's. The federal bureau of labor predicts that within the next 5-7 years, we (US) shall have more than 30 percent "lost" jobs back in the US. I am really also waiting for the day to offer the Chinese (and Indian) manufacturers and service bureaus to move their plants/businesses to America - I am quite sure we can help them with the effort.

Cheap labour is not and never should be The US's competitive niche.

(dare I say) Monopolise a high entry barrier niche.

Go for unique utility (bespoke design), supreme quality and reliability.

Anyone can build a factory and fill it with workers.

It wouldn't hurt to stop training your competitors for a while. Time to be smart and sneaky.