Re: Here you go again.


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Posted by Jonas on Sunday, April 27, 2003 at 1:47AM :

In Reply to: Here you go again. posted by RDavis on Saturday, April 26, 2003 at 9:03PM :

Rdavis,
You gotta know the only reason I replied to this thread is because I saw your name in there! HEHE :-)
Car dealers make tons of money on new cars, it's a total scam. You cant tell me theres $42000 worth of time and material in a new diesel 1 ton truck. No way. And theres tens of thousands of them white crewcab diesel trucks out there anyways. I dont mind hammering "the man" at all, Because I know that the dealerships are getting a 3-5% kickback to sell me a truck at thier cost anyways. What we're talking about here is a limited, specialized, production run on the fenders, if he decides to do them at all and the major factor is if he can make a little profit doing it.
The fact of the matter is, if you want quality craftsmanship you have to pay for it. I've looked into having high capacity (full width) gas tanks reproduced, $400-$450. I asked the same guy to repro me a glovebox out of steel. He said $45 or something like that. I thought that was pretty good so when I put it out to the forum and went back with a order for another 20 boxes, he said he could'nt do it. He was'nt making any money on them, he was just doing the one for me as a favor at cost because I buy a lot of steel from him and give him other business from time to time. Look at what's happening to the reproduction market now. Power Wagons Plus is shut down. Rumor is Helitool is going away. I wish the best of luck to Dave Maher, I hope he has the ability to keep it going. He needs to make fenders to go with his beds but I dont think he would want to do it when people are throwing out prices like $200 a pair. Hell, I dont think that would even cover the cost of materials the fenders are made out of (unless you just want to cut a couple of rectangles out of a sheet of 16 gauge with tin snips, bend them around a telephone pole, and call them reproduction fenders!).
I agree that $700-$800 is on the high side. Somewhere in the middle sounds fair.
I'm not in the market for fenders or beds right now, so I guess I'm looking at it through a different eye than the person who really needs them and a bunch of other parts. To be honest, I could'nt afford the final cost on a reproduction one anyways. (2000 for the sides then you will have to ship it, find or fab a floor, wood, front panel and tailgate, then come up with some fenders). For $3000 I can build one heck of a nice flatbed, with ironwood flooring, nice headache rack w tiedowns and probably a dump mechanism of some type also or a side tipper(those are neat!). I think that the reproduction stuff is worth it, but not to me as I like flatbeds just as much (If not better, from a functionality stand point, a utility box would be grand also!)
But at the same time just think, If no one made reproduction stuff, would it make the original stuff more valueable? To the distinguished collector, yes, probably. But then all people would see are the junky beat up trucks, with smashed up fenders and stove in cabs and beds. The overall value of the power wagons in general would IMHO go down. You talked about getting back to "original" prices. If you had a brand new '53 Power Wagon and had to sell it, would you advertise it for $3156.27 (the original price)? I so, I'll send you a deposit.
But, again, I digress. I'm truly sory if my gyp comment offended you. I did'nt mean it to. I wrote it tounge in cheek.
Honestly, I just like getting into a friendy debate with you, as you tend to put up a hell of a good fight!



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