Who wants a bent piece of aluminum?

[02#154]

I'm buying a roll of heavy-duty Reynold's Wrap soon!

But seriously, I'm thinking of duplicating my bent piece of aluminum and selling them to our locals for around half the price of what DF/SOS is selling them for. They would not be exact replicas of the OEM bent piece of aluminum, but they'll likely perform marginally better because of it.

I'm not 100% sure if this part would bolt on without the front bumper undertray, though. Come out to the meet to see a "genuine authentic copy of the OEM bent piece of aluminum" tomorrow night.

J

 

[CL65 Captain]

I'm buying a roll of heavy-duty Reynold's Wrap soon!

But seriously, I'm thinking of duplicating my bent piece of aluminum and selling them to our locals for around half the price of what DF/SOS is selling them for. They would not be exact replicas of the OEM bent piece of aluminum, but they'll likely perform marginally better because of it.

I'm not 100% sure if this part would bolt on without the front bumper undertray, though. Come out to the meet to see a "genuine authentic copy of the OEM bent piece of aluminum" tomorrow night.

J

I'd take one.

J

 

[RYU]

I was considering doing the same thing and never could figure out what all those holes were for. The rest of it is just bent tabs and a couple angle bars.

I'd likely buy one and can pick up next time i'm in town.

What are you doing for the front section?

 

[iCEE]

 

[Dhalsim]

I remember you complaining about the cost of that part a long time ago.

 

[02#154]

What are you doing for the front section?

I'm just really getting a feeling for whether people would want the aluminum part so no plan as of yet for the forward portion. I'm only considering the aluminum part because it's so easy to duplicate.

That said, if people want an aluminum front portion, it would probably be easy to devise a way to do both. But my original thought was to help save owners who are planning to do both a little money because theyre way overpriced IMO.

J

 

[02#154]

I'd take one.

J

Noted. But before I'd offer one to the greater population I'd want to make a few only for locals so I could assure proper fitment. Then if and only if I was sure they all always bolted on easily (proper, and repeatable manufacturing process) would I feel comfortable shipping one out.

I'll keep you in mind if I get to that point.

J

 

[hlakhani]

I might be interested in this

 

[RStom - Hungary]

I'd take one.

J

+1 for me

 

[Zishan]

I'm kind of lost here.....what bent piece of aluminum are you guys speaking of??

 

[02#154]

Note of clarification: please understand I am not offering this part to everyone. I do not know how perfect I can make these parts so I only posted it in the NorCal forum to try to limit exposure to locals who I know. This way, I can get good feedback from owners before going through a shipping process which would end up costing money if the part wasn't right. I also did not call out the part by its real name to limit hits from searches by those looking for the part.

But Lud found it appropriate to move it to the vendor thread, so here it is...

If you wish to show interest, that's cool, but the first few will be local pickup AND installation only so that I can assure myself that it's fit to be sold and shipped as a proper (and inexpensive) product.

If the product ever gets to that point, I will post a proper thread announcing availability in this forum.

Thanks for the interest so far.

J

 

[Nukem]

I'm kind of lost here.....what bent piece of aluminum are you guys speaking of??

Thank you cause I was lost too, I kind of expected this to be a joke.

 

[Dhalsim]

I'm local :biggrin:

 

[02#154]

I PM'd Zishan, but I see this may be a recurring question. Again, the locals here (and some who read the thread where I posted my impressions of the part) know what I'm talking about.

Try searching with the search terms "bent" "piece" and "aluminum" and look for a result of a thread started by me.

I apologize for the cloak and dagger effect this is creating but I honestly only wanted locals to see this and the locals know what I'm talking about.

J

 

[TURBO2GO]

I'd probably take one too

 

[ChopsJazz]

I might be interested Mike. What's the cost?

 

[02#154]

I might be interested Mike. What's the cost?

KEN,

Who's Mike? :tongue:

I have to talk to the place and see what they want. I cant imagine it would cost anywhere near what they are selling for out there. I won't make much off the folks I know. I know you but you have me confused with "The Old Perez". Once I have a few made, you get yours when you remember my name! :biggrin:

J

 

[kaede]

=) I'll be interested, if you can ship the bent peice of aluminum without having it get even more bented!!

 

[scorp965]

It's a replica of the nsx-r battery undertray (to eschew the clandestine nature of this thread), apparently downforce's $300 offering is cost-prohibitive.

 

[Chris NSX]

It's a replica of the nsx-r battery undertray (to eschew the clandestine nature of this thread), apparently downforce's $300 offering is cost-prohibitive.

I paid alot more for my OEM NSX-R battery undertray, I had the same feeling when I got it in the mail. It's just a bent piece of aluminum with a Honda part number, but $300 is not a bad of a price IMO, DF Replica NSX-R battery tray looks and function like the OEM piece.

Picture of my OEM NSX-R bumper and undertray cover.

 

[RYU]

I paid alot more for my OEM NSX-R battery undertray, I had the same feeling when I got it in the mail. It's just a bent piece of aluminum with a Honda part number, but $300 is not a bad of a price IMO, it looks and function like the OEM piece.

does any know why it's aluminum? there's no heat source there and i've always wondered why it wasn't made with structurally reinforced FRP or the sort.

 

[BATMANs]

does any know why it's aluminum? there's no heat source there and i've always wondered why it wasn't made with structurally reinforced FRP or the sort.

From my experience FRP is really not as nice as aluminum since it will have to be heavier to be able to withstand road debris.

Also, I'm guessing that aluminum parts like this may be cheaper to make than FRP.

 

[scorp965]

I paid alot more for my OEM NSX-R battery undertray, I had the same feeling when I got it in the mail. It's just a bent piece of aluminum with a Honda part number, but $300 is not a bad of a price IMO, DF Replica NSX-R battery tray looks and function like the OEM piece.

It's a fairly large part, and the cost for the metal stamping die eats up a lot of profit. Given the limited nature of the target market (2002+ front-end nsx's) I can't see this as a big money-generating venture, even for downforce.

What makes this thread more confusing is the issue of the front bumper undertray, without which this part is useless. Unless you're buying the ABS part from Honda, you're going to need to buy this from downforce anyway.

So you're going to buy their undertray, pay for shipping on that part, then try to save a couple of bucks on the aluminum battery undertray? What are the anticipated savings? I doubt there is more than $100-150 profit margin on this item after accounting for the stamping die, raw material, limited production volume, shipping and storage.

Kick Downforce their hundred bucks for making a part you want, for a car few people care about, imo. :smile:

 

[Dhalsim]

It's a fairly large part, and the cost for the metal stamping die eats up a lot of profit. Given the limited nature of the target market (2002+ front-end nsx's) I can't see this as a big money-generating venture, even for downforce.

What makes this thread more confusing is the issue of the front bumper undertray, without which this part is useless. Unless you're buying the ABS part from Honda, you're going to need to buy this from downforce anyway.

So you're going to buy their undertray, pay for shipping on that part, then try to save a couple of bucks on the aluminum battery undertray? What are the anticipated savings? I doubt there is more than $100-150 profit margin on this item after accounting for the stamping die, raw material, limited production volume, shipping and storage.

Kick Downforce their hundred bucks for making a part you want, for a car few people care about, imo. :smile:

Do you work for Downforce?

 

[Chris NSX]

does any know why it's aluminum? there's no heat source there and i've always wondered why it wasn't made with structurally reinforced FRP or the sort.

I had a DF battery tray in carbon fiber, it does the same thing but heaver.