Faded/Grey headlights needed - help me reproduce them!
Hi everyone,
I need SEVERAL sets of bad headlamps - Here's the deal:
Buying a '94 Mark VIII last Monday and owning a beautiful 1992 Dodge Caravan AWD has brought to a head a business opportunity I'd been noodling on for a couple of years.
I'm a parts wholesaler and broker. I used to be a reliability and quality engineer for Ford in the Southern Region during the 80s and 90s. I've made a few calls and called in a few favors.
Here's the deal:
1. All headlights on most non-GM cars built in the USA (including even Toyotas and Mazda/Escort type US built imports) were produced by essentially one manufacturer. It is a well known secret that the curing and formulation of the lexan face of these molded headlamps was not properly executed - and virtually ALL the headlamps sooner or later begin to internally "craze" and are vulnerable to contamination etc because the hardened lexan lens was not properly formulated or cured.
2. Although a lot of reproduction "crash parts" are available, they don't address, for example, the Mark VIII because they are produced by high-volume manufacturers using mostly original molds. Not enough money in our headlamps.
3. I've got friends in China who interface with smaller shops that produce molded plastics. I'm currently in communication with them to quote replacement headlamps for our 1st gen 8's and several other models of car not currently serviced.
Here is a sample of their products:
I need SEVERAL sets of bad headlamps to send to the three mfgs I have bidding for the job. PLEASE! If this starts to work out I promise a set of new lamps at cost. I need headlamps, but also will later need parking lamp sets.
My address:
John Hubertz
Impossible Auto Parts
2816 Palisade Drive
Fort Wayne, IN 46806
My pricing target is to create lamps that retail between $65 and $85 each - or sell by the set for around $125. This is aggressive but I believe possible. All original mounts and bulbs will fit - it is identical except for the Ford brand name - which is slightly modified to avoid copyright infringement as is common practice.
Also, what is your opinion? Priced too high? Too low? Let me know.
John
'94 Mark VIII
'77 Mercedes 450SEL
'93 Jaguar XJ6 VandenPlas
'92 Dodge Caravan AWD