Thinking of getting into the parts manufacturing business

[hozzziii]

Hiya folks.

A while ago I had this thought, which I didn't think much of at the time, but it keeps coming back.
I love cars, I love working on mostly my own cars. Tried to work in some shops, honestly was getting depressed seeing the conditions of some people's cars. I'm not talking just lack of mechanical maintenance, I mean I think some people thinking cleaning your car is optional! Plus I'm too slow and "procedural" to be viable for working in a shop. Apparently in some places it's a sin to mention the words "Service Manual". At this point I guess I should mention that I don't live in the US, before people start thinking what freakin dump did this kid go to work on cars, not where you think.

Anyway, it's fine. I'll work on my own cars. But I like this industry, maybe not all of it, but I still like it.

So a while ago, I lost the front mud flaps on my E30. I thought oh, alright well let's see if there's any for sale and damn, 250$ for just the front pair? and they're used? like I can see cracks on it man. And no mounting hardware, of course. Then I thought well I've had to make some stuff for my car, why not this as well? I started looking into what kind of molds I could make, what material to use for the actual part, and I could make it either cheap and use it one time or really accurate for making more than a few, alright this could be interesting.
Then I thought of other stuff that folks can't find and even those that people can find are not in great condition and still expensive. I thought well why not start gathering some data on stuff that is nla and people need them today and used ones are going for x times what it's actually worth.

So recently I quit the second shop I was working in, I didn't know paying your employees was optional but some people do what some people do, and it left a sour taste from working for other people and I came back to this idea. And here I am, asking your opinions.

What do you think? If I make good stuff and make them at a good price, which direction would you suggest? What parts would you suggest? Where do you think I can get information about what's needed out there?
Should I stick with the E30 platform or get into other generations? Or better yet, should I stick to BMW only?

I would love some advice right about now :'-)
Thanks

[Vincenze]

Interior parts are in high demand. Many have cracked dashboards.

There are BMW suppliers who can reproduce them, but they don't want to.

[OSAH racing]

A lot to unpack with this topic. Manufacturing equipment is expensive, depending on what direction you start and the skills you have to use you could pick your lot but I would not put all your Egg's in one Auto basket. I am born in the 60's, raised in the 70's on road racing so I vote affordable sports seat's for street cars. Custom fabric choices and shapes. Lots of crap racing seats to choose in the market but I think early 70's Recaro style High and Low sports seats under 2k a pair would sell as long as mounting brackets are included.

[hozzziii]

Interior parts are in high demand. Many have cracked dashboards.

There are BMW suppliers who can reproduce them, but they don't want to.

That's interesting. From what I can tell the factory dashboards are made from polyurethane foam and then covered in vinyl then add a couple of mounting brackets for mounting under the A-pillar and bolted to the kick panel.
The big thing would be the mold for the dash and I think it would have to be at least two or three pieces for the holes. And yeah I do see that crack-free dashboards go for around 1000+$, so maybe there's an opportunity here. Thanks!

[hozzziii]

A lot to unpack with this topic. Manufacturing equipment is expensive, depending on what direction you start and the skills you have to use you could pick your lot but I would not put all your Egg's in one Auto basket. I am born in the 60's, raised in the 70's on road racing so I vote affordable sports seat's for street cars. Custom fabric choices and shapes. Lots of crap racing seats to choose in the market but I think early 70's Recaro style High and Low sports seats under 2k a pair would sell as long as mounting brackets are included.

Honestly I think this one scares me a little. Like if we just take apart one seat and look at all those springs and frames, then on top of that add the custom shape foams, then someone might like heated seats, and then the fabrics!
Like that's how I would do it if I was going the seats route, I don't wanna just make some composite backing, add a couple inches of foam and call it a day, I don't like to do business like that. I wouldn't want to buy it myself, how could I sell it?
My point is I think this is a lot. I understand that sport seats are awesome though, heck I bought myself a pair from the Netherlands for 1500$. I'm just thinking to make something like that, that would be a biiiig project, and probably expensive.

Unless of course we improve the design. For example I was working on this '23 Corolla a while back, customer complained of squeaking from the seat. So I took apart the fabric backing, and I see there's just two big rods going from the headrest to the base, and there's this plastic backing that sort of distributes the load from these rods, and then in front of that is just the seat foam. That's it. The whole backrest is 3 pieces. I liked that simplicity you know. I get that back in the day they did springs and rods and all that, but simple stuff I think might be it. And the seats was just comfortable as well! And I'll bet it's much easier to manufacture.
So those are my thoughts; unless we simplify the reduce the number of pieces, I don't see how I can make this for a fair price.

Let me know what you think.

[82eye]

Let me know what you think.

start small making things you like and put them out there for others. keep working other jobs while you go. most of the bigger names in the aftermarket started this way. no one went from zero to being a mfgr in one fell swoop. it takes years in most cases to develop a market and build the infrastructure.

[e30davie]

I think the thing to remember is that apart form the m3, all the other e30s are still quite cheap in the grand scheme of things. So the owners are cheap and into DIY rather than paying for "solutions". They arent' 1980s 911 porshe and I don't believe they are considered "investments" just yet.

So unless you can price stuff to be attractive to cheap bastards like me, then you might not sell many and thus it might not be financially viable.

[hozzziii]

start small making things you like and put them out there for others. keep working other jobs while you go. most of the bigger names in the aftermarket started this way. no one went from zero to being a mfgr in one fell swoop. it takes years in most cases to develop a market and build the infrastructure.

That's a very good point, thank you.

[hozzziii]

I think the thing to remember is that apart form the m3, all the other e30s are still quite cheap in the grand scheme of things. So the owners are cheap and into DIY rather than paying for "solutions". They arent' 1980s 911 porshe and I don't believe they are considered "investments" just yet.

So unless you can price stuff to be attractive to cheap bastards like me, then you might not sell many and thus it might not be financially viable.

That is very important, yes. It's good to know who the would-be customers are. I think this takes the stuff with high r&d cost, like sport seats, out of the question.

Thanks for your input.

[OSAH racing]

Yes Sports seats would be a complicated start. But it covers all enthusiast vehicles made. Competing in Business is not easy. Take a look at your competition before you seriously get started down this path. The vendor Marketplace has slowed down considerably here since my first glance 15 years ago. Steve Dinan has always focused on new models stating that enthusiast will spend up to 25% of the value of their car when its relatively new and sales of products on older cars wont support a business. I suggest you look into the Porsche items as that crowd has more money to spend and bucks that trend.

[hozzziii]

Yes Sports seats would be a complicated start. But it covers all enthusiast vehicles made. Competing in Business is not easy. Take a look at your competition before you seriously get started down this path. The vendor Marketplace has slowed down considerably here since my first glance 15 years ago. Steve Dinan has always focused on new models stating that enthusiast will spend up to 25% of the value of their car when its relatively new and sales of products on older cars wont support a business. I suggest you look into the Porsche items as that crowd has more money to spend and bucks that trend.

Appreciate it man. I'm not sure where to start with Porsche, like where to get data and all. But I do agree with you, that community has some beaucoup money to spend. I mean look at the new restomod companies.
I'll snoop around see where I can spot some needs and opportunities. Thanks!

[Aleman]

It would likely be less risky to start out making simple parts, like metal drip rails. When ready to take on dashboard manufacturing, consider a core exchange requirement. That way, you don't have to create the entire piece - only replace the deteriorated dash top. I've heard of a manufacturer that fully refurbs dashboards, but it's a pretty involved process requiring a large machine or two. The dashed sell for over $1k I'm sure.

[Gaarath378]

Check out 89retros.com . ( His process is detailed on his reddit account https://www.reddit.com/user/Necessary-Duty-8436/ ) This guy lives somewhere in South America (Brazil I think) and has recently started doing something very similar to what you are doing. The only difference is that he is doing non oem parts, but I imagine his process would be very similar to yours. IIRC its a side gig for him though and he also works full time.

[Vincenze]

I've heard of a manufacturer that fully refurbs dashboards, but it's a pretty involved process requiring a large machine or two.

I'm sure a mold can be easily made by a Chinese company and then wrapped in matching vinyl if somebody wants to buy several containers of dashboards.

[Northern]

start small making things you like and put them out there for others. keep working other jobs while you go. most of the bigger names in the aftermarket started this way. no one went from zero to being a mfgr in one fell swoop. it takes years in most cases to develop a market and build the infrastructure.

+1 to all of this. Look at what you have done or what you would like to have for your own car. Something that isn't made, the current version sucks, too expensive, etc. Then make that thing.

Start with shit you know/have - if you can machine stuff, start by doing a simple drawing and make the things. If you can CAD, draw up something and have it made somewhere, etc.

A dash is massive and complex unless you do a core exchange and are just filling cracks and wrapping them with new vinyl/leather/something. Seats also sound like they'd suck because they're complex. I'd probably try to mimic as much of a nice modern OE sport seat as possible, or find a common junkyard car seat and use it as a base to build off.