|
|
|
|
View Poll Results: Would you buy a Carbon Fiber cosmetic part from China if the quality was good? | |||
Yes if the price is right! | 70 | 63.06% | |
Maybe, I'd have to see the part first and judge based on that. | 34 | 30.63% | |
No! China-made parts are junk. | 7 | 6.31% | |
Voters: 111. You may not vote on this poll |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
06-15-2012, 01:23 AM | #68 |
Heisenberg
51
Rep 569
Posts |
If you wanna talk about the best/quickest return, especially with high development costs, focus on a couple products that appeal to the most people.
- Aero sideskirts: can be used by any 128i/135i regardless of coupe or vert - Rear diffusor: MANY people want a cheaper alternative to the BMW Performance. If you could come in at the $400-600 price point you would get a lot of feedback. - Interior trim: everyone loves this, lots of applications, reasonably simple R&D since you're just copying what's already there. No offense to the vert people at all, but if you're worried about recouping the upfront money OP, stick to products that appeal to a lot of people (i.e. not vert spoilers). BTW Thanks for doing this! |
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 07:45 AM | #69 | |
Enlisted Member
1
Rep 45
Posts |
Quote:
Aggressive diffuser front splitter bmw performance spoiler (coupe) I'd be happy with those in gloss black
__________________
Current: E82 AW/CR 135i FBO+Meth+E30, '95 Cosmos M3, '99 AW MRoadster, '88 944 Turbo S - 401rwhp/429ftlb
|
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 09:04 AM | #70 | |
Brigadier General
140
Rep 4,050
Posts |
Quote:
|
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 09:23 AM | #71 |
Brigadier General
677
Rep 4,080
Posts |
Coming from the 335 scene I can attest to the fact that parts CAN be much cheaper.
You can get very decent CF Hamann and BMW performance lips for 250. CF CSL trunks that fit great for >700. CF diffusers for 200. Also, you can get an M3 Front bumper made of PU with OEM fitment (I've verified personaly) with ducts and screens for less then 500 shipped. A lot of posters here are mentioning things which already exist. There are plenty of aftermarket diffusers / reps. There are at least 2 icarbon Rep lips out there now. There are CF and FG CSL trunks on ebay now. Why produce a product to compete with them. The things that I think would sell very quickly and don't exist now (at a decent price): A replica 3D lip in either PU or CF A replica 1M front bumber in PU |
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 12:38 PM | #72 | |
Heisenberg
51
Rep 569
Posts |
Quote:
If OP came in with a quality diffusor at a reasonable price, I think it would be a big hit even though there are other options available. The aero side skirts or interior trim would be much less competitive though Yup, I agree. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 01:43 PM | #74 |
Lieutenant General
18978
Rep 11,127
Posts
Drives: M4 CS. Former G82, x2 F82, F80
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Jacked out of my mind
|
After wrapping my interior with 3m vinyl, I believe cf interior pieces are a huge waste of money. Spend $60 on wrap, do it yourself in an afternoon, and bam.
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 02:43 PM | #75 |
Heisenberg
51
Rep 569
Posts |
My interior is the same as yours, and trust me, when you see the real deal you'll realize how much better it is.
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 04:53 PM | #77 | |
Banned
1524
Rep 4,743
Posts
Drives: S65 1M Clone & E92 M3 4.6L
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: San Francisco
|
Quote:
Back on topic, as some have noted, Interior Trim, Sideskirts and an aggressive diffuser would sell extremely well. We need a diffuser that is more of an inbetween the revozport and the BMW performance/icarbon. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-15-2012, 11:46 PM | #78 |
Lieutenant General
18978
Rep 11,127
Posts
Drives: M4 CS. Former G82, x2 F82, F80
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Jacked out of my mind
|
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-16-2012, 01:03 AM | #79 |
Collecting dust!
56
Rep 2,009
Posts |
All I read was post #78 and I agree, it's not worth the money, natural is the best way to go!
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-18-2012, 08:50 PM | #80 |
Brigadier General
744
Rep 3,281
Posts |
Update #2!
My friend/colleague just got back from china. We should be meeting this weekend. He says he found a few promising locations for production, and has brought home some sample CF pieces. I'll post pictures if I can and keep you all updated! And thank you guys for all the input and the suggestions. You are awesome! Keep em coming!
__________________
2022 X4 M40i - 2008 135i - 2015 F700GS On Order - 2024 i4 M50 Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived... Mmhm. |
Appreciate
0
|
06-19-2012, 10:29 AM | #82 |
Heisenberg
51
Rep 569
Posts |
Excited about this!
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-26-2012, 10:58 PM | #84 |
Captain
115
Rep 922
Posts
Drives: BMWs
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CA
iTrader: (18)
Garage List 2008 E60 M5 6MT [0.00]
2019 G01 X3 sDrive30i [0.00] 2007 E86 M Coupe [0.00] 1997 E36 M3 [10.00] 2006 E53 X5 4.8is ( ... [0.00] 2006 E85 M Roadster ... [0.00] 2002 DINAN 5 (sold) [0.00] 2013 E89 Z4 sDrive3 ... [7.00] 2011 E92 M3 (sold) [0.00] 2001 E46 M3 (sold) [0.00] 2007 R56 Cooper S ( ... [0.00] 2002 996TT (sold) [10.00] 2009 E82 135i (sold) [9.00] 2006 E85 Z4 M (sold) [6.00] 2007 B7 A4 2.0T (re ... [0.00] 2003 E46 M3 (sold) [0.00] 2002 E46 325Ci (sold) [0.00] |
Hartge or Bastuck rear diffuser
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-27-2012, 05:10 AM | #85 |
Captain
54
Rep 941
Posts |
+1 CF roof spoiler is needed , and possibly a dif style trunk one as well. hartge and ACS is too expensives.. edit: Add some CF interior bits such as the portion the door release handle is set on. Maybe even the part that surrounds the radio and A/C... Id like real wet carbon for that stuff in addition to my BMWPerf interior CF..
__________________
JB4, DCI, Digi boost, CSL eyelids, 5% tint, KW v2's. Bastuck 85mm quad w/ berk resonated mids, LED int ltg, Perf SSK, CF int trim, 19" SF-71 rims, CDV mod, BMS OCC, ER+tial charge pipe. AR DP's, Helix IC,meth, drilled slotted rotors
Last edited by romak47; 06-27-2012 at 05:15 AM.. |
Appreciate
0
|
06-27-2012, 09:25 AM | #86 |
Second Lieutenant
11
Rep 257
Posts |
+2 These would be unique pieces
__________________
|
Appreciate
0
|
06-27-2012, 10:30 AM | #87 |
Brigadier General
744
Rep 3,281
Posts |
Another update!
UPDATE
So, we had a meeting this past weekend. Sorry it took so long to update you guys, but it looked like the forums were down a couple of days ago, and I've been a bit busy. We have officially found a viable production site. I have included some pretty cool pictures that were taken on site. As you can see, the carbon fiber is of great quality. The facility already produces carbon fiber race seats, spoilers, bumpers, helmets, exhaust pipes, and more for the automotive market, as well as other things (that I'm not quite sure what they are) for other industries. They are experienced and will definitely suit our needs. There are certainly other companies and factories out in China that have inferior products which are really out to screw you over, but we believe we found the highest quality production site we could use. We hate "eBay quality" parts just as much as anyone else. I am very excited about this, and we are estimating that by the fall, we can actually have a product. What this product will be, however, is a different matter. Here's the issue.. in order to produce parts, we need the toolings. A mold is pretty expensive (thousands of dollars) to produce, and I'm not sure if we can even afford to have a mold for more than one product at this point. Maybe we can... or the case may be that we will have to wait until we actually have some revenue from the first mold in order to move on to the next one. The good news is that a mold can be used for thousands of units... we just really have to be careful in picking a first part that we can actually sell a high enough quantity of in order to afford the next mold/product. Also, we can still get to work designing and engineering new products while the first item begins production, so there isn't a months-long wait to start production on something different. But the matter is... at this point in time, we don't know what the initial product should be, and this is where we need more help from you guys. So.. if you guys had to choose ONE thing that you want, that nobody else is doing right now (at least to start off with)... what would it be? Our other option would be to try and find something that works across more models. This wouldn't be ideal, but it would guarantee a bigger customer pool so that the (hopeful) success of that product would allow us to continue with more focused products. Kind of like how Porsche sells lots of Cayennes which help fund what everyone really wants. Okay, not exactly the same, but similar. I haven't done enough research at this point in time to know what could work for this, though. What do you guys think? What one product would you like most? Can any consensus be reached? Also, what do you guys think of the carbon fiber itself? Good quality for China? Good quality overall? Is everyone still interested, or is this just a pipe dream? And now, some pictures Rolls of carbon fiber Carbon fiber spoiler Mold for a race seat Rough molds for bumpers Carbon fiber helmet Not sure what these are, but they look nice Carbon fiber pipes/tubes Thank you for looking!
__________________
2022 X4 M40i - 2008 135i - 2015 F700GS On Order - 2024 i4 M50 Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived... Mmhm. Last edited by 1speedbike; 06-27-2012 at 06:07 PM.. |
Appreciate
0
|
06-27-2012, 10:43 AM | #88 |
Vrooom :)
322
Rep 2,597
Posts |
great update. Like you said, just make one, simple part so you can get enough funds. Start a group buy thread so once you get 10-20 people you know you will be having enough funds for the project.
It could be something as simple as carbon fiber badges for the rear(128,135i), to a carbon fiber license plate. Or, if you are 100% certain you are ready, you could design something big and make it cheap, like a front lip. Personally, I think your best bet is probably carbon fiber mirrors for 2010 + models. Apparently nobody makes them. I have a 2009, but just for reference, chinese CF mirrors for these from ebay are 99 dollars, autotechnik(german) are 150, and BMW performance are like 500 xD.
__________________
2014 C7 Corvette Stringray - Laguna Blue - NPP Exhaust - Competition Seats
|
Appreciate
0
|
Bookmarks |
Tags |
carbon, china, cosmetic, fiber, mods |
|
|