You guys might think this is either gay or impossible, but here goes.

I've been reading a lot about developing products for cars. Aftermarket parts get designed when there is a lot of demand for them. If there is not much demand, then custom parts start getting made.

Well, my idea is, why don't us guys make some kind of 3rdgen V6 company or store to make/sell aftermarket parts? Camaro Hunter C has already gotten a great start with the headers (although he would probably argue about demand).

Some guys on here have equipment/skill for making stuff. Some guys are great at installing/tuning stuff. It seems almost everyone on here is computer literate, so if we could do something like this, we could make a good little business (I think).

Some of us could design, others could test, others could advertise...we could make some awesome **** for our cars with everyone's cooperation.

Hell, even if we couldn't find people outside this site to sell to, we could make the **** for ourselves. I don't see why we couldnt develop maybe a simple turbo; lots of 240sx guys figured out how to make their own primitive design to run a few lbs of boost; I don't see why we couldn't design a few performance parts for our engines as well.

It could be as simple as modifying parts for other cars to fit our own, like Nitrous set ups, etc

I think we could do stuff for our cars, make a few bucks, and have a lot of fun if a lot of us wanted to try something like this.

Anyone else contribute any ideas....I would be glad to test any parts anyone would care to put out (I have a back up car now).

It would go along great with that guide that Stuart was making...Whatever happened to him?

Well anyway, what do you guys think? is this lame?

 

i know what you speak of
good idea


well once i figured out the turbo set up
i planned on selling more set ups

if it works though

the set up would work for 2.8, 3.1, and like mine 3.4

so all the help i could get on turboing my car the better
because i'll start selling the set up cheap
none of that $4000 bull crap
unless it costs that much
but the way i'm doing it
and the hook ups i have
i doubt that finding the parts would cost more than 1000
unless i change my mind on somethings

 

I'm in....

My strong suit would fall under the installation of parts

 

It's a little idealistic...but hey, a LOT of great things happen from 'impossible' ideas.. I don't have much in terms of money or resources, but hey, I'm always willing to TRY to help or to test setups, as long as they're nothing that could cause engine damage, etc. , seeing as this is my only car. I'm always up for an adventure. I say someone does a simple, professional looking, welded stainless steel CAI setup! With a nice bright conical at the end....ohhhhh yeah. I'm sure people would pay for that...it would clean up an engine bay quite a bit.

 

I definately agree with you on that...easy stuff like that is a good starting point.

 

On the note of a CAI, it would actually make a lot of sence to make some for the V-6s and the TPI guys. Nobody makes a stainless steel CAI for the TPI motors either, and I am sure there would be abough of a demand for it. Start simple and make them only for MAP cars, then go to the more complicated MAF cars.

 

Cost might be expensive for that stainless steel intake. Unless there's another non-automotive source, 3" stainless steel exhaust piping isn't too cheap (about $45 for an elbow). Aside from headers and a turbo kit, I don't see what else performance-wise could be produced by us for the v6. Would we buy tons of heads, port them all the same, then sell 'em? Bore out a ton of throttle bodies? Unless someone's got a machine shop in their basement, the tb would have to be machined, and a new butterfly fitted- and at that point, why bother? Why not have the person who wants a throttle body go to the machine shop themselves? I'm not trying to squash the idea, but basically, I don't think we'd make any money off it. (That was the original idea, right, of a store?) Like someone found out, people will promise to buy things as soon as they're available- but when you finally produce a product, you're lucky if you get 5 or 6 people that actually follow through with the commitment.

Saw the same thing happen to my old club, v6fbody.com, about 6 years ago. Nobody had a power programmer out for the 4th gen V6 cars. Sure, Hypertech advertised one, Summit & Jegs listed the part- but Hypertech never made one. It was all a scam by Hypertech to generate interest. So they had the interest, but didn't produce any because demand was too low. They told the club owner that they were busy making a few for trucks, and after that, they'd get to the V6 one.

So after a year of hearing promises, the guy (Darrin) found another source for a programmer. The company started working on them, Darrin took pre-order deposits, and finally, the company came out with them. People complained when they saw the $300 price tag. I guess they thought that they'd get them for $50?? End result? Nearly everyone wanted their money back, only 2 or 3 were actually sold, and the club wound up looking like crap to the company. I even went on a search and found out that, at the time, prom burning equipment was $200 over the internet. I told these criers that $200 of that $300 was for a programmer, they're really only paying $100 for the program that worked the burner. But nope, "$300 is still too steep", "can't it be cheaper", "if I had known I never would have shown interest"... get real. Ask for a rare part and you've gotta be prepared to pay out the butt for it.

 

well I now after I get a data logger for my palm I will start making "base" chip programs for the 3.1 Manual. if anyone wants it after i make it.. Let me know.

My mods are Injectors, cat back, cat, intake,wires(if thats a mod) ported/polished intake. So thats what it will be tuned for.

I also got a Chip burned off ebay and so far have 10 blank chips.

 

easiest way to get that done is to talk thirdgen.org into posting a store front. besides the for sale section, they would have to approve people parts then give them a sort of "stamp of approval" give them a few bucks off the top and blind ship everything as if it came from thirdgen.org.

 

Nobody ever said the CAI had to be cheap (45 bucks total), I'd pay 125 or so for a CAI for my 91 GTA and the same for my 90 Firebird. If you can't make one for under that price, then it wouldn't be much in the way of competitive. Those ***** ones are like 35...

 

I would EXPECT to price a stainless steel CAI system at between $125 and $150...but if you noticed, Tom said just an ELBOW goes for $45 around him...and thats only an elbow. We'll need at LEAST one elbow, maybe two, and a straight length..plus a good filter. We could go cheapo and get an Autozone filter or get a K&N..maybe that could be an option..but still..if we can't get prices on that stuff cut down any, we're not going to make very much. Sounded good on paper!

 

You could also have people buy the filter separately, too... or just make it plain steel & powdercoat it, or, can you get aluminum piping? That'd be a btch to weld though...

 

Some prices off summit...

Hooker, 5 foot piece stainless steel straight pipe, 2.5" diameter
HOK-35600, $82.69

Hooker, 180 degree stainless J-bend (can't find 90 degree in S/S)
HOK-32597, $46.95

A J-bend is better, though, because you cut it in half, and you've got two 90 degree bends, both "tighter" than a normal 90 degree pipe or a normal 180 degree U-pipe. I think JCWhitney.com carries s/s pipe too, but I don't feel like doing a search right now

Oh and couldn't find 3" pipes from Hooker ( http://www.holley.com ) in Stainless... so that might be a problem, too!!

 

Cost-wise...seems like stainless steel is out, for the most part. Now aluminum...I like the idea of aluminum..it could be made to look decent enough, only part is the flimsy factor..and yeah, I can't imagine how to weld it up..maybe fit all the joints with rubber sleeves, like how they do it with PCV piping..? Do you know how much regular steel goes for, Tom? And is powdercoating costly? I'd love to see some of this go through...it'd be great to have a ThirdGen.org custom CAI....

 

I gotta split off the 'net, but go to http://www.holley.com , click on the Hooker Headers link, once you're at the Hooker Headers area, click on the 'accessories' link, there's all the piping. Then just take the part #, drop the "HKR" off the end of the real numbers, put "HOK-" in front, and check prices on 'em at the summit website. Good idea about joining them with a rubber or silicone hose, that would look pretty good! I believe I paid $35 for my regular steel Hooker 180-degree J-bend (3 inch diameter) from Summit, but that was a few years ago.

 

We just might be getting somewhere now....