Long Island Corvette Closed

[Joe R.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

We are experiencing an end to the era of C-2's! Most of the NCRS members were baby boomers and are passing on to their rewards. The only companies left with the original owners or sons and daughters are Corvette Central, Al Knock and ZIP.
We have lost some of the most dedicated people in the hobby. Enjoyed knowing them and learning from them! The days of Bloomington and Cypress Gardens are in the past! Wonderful Memories!

JR

[Michael J.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

241007167_10217194290444317_2638144374585838192_n.jpg241265633_10217194290964330_2382998623192326961_n.jpgI don't know about the rest of you, but I am going to keep taking my C2s to judging, car shows, and cars and coffee, not to mention road tours, as long as I can push the accelerator and clutch pedal and work the gear shift. I am not going to worry about the future of us and our cars, just enjoy the moments as they happen. Pictures from yesterday at our local cars and coffee, when I took my '63 Z06 tanker to show off......

[Mark F.]

I have to believe the owner of ZIP thinks C2s are not going away soonthe C2 specialist in my mind) close up shop, but I wish nothing but the best of luck to ZIP as they carry that special niche forward!

[Harry S.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Mike, went to cars and coffee this morning with the coupe, best in show, amazing!

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[Michael J.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Nice Harry, way to go!

[Michael G.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Mike, went to cars and coffee this morning with the coupe, best in show, amazing!

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Great Harry, nice ones still stand out in any show!!!

[Ronald L.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Yeah the changes continue so far this year- paragon, Bairs, LICS all changed hands.

FYI, Corvette Steering used to supply the rag joints to LICS. Tom Reina stopped making the rag joints when the material dried up a few years before he died. Once the supply at LI dried up it was the end of them. No one that I know of has come close the quality of corvette steering or Saginaw.

Gary, How many rag joints do you think the entire C2 C3 market is worth, a year? 20? 50?

To put it in perspective, Rich M 12 years ago and many others were having issues with big block by pass hoses leaking. GM superceded the print to a Buick hose that was over sized and the repro world copied that - they all leaked, and they we not with the logo nor the light blue stripe.

I had one on my survivor 66. That and the help of two other low mile BB allowed me to spend 200 hours in photoshop and color lab to get to proper pigment to print that color of blue...on black hose. I made 500 of them ten years ago, people are cheap, they don't want to pay $50 for an exact aligator skin copy. I still have close to 200 at last count. I did the hose, and also the air cleaner base tube, for the hobby, but also I had to not lose money doing it; the tube (that when Richard had Paragon, could not get a bender to make it out of the exact material) wasn't hard. I made 100. Ten years later, I'm down to the last few. If I ask the company that made them for me to run again, they are likely going to be $40 a tube, who is going to pay that when you can get an incorrect not even a 'mile close' tube for $8-15. LIC likley had a lot of these small run parts that the clock was running out on.

[Gary B.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Ron,





Dohicky $15, functional reproduction part, not correct for judging



I have to think that more than a few of us would spring for the $50 part.


Gary

[Ed S.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Ron,





Dohicky $15, functional reproduction part, not correct for judging



I have to think that more than a few of us would spring for the $50 part.


Gary

Gary - I have seen the same, I am pretty sure there are some items in Paragon's catalog listed like that. I think that is where I saw products listed like that - I don't recall specifically what the items were. At least they are honest about it.

[David H.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

... I can’t remember where I’ve seen it, but in the past, one of the repro catalogs listed a part twice, with two descriptions and prices ....

Gary

You may be thinking about "Dr Rebuild's" catalog, but not the "... correct for judging..." part.

His catalog has a very specific notice of no NCRS or Bloomington Gold guarantee.

Dr Rebuild catalog does double list many parts with "GM" on one line, and "Repro" or "China" on another line. Easy to order / easy to identify what part you're getting.

Dave

[Gary B.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

It seems to me that double listing is a win-win. The company would sell some of each, and some buyers would buy the least expensive part and NCRS or Bloomington types would buy the expensive one. And the company makes a profit on both types of sales.

I know that the term for the “correct“ part can’t be “correct”, but something like “best-available reproduction”.

Gary

[Gary R.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Ron,
That's a good question. The quality of the new rags sold today is poor. People contact me about NOS rags a lot. I am down to a few 67-E69's. I think if the material was available to make the quality rag Tom Reina offered they would sell. Several vendors looked into making them until they found out the material was not available. 50 a year, I would bet more then that since this is a common replacement part. Typically if a box is worn and needs a rebuild the rag is shot too. I think those with the cheaper imported rags would switch them out if a quality rag was available for a fair price. It is a part that makes a difference in use vs one that is correct in appearance. I hear you on demand changes on a lot of small parts but I think rags would still sell, there's a lot of 63-82 vettes out there that still have stock boxes. Of course the quality of some of the "rebuilt" boxes today is a whole other story.

[Ronald L.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Gary R,
Availability is a matter of... "at what cost". I've not delved into the rag joint issue, his the issue is the reinforced rubber?

Gary B,
I had the discussion with PR's remaining owner at Carlisle couple years ago, there was no interest and we know now the result of not being a car guy...

Consolidation in this parts industry I expected, LICS to Zip sounds like saving the wave. PR sell out doesn't sound good, there has been staff departures and the new owners haven't ponied up as it sounds Zip did. There is another behind the scenes that a lot of these parts came from, Vette Products of Mi, a lot of the CC PR backorders are rooted in the products fabricated there.

[Frank D.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

LICS used to list two parts and designate one as "correct" and the other as "not correct" but useable.
63 tailpipe extensions in particular come to mind; one "thin set" would work with the 63-only exhaust shields and another set would not and the LICS web site warned about this. Can't recall if they were separate part numbers.

[Ed S.]

Re: Long Island Corvette Closed

Let's face it - these businesses are not selling out / closing down because they don't like Corvettes anymore. I suspect most of the vendors we are talking about qualify as "small businesses". The current environment for small businesses is the closest thing to Hell on Earth. Consider LIC for example, operating a small business in NY state has to be a challenge. Extremely high state payroll taxes, high property taxes, then there is the employers portion of social security payments, state unemployment payments, employee health care, federal taxes and regulations if you are doing any kind of manufacturing, constantly higher and higher minimum wages, utility costs, marketing and advertising, (those colored catalogs are not cheap), the internet data base for all their parts (IT operators that know what they are doing and also understand auto parts), property insurance premiums, liability insurance. Then there is the availability and cost of a willing and talented labor force and let's not forget product liability insurance - the first massive law suit for selling a less than original quality rag joint is just around the corner. It is a cruel world out there for an entrepreneur -- there comes a point at which they say continuing is in the too hard to do box, profit margins are getting smaller and smaller, they know where this is all going, accordingly they decide to get out when the getting is still almost good, can't blame them.