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That is a very short sighted approach to life. If everything worked as it should there would be no need for alternatives. But when parts or services, do not work to the requirements of customers who pay the bills, alternatives will always be needed.
Try buying products like fuel pressure dampers, regulators and fuel hoses and you will soon find that the market has very little in the way of available choices. The 928 market is not small by any means and the demand for product is very high - we struggle to keep up with demand. We cannot make product quick enough. I can't buy product from GB but have a mass of customers looking for alternatives which I am extremely happy to provide. I am very happy, that there are equally clever peeps out there, that are designing and building products for the 928 community. Like Kevin, PK, Bart, Dennis, Richard, Geza to name a few.
Do not EVER think that you are THE only one that can provide a product or service in the 928 World. I never will!! Competition will quickly bite you in the butt. Competition is everywhere no matter what product or service you provide.
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Does it have the "Do It Yourself" manual transmission, or the superior "Fully Equipped by Porsche" Automatic Transmission? George Layton March 2014
928 Owners are ".....a secret sect of quietly assured Porsche pragmatists who in near anonymity appreciate the prodigious, easy going prowess of the 928."
That is a very short sighted approach to life. If everything worked as it should there would be no need for alternatives. But when parts or services, do not work to the requirements of customers who pay the bills, alternatives will always be needed.
Try buying products like fuel pressure dampers, regulators and fuel hoses and you will soon find that the market has very little in the way of available choices. The 928 market is not small by any means and the demand for product is very high - we struggle to keep up with demand. We cannot make product quick enough. I can't buy product from GB but have a mass of customers looking for alternatives which I am extremely happy to provide. I am very happy, that there are equally clever peeps out there, that are designing and building products for the 928 community. Like Kevin, PK, Bart, Dennis, Richard, Geza to name a few.
Do not EVER think that you are THE only one that can provide a product or service in the 928 World. I never will!! Competition will quickly bite you in the butt. Competition is everywhere no matter what product or service you provide.
At the next breakfast maybe we should chat about an alternative front spoiler. I think you mentioned that new replacements are now available at $1600. I am hesitant to take the plunge at that price because my understanding is that it's pretty easy to break them. If I can get someone with a good one on a car to let me just take a gazillion pics, i can probably use my software to create a virtual model (i.e. cad file) and modify it to become 3 pieces (with a legit interlock), and maybe only the middle piece would be frequently replaced. I don't know anything about injection molding, but I'm guessing that 3 smaller pieces could be manufactured for about the same price as one large piece. In fact, if it were redesigned as 4 pieces I could 3d print them with good materials, but I have no idea what the cost would be. I'm sure that at a volume of maybe 100, injection molding would be far, far less expensive....(just brainstorming)
At the next breakfast maybe we should chat about an alternative front spoiler. I think you mentioned that new replacements are now available at $1600. I am hesitant to take the plunge at that price because my understanding is that it's pretty easy to break them. If I can get someone with a good one on a car to let me just take a gazillion pics, i can probably use my software to create a virtual model (i.e. cad file) and modify it to become 3 pieces (with a legit interlock), and maybe only the middle piece would be frequently replaced. I don't know anything about injection molding, but I'm guessing that 3 smaller pieces could be manufactured for about the same price as one large piece. In fact, if it were redesigned as 4 pieces I could 3d print them with good materials, but I have no idea what the cost would be. I'm sure that at a volume of maybe 100, injection molding would be far, far less expensive....(just brainstorming)
You;d have to do 1000s to make injection molding break even.
Machining the mold cavity and mold patterns alone..will be retirement money for well off people.
The vacuum port makes these pretty fireproof if they fail, right? I love the ingenuity of our whole community, but between Bosch and a hobbyist when it comes to pressurized hydrocarbons, I get a little nervous.
I've always chuckled at Tesla's hand-waving of their meltdown problems by comparing them to gasoline engine fires, as a whole. Except for Ferraris and Lamborghinis, new cars are VERY resistant to catching fire. It's usually the old cars with aging or modified fuel components. Hence the question.
The vacuum port makes these pretty fireproof if they fail, right? I love the ingenuity of our whole community, but between Bosch and a hobbyist when it comes to pressurized hydrocarbons, I get a little nervous.
The vacuum port does not really play here.
When a damper(FPD) or fuel pressure regulator's(FPR) diaphragm fails fuel enters the vacuum system.
Fuel can end up in the transmission via the shift modulator vacuum line.
It can go to your EZK computer. S3 only.
It can end up on the throttle body or shoe and when ignited send your S3 manifold suitcases into the hood leaving some really nasty dents.
Periodic examination of your vacuum system is important. I use a brake kleen straw to dip it into the FPD or FPR's vacuum port and look for fuel on it's end.
Has anyone successfully swapped the EURO dual rear regs to make one a damper. I am having challenges with the rear regs as they have hose tail fittings.
I have 3 euros and no problem with the dual regs and one damper. The key to solving fuel related issues was upgrading the fuel injectors. That solved all problems.
The vacuum port makes these pretty fireproof if they fail, right? I love the ingenuity of our whole community, but between Bosch and a hobbyist when it comes to pressurized hydrocarbons, I get a little nervous.
The great thing about the vacuum port system is that it keeps raw fuel from running all over the top of the engine, when the diaphragm fails.
The bad thing is that it "masks" leaking dampers and regulator.
If someone builds something unique and or provides a service of top-notch quality to this small community, why re-invent it if it works and as Greg says this is a very small community and there is not a huge demand for these small items -- a modest to small demand but not huge. Is it all cost-driven, like is there a desire to make something cheaper than say GB's stuff? Is there are 'market' for this with dwindling numbers of cars on the roads and smaller numbers of cars going back on the road to make the cheapest item or provide the cheapest service? I can see if you stumbled into making these dampers if you made dampers professionally and a 928 literally fell into your lap and you discovered there was a need for dampers and no one was making them and if they were they were junk -- then a need is really there, right? Sort of like me having a 928 given to me, and I'm a professional media blaster, and I see a bunch of ugly parts and I just put them in to blast to make them clean and pretty and then read the absolute horror stories many ignorant people undertook to 'refresh' their Intake manifolds (the 30 hours of hand cleaning then chemicals, and then putting it in the dishwasher was a good one) using **** poor methods and equipment...all situations I told you all I can and do and have and will continue to 'solve' for you -- seeing this I saw a market for this and I actually looked -- looked really hard for anyone that can do and has what I have and bring to solve this -- if I found them I would have not jumped in both feet as I have. But, there is no one. It's a small market, these cars are dwindling in numbers, duplicating another's good product might bring prices down, but, is that the intent on a dwindling market? I tend to doubt that is a recipe for success.
Well stated, Donald!
I haven't been paying any attention to this thread.
I have zero tolerance for people that can't "invent" their own products and feel the need to directly copy mine....
and Kevin's dampers are exactly the same as mine...they are only slightly repackaged.
Whatever...the 928 product copycats just reduce my desire to design and make things for the 928 community as a whole.
.....Note that this doesn't keep me from designing and making things, for use in my own shop.
I've been in the "Porsche only business" for almost 50 years, now.
I've seen many, many dishonest people/companies come and go...
(Grab a 40 year old Panorama and count the "crooks" who were gone, in a few years......they have always come and gone.)
The honest people thrive.
The Porsche community weeds out the rest.
Which brings me to updating comments made at the beginning of this thread:
I no longer sell my dampers and regulators to anyone, except for my own clients.
Haven't been doing this for many months.
Yeah, it was said that I'm trying to fix something.....that's not exactly accurate....I solved that issue, in a couple of days.
Yeah, I've got plenty of inventory, of these pieces, but like my pan gaskets (copied by you know who), baffles (copied by you know who), crankshaft damper (copied by you know who), and many other pieces, I have used up my inventory several times and continue to need to have these pieces remade....for my own shop's use.
When all is said and done, people who copy my stuff don't really affect me....the joy in designing and making things is what makes my world complete.
The sales of these pieces actually means very little, to me.
I've never needed the money, so money from this kind of stuff means very little to me.
I offered things I made, to others, as a service to the community.
I dofirmly believe in the age old adage....
"What comes around, goes around."
And know that all the "you know who" people will get their due rewards.
08-04-2022, 09:25 PM
George Layton March 2014
