That's great news John! At the top of my list is side skirts.

 

John,

Glad to see it is progressing. Do you have any idea on a price point? Hell even an estimate based on what the Sky or solstace front fascia cost, I assume we would be similar.

Thanks.

 

Morning John,

No estimate on price yet. Like you, I would presume that the pricing should be similar to the Solstice/Sky line, seeing as they are very low-volume cars and dimensionally speaking, the cars are very close in size. If this matured into a full body kit for our vehicles, I would be thrilled. I have no concern that they would "keep it classy". RK Sport is a far cry from the "Extreme Dimension" crowd.

Here is the letter I submitted to their sales staff. We can only wait and see if this generates interest.

Good morning,

I recently spoke with one of the members of your sales team regarding a project for the Chrysler Crossfire, a vehicle with very limited aftermarket support.

In my phone call, I mentioned that even getting factory replacement parts has become a nearly impossible task, as the manufacturing plant in which the Crossfire was built has recently closed down. Individuals lucky enough to locate factory body panels have to wait months at a time, and the lack of availability has become so severe that most insurance companies will total out our cars simply based on the drought of parts.

At a SEMA show a few years back, the Mopar booth had a “drift” version of the roadster Crossfire. Modifications included very subtle side-skirts, a more aggressive front fascia, and what appears to be some built-in canards/splitters on the lower chin portion of the front fascia.

I am a long-standing member of the largest Crossfire community on the internet, www.crossfireforum.org. On that website, I have initiated a poll gunning for feedback regarding the design of this fascia used on the SEMA Crossfire. Roughly seventy percent of all voters agree that this is a very desirable fascia, one that presents a custom appearance yet holds true to the factory lines and overall theme of the car. With factory parts becoming more scarce each passing day, we NEED options. If your company could produce a bumper for us very similar in design to the one displayed in the first post of the thread (link provided), I can assure you that you would have many customers willing to insure a purchase. Not only that, but with you being the ONLY company providing any body panels for the Crossfire, you will effectively have a “cornered market”… never a bad thing.

I have long been a fan of your designs implemented on many makes and models, even those with a very low sales volume. For instance, you have a very attractive line of products for both the Pontiac SolsticeSaturn Sky; both being obsolete vehicles with a cult following. This is where we, as the Crossfire community, empathize. You will struggle to find a more enthusiastic following of any vehicle, regardless of the make. CICCI has become a nationally recognized car club that represents the interests of the Crossfire and its owners, and ranks among one of the largest organized car clubs in the nation.

Please take a moment to review the following thread on crossfireforum.org:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...some-cats.html

We would be honored if a representative from your company would register on the forums and post your input in this thread, as I can assure you that you would receive rich feedback from your design submissions. As an enthusiast community, we are very hungry for any and all exterior modifications that you would be willing to produce, be it hoods, full body kits, front splitters, heat dissipation vents, rear diffusers, etc. The sky truly is the limit for your company as you currently have NO competition in the aftermarket for this platform regarding body panels and aero kits.

Also, it is understood that in order to initiate the tool setup and design of a new product line, some of the orders must be pre-paid to insure that your efforts will be financially secure and worth-while. Please consider that many members would be willing to chip in, as it is only in the best interest of the future of our beloved rides.

We would sincerely appreciate your consideration of this project, and I look forward to seeing you on the forums. My username is JHM2K. Feel free to reply to this email if you have any direct questions.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to doing business with you!!

Sincerely,


John Moorehead

 

John,

Spoken like a gentleman and an enthusiast, well done, sir.

If this does not garner the attention we deserve, then nothing will.

WE NEED PARTS!!

 

*fingers crossed*

 

I called their customer support line and spoke with a gentleman named Sean... Had about a 20 minute conversation with him, and he seemed open to the idea but some details would have to be ironed out first. He said he intends to join next Monday or so, and we can start the discussion regarding the details.

Also, he sent this follow-up email to me today, just to confirm:

John I fired off an email to the CEO and GM here. I can’t promise anything, but we may be able to help you some how.

A-I need a car
B-I couldn’t do anything until after SEMA 2010.

We’ll talk.

Sean

I'm really hoping we can get this ball rolling. Once he joins, he'll be the best person to direct the questions to (pertaining to all of the production and order requirements), seeing as I'm simply the middle-man. But I'm at least thankful that the project is being considered.

This might just pan out for us, guys.

 

Very Awesome!!!! I hope this pans out...

 

A - Who's close to:

RKSport
26900 Jefferson Avenue
Murrieta, CA 92562

B- SEMA 2010 is in November. 3 months is chump change waiting time when it comes to "us." Haha it took nearly that long to try to find a factory SRT fascia! (yes i realize there is design time after SEMA if at all, but you get my point.)

 

I am about 40 minutes away from Murrieta.

 

soo... anything new on this?

 

I sent two emails after SEMA and heard nothing but crickets...

 

Idea guys i feel your going at this all wrong... We as crossfire owners even as a group are still the little man or men in this case. What if you target a little man to make the bumpers and setup an order list of people willing to buy and offer this information to the little man. Hundreds of thousands of custom fiberglass shops exist if you could prove to the fiberglass company that you could sell 25, 50, maybe 100 bumpers they should be more than willing to entertain the idea. The economy is in shambles right now work is work and business is business right now. Going after a large established company who is buying body kits from other manufactures and not actually making them them selves isn't going to cut it they are already making money. Target a little man and show him that there is money to be made hell jump all over it! All they would need is one factory bumper to get the mount points and clearance issues covered. If I had the time and resources I would do it myself Im very good with fiberglass. The only down fall to this is with a little man the wait would be considerably longer but hey its better than nothing.

http://www.fiberglasssales.com/
http://www.rodscustomfiberglass.com/
http://www.markscustomkits.com/

Those are just on the first page of google. If you investigate this make it sound like others are interested in this deal and you are not desperate. The price of a bumper needs to be in the 300 range its gonna take at least 200 more to prep it and paint it! You should also research the materials they use or would be used so you know what your final product will be. Cheap materials will not take paint well!! They flex and crack the paint!

Also explain that if the buyers are happy with the bumpers that people may consider hoods side skirts even interior pieces!!! You have to sell him this! With the interior he would be open to 3 markets the crossfire slk230 and slk320 on some parts!

Before you choose a maker ask them who the biggest customer they have is. Try and get a customer thats buying the same general product get in touch with them to find out the quality of the products they receive.

Last incorporate the fog lights you will sell more!!

 

JMK41, I like your ideas and enthusiasm, but it is not that easy.

Any shop is going to need a car for a period of time to do the work, could be several weeks or months, depending on the shop and speed. You have an extra to loan them, and let them paw on for weeks? Also, they are going to require a large deposit to even start the design process, along with a certain number of confirmed buyers. I, for one, will not put out my money on custom parts before seeing a finished, installed example, because I have been burned, and many others here have as well. If you want most of the people on the forum to listen, do not even bring up side skirts, long story....

Contact a few of these companies, if it is so easy, and let us know what you find. I am not trying to discourage you, just making sure reality isn't out the window....

 

x2

This was the biggest sticking point I had with the guy I was communicating with...

The tooling costs to set up a die (not even to produce any parts) was anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000... Closer to the latter as he said the $5K figure was to simply purchase the die.

Then, there's product setup, tolerances, injection pressures/temps, etc... a HUGE undertaking.

If you want fiberglass parts that will have a permanent "orange peel" effect under certain lighting, then I'm sure we could crank out a few cheap bumpers.

But, quality and consistency was my biggest concern. Perhaps I can revisit this with my contact, but he wasn't enthusiastic about it then, and we've had another year for the Crossfire to get older and, let's face it, less popular from a business standpoint.

Group buys on this forum have a tainted past... Some good ones, but a few bad ones that were BIG bad ones. Hijacked side-skirts come to mind...

jmk41 I appreciate the input... Perhaps if you have existing contacts you can pick up this thread where we left off but I can assure you it won't come near your target price. Simply not enough demand in the market.

Also, the SRT fascia is no longer the back-order nightmare it once was. I ordered and received mine in a week's time, genuine OE part.