INDICATOR HOUSING

[Blown_FC]

I'm chasing a good DRIVERS SIDE ( RH ) Trafficator, or indicator housing....the chrome one.

I have a newie in a box, but need a good Drivers side one.

I know that I can buy one NEW ( either chromed or unchromed ), from the people with 6 trucks loads of FC gear that we are all buzzing about...but at over $200 a side, I think I'll keep looking.

So if any FC members have a good one spare then please let me know.

Cheers

Mark

[nicko]

crikies,$200 i better go have a nap,i was after a few rust repair sections for mates Van,i think i will give them a miss.
greedy

[Blown_FC]

Its a hard call to say really Nicko.   The guy ( With the warehouse of parts ), was a really genuine guy who I can only hold high praise for.  I asked him for a set of Special Badges for the rear quarter panels.   He said he had about 50 of them but would find the best 2 and send a pic before I bought them.  Well to cut a long story short, it took him over 3 weeks to finally get those pics for me.  

So as he felt he had messed me around, He kindly offered to give me the badges for FREE if I covered postage.

Let's just say, that these badges were the best I've seen, and if Rares were still making them, would have cost me about $160 for the pair.

Talk about a bargain  !

However, I must agree with you....GREEDY does come to mind with these guys.

THey have a heap of New and Excellent stock, and they know that people will pay big bucks.

I mean $200 for a indicator housing, and $450 for a steering wheel ( Basic wheel, no horn or ring ), ect...I agree...they are getting a bit too greedy and have since lost my business.

But really....who are the silly ones.......whilst us FE/FC enthusiasts continue to be happy paying such large sums for such stock, people like them will continue upping the price.

Check on Ebay....find an EH horn button.....$20 at best......but FC....make it $280 !

It's a viscious circle....if all us guys stopped paying such high prices for things, these guys and others like them, would have no customers.....so they would have a warehouse full of parts that no body wants...so they would have to bring their prices down.

SO....Greedy YES...but silly....NO


Cheers

Mark

[mcl1959]

I have to say that I disagree - I believe that $400 for a steering wheel is fair as is $200 for an FC indicator housing.
Have you tried to buy a steering wheel for a HK GTS Monaro lately or the centre bar for a 57 chev?
We now live in the 21st century and repro stuff is very expensive to buy, let alone finding NOS stuff which is in most cases (not always) superior to the repro stuf, so you would expect to may a premium for new stuff over repro.

Sure there are the occasional bargains to be found but with over 400 (by my guess) FC's out there and they are all looking for that elusive piece - if there is only 1 of the elusive pieces in existence, then the price will reflect this.

Ken

[Blown_FC]

Fair call......after all....it's supply and demand at it's best.

I guess it comes down to the individual, and if your'e happy spending near on as much for new complete steering wheel now, as what the whole FC car was worth in 58, and put that shiny new wheel on your FC which will no doubt have more old parts than new, then I say...go for it.....!  

Just for fun though....imagine working out the price of an FC today made up of New parts at these prices.

Heck.......

$880 for a steering wheel complete
$400 for a pair of inidcators

and working from these indications.....

$500 for a grille
$100 for bonnett letters
$300 for bonnett mascot
$500 for bumpers
$200 for Special Badges

I reckon, a whole car fully rebuilt with all new parts ( if you could find them all )....would have to be pushing 6 figures ! (lol)

[nicko]

well actually bud,rare spares now have perfect repro steering wheels for the HK HT HG range for $350,on the other hand XY Falcon GT parts are being repro perfect for ages yet none of the prices have come down,so things like a GT dash are out of my reach and believe me with an FC and an XY in my back yard and shed its getting very expensive,so i will just get my good (thin chrome)but no pits FC surrounds rechromed for around $45 each instead.

[craiga]

Guys, I would tend to agree that some of the prices are on the high side - but its clearly a case of supply and demand, and more importantly choice. If you really want to use new parts to restore your car, these guys give you the choice, incredible really nearly 50 years since these cars were produced you can even get access to a new indicator housing.

I put a NOS boot rubber in my sedan the other day, just over 46 years since it left the factory. Amazing.

As with anything, once the demand slows the prices will drop. Choice is, do you pay the high price for the NEW parts, wait for the demand to slow and prices to fall, or restore the parts you have? Tough question to answer. :-)

Need to go now, have a couple of NEW armrests to fit  

Cheers,

Craig.

[nicko]

hey craig,just out of interest what did the arm rests cost?

[craiga]

just out of interest what did the arm rests cost?

Not cheap Nicko, but where else can you get a set of brand new armrests in Holden packets EXACTLY the same colour as my wagon? Where can you even get the material to match the original?

Oh sorry, they had rolls of it :-)  

Cheers,

Craig
(obviously proud owner of a set of new armrests)

[RET]

Hmm,

Seems to me that if Rares can sell a repro HK wheel for $350, then a NOS FE/FC one for $450 is not out of the ball-park at all.  I wouldn't pay it, but that's not the point*.  The cost of getting a wheel reconditioned is around $300, and you've got to have a reasonable condition unit to start with.  Add it up, it's not outrageous.

The guys with this stuff have done their homework, and are selling it at about the market rates.  No-one is going to go in there, fill a trolley and then go home and clean up on Ebay.  But old stuff is worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it, and by all accounts, a lot of money has changed hands at the NOS warehouse.

Had I really needed something for a project that was available there the day I went, I would have bought it.  For most of us, our time is a valuable commodity too.  You can spend days or weeks rooting around trying to make a substandard repro item fit, or hand-forming a rust repair section, or you can pay a bit more for the genuine article and know it will work right the first time.

There's a famous saying by John Ruskin:
[box]"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done.  If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better."[/box]

There's nothing worse than wasting money and time trying to make something fit or look right and failing.  Every time you look at it afterwards you'll regret cutting that corner, and you might even redo whatever it is and pay even more the second time.  There's a lot to be said for working with the best raw materials you can.

Food for thought.  Time I went to bed :-/  Sorry for the hi-jack, never even mentioned indicator housings...

cheers
RET

* I say this because I can't see the value in a NOS steering wheel compared to a reconditioned item, that would presumably have some form of guarantee and be indistinguishable in every practical sense from the NOS item.  On the other hand, virtually irreplaceable stuff like horn buttons, hood-linings or trim material is a different story.  There are alternatives, but none of them are "right".

[mcl1959]

Blown, no need to tell me how much a NEW OLD STOCK FC would be worth.
The 3 tone FC I owned and finished had 40K spent on it before I got it and I spent another 10K to finish it.  It was built entirely from NOS parts and was a stunning example of an FC.
It's "Grand Champion" status was justified by the money and work spent on it.
My point is - if you want the best you have to put top quality parts into the project.   If you are not chasing the ultimate prize, then don't bother.
 
Ken  

[Blown_FC]

Ken...That's unreal !

I guess that's like investing $1000 ( the average price for a 1 or 2 year old FC in 1960 ), and earning over $1000 per year in interest every year for 45 odd years.

Now I'd like to see a Bank offer that sort of return !

I'd be too scared to drive the bloody thing.

I won't ask you what you paid for the car ( as that would be rude ), but unless you paid the guy $40000 for it, I guess his theory of spending $40 grand to make a pure NOS FC "Grand Champion" was a costly excersise, and you would have picked up a good deal.

If you did pay $40 000 or more, then he would be laughing and i guess your investment would seem to be holding it's value....either way...that's a great story and must be one heck of a piece of Holden History you have there !

Not that I've been there personally, but there is a guy in WA who has one of every model Holden ever made, from FX through to Commodore ( I believe )...he even has a Factory Rotary powered  HX or HZ Kingswood, but badged as somehting else...not holden !

Have a great Xmas and an even better 06 !

Cheers

Mark

[mcl1959]

Mark, it is pretty scary really.  I paid $15,000 sight unseen for a half finished car from Perth which came with two crates of new parts to finish the car.   I had known the owner for a number of years though and even sold him some of the NOS parts for the car over the years so I had a fair idea of its quality.
I really didn't do it for value for money - I did it to achieve the very best FC that I could possibly build.
It was driven to Sydney for the Nats (albeit on radials) while my wife drove our family car with the brand new Air Rides in the boot.  I had a car bra custom made for it to protect the paint on the front which even had special little clip on pieces for the over riders.   It has since been sold to a collector in northern Victoria to finance the next project.

Ken

[Blown_FC]

Gee Ken....I can only imagine what the next project could be like after parting with such a car.

I hope when you sold the car, you kept all the parts....yeah...course you did ?     Didn't you ?


Cheers

Mark

[mcl1959]

I did sell a lot of the parts - mostly to members of this forum and at the Vic club auction.  But a lot still remain.
The army sedan will not be anywhere near the quality of the 3 tone FC, but was never meant to be - more a display of an extremely rare vehicle in original type condition.

I wish you and the other forum users all the best for Christmas and the new year


Ken