Specifically.... The front ground effects for our cars. After my accident, my bodyman could only find the front bumper cover new, the front GFX were apparently discontinued...

The question is why??? This might be one of the most vulnerable, most abused, most hardest to find body parts of them all. I've read here that they seem to be semi rare, so why would GM be so quick to throw us to the junkyard wolves?

I know our newest car is at least 19 years, but it seems hard to believe that certain parts like this wouldn't still be profitable. At the very least it would be nice if they'd have sold the equipment to an aftermarket supplier so we could get OEM speced Reproductions!

Why Gm, Why?????

 

did u try yearone.com, classicindustries.com, rickscamaro, etc ??? ive seen em in there...

 

Answer, "I know our newest car is at least 19 years"...

 

I believe the nose cones are all pretty much the same through all years - so they produced alot of them. But you have a 1992 car - only the 1991 and 1992 cars had that chin spoiler, so not as many were ever made.

Think about it - if you manufactured an item, would you stockpile all the parts required for that item in enough quantity to last 20 years AFTER it's last production date? How much money would it cost to store an extra 10,000 chin spoilers for 20 years? You kind of answered your own question - it's the most torn up part on the car - they've all been used up years ago.

Hawks used to carry them new and used. Thirdgen Ranch is a good source to check. Also ebay, and the classifieds here.

 

yeah i believe GM stops holding onto parts for a car 10 years after it was made

 

It's kind of retarded that they produce bumper covers and parking lenses, but not the chin spoiler. You could say they didn't make many '91-'92s, but they sure made a lot of '85-'90 models.

 

Instead of stock piling enough for the next 20 years they should have kept the tooling so they can make them when the run low I feel the dealer should never have a discontinued item they are the ones that designed and built the car originaly tooling is very expensive so why throw it away

 

yeah or at least sell all of their tools.molds etc to a company that could remake them

 

Maybe they produced the same number of chin spoilers that they did bumper covers and because the chin spoilers get damaged more they ran out many moons ago.... but still have bumper covers sitting around.

 

You need to understand how the auto industry works. It's very unlikely this piece was ever manufactured by GM. Instead, it was made by a GM supplier. That supplier would have been under contract to produce the parts for a certain amount of time. These suppliers generally deal in large volume products and it wouldn't be cost effective to keep tooling around just to run a small amount of these from time to time. It's also possible that the supplier owed the molds and not GM.

Instead, GM is likely to sell the rights to the product at some point and they will be reproduced by some other company. Unfortunately, reproduction parts are rarely the same quality of originals and can actually be VERY inferior. In many, if not most, cases you are far better of with a used original than a new reproduction.

 

Dealer doesn't make the car, they sell the car. Dealers are independant companies, and have no affiliation with GM other than a license to sell GM products. They are not required to carry any car parts at all for any car, ever. Granted, their customer service rating would drop to a point where they'd lose their dealership, but there's no requirement for a dealer to stock any part.

Dealers rarely keep anything on hand. You could put all the parts from a dealer parts dept into your living room - most of it is oil and filters, a few generic electrical connectors, and plugs. 90% of the time, when you take your car to the dealer, you get Advance Auto parts installed. Haven't you ever noticed the huge number of Advance Auto trucks/cars on the road? Advance employs 3 times as many drivers per store than they do counter people. And starting soon - that number of drivers will double - Advance will start delivering to YOUR door with a $75 minimum purchase.

The parts that Advance doesn't carry (GM specific), are located in warehouses throughout the country - usually 1-2 days shipping distance.

Like mentioned, parts are made by contracted suppliers. Those companies are going to make a minimum number of parts per day, otherwise it's not worth THEIR time and investment. If GM won't pay for that number per day, then the supplier cancels the contract. These suppliers are given the contract and the specs of the part - the suppliers create the machines, tooling, etc. to make the part as efficiently as possible, so that they can in turn recoup their investment in the tooling. GM doesn't even pay out the initial investment money to start producing a car, these suppliers all do!

Thus it's GM "discontinuing" the parts by not being able to sell enough of a particular part to justify paying the supplier to keep making it.

 

Pretty much this except one thing. GM usually owns their tooling, molds, and assembly line equipment even though a supplier uses it.

 

And they usually dont sell the tooling which is completly retarded because they could get some of the costs of making the tooling back out selling it

 

Wow, this turned into a very interesting read. Thank you third gen community

And again, I second or third, or fourthed? The notion, why, WHY can't they sell the tooling to third parties instead of throwing it away or recycling it?

Can you imagine how great the world would be if Hawks thirdgen got it's hands on all of GM's old toolings

 

In the past, tooling, along with licensing have been sold, but tooling also wears out and for molded parts, even the master mold wears out.

 

consider yourself lucky if you have a camaro. To be able to get a front bumper cover new is incredible. For trans ams and firebirds, these have been unavailable for at least 12 years. And used ones are crap. They get warped in the sun.

Now, gm makes most of their stuff in china. it is garbage. Worse than any repro stuff I have ever seen. I got some front parking light housings from gm last year. Unlike my originals, they have MADE IN CHINA
cast right into them, and black spray paint on them, with bugs and dirt in the paint, and overspray on the amber lense for the light. I would not put that chinese garbage on my car. And this is $50/each for these things. Total crap.

Basically, gm is buying repro parts from china, and putting them in their own boxes and selling it for premium prices under the heading:Genuine GM

This is no problem for them, because their new cars are such crap, that they can't justify making parts to a higher standard for old cars just because they were originally made to that standard. If they don't make quality stuff for their brand new cars, why do it for old ones? So we get crap. You are better off with used stuff in most circumstances. The chinese parking lamps will probably fill with water on the first rain, and then will turn cloudy after a month or two in the sun. The originals stay good for 20 years. I only bought them because I wanted spares and I thought if I could buy gm ones now, this was the time to do it since the cars are only getting older, and they will probably be discontinued soon. Little was I to know that these are just crap repros. Genuine GM crap. If I wanted that I would get a new GM car. The kind that go into the shop every 3 months for $1200 in repairs.

 

I am glad Hawks Third Gen started making the front ground effects for our 91 92 Firebirds but Genuine GM would have been better

 

I can't seem to find the front ground effects for a 85-90 ta that's still in good shape that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I realized this is the reason I can't bolt on the side pieces of the front air dam. BTW I'd kill for a brand new set of black interior plastics.

 

where did you buy these?

BTW more then a few of GM's headlamps, fogs, and taillights are made in Illinois.

such as these which go on the Cadillac SRX. Which if you were to order a replacement there would be a good chance I would be the one to build the load that is shipped to GM's distributing center

 

Is the chin spoiler for the Z28 and the IROC-Z the same? I see ground effects trim in good condition for the Z28 come up for sale often on Craigslist.

 

Sometimes the tooling and molds are worn out and need replacing anyway. Also, just having the tooling or molds isn't enough. You also need the equipment to make the parts which could easily be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

If everyone is still looking for a good condition 91/92 one I got one sitting in a box ready to go, just PM me, but as far as tooling, as said above, every part is outsourced and brought together in the factory. They have pallets of stuff coming in and use it up as it comes, GM only really owns the chevy bow tie symbol and emblems and such, of which they own the right to use, but again, don't even produce themselves most of the time. Car manufacturers are nothing more than an assembly plant with a line of credit, and as they build the product, they pay off their suppliers.

 

Yep! What he said ^^^^^^^^^ The most advanced "In-house" (Meaning the largest percentage of the car is Fabbed in one factory) Is the camaro plant, where the 5thgen is built. They form the entire metalwork of the car in-house!

 

... Because they don't have any brains in the upper level management...

I mean, come on. They've shut down plants and laid off/fired people left and right. There are an awful lot of cars out there that people want to keep running and rebuilding but can't because their cars are over 10 years old (believe it or not, I have a neighbor wanting to do some serious rust rebuilding on an 88 Cavalier!). The sensible solution would be to maybe start a Restoration division where they use a defunct plant and some of those laid off workers to produce parts according to GM specs. They have absolutely NO idea how much money they could rake in if they did so, taking away from the cheapo Chinese and Jap junk parts that don't fit and what not out there. Not to mention producing the impossibly difficult to find GTA door panels and the 91-92 Bird parts that most would at least like to have the option to buy...

I mean, really. I can't even find a full replacement quarter panel. I mean the full panel, from the roof union at the top of the door window line down to the welds at the rocker and the floor of the spare tire compartment. I don't want a skin as it has nowhere near enough steel for what I need (nothing in the rear where it joins the tail panel and no sail panel), so I'm stuck cutting one from a junkyard car (that has rust, but enough to manage compared to mine which the PO of my car FUBARed), because all that's available on the market is skins. I'd gladly pay for a FULL GM quarter panel, if I could find one! It might take me 6 months to get it, but I'd buy it!

 

I agree what u siad.