"jrk" <BC80009mm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
news:4637afa4$0$3579$815e3792@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
> For what its worth, I've been told that after market body parts are
> not made to exactly match the OEM parts by design. Something about
> patents and such.
Nah, it's just that the aftermarket simply does not have the budget to
engineer the molds and dies the way Honda did. The appeal of aftermarket
direct-replacement is economy, not quality. They have to find ways of
making the parts cheaper than OEM, and that means cutting all the corners
they can.
Their materials are cheaper as well. Quality control is much laxer in the
aftermarket. They simply can't afford to throw away all the production
that
the OEMs do.
The aftermarket does not have access to the OEM engineering CAD files and
blueprints, which are heavily guarded and protected. They have to get hold
of actual examples of the parts, then work backwards to obtain their own
specs. This is a terribly inaccurate way of engineering a part, especially
something as large and floppy as a bumper skin. And then they're only
going
to spend so long welding up and grinding down the molds, since that takes
time and money, so...
I've been involved in the OEM process. The detailed engineering of OEM
parts is astoundingly expensive, exhaustingly intricate, and is only
justifiable in huge production quantities. Low-volume OEM parts are
developed the same way as high-volume OEM ones, but with a price that
reflects the small amortization base.
Remember, Honda made hundreds of thousands of bumpers. The aftermarket
makes a few thousand. Big, BIG difference.
--
Tegger
The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/
|
