Bad Aftermarket or Repo Parts
 

To all my Corvette friends out there,

We have to start holding these suppliers of aftermarket and reproduction parts accountable for bad parts. A lot of these parts come from China and they are bad. I am restoring a 1980 Corvette and I have gotten so many bad "New Parts" it is almost un believable. The quality is just not there. It is very frustrating when you spend hours replacing a part and it is bad right out of the factory. I think we need some exposure to start holding the Corvette aftermarket parts suppliers accountable. What do you all think? To the Corvette enthusiasts and restorers out there, I know you know what I am talking about. What do you want to do? Do you want to form some kind of committee to start exposing bad aftermarket parts and giving credit to those that sell good parts. Tell me what you want to do and I will take the lead.

Darrell Glanton

Doesnt this belong in the Transactions Feedback forum?

Stop buying Chinese parts?

How will we do that?

There is only one cure. Find the GM part numbers and buy NOS at twice the price. Cheaper in the end game.

I gave up on most repop.

Its kinda like this in all different car circles. The restoration parts suppliers try as best they can to provide good parts to keep old cars and enthusiasts happy.
But stuff gets expensive to manufacture and regualr people dont wanna pay the difference.
so they make the best they can and if you want the best you try and find original parts. if you want a nice restoration driver, you get whatever is available. You just gonna shine it up and sell it or barely get it on the road you get cheap knockoff crap.

Hey Guys,

I'm an Aerospace Engineer. And we CANNOT let bad part go out the door as people's lives depend on us. So, we have quality checks we implement to make sure we don't get bad parts or let bad part go out the door. The problem I see with the aftermarket parts, is that no one is checking them before they go out the door. They make them and ship them without ever knowing if they work. It all boils down to quality control. And there is none. So, don't blame the customer. Hold these part manufacturers accountable for what they sell and produce.

Exposure my friend.

maybe your wiring is bad and causing all the faults lol.

fwiw it is helpful to keep lists of whats good and what to avoid. as you have learned, when you restore an older car you start to find out what brands to avoid and whats worth rebuilding vs replacing.
there is a decent list online for corvette stuff. http://www.vettevendors.com/categori...rior#Vendor420

it would be a good idea to make a sticky thread like this VW one: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/vi...c.php?t=256430 but for c3 corvettes.

examples are people always asking about metro, vs CRC vs Latex weatherstriping. And using trimparts or original handles vs cheaper taiwan stuff etc.

start with wiper switches and headlight switches.

Bad Parts
 

Guys, Please see this.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-feedback-153/

Most of the problems that I see result from the suppliers having to go to China to get the parts. Many are no longer made here or are too expensive, so people buy the cheaper Chinese parts. You have to do some serious searching to find u-joints, ball joints, etc that are actually made here. You just can't buy Timken or Moog and assume they are made here, you have to dig through their product literature to find the part numbers that do correspond with a true USA made part. When more people are willing to buy quality over price then the manufacturing will come back.

I've had problems both ways. I've been pretty disappointed in the quality of some reproduction parts but I've also bought a lot of OEM used parts that appeared okay in pictures and I was told were in good or very good condition and I receive them and they're way worse than what I want to put on the car or have some hidden problem or wear that didn't show up in the pictures. For example, I've got one new reproduction pace car steering wheel, and two used OEM steering wheels that I'd be very disappointed to use on my car and I foolishly sold my very good condition OEM oyster steering wheel for $20 because I mistakenly thought some trivial wear on it greatly devalued it and I didn't want to dye it silver myself. Like this I've found myself buying multiple times the same used OEM part for 60% of the re-production cost until I get one good enough to use or decide Its hopeless and buy the new reproduction. So for me, I find it kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of thing with reproduction parts.

But getting parts for my Corvette is still heaven compared to getting them for my '70 Torino.

First its not where they are made, its the companies that have the parts made and what standards they spec. China can manufacture to the same standards as anywhere in north America, but if the American company specs are low and whether it is made in the "USA" or "China" its the spec that matters. I have received many "MADE IN USA" parts that are also cheap and crappy as others made over sea's. So ask the companies to review their specs , QC , Warranty. I don't trust "where its made" anymore. If a company won't stand behind the product with long term warranty, and have a proven track record of reliability ("forum members etc") I move on to the next.

:iagree:

Most of the products that I've bought, and most are from supporting vendors to this forum, are actually ok. I try to read up on the forum before buying parts and I avoid troublesome things, unless I have no choice. For example-- reading on here I noticed that the vertical dash pads are problematic when trying to get them to fit.... so I didn't buy.... instead I took my old driver side dash pad and cleaned it, and then reglassed the whole back side--- I could have done a better job, but I initially only planned for it to be temporary; however, I know that I can go back in there and make it better next time I remove it for something.

Document and report here on this forum. If I'm buying anything that is remotely questionable, or somewhat expensive, I look through this forum to read about other folks' experiences. It works well.

Another (probably obvious) solution is not to buy the cheapest version of the part you are looking for. Most of the vendors now list a couple of different versions of the parts and some will state whether it is made in the US or not.