Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

Hello,

I will be setting up the required infrastructure for such a fund. A vital part of that is a board which will govern the fund.

A lot of SVX parts are becoming EOL* now, meaning we need to rely more and more on aftermarket. As the list of parts that are NLA (No Longer Available/ Discontinued) increases, refurbishment is a great option, but we will be needing more and more professional expertise in the years to come. Usually, the "heavy" cost is in having a stable, reputable company creating the blueprints for the part in question.

Therefore, we need some money for this "overhead" cost. The alternative is that every owner will pay the same overhead with different vendors every time some part needs development work.

Before the money, we need the people to manage the fund and decide where to put the money at any given time. Then, we can start the funding process through donations or whatever.

Please suggest people that would be suitable to steer the fund. No vendors allowed in my plans, the fund needs to consider long term necessity, not profits.



* EOL (End-of-Life) :(
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Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

Interesting idea!

Do you know of other groups doing this for other cars?

One consideration I would advocate for is that all work from this fund is open sourced (with an appropriate license). If everything developed from the fund is open sourced, then it shouldn't matter if vendors are involved or not.

Note, there are a couple of vendors which have already invested Subaru SVX after market development, supporting those (and getting things open sourced) could be a win for us all.

Also, with 3D printing, CNC mills, services like shapeways.com, the rise of maker spaces/labs, manufacturing parts ourselves could be an option as well.

Would love to hear more.

Thanks,
Ian.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

Opensource will not be an issue.

I don't want vendors to make any decisions. They have their own money.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

As an aside to any funding, I will be picking up my SVX in a month and will begin going through and taking measurements so that I can begin designing things such as control arms, pillow ball strut tops, exhaust parts (header flanges, etc), and maybe parts adaptation pieces such as 5mt swap parts (once my 4eat dies) and STI knuckle swaps (in order to enable direct STI brake swap and strut replacement)and maybe a strut top spacer kit for those of us who want to lift their cars (many of these spacer kits are expensive but should be relatively cheap to have laser, plasma, or waterjetted out of 1" aluminum plate if you have the 2D drawing.)

If there are any requests, I can work on those too. I'll need to familiarize myself with Fusion360 (since it's free and I don't have a student license to other CAD softwares anymore) and no guarantee that things will progress quickly, but I'm looking forward to helping alleviate some of the dearth of parts availability.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

That would be great. Keep us posted on progress

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

That's great! I was hoping to recruit people with skills like this, hope you will join in if we can get the fund going.


Some practical information:

• 3D laser scanning is not very expensive and requires little cleanup afterwords
• You can purchase OEM strut housings with Bilstein inserts from K-Staff.. unless you want all the STI options.

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Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

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I still need people to come along here. I think 5 is an appropriate number. Looking for credible people with these skills:

• Parts market competency (OEM and aftermarket)
• IT skills to run something like Magento in cloud (to build a database and retain user scores on alternatives)
• Subaru mechanical skills and deep SVX experience x2

This group will not sell or make parts, we aim to identify existing and develope new solutions to the parts problem. Therefore, existing vendors and people making money from sales should not be directly involved in the decisions. Rest assured we will seek to collaborate closely with them!
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Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

Hei - Unnskyld jeg ikke forsta

So, as an existing vendor, with CNC Mill, 3D printer, and multiple CAD systems, you'd like me to not be involved? I'm not sure exactly what you mean with these statements.

I'm also fairly handy with all of these:

• Parts market competency (OM and aftermarket)
• IT skills to run something like Magento in cloud (to build a database and retain user scores on alternatives)
• Subaru mechanical skills and deep SVX experience x2

I am highly supportive of the idea to figure out how to keep our weird-windowed cars on the road, so I'm in if you want me on board.


I totally agree that we are getting close the point where OEM parts will be scarce, and even scrap cars are getting less common, (and many of them getting stripped of their engine for the Impreza/Vanagon crowd and then scrapped) and when that supply dries up it's going to be a sad time.

We do have a challenging case with the SVX as far as market for spare parts. Very low volume when new, (and even worse now) a car that was/is not popular in the mainstream, a car where even the best examples now do not currently command a high price.

It saddens me that our car has lately become a bit like the rhino or elephant, killed for its EG33 horn/tusks and the carcass left to rot. I'm not sure how we change that mentality, or even if it is possible.

Did I mention that I really really like my SVX? Because I do, and I love our community here and in the SVXNation that has formed around this UFO car. There is absolutely no logical reason why I should still own mine (which I've had since 1999!) but I can also see no reason why I would ever part with it, ever - even when it comes to the point I have to make/adapt/improvise my own parts to keep it going, and I'm glad there are still people around who feel likewise.
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Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

To clarify, Steve:

Vendors and fabricators should not be part of the decision making itself. So let's say we get some funding through donations. We now have to put those funds to work, i.e pay a fabricator for prototyping (measurements, molds, testing etc). Just to avoid all potential conflicts of interest, the decision makers should have no commercial interests at all, allowing us to decide:

• Which development would we fund next?
• Who would we select to develop the replacement?

That said, having fabricators and vendors real close is paramount to success, especially those who are involved with the community. Your opinions and thoughts about what can be done will be very imporant. The board might put 5 parts on a shortlist and then pick the final project(s) based on fabricator / vendor feedback on pricing and time to market.

We cannot expect to work with only huge aftermarket players like Denso, NGK, Bridgestone etc.. you smaller specialty vendors are most likely those who will do the job. And the fund would be there to take most of your development cost, meaning you don't have to take a big risk. Maybe it's "only" a week's worth of job to develop the part, but you are not guaranteed a huge sales volume, right?

And that's why we need 5 people who don't make or sell anything, just to stay unbiased and (hopefully) make the best decisions on behalf of everyone. Noone should have to question our integrity.

Yes, this means good people, perhaps even the most right people, are somewhat put onto the sideline as to how those community funds are used. That's the price we pay to stay uncontroversial when spending other people's money.

Fabricators like yourself will influence the decision making by setting prices, quality levels, availbility etc..

I hope this sounds sensible to you.
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Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

Any love for this undertaking? We really need it.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

I would support this venture! Need to buy an SVX though, really missing my old one right now.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

I'd love to help out with this venture. I'm currently a civil drafter, using AutoCAD Civil 3D. I have a good knowledge base on about 4 or 5 different drafting programs, with which I can develop models and plans for parts. Unfortunately, most programs are very expensive to buy. Anyone know of some quality programs that can effectively be used to make car parts?

Programs I've worked with- AutoCAD, Solid works, Google SketchUp, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Inventor.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

All contributions welcome!

Been a bit busy with other things lately, but the determination and plan is still around. Ya all on Facebook? I think we can start the coordination there.

First thing is to set up a funding mechanism and then second is to secure a person who can set up some open source software we can use as database and publishing system.

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

Suggestion here—

Make a list of all the OEM parts that are no longer available

Determine which ones already have credible, non-OEM options

Review those parts remaining for realism when it comes to a small shop fabricating replacements or modifying existing parts so they work

I believe you’re going to arrive at a very short list that doesn’t require the overhead you’re proposing (definitely not throwing shade here, just been at the SVX R&D front since almost the beginning and have never seen more than a handful of people willing to put their “skin in the game” when it comes to deferring the non-recurring costs)

Cheers
Bill

Re: Replacement Parts Development Fund
 

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Not wanting to totally de-rail this thread, but I have seen many hundreds of SVX’s come up at insurance auction sites, many with super low miles. They sell for 300-900 bucks, plus the fees and shipping costs. Many of these cars are wrecked and fixable, and many are wrecked, not fixable, but with low miles and many GOOD used parts. There is no shortage of used parts in my opinion. People in the VW community wreck Decent running clean title cars just for motors and wiring, and these car remains can be located on about ANY easy Craigslist search-again, there is no shortage of good used parts. I wish the VW people would buy the wrecked ones and leave the good ones to enthusiasts of the SVX.

Some of the auction sites are RideSafely.com, IAAI.com, copart.com, etc. They come up all the time and are cheap buys.

It cost me $1100.00 to ship my 97 up here from auction, the car was purchased for only $700.00
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