Put your money where your DP is

[racemybuick]

I bought a mease DP woth the full intention of building my car to be 11 seconds....after some major setbacks, and the purchasing of a new home, i had to sell most of my parts, including my hot air roller. What I can say in all honesty is that the fastest part I have ever sold in my life was that down pipe.

The Mease pipe was listed on a monday night, and on tuesday I had about 4-8 emails before lunch. I did not make a profit from the sale of the pipe, but i did not loose any money on the pipe. I am still selling other parts today, that were listed months ago with that pipe. I think Jerryl will agree with me, but if you did contact every single hot air registry member and announce the building of one brand new 3" dp for $425, that will be a no-hassle, final solution (dont think anybody got to 3.5 or 4"), I think you can sell 35 in a year. I know for a fact I will personally scrap my atr 2.5 pipe for a 3 inch in my brothers car. and 425 is a hell of a reasonable price being that it is probably one of the most important mods in these cars!!! I dont think i would buy one for 500, or even 450, but I think that threshold of 400 is what scares most people...to me it isnt about the cost now...it is the benefits later. If you buy the pipe, and install it, and dont like it after a couple months...I bet you can sell it for 400 on these pages in a matter of days should you decide to put back in a 2.5 or less....

I guarantee my 425 if that is the cost for one pipe for my brother and my car. (we are building one hot air for 11's hehehehe)

So...if you for 11 so far, how many could you have in a month?

Lee...I think you are the hot air guru still, and your contributions are still un-ending. Thank you for all the knowledge and the courteous e-mails, and all the help...Step by step, a Thompson duplicate is in the makings!!!

Good luck on this endeavor Brian!!!

John Mackey :biggrin:

 

[tenright]

Actually I think the downfall of all the other 3" attempts is that none from what I undertstand fit all the cars. Some would hit the AC box, some would only fit if you had stock headers etc....and some where outragously priced. I absolutely agree that spending more for a DP then you spent on headers would definately scare most away. The 425.00 price tag is just about the higher limit to get people to go with it. I do hope this becomes a reality, I want to see this part avialable to all.




T

 

[1QUICK85]

Gotta disagree with you Brad, just about everyone that owns a H.A. is on this board and as I see it only 3 or 4 has shown interest and then when it comes time to pony up, they will disappear. As for the 89 people on the registry, that doesn't mean anything. I would guess that 90% of those people could care less about a DP.........only time will tell.

I would have to totally agree with BigDaddy, as much as that sucks it is reality. Brad, how many of those 89 guys on the registery have convertered their hot air over to a 86/87 setup?? How many of those guys are looking to just stay stock?? How many of those guys plan on pulling their motor and putting a 86/87 in yet?? How many of those guys don't have the funds to buy a downpipe this expensive??(ME) And for the time(if you do your work yourself) and the money you put into headers, downpipe, up-pipe, injectors, turbo, cam, porting intake, porting heads, switching to 87 ecm, maf, etc., and whatever else you do..........why not switch to the 86/87 engine or top half??? Don't matter to me how I get down the track, the easier the better. Just to say you don't use an intercooler? Side thought: Are you really "hot-air'd" if your running alky? Alky in itself is an intercooler.

 

[cool 84]

I would have to totally agree with BigDaddy, as much as that sucks it is reality. Brad, how many of those 89 guys on the registery have convertered their hot air over to a 86/87 setup?? How many of those guys are looking to just stay stock?? How many of those guys plan on pulling their motor and putting a 86/87 in yet?? How many of those guys don't have the funds to buy a downpipe this expensive??(ME) And for the time(if you do your work yourself) and the money you put into headers, downpipe, up-pipe, injectors, turbo, cam, porting intake, porting heads, switching to 87 ecm, maf, etc., and whatever else you do..........why not switch to the 86/87 engine or top half??? Don't matter to me how I get down the track, the easier the better. Just to say you don't use an intercooler? Side thought: Are you really "hot-air'd" if your running alky? Alky in itself is an intercooler.

Lets not get back into this discussion. Alky is not a replacement for an intercooler. It helps, yes, but after doing both years ago I can tell you the car was faster pound for pound with a big front mount. Some people don't want to convert such a rare car. And yes, some want to go fast with no intercooler just to say they did it.

 

[1QUICK85]

hehe..

 

[alec296]

how about a 2 3/4 mounting to the stock elbow?
will cut the cost of the wastegate part
andy

 

[1QUICK85]

I think they were looking to get rid of the stock elbow, because of air flow.

 

[tb3]

If this 3" downpipe can be done for $475 or less price tag. I'm still in. I'll be straight up.... I simply do not have any more funds that I could put towards one right now. I have got a LOT of other things I need to get done under the hood before I was going to focus on a bigger downpipe. My turbo has never been rebuilt, and at idle if I put my ear close to it, I can hear occaisional bearing/shaft grinding noise. I'm going to go ahead and just assume thats not a good thing. (surprisingly, it still spools up quick and pulls impressively hard considering). I would go ahead and push my budget back for the new turbo,... to put towards this downpipe because I know eventually I'll be focusing on the downpipe, and, it would make me feel good to know that I had a hand in getting this thing into production for me and fellow hot air owners. I feel greatly indebted to this website and hot-air section especially for the information and help I've gotten from you guys.
One other thing I'd like to add... I haven't added up my receipts, but in the last 3 months alone, between poston buick, and kirban performance, I have spent well over $2,000 between the two. I call up kirban performance so often to order something for my gn's that the gal who always takes my order knows my voice right off the bat. I haven't ever ordered anything yet from GBody parts, simply because I had never heard of them until about 3 weeks ago. I'm sure they are a smart and good group of guys, I know they've got a good reason for coming up with a 40 part minimum order to get the go-ahead, after all, their a business and have got to make a profit to stay up with the competition. But, if there was anyway they could push some numbers around or whatever the process is.... and help the hot-air bunch out by cutting that 40 part minimum order in half for us... I would DEFINETLY make those guys the first place I call from now on when I'm needing a part.

 

[tenright]

Actually yes the whole idea is to rid ourselves of the restrictive stock 90 degree bend at the wastegate elbow. In fact the only reason we are talking 3" is because if we are going to do this we might as well go as big as possible. Frankly with our setup 3" is probably pushing as far as we can and still fit all applications. Any bigger and something would have to give, like the AC box. Also we are limited by the up pipe flange at the header. It's tight as it is, but I think the general opinion is we can squeeze a 3" with a less restrictive bend at the turbine. I would expect a huge improvement in spooling, this should also improve the lag if not cure the lag problem of larger turbo's. Not to mention we should gain some room with knock allowing higher boost levels. There's just no downside (excuse the pun)

TURBOBUICK2- I have personally been dealing with Brian at GBody since I bought this car and much like your relationship with Kirban I have a very similar relationship with GBody. The reason I brought this up to Brian and not one of the other's (No names mentioned) is because I want a high quality part at the most affordable price. Brian is active on the board and always helpfull. I am very confident if he takes this on he will do his very best to get it out for us. Also I believe he is asking for 30-35 to commit not 40....



T

 

[tb3]

Sounds good tenright! I'll say no more and just keep an eye on this thread and see what happens.

 

[turbo84gn]

Just to get my name on a contact list somewhere, I am interested, if I can sell my wife on the cost. Might take some extra begging and house chores on my part!

For my part, I would like it to be able to fit the stock setup, without any modifications. My plan is to eventually upgrade other pieces over time, but to always stay a hot-air.

 

[1QUICK85]

COOL84, did you get a PM from Brad like say this one I recieved:

**1QUICK85- I personally thought your comment this morning was out of line and in line with COOl84. I personally would buy a larger downpipe but you and Cool 84 do not want to see this happen. Good luck in the future because my car is done except for a 3 inch downpipe for a hot air. I have acheived my goal for my car(HE HE and I respond HO HO HO.Best wishes) By the way my roots are Good Ol Wisconsin.
Best wishes- Brad-time to fade away into the black.**

I don't want to see this happen?? How do you know??
So, if I was out of line I apologize. If you want to speak your mind to me go ahead, but I don't need your PM's.

Best wishes- Nick- time to fade away into the black.

 

[cool 84]

I didn't get that one.... I too would love to see it happen and as I've said I have one committed buyer. I was planning on buying an extra for myself but I just lost my job. I don't see selling 50-60 and like I said before I hope I'm wrong. My car is done mod wise. I have everything I've ever wanted but if I didn't want to see it happen why would I pull my DP off a completed setup?

I'm being realistic since I've watched what Lee and others went through. Brad's enthusiasm is good but sometimes a little misguided.

 

[tenright]

Speaking of that and definately to change the subject....whats the status of the donation pipes??? Sorry to hear about the job situation bud but you should get a pipe outta this anyway



T

 

[Bweavy]

Lee I appreciate your input & your go ahead. I'll probablly be contacting you as soon as we start this project.I also agree a 1 piece unit will be tough.

I use to sell Mease's hot air pipe & it was a nice unit. We sold more then just a few. I think the market is there it's just the advertising & getting it out there.That was over 2 years ago & alot of people have converted there cars in the last 2 years.

Also there is no guarantee we will build this. It really will depend on how many want it initially. I have a feeling we will be setting on down pipes for a few years.

I know I personally have sold over 30 conversion kits for hot air to intercooled thru the years.I also have had to complete a few items guys were missing for there conversions.I have a brand new spearco intercooler kit for 84-5 cars & the reason we haven't built a similar unit is because of the amount of conversions.

Alot will depend on if we can get the amount of people & keep the cost reasonable.

 

[tenright]

Brian- I have a thought on this, not sure if it's a good idea or not. Lee stated that the flange was the costly part. My thought is that since the flange itself should be the same for all the cars 84-87 the only difference being how it's mounted aka up or down, maybe producing just the WG flange with a flare so that you could mount either a hot air pipe or an intercooled pipe to it, then the only difference would be the tube that attaches to it, or more specifically the bends in the tube that attaches to it. This would also open up the door for people to buy only the wastegate flange and build they're own DP.

As an example if this fell through I had planned on possibly buying the 87 pipe, hacking off the pipe and having a local shop bend and weld up one for my car. The bolt pattern and such should be the same. There is something out there along the lines of my thinking, the idea is the same but it is a 5" pipe that would never fit our cars. But the basic idea is along the lines of what I am trying to explain to you so I will post the link...

http://www.rjcracing.com/RJC_Buick_Products/5IN_DPipe/5in_dpipe.html


I don't know much about the fabrication end and such that is your area of expertise, I just thought this might be a very cost effective way to make a 3" pipe almost universal. With the only difference being the actual tube that attaches to it.



T

 

[Waco84GN]

Weld flange

This piece is already available from Turbonetics.
www.turbonetics.com then click on the accessories link at the bottom. Scroll down to GN turbochargers and then at the bottom of the page I believe is the flange by itself for around $32. I personally would like to buy a dp that all the work and figuring on the bends was done already. I too, like Cool84 have the old school Kenne Bell headers. These babies are so big I had problems putting the motor back in the car with the header still attached to the head. But I figured I had to do it that way because there was no way I could have installed the header once the motor was in. I'm currently running the Kenne Bell up and downpipe and the flange where the header attaches to the up-pipe almost touches the downpipe. Really close fit, but without the stock elbow the downpipe would not even have to bend that way. Brian if you would like to ask me any questions regarding my Kenne Bell exhaust system lemme know bro.

Jerry Berger

 

[tenright]

Waco84GN-Wow can't imagine missing that one, took me 15 minutes to find it even with you telling me where it is lol...also I wouldn't know what that was by the description or if it is anything like what I have in mind...no pic. In fact I'm still not sure if it is what I am thinking of, this is one of the reasons I don't by more stuff from Postons. Alot of the time I need the pic to see if it is what I am looking for before I fork over $$$$...aot of what Postons sells is by description just like that site. Having written web sites for several companies, when I see a confusing site, or one that requires calling to order I will immediately be turned off.



T

 

[Waco84GN]

yeah I noticed that too...

The only reason I know turbonetics makes one is my bro got his adjustable boost controller from that company and they sent a paper catalog which contained a picture of just the flange. You had to fab the entire elbow / integral wastegate area. It would be a good starting point, but any machine shop could probably make one. It would cost alot more than $32 due to the time involved. Actually, RJC has a flange adapter to go from the stock size to 5" pipe. I just about fell out of the chair when I saw the size of the pipe on their site.

Jerry Berger

 

[cwmccray]

Just to add my .02
I have one of the twelve 0 to 60 3 inch pipes(2 piece) and BGC headers/uppipe (Poston). I always wanted one of those LT (Leeo /Big Daddy) pipes. Unfornuately for me, I lost my JOB and could not justify the expense to my family. I am converting my car to intercooler... but in Hot Air configuration. I have my 87 intake set up and I currently have the 2 1/2 ATR pipe and the 3 inch 0 to 60 pipe. I would love to get a Mease pipe or a Weavy 3 inche. The biggest hurdle is the start up cost. If Brian did let say 20 3 inch pipes. He would sell them all... It is just WHEN!!! There is a market.

Just a suggestion, maybe build a 2pc pipe 3in in stock location. Everyone knows that a 3 inch will get a Hot Air moving. I like my 2pc because I can remove the upper section and do things without the downpipe in the way (Thanks, Leeo.... must give credit!). I will get a Mease style someday if I do not make my own to fit my 0 to 60...
Just my .02