Bumpers, Stainless steel, Group buy, Gauging interest, $1200/set plus shipping Options

[rick 918-S]

I'm interested... Need the early rear though

[ChrisHG]

Dear forum

My name is Christoph, I am the Sales & Marketing Director from Group Harrington.

I came across your thread organizing a group buy of Porsche 914 stainless steel bumpers from PTT. I would like to take this opportunity to let you know about our 914 bumpers and to straighten things out with the origin of PTT claim’s on this particular product.

Harrington Group has been offering stainless steel bumpers since 2003. To this day, we are offering over 300 types of bumpers for 58 makes of classic cars. We started offering Porsche 914 bumpers since 2005. We have invested heavily in a proper steel stamping mould for this product. Our product has been tried and test fit by 914 Porsche specialists in the UK, and since, has been sold widely all around the world including in the US.

PTT is actually one of our former production workers who stole some of our reproduction bumpers to use as pattern and since then set up in competition with us. I don’t want to say too much about him, but I feel that I should address a couple of things:

PTT DOES NOT use original bumpers for reproduction– he is using our replicas as patterns. You can clearly see by looking at his website and ours, that we produce pretty much all bumpers he produces, plus around 200 additional types. Please check out our website www.groupharrington.com where you can find our complete range.

The most important difference is that, unlike us, PTT DOES NOT press his bumpers, every single bumper he offers is hand-made, made in a little shed in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.

He also DOES NOT test fit the bumpers before he offers them. We on the other hand have a stringent quality control and testing team. All our bumpers are produced according to original patterns. They have been provided by specialists who confirmed us perfect fit. The bumpers are also test fitted by specialists and only if they give their final GO we launch them. All our bumpers are pressed using proper moulds and trimmed and checked using exact jigs. This explains the positive feedback on the 914world forum about our bumpers.

When I saw the photo below on your forum, I was shocked to realize that this photo was taken from OUR storage section where we keep our faulty pressed bumpers and other faulty parts in OUR FACTORY.

Apart from making bumpers, we also produce half-scaled junior cars. I can proof to you that the picture was taken from our storage because this is where we keep the faulty steering wheels for our junior cars too.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/image.ibb.co-20980-1493273645.1.png)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/image.ibb.co-20980-1493273646.2.png)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/image.ibb.co-20980-1493273647.3.jpg)

You can find many more pictures of the range of our junior cars produced here. http://groupharrington.com/en/page/12/junior-cars.html

Also pictures of our 914 bumpers here. http://groupharrington.com/en/part/74/pors...-6-bumpers.html .

Picture below is one section of our factory with stamping press machine for bumpers. And toy cars production at the far end.


(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/image.ibb.co-20980-1493273647.4.jpg)

You can see from all the pictures above that PTT has somehow bribed one of our workers to take pictures, to steal the faulty bumpers and to sell to them in the hope that they would fix them and to resell to you.

The bumpers PTT promised to deliver to you are made by our factory from the mould we paid a lot of money for. This is not fair at all. This act is equivalent of stealing.

I would like to bring to your attention that if he had promised to deliver the bumpers to you, this delivery will be the first and the last one from him, not to mention that there will be no guaranty that they can make correct bumpers that fit. He does not have the original bumpers on hands to even know what the correct profile and form of the bumpers is. The fact that 914 bumpers fit very snuggest to the car body makes it one of the most difficult bumpers to produce. It requires precision. PTT doesn’t even know how difficult that is to make sure the light holes on the front bumper have to be the exact fit. He has never tested the 914 bumpers… so needless to say, getting a group buy from him, you would run the risk of bumpers not fitting.

However, as you made the deal with PTT already, and we do not want our bumpers to be sold by him, we will match his price for this group buy. Please let me know your thoughts.

With us you will deal with native English and German speaking sales and customer care staff. We as a company have been going for more than 15 years. We produce a lot more than just bumpers. We produce interiors in both leather and vinyl, rubber parts, cast metal parts composite parts, glass parts, plastic parts, etc. We also restore cars and scooters; build half sized classic cars for children. In fact, my boss owns quite a few classic cars which have been lovingly restored. Ultimately, with us, you are dealing with classic car enthusiasts that know about crucial points in the production of classic car parts! PTT on the other side is just in this business for money and has no idea about classic cars, a crucial point when supplying parts if you ask me!

Should you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best regards
Christoph

[euro911]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[sb914]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[Bartlett 914]

How deep are we in this?

[JmuRiz]

I'm in deep, I'm in deep...

Great info from the Harrington Group though!!!

[mepstein]

How deep are we in this?

Just Mark Henry - and I'm happy to help him out with some $ to cover his exposure how ever it turns out.

[Bartlett 914]

How deep are we in this?

Just Mark Henry - and I'm happy to help him out with some $ to cover his exposure how ever it turns out.

My Thoughts exactly.

[Mark Henry]

I know about Christoph claims, if my guy snagged that picture I apologize and I had already given my guy royal shit about it.

This also seems to be a bit of sour grapes, right from the start my guy said he was an ex-employee of Harrington.

PTT DOES NOT use original bumpers for reproduction– he is using our replicas as patterns.

Well that claim is false as I personally sent him a set of OE bumpers.
As far as quality control goes I'm the final step.

If he is reselling your bumpers what's the deal? Are you saying he's stealing them?


Money wise I haven't given them a dime yet, but he is asking for money now.
I've been stalling because they don't have the GT bumper done correctly.

These are the pictures they have given me, I know that these pictures are legit because the bumpers with the tape on them (or dirty) are my factory bumpers that I shipped to them. My hand writing on the labels, I used a translator for the Vietnamese text.
I was holding off posting them because I wanted better quality pictures and the GT bumper done correctly.

[914_teener]

Rufino can come to your place. He did several 914 windshield here in SoCal and even mine.

His number is: (714) 292-5811

Cudos for doing this Mark....

Lot of friggen drama it reads like.

Stainless can be tricky to draw form.

[Mark Henry]

Christoph if you are saying that these bumpers are stolen there's you proof, call the police, that's what I would do if my claim was true.

No money has left my account yet, they even paid for the shipping, but I am out a set of usable bumpers off of my young lads car...and a shitload of time.

All I'm getting out of the deal is a few sets of bumpers.
Yes Drama (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Front yard mechanic]

There is a big difference between 1100 dollars and the asking price of 1700 plus shipping seams like their over priced to begin with I my self will be looking for some used bumpers or just settle for my impact anchors (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif)

[amfab]

Christoph if you are saying that these bumpers are stolen there's you proof, call the police, that's what I would do if my claim was true.

No money has left my account yet, they even paid for the shipping, but I am out a set of usable bumpers off of my young lads car...and a shitload of time.

All I'm getting out of the deal is a few sets of bumpers.
Yes Drama (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Again, thanks Mark for taking this on

-Andrew

[second wind]

I am dying to get a set of these bumpers but I vote Harrington. Let's get back to $1,100 as well. Just my humble opinion.
gg

[pete000]

So, not looking good for the early rear bumpers?

I would still be in for two non Tit front bumpers.

[mobymutt]

I know I shouldn't comment on this, and I apologize in advance, but I can't help myself.

If PTT's bumpers aren't pressed, then how are they made? Welded? Hammered? 3D printed?

But then later there is a statement that they are pressed on Harrington's molds, then stolen.

Support small business! Poor guy is working in a little shed, making things by hand, sounds like me...

[ChrisHG]

Dear all,

Thanks for your feedback.

I do agree that Mark sent his original bumper to PTT because the one on the picture is not our original pattern bumper. As PTT does not have a mould for the Porsche 914 bumpers I can assure he bought our faulty bumpers from one of our workers. Sure, we could go to the police but frankly speaking this is a bit of a stretch.

PTT has now a couple of sets and we are not going to do anything about it. The only thing we ensure, is that he will not receive one more set which is pressed out from our mould. Saying this, we just wanted to let you guys know about the situation. Now it’s up to you whether you want to proceed with this group buy or not. You might also consider getting the bumpers from Autoatlanta. They just had a special offer on the bumpers together with the top seals and will likely have it again soon.

Best regards
Christoph

[Coondog]

No offense Chris HG but it's because of the price of the bumpers that places like AA sale them for is what more then likely led this group down this road. I paid 2,400 dollars for your bumpers from High Performance house in San Francisco and am still pissed off. How about finding a couple reputable vendors....Stoddard or Sierra Madre....who by the way never has them in stock, offer them a exclusive deal with a retail price closer to the 1,200 to 1,400 dollar a set price and I bet you would see a lot more orders. Its not like your paying union wages to get these manufactured in Vietnam.

[DM71SIX]

The only way to check on the quality of the new bumpers is to get a set for fitment along with your supplied samples. A visit to the production facilities is a good idea. this is a major project which needs great QA. My experience as a commercial photographer with alot of product made in China and the US involved tooling for parts production. The back and forth to get an acceptable part involved several trials and analysis of the parts. The only parts I saw made to spec the first time was from people who had worked together for a long time. Reverse engineering is usually not a good way to produce precision parts.

Have you specified the quality of the steel and the chrome process? Chroming is no longer done the same way as the originals. Good luck on this project. it is a huge effort to get right.

[JmuRiz]

polished stainless, so no worries about the chrome quality/thickness...