Date:         Thu, 9 Mar 2006 14:47:15 -0500
Reply-To:     "Bostig Eng." <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Bostig Eng." <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
Subject:      Re: Subaru Conversions
In-Reply-To:  <0e7201c6439c$1d103b40$c901a8c0@w2ktopcat>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Interesting thread going.. and this is much of the same stuff Brady went
through 2 years ago looking for a conversion before we decided nothing out
there was worth it in our minds.  If we dumped the high grade stainless
cradle, exhaust, brackets, 316 hose clamps, bolts, nuts, washers, flanges,
etc etc and used mild steel like everyone else we could shave at least a
thousand or more off the price of the conversion... but then where are we?
Well, it's cheaper for starters, but then you're going to have to either
come back in 2-5 years, or pay someone else loads of money to fab/fix the
conversion down the road. I would LOVE to see an ongoing long term cost
comparison amongst the various conversions. For whatever reason most people
refuse to acknowledge that they are going to be affected by the long term
cost of ownership, or they just want to ignore it since many feel it is an
"unknowable" blackbox item. We designed ours to last, and didn't spare any
expense if it meant sacrificing the result long term, not to mention
over-building everything. If we did just enough to get by, we'd sell a lot
more conversions and perhaps be able to pay ourselves something, but that
isn't the point. We're not the right conversion for everyone, nor are we
trying to be. We are trying to be the very best conversion, and I'll leave
that to the conversion crowd to decide.

An interesting tidbit or nugget for you guys though... if you were to buy
all of the pieces you'd need to pull off a single zetec conversion kit in
the smallest minimum quantities of all the various parts we use, you'd have
to spend  $12,689.31 exactly.

Jim Akiba




At 12:08 PM 3/9/2006, TC wrote:
> > How many hours of labor did it take you? Now take those hours and
> > multiply by $60-80 per hour. Say it took you one week of only 40
> > hours. That's an additional $2400-3200 that you did but didn't charge
> > yourself.
>The seems to make a realy good argument for the zetec conversions
>the 7 step process http://bostig.com/
>1-pull the boxer for a pro 4-5hrs or less
>2-zetec 7 steps for the pro 7 hrs
>turn around should be 1.5 days 12 & 80 - ~$1000
>Now if they could get their parts prices in line :)