Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 10:44:45 -0500
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: Subject: German quality?
In-Reply-To: <CAB2RwfhmSKTPY+uHmqOCqaZ6fo1f=uzQEeb0X_jZ-B_3_no_Gg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
NOS means nothing more than parts manufactured in the era. In other words
with Vanagon - new replacement parts that were manufactured in the late
1980's. There is no guarantee that the parts were manufactured by VW.
NOS is not necessarily a good thing unless you are restoring a 1936
Studebaker. Also, I would not want any NOS rubber or electronic components
and plastic parts are questionable too. Rubber & plastic parts age over time
& so to the capacitors in electronic assemblies that are not powered up.
With electronics you are actually better off with a junkyard part than a NOS
part.
Thanks, Tom Hargrave
www.kegkits.com
www.stir-plate.com
www.towercooler.com
www.grow-sun.com
www.raspberryproject.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
neil n
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 10:30 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Subject: German quality?
As a newb to Vanagons (2007? ) sourcing parts from my local supplier, it's
possible he was selling me NOS of actual made in Germany or similar quality
parts. Though a very naive POV, I tended to assume that all the parts he
had access to were made in Germany. Not so much it seems. ;) Good to
get your input Ron. From chats with my local supplier, it seems that parts
sourcing can be a "cat and mouse" game sometimes.
IMO, in a perfect world, a company or other persons with a bajillion dollars
should 'round up all the relevant manufacturers and establish some kind of
QC and material content standard. i.e. rubber compounds and amount of lube
installed on something like an upper ball joint. (ya. I suspect that my
lower mile UBJ's may be getting stiff. My manual steering return is not 100%
correct)
With that in mind, I wonder where
http://www.etkashop.com/vwcp/Bus-LT/T-3/ gets their parts?
On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 10:21 PM, The Bus Depot <vanagon@busdepot.com>wrote:
> The Continental belt that inspired my original post ......
>
>
> Welcome to globalization. Continental has various supply sources, just
> like most other major suppliers. I have received a single shipment of
> the identical part number in the identical box (not Conti
> specifically) that contained parts which were absolutely nothing alike
> inside the box (different tooling marks, different countries of
> origin, sometimes branded on the part itself sometimes not). I have
> seen the blatantly identical parts (and I mean identical) variously
> labeled as made in the USA, Germany, or Taiwan depending on who the
> distributor was. And don't even get me started on retailers. There is
> one Vanagon parts retailer I know of who flaunts "made in USA"
> products that I happen to know are not, and another that sells Chinese
> made products as "Original German Quality." (The latter is at least a
> value judgment and therefore could be debated, but I still find it a
> bit misleading.) We list German companies as such, with a footnote
> that the product itself may or may not be German made, and try to list
> in the description those items that we actually know to be OEM or
> German. Even that is a moving target, since who knows what the next
shipment will bring, making it a constant battle to stay accurate.
>
--
Neil n
Blog: tubaneil.blogspot.ca
'88 Westy http://tinyurl.com/c8rlw6p
'81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco" http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
Vanagon VAG *Gas* inline-VR Engine Swap Group:
http://tinyurl.com/d7gd5ej
