toobroketoretire

When I was a kid growing up in the 1950's and 1960's anything that was made in Japan was garbage. Now days everything made in Japan is top notch but now its China that is producing garbage. In the last several years I have bought many reproduction parts and the only parts that are worth a darn are those made in Mexico or America.

Tell us about your experiences (good or bad) with Chinese made parts.

texasbaehr

I bought a reproduction headlight switch for my 81 which was "made in China" Looked real good very much like the Delco unit.
After installation I needed to remove it to re-do the dash and the release button for the switch **** would not work. I had to smash the **** to get the switch out.
I threw it away and bought a Delco unit made in Canada which is working perfect.

74modified

Having spent a fair amount of time working in China, I will say that the best stuff gets shipped over here. They actually leave (the ones who can) to buy exported Chinese made goods and take them back to China.

My take is that non-brand or "store" brand Chinese made parts are a cr@p shoot. No way of knowing the quality. Parts overseen or managed/owned by western companies and branded as such, are usually better. I would usually rather buy American or Canadian parts. That said, I do have a Chinese non-brand HEI conversion distributor on my old jeep and it is great. I did change out the drive gear for an original because I didn't trust the hardness.

augiedoggy

Funny you should post this... I just got done replacing a dead hei module with only 1,400 miles on it that came in my chinese tach drive hei distributor... I actaully spent the last half hr trying to find if there was a way to tend the strength of the coil because I have the stock coil from my 84 I swapped for an accel unit 15 years ago... I wont bother with another accel unit since now they are all made in china and many of these "western branded" parts are off the same assy lines as the generic stuff... just sold at a100 to 200% markup. funny thing is the module died while the car was parked...

Look at the hooker clone sidepipes... We know for a fact that the ones sold as obx are from the same manufactuer as maximizers and I'm 99% sure the xs -power and others are the same as well... They just sell different quantities to different distributors for bulk pricing and the customer pays radically different prices for the same stuff!... The funny thing is by charging more the reputation and reviews of the products actually go up because people are more likely to do their homework before installing or using the product and less likely to just blame the lack of doing it on being cheap Chinese crap...
This is huge in electronics I have opened up many cheap tvs to find the complete guts from another manufatuer and when researching replacement parts I discover that many tvs are sold under multiple brand names in different cases with drastically different prices.. the joke is on the consumer... For example I have a $2,600 phillips plasma that is made by samsung... Phillips/magnovox hasnt made a tv since like 2004.. its all marketing..brands like polariod went banckrupt almost 20 years ago yet an unrelated company bought the rights to use the name and logo to pedel third party chinese stuff to people who shop by brand name. Sorry jumping off topic a bit here but my point is it can go both ways.

Sometimes its SMARTER to buy the generic stuff directly from the manufacturer than sells it to the big American corporations that buy all the former big names like autolite or accel to pedel it under.

What about the edelbrock carbs? Which were designed and built by weber then sold to carter and then the ancient molds were then sold to edelbrock who has them made in china but assembled here to state they are American made on the box. (So I've read)

The13Bats

The chest thumping buy only American made just doesn't work any more for reasons ranging from American made junk ( been in a Walmart lately ? ) to the much higher costs for a part that is not always any better.

I was floored when I paid such a cheap price for a VW-CAVA dizzy with electronic ignition sold by an American vender who imported them form China, the thing works incredibly well.

I mail order all kinds of stuff like LED's, switches , electronics junk of all kinds and it is in most cases very good quality at a price that I can't believe.
I just bought a pair of import battery terminals made for the high end stereo crowd they even have a volt meter on the pos one, I figured they would be crappy...nope, top shelf.

But specialty parts, for example that corvette headlight switch, I would need real life hands on feedback to try one or I would just buy one from someone like Mr Wilcox who will stand behind it no matter where he gets it from.
Because I do not want to waste time anymoreso than I wanna waste $$$

cagotzmann

Well the brand "Made in USA" is not holding up any more. I have a pile of "Made in USA" calipers at home. 5 bricks now. Purchased a new set Another "Made in USA" with a life time limited warranty ( O ring style ) 3 of the 5 failed with in 2 years. Why do I have 5, its because one of the replacements only lasted a year. So for me "Made in USA" only means you pay extra for the same garbage. Oh also the limited lifetime warranty only covers the casting. Anything that makes the caliper work as designed in only covered for 1 year. Another great disguise under the brand "Made in the USA" I dont trust any company regardless of where they manufacture the part. The distributors ( corvette vendors ) are stuck. They carry what they can and dont do us any favors checking out the quality of the parts. They seem to get there parts from the same place and try to get the cheapest price they can.

My question would be which of the vendors manufacture there own parts ? and what parts do they manufacture.

Where do the compaines like Corvette America, Ecklers, Corvette Central get there parts ?

The13Bats

I cant speak for every vender or every part and supporting the rules on NSV here I will carefully say I heard rumor that one "place" has their rubber corvette parts made for them...is this true ? I have no idea I wouldnt buy an apple from the grumpy fellow.

augiedoggy

I have a friend that works for a large pump company... his job? to take chinese pumps out of a crate and put an american power cord on them, he than puts them in a box that states "made in the usa" on it... why? because final assembly is done here.. but marketing is key... just ask Harley Davidson... You wouldnt (and most dont) believe how much of the bike actually comes from overseas now... Final assembly and painting is done here by a union shop that pays very well and thats their excuse for the higher prices these days... Most owners flat out pretend theirs no truth to it because all they want is the piece of mind that comes with the guilt trip free made in the usa logo... They want the dream they bought into regardless of the reality. Hell you can buy a chevy spark or aveo and believe you bought a chevy and supported america but the reality is that car was made in KOREA by DEAWOO. how about the chevy/gmc suv thats actually an Isuzu?

Many vendors have the parts made to their specs and standards so it CAN mean better quality... If they keep up on babysitting the manufacturer which is why larger companies hire engineers to stay in china and babysit to make sure the manufacturers dont get too creative in saving money... this CAN be the one big advantage since the engineering is copied by the chinese regardless and implemented in the clones or "factory seconds"

LT-1 kid

china = crap and or garbage, parts made in the US, Canada Japan, Korea and mexico are
far better. but alot of times we don't have a choice, some things are only made in china.

toobroketoretire

Several years ago I bought a "Made In Mexico" windshield washer pump that quit pumping the 2nd time I used it because the plastic pump parts were made out of an inferior grade of plastic that warped so bad the pump sucked air. And 2 months ago I bought a Chinese-made wiper switch that broke the 2nd time I used it. My Chinese-made tank float/sender started leaking within 6 months because the inferior rubber used in it wasn't compatible with our American gasolines. A year ago a friend bought a tank float/sender and his float literally dissolved. In 2010 my TH700R4 burned up 3 times because the Chinese-made filter seals were made from a inferior rubber and were shrinking so bad the pump began sucking in air. Horror story after horror story of parts made in China.

cagotzmann

So would you buy a complete frame off restoration built from todays parts. Expecially based on what people think there so called new car is worth.

Its sad to think how long these restorations will last. My 78 went without any repairs from new for the first 14 years and 140k km (regular maintenance only). You would have a hard time to find any frame off restoration with 140k km and 14 years with similar story.

If anyone has one let me know.

toobroketoretire

As I'm thinking about this subject more I realized I have had 3 HEI modules fail within about 50,000 miles and a Chinese-made strut rod break within 6 months (and I had to be towed home). A new Pierce fuel pump with Chinese parts and "assembled" in America quit pumping in one year. A month ago I bought a whole case (18) of 40-watt G.E. lamps for my overhead shop lights and 3 have failed within the first 2 weeks (probably Chinese parts and assembled in America). My idler pulley seized; breaking the nose off my $80 water pump and demolishing my 7-blade fan because the Chinese-made 203-FF bearing was assembled without any grease). Several years ago I had 2 tires suddenly go completely flat within 3 months of each other because the Chinese-made valve stems broke (and I had to be towed home both times). I have had 3 Chinese-made relay actuator valves fail within 2 years. Now days the rule is "BUYER BEWARE".

dugsgms74

Bought a made in China "correct appearing" 287 ignition coil. Looked great, fit nice in the holder and even had the correct zinc plated terminals. Idled fine, ran part throttle fine but under a med to heavy load would misfire and the engine would fall on its face. Bought a made in USA one from Paragon, looks even more correct(except for the brass terminals), fits just as well and so far runs great.

On the same topic, I have a friend that used to work for a very popular portable shelter company. They had two lines of products, the USA made and the made in China ones. He worked in QC and one of his jobs was relaying to the Chinese supplier any problems with the products. I remember him once telling me a story about how he spent over 1 hour on the phone arguing with a supplier about a defect in one of the parts shipped to them and how holes punched over 1 inch off from spec wasn't "good enough".

lionelhutz

Sadly, junk is made everywhere these days due to the demand for low prices. You just can't expect high quality at Walmart prices. Also sadly, the cheap crap has killed off most of the quality stuff to the point cheap crap is all that's left.

China could make good parts if the market warranted the cost to ensure the parts meet a certain quality. I have an acquaintance I've known for years who was a Mac dealer for a long time. He says it was common knowledge inside Mac that the Mac tools which were manufactured in China had fewer warranty replacements compared to the US made tools. He didn't know why, but my guess would be the reduced labor and overhead allowed them to put more into QA while still having a better margin on the tools. I thought his story was interesting because it seemed Mac was lowering it's costs while maintaining a high quality product.

toobroketoretire

I am more than willing to pay top dollar for quality parts but the trick is finding who markets the quality parts.

I recently bought an AC Delco "rebuilt" power brake booster from a vendor in New York. After I received it I had to spend 7 hours of my time modifying it so I could use it. It came to me unpainted and slimy with oil. As it had 10 mm metric studs that had die cut threads it was obvious it had been made in..............................CHINA.

augiedoggy

To be fair, it could have been made in Mexico or even Canada (or anywhere but the US) where more of GMs manufacturing seems to have fled...
New old stock is the way to go for sure.... I treat my dads old tools like gold since they almost all come from china now even Craftsman and the like..
I bought a thorsen torque wrench from advance auto for $38 only to discover about two days later that its the exact same wrench as sold at Harbor freight for $9.99 with a plastic case! and I bought both at that point and returned the $38 one after a side by side comparision to verify they were both from the same manufacturer ...

Walmart is terrible many manufacturers have refused to deal with them... they tell manufacturers what they are willing to pay for an item and what its going to sell for and force the cheaper product (Just like Subway does with its lunchmeats btw which an inside source tells me is inferior quality to the stuff at your local grocery store).



look at the Remington model 770 rifle which was "Walmarts" cheaper solution to the model 700...it was a flop and Remington refused to make more because its hurting their reputation. same goes for much of their electronics.

And now thanks to Congress much of our meat will start coming from china since the FDA no longer is required to state country of origin on the packaging... And it doesn't take much research to see that only a small fraction of meat products actually see testing from the FDA...

74modified

One thing to realize is that, just because the part comes off of the same production line, doesn't mean it is made with the same quality of components/ingredients.

augiedoggy

True... But more often it does as it costs more to keep changing or run multiple lines especially when the same products being made are being sold under many namebrands which is more often the case these days. As with electronics where software is changed to disable things or even things like canned beans. (they just vary the amount of salt that goes into each brand of beans)

My home theater projector was $800-1000 cheaper than the next model up and they are the exact same product which the same internal product identification number only sold in a different color case and flashed with different firmware to limit specs.... I simply went to the manufacturers site and downloaded the firmware upgrade for the better projector and flashed it..

This is often the case with many of the products I install and service for a living too... Sometimes the product is actually made by the competitor because of patent technology reasons and just rebranded... They share to keep costs down.

ddawson

Yea it's definitely hard.

I too have no problem spending more for quality. BUT as hobbyist we tend to be good with that but repair shops are after the dollar so we are a small spec of the overall business.

Stewart's74