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LMC 74-89 Dodge truck parts catalog coming!!!!!!!

31K views 56 replies 25 participants last post by  blueduster 
#1 ·
LMC truck parts are building a huge warehouse and have permission to re-produce Dodge truck parts that we all need!  Catalog shipping in December and orders available spring 2014.  I am on list to get finished catalog...get some!!!!!!!!  This has been needed for years!!!!
 
#2 ·
That's cool. The only thing you can't really find is the plastic interior parts.  ;D

So how did you get on the list?

Where's the link for the list?

you can't just post stuff like this and not give us the rest of the info.  {contract} ;D
 
#4 ·
The question is, are they going to produce anything new, or just put all the stuff that's already out there in their catalog?  The way they have the years of their catalogs broken up tells me they don't know much about Dodge trucks.
 
#5 ·
Elwenil said:
The question is, are they going to produce anything new, or just put all the stuff that's already out there in their catalog? The way they have the years of their catalogs broken up tells me they don't know much about Dodge trucks.
yup
 
#6 ·
The dude on the phone today told me that they have received permission from Dodge to PRODUCE OEM parts for our trucks.  They will apparently use Old Stock to re-produce in volume.  He said they know us Dodge boys are neglected and their research tells them we are out here and hungry for this.  When I told him we have to rely on salvage yards and each other he already knew that. 

Now, keep in mind guys, I'm a "fat n' happy" optimist type, but I am PUMPED!! 
 
#8 ·
I predict that if they actually do start producing some D/W series truck parts that they will discontinue them within 3 years.  The fact of the matter is, Dodge truck people are cheap.  We don't spend money like Ford and GM owners do.  We've had to get by with used parts for so long, I seriously doubt many will be lining up to buy some of the parts.  Combine that with the relatively small market as compared to the Ford and GM truck market and you have a very unprofitable business.  Just look at how much Mopar itself has cut back on parts lately.  They didn't cut out those parts because they were profitable, they cut them because no one wanted them bad enough to pay the price.  Seriously, how many of us are really wanting door panels bad enough to pay $170 - $200 + shipping for flimsy plastic reproductions?  That's what they want for the GM panels for a K5.  I bet most of us will still be digging through the junkyards and picking up a good used set for $50 and painting them if needed and still having less than $100 in them.  How about $500 for a grille surround for a late '70s Ford?  Is anyone going to pay that for a '80s Dodge surround or maybe a bit more for a '70s grille?

Honestly, I still see a lot of people fussing about the prices on used parts on Ebay and in our own classifieds so I don't expect people to want to pay out the nose for stuff just because it's new.  Those of you who are going to be pleased with new parts being offered better pick them up because I don't see it as a viable business model.  I'm not trying to be an ass, I worked in Mopar parts, new and used, for a lot of years and I just call it like I see it.  When I can't get $30-$40 for good used parts that LMC prices the Brand X equivalent new at $100 or more, I see a bit of a problem.
 
#9 ·
The other issue is going to be that there just aren't that many of these rigs left anymore.  Used to be able to go to just about any yard around town and find 3-4 either trucks or Ramchargers.  Now, not so much.  Too many have already been scrapped.
 
#10 ·
I'm very optimistic about this.  The reason Dodge trucks haven't been popular with guys that wanted to tinker on stuff is the lack of availability of parts.  All the years I've been on here and as Missouri Chapter leader I've tried to help younger people that had just bought power wagons or RC's.  Then they sell them 3 months later because they had trouble finding parts.  Many times they would go buy a Jeep.  Long term this could really help.  It opens up options for people looking to fix up and old truck where Dodges were never an option before because of the lack of new parts. 

Also in the last several years GSA has sold off a bunch of M880 series trucks.  Most of these trucks sold for much more then scrap price.  So they are out there in someones hands waiting to be fixed up.
 
#13 ·
I've been hearing this from LMC for at least two years now

When I rebuild a tilt steering column I go straght to their counter 30 minutes from my house for all the parts & have put my name on the list numerous times

I'm not holding my breath cause all this was supposed to happen winter of 11-12

I'd like to see what the sheetmetal looks like
 
#15 ·
They could just keep going as it is and we have nothing to buy .
We all know if they made parts here would be triple the price and most of us too cheap to pay that much .
then we'd be back to now
You have to support companies making the products or they go away !

PowerWagonPete said:
Made in China parts, made in America prices. {yes}
chrysler300le said:
Yes some of their crap is pretty cheasy.
we will never see new mopar parts again , so accept this or have nothing !
 
#16 ·
Im pretty excited myself about it, I own a 88 W100 myself that i've done ALOT of wort to and dumped a few bucks into this truck also, but as far as some parts go I think it will help. How often can you find a prestine grille liner for a 80's dodge? or good solid headlight bezzles?
 
#17 ·
Elwenil said:
Just look at how much Mopar itself has cut back on parts lately. They didn't cut out those parts because they were profitable, they cut them because no one wanted them bad enough to pay the price.
Needed the bell housing side ball and bushings for the clutch linkage on my '84 pickup a few years back. Stopped by NAPA, of course all they had were Chevy parts which won't work, but the Chevy ball and bushings were $8. So I went to the local Mopar dealer. Ma Mopar wanted almost $100 for 'em, and would have to order them in. Needless to say, no, I didn't want them bad enough to get screwed that deeply, so I fired up the lathe and made my own. At over 10 times the cost for the end user, Ma Mopar has priced themselves out of the market.

It was the same when I had the typical fuel rail problems on my '97 LHS. I couldn't buy just the fuel line O rings, but I could buy the entire rail assm. minus injectors for $1100 some odd each. Yes, over $2200 plus tax for two pieces of plastic and a half dozen O rings. I found out my car hadn't had the recall performed, but I did find out it would take them over a month to get around to it, and at that time they would replace only the same O rings they wouldn't sell me, not the rails. Being more than mildly pissed off, I went to Gasket Service, a local oilpatch supply, and bought the O rings for $3.

And that in a nutshell is why nobody buys OEM parts from Chrysler to repair/restore older cars/trucks.
 
#18 ·
Again, it's supply and demand.  If the demand shrinks, the costs go up for production and so does the cost to the end user.  Mopar hasn't priced itself out of the market, the market has shrunk to the point that it's not profitable to offer those parts at a lower cost.  If they sold better, the cost would be lower.  Since you are able to machine your own, it seems like no big deal to you but now put yourself in the shoes of someone who cannot machine their own.  Go to a fab/machine shop, not as a machinist, but as a regular guy off the street and have them give you an estimate for machining the two ball studs to spec and see how much it costs.  Then Mopar's price doesn't seem so bad.  Why?  Because even though the market has shrunk, it's still cheaper for them to produce the volume they do rather than someone paying to one-off them.

In the end, it doesn't matter who produces and/or markets the parts, Mopar, LMC or whoever.  If people do not buy the parts, the cost to produce them in smaller quantities goes higher and higher and so does the cost to the consumer.
 
#19 ·
When they have nos parts like fuel rails for 15 yr old cars taking up space in a warehouse, it would seem common sense to me to sell those parts for a cut rate to get rid of them. By charging a ridiculous price they lost the sale and made nothing, whereas they could have recouped at least part of their investment. Better something than nothing.

As for simple parts like the ball studs and bushings, if NAPA can turn a profit at $8, Ma Mopar should be able to turn one for $25, and I would pay that for factory parts. No reason to ask $100 for nos parts that were made by the tens of thousands and hasn't changed it's design in 40 years. The R&D costs were recouped long ago. As for making replacement parts today, it's not like they'd pay a manual lathe operator and invest an hour of setup/machine time in each stud, CNC's can spit the things out in about 2 minutes a piece. GM does it, Ford does it, NAPA does it, Chryco could to. But they won't. Add in a lousy attitude about warrantying said shitty parts and it's easy to see how their corporate name became Fiasler.

Aftermarket interior/exterior parts are different game. For instance, when I can buy a brand new offshore fender for $112, why in the hell would I spend 50 hours straightening and sanding a raggedy $50 fender from a boneyard? You have more money in the boneyard fender, bondo and sandpaper, not mention the time invested.

http://www.partsgeek.com/mparts/fender/dodge.html

Parts like door panels etc. for K5 Blazers/78 Chevy pickups aren't in that great of demand either. I can't recall the last time I saw a nuts and bolts restored K5 at Barret-Jackson, but you can buy the parts. Would I pay $200 for a brand new door panel? Hell yes. I've seen crappy looking used ones on Ebay for that. $135 for this crusty topped POS ??? Hell I'm sitting on a gold mine because I can lay my hands on dozens of crusty topped panels.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/88-93-Dodge-Pickup-Truck-Right-Door-Panel-/170813930097?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27c54dba71&vxp=mtr

For another $55, I'd rather have new.
 
#20 ·
Even back in the early 90's, you could go to a mopar stealer, and ask about the spindle nuts (ones that hold the spindle to the knuckle), IIRC, they were like $25 a piece, and they had to order them, I drove across the road to a Chebby dealer, they were like $2 a piece, and they grabbed them off the shelf.
 
#21 ·
inzane said:
When they have nos parts like fuel rails for 15 yr old cars taking up space in a warehouse, it would seem common sense to me to sell those parts for a cut rate to get rid of them. By charging a ridiculous price they lost the sale and made nothing, whereas they could have recouped at least part of their investment. Better something than nothing.

As for simple parts like the ball studs and bushings, if NAPA can turn a profit at $8, Ma Mopar should be able to turn one for $25, and I would pay that for factory parts. No reason to ask $100 for nos parts that were made by the tens of thousands and hasn't changed it's design in 40 years. The R&D costs were recouped long ago. As for making replacement parts today, it's not like they'd pay a manual lathe operator and invest an hour of setup/machine time in each stud, CNC's can spit the things out in about 2 minutes a piece. GM does it, Ford does it, NAPA does it, Chryco could to. But they won't. Add in a lousy attitude about warrantying said shitty parts and it's easy to see how their corporate name became Fiasler.

Aftermarket interior/exterior parts are different game. For instance, when I can buy a brand new offshore fender for $112, why in the hell would I spend 50 hours straightening and sanding a raggedy $50 fender from a boneyard? You have more money in the boneyard fender, bondo and sandpaper, not mention the time invested.

http://www.partsgeek.com/mparts/fender/dodge.html

Parts like door panels etc. for K5 Blazers/78 Chevy pickups aren't in that great of demand either. I can't recall the last time I saw a nuts and bolts restored K5 at Barret-Jackson, but you can buy the parts. Would I pay $200 for a brand new door panel? Hell yes. I've seen crappy looking used ones on Ebay for that. $135 for this crusty topped POS ??? Hell I'm sitting on a gold mine because I can lay my hands on dozens of crusty topped panels.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/88-93-Dodge-Pickup-Truck-Right-Door-Panel-/170813930097?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27c54dba71&vxp=mtr

For another $55, I'd rather have new.
I think you are confused about what the term "NOS" means. NOS means New, Old Stock. It's new parts that are now discontinued and considered "NS1" or a non-stocking part by Mopar. The fact that it's still available from Mopar would mean it's not NOS. If it's discontinued and your dealer is using the locator system to find the part in another dealer's inventory then it's totally up to the selling dealer what they want to sell it for and Mopar no longer has anything to do with it. Once the dealer you are working with buys the part from the other dealer, they will naturally mark it up to make something off the deal. It's how the parts business works and always has.

As for NAPA selling them for $8, if they have them that cheap, why didn't you buy them there? Or is it that NAPA has them for $8 for a GM or Ford truck for $8 but not for a Dodge? Again, it's supply and demand. NAPA can sell large numbers of the Ford and GM parts so they can buy them in bulk and keep the price lower. You go look up a part for a very specific GM vehicle that was not sold in large numbers and you will generally find that the part is unavailable or is rather expensive. If a part moves large numbers, the costs go down. This is basic manufacturing and marketing, ,not rocket science. Just because things are not the way we would want them does not mean that someone is doing something wrong or that the way things are does not have a logical and factual reason for being that way.

On the fender bit, I personally would rather have a factory fender with a few dents to work out than an imported fender made from inferior steel that is thinner gauge and is made off a mold made off a fender and so has large tolerances and doesn't fit quite right. These trucks never had wonderful fit and finish to begin with but some of the imported fenders are just horrible and require just as much work to make them fit right as a bent up junkyard fender would. I honestly would rather have a fiberglass fender and all the work they take to make fit correctly than I would an imported steel one.

As for the door panels, GM and Ford panels are available because people buy them. It's not that there is a huge restoration market and that restored '70s and '80s trucks go for big money at auction, that has nothing to do with it. It's because people have kept large numbers of those trucks for years and a lot of those people want to keep them looking somewhat nice. Not a 100% restoration but someone driving a '70s or '80s Ford or GM truck usually has one because they like it, the same reason we own old Dodge trucks. The issue is there are a hell of a lot more of them out there so they have the market for things that we do not. We had reproduction door panels for '80s Dodge trucks made by Coverlay. Where did they go? Well like I have been saying all along, Dodge truck owners are tight and when you combine that with the lower production and preservation numbers, you have a very small market for parts that cannot sustain itself.

You guys may as well get used to how things are in the parts world for these trucks because I seriously doubt it will ever change and it only going to get worse, not better. The facts are there if you are wise enough to see things objectively.
 
#22 ·
:) Well aware how things are with these trucks. Been building/driving them for 20 years. Look, nos, ns1 whatever. You walk into a dealer and they try to screw you, you won't come back. Mopar and her dealers are notorious for that. I know, I've worked in a few, brought my car to a few. No excuse for wanting $100 for $20 worth of parts, or $1100 a piece for 15 year old obsolete fuel rails. It's not a '71 HemiCuda droptop. Justify it any way you like, but building junk and screwing people is the main reason Mopar's almost went the way of the dodo bird 2-3 times. And I'm a Mopar fan, so you can only imagine other people's animosity.

  As far as aftermarket sheetmetal, I've never had any problems that were any worse than the Made in Mexico factory replacement stuff at twice the price. Like you said, the fit and finish on these old trucks sucked when new, so why not? I'm glad it's available. Hell..... I'm not getting into a long debate about it. If someone wants to build decent aftermarket interior parts {which Coverlay wasn't} for my 1st gen, I'll buy them. In black please.

 
#23 ·
Again, I don't think you are looking at things objectively.  The fact that you want door panels in a color that was only used for 2 years is a perfect example of not understanding, or not wanting to understand, how the market works.  Again, it doesn't matter who makes the parts, if they are low volume, specialty market stuff, which anything for an old Dodge truck is, it's going to be ridiculously expensive.  Even if every owner of an existing, drivable D/W series truck buys a new repro set of door panels, it's still not going to be as cheap as the ones made for GM and Ford trucks.  The market simply is not there and the parts cannot be made cheap enough for Dodge truck owners to stomach them.  If you called me and wanted me to build you a bumper, I could do it for, let's say for the sake of the example, $800.  Now if you called me and said you wanted me to build 1,000 bumpers, I could buy my steel, welding wire, gas, etc in bulk for lower prices and could drop the price of the bumpers considerably.  Not free by any means, but a good bit of savings.  But as long as it's small orders for a small market, parts will cost out the nose or the manufacturer cannot afford to produce them.
 
#24 ·
Actually, black is a good base color to paint over, since they obviously could not produce them in every color that was available, which seems to be mostly blue and red with a few tans/whites thrown in for good measure.
 
Regardless, and endless market analysis aside, if there were decent aftermarket door panels available I'd buy a set. Not saying there will be.  Not saying it's feasible to produce them. Not say saying they would be cheap to purchase. Not saying they must be black. Just saying I would. Arm rest pads too. Everything within 500 miles of here is sun fried.
Why would I pay comparatively stupid money? Because I like Dodge trucks. It's what I choose to piss my money away on. I already have 3-4 times the truck's resale value in it, why stop now?


 
#25 ·
Grey or beige seems to be the most common colors to make them in and them pain them other colors.  A lot of factory trim pieces are not molded in the final color but are painted from the factory.  ;D
 
#26 ·
Still think the aftermarket should make 'em. AND WHO GIVES A RAT'S ARSE WHAT COLOR THEY ARE AND HOW MUCH THEY COST LANTY !?!?!  {rant}  ;D
 
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