• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Maybe I should not have done this.

Share this page

jlaird

jlaird

Great Pumpkin
Country flag
Offline
Sent the folowing post to Moss as an idea. Should be intresting to see if anything happens.


I am completely restoreing a Bugeye and have been ordering parts from a friend who is a Moss distributor, all is going well but slow. Me not you.

I just about have your catalog committed to memory at this point and would like to suggest something that would not only improve it but might just turn a buck as well.

I note that in no case are fastner sizes listed. This becomes a pain when orders lots of items.

How about listing the sizes of the fastners and offering in addition as follows.

Complete engine fastner sets?
Complete body fastner sets?
Complete suspension fastner sets?

Engine could also be offered in stainless as well as standard as could the body fastners. Suspension fastners and some others are of course hardned items and must stay that way.

This should not be an awful job as I would think all these fastners are already listed in a parts data base that could be taped for this purpose.

What a joy this would be on a restoration. To not only know the size of the fastner required but be able to order all new and the non hardened items in stainless. No more rusting, ever.

I would expect that your regular fastner suppliers would be pleased to provide these items already packaged if they just knew what they were.

Thanks for your time and service in getting my Bugeye back on the road.

Please pass this on to whomever if it hit the wrong in box.

Jack Laird
 
Great idea, Jack...years ago they offered such kits....when I got to the point I was ready for fasteners for my TD's fenders/running boards I called my guy at Moss....he went through the old catalogs until he found such a set...then he ran the numbers & shipped me every nut, bolt, washer I need to attach the fenders & running boards...when I asked why they had stopped offering such "kits" the answer was "no demand"

Maybe the demand is coming back up...I know I order lots of fasteners for you guys.
 
Well the thing is I see no cost to them other than providing numbers to the supplier. And all the numbers are on there database and can be sorted and such.
 
Self space for minimum order requirements. Inventory overhead.
 
Of course, but they have the singles now, make em kits and would be easier, counting darn nuts and bolts is a pita.
 
Making the kits & then putting them on the shelf would tie up inventory that could be sold as each's...luckily, because of the volume of my purchases, they made me a set for the TD

Tell me what sets you want & I'll see if I can get them to do the same for you.
 
the kit thing aside... let me play the devils advocate...

Let's say they put all the sizes in the catalogs (which I think would be really great)....

What be the first thing I did when I had the size from their catalog?

I'd go down to the local Tru-Value and buy the bolt I needed....

Sorry Moss, I love ya and I want to support the hobby as much as possible... but I'm not paying shipping for a fastener I need RIGHT NOW when I can go get it today and pay less than you have to charge for all your overhead.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
Aye had the same idea but they can not be makeing any money on fastners Nuts, Bolts, screws, washers, and lock washers by the each. Packages would provide a nice profit. How about kits of bolt and such assortments then there would be no need to run to the store.
 
[ QUOTE ]
the kit thing aside... let me play the devils advocate...

Let's say they put all the sizes in the catalogs (which I think would be really great)....

What be the first thing I did when I had the size from their catalog?

I'd go down to the local Tru-Value and buy the bolt I needed....

Sorry Moss, I love ya and I want to support the hobby as much as possible... but I'm not paying shipping for a fastener I need RIGHT NOW when I can go get it today and pay less than you have to charge for all your overhead.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Even if that's the case (would be for me too), I bet it would generate revenue indirectly. Once that catalog is a reference item for you, you'll open it up to find the fastner size for part Z, then go 'aw dang, also need a X, Y, V' that you see in the exploded diagram and get on the phone....
 
And Moss says:

Jack:

Thanks for the suggestion, it's one we would like to pursue and hope to
have the time to do so at some point.


Best of luck with your restoration
 
[ QUOTE ]
Aye had the same idea but they can not be makeing any money on fastners Nuts, Bolts, screws, washers, and lock washers by the each.

[/ QUOTE ] Have to disagree with you Jack. They must have a big profit margin on individual fasteners that they buy in bulk (buy a nut for .05 and sell it for .40).(which btw, is o.k. with me since it is convenient to order your parts that way and have them on your doorstep in a day or two) I believe the reason they don't put the sizes in the catalog is many people will buy them elsewhere, especially if you add shipping charges to the total price. Anyway, I wish they did list the sizes but it's no big deal since I can use the Factory parts book to get the codes. I do wish they had high quality pictures of the actual parts on their website so you could evaluate the part better than the illustrations used (like AH Spares new website).

Cheers,
John
 
I agree with jsneddon. If they added sizes, we would all go local. Had I known how many "common" bolts there were going to be, I would not have ordered all of the hardware from Moss...all told, I probably spent about $50-100 on bolts from them, maybe more. They have a deep interest in protecting this side of the business given the margins (ten-fold, at least)
 
One thing that some of you may not realize is that the correct fasteners are often sized in 1/8" length increments.
Most of the bolts or screws considered standard here are sized every 1/4" in length. Installing a bolt that is 1/8" too long in a blind hole can create expensive problems.
Another case where "close" is not good enough.
Jeff
 
good point Jeff.

Rules of Fasteners according to Jim:

a) Don't use cheap (local) stuff on blind holes
b) Stainless is NOT the magic fastener pill - use it only in non-stressed locations
c) If it has a torque spec USE IT - the torque wrench is your friend
d) if it sits inside the pan or the valve cover and you just spent a lot of money, DON'T re-use it
e) if it is attatched to the generator bracket on a TR3 it is going to break no matter WHAT you use. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
heh.

I'll assume this "e)" statement is arrived at thru years of gathering emperical data and research. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
I'd like to see fastner kits available. Body, engine, and suspension sound good. Especially if they offer things like p-clips for pipes and wires. The local hardware stores here rarely have what I need.
 
I'm absolute fastner junkie, a crackhead has nothing on me when it comes to addiction /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I probably at any given time have alteast 10,000 new pieces, I'm very lucky I have a very good fastner shop near me, I get to roam the isles behind the counter so to keep my mind fresh of thier offerings, I never buy one or two of hardly anything I normally buy 25,50 or 100 pieces of anything I get. I even buy cetain brands of fastners over others because of thier plating or rating etc.. So for me a kit would not be of interest, but for most a good faster shop is not always a option and they're left to wonder the faster isle at Home Depot, and if you go online with a place like McMaster Carr then I'm guessing certain minumum quanities are required and you need to do your homework to fiquire out what you need. So with that being said if someone would take the time to go through a certain engine and upgrade every fastner, make sure the lenghts are are all correct, package, label, and provide instructions for the product and sell it to Moss, where you both would make money, then it might be something they would stock.

Jack alot of the products Moss carries are not made up by them but rather folks just like you and I, who provide Moss with a ready to sell product. As a member of the BMTA, a large part of our membership are small businesses that make up products for companies like Moss. Moss does do some of thier own R&D, but the bulk of specailty/replacement items that are avlailable for your car thru Moss and other British part suppliers are made right here in the US by small batch manufactuers from a guy with a small shop, a guy in a industrial trade making other items and adds a part for our cars to his production, to guy in his home garage. If you have a idea for our cars and think you could make it happen, call Moss and ask for the purchasing agent, I forget the guys name, he's British, it not Calvin Dodds but he can get you in touch with purchasing agent. Bottom line folks just like you and I can make parts, assemble kits for companies like Moss, you may not get rich, but you make a few bucks and look at the catalog and know that part offering is there because you took the time to make it happen and no one else did and you added something to our hobby.
 
Well said Hap. Hay I'm retired but I do a bit of consulting from time to time and turn a buck doing what I do best.

Case in point and I envy you your fastner source. Clevis pins for the emer brake system. I ordered from Moss and guess what, got the wrong sizes, this morning went to local stores and none, none at all. Sigh. I may end up useing bolts till I can find what I need. Was also looking for come line clamps to hole the copper heater return line to the intake manifold, found an alum one in my stuff but only one. Nothing, nothing at all available localy. I just live in the dardest place I guess. Hate to get items from McMasters or such, they always have a minimum order, etc and there I am with a life time supply.
 
Someone should start an online database of fasteners with type and dimension and spridget application. Then when someone does a job, they can lookup the specs, and if none are given, they can fill them in, or add footnote for variations. Eventually you would end up with a very detailed database (maybe with links to online vendors?). The model could then be adapted to other classic cars. Sort of a Wiki type system.
 
Back
Top