When I got my bay mine were held in with woodscrews I now have the T25 stainless ones (8 for £3.50) in mine, stainless looks nicer too Damn the 25% wastage of the 2 extra screws
Tell you what you are actually spot on... by purchasing a pair of new lamp units you save around £6 .... Unfortunately I bought some new lenses, then found the lamp units were toast, so then bought new VW lamp units ... now It looks like I will have to save for the screws.. I just got call from my local old school motor factors re an enquiry about a replacement BOSCH alternator... They can still get them from their supplier , He apologised about the price £82.... That's a hundred pounds cheaper than the usual VW sources...
We will soon have to be fitting protective locking covers over screw heads to stop bits going missing.. Although once stuff stops being made cheaply in Brazil, and the prices skyrocket then it will be worth while for European and USA manufacturers to make proper quality stuff. But of course we will all stupidly go out and buy the still-cheap traditional Chinese cheese metal and recycled McDonalds Happy Meal toys instead and complain about the quality like usual.
i believe that my rear lights are helds secure in place using the screws used to hold electrical wall socket face plates the the box they are used in. i don't want to bore - again - but i will , ive asked several times for a section where we can report bargain buys or good examples of where a scene tax product costs £50 , but a non scene tax product that replaces it costs £10 but comes from a (for example ) Vauxhall Astra rather than a VW . i am sure we all have one item on the van that's not concourse VW standard issue but does the job at a great price
I can understand it though. They run as a business. They have to buy, sort, label then shelve small stuff like screws, then someone has to find and bag/box them to be set out. If they charged 3p or whatever the value you is, they'd make no money.
Fully understand that its a business and they need to make a profit pay staff rates rent etc.. but £6 for a single screw when a complete lamp unit can be has for £15, the profit ratio is a bit imbalanced. Im going to have a look at getting them supplied / made up by the place in the midlands.. cant hurt to get the price...
there is a place in the Birmingham area, Ralin Group who make nuts, bolts and screws to order. We use them for nuts and bolts, they do a quick turn round, ours cost a tad more than £6 per screw
I think I have found a supply. OK not identical as they are threaded all the way, but same head, same thread diam, same length and designed for being screwed into plastic, viz thread is designed to displace the cut and not swell the material around the hole. Just got to confirm they are in stock.. ( always a catch)
As might be expected for the aviation industry, or any other highly specialised industry, with specific tolerances, but this is an old VW , chucked out the factory in there hundreds of thousands. cheap and cheerful for max profit... If VW paid £6 for a screw they would be up the creek PDQ...
Scene tax is now targeting 1980's caravans - asking prices of £3k for ones with hipster wallpaper and the obligatiry Belling cooker. The phrase "I saw you coming" springs to mind.
ours wasn't used for an aviation application - they had to withstand 900'C. If the demand was there for a couple of hundred screws, the cost would be cheap enough I'm sure
1970s style had fine thread and brass inserts in light ...newer VW ones have a coarse thread and straight in to plastic
What about Gsf I bought a new flywheel recently , £103 on the web site , take of the weekly email offer % any thing between 30-50% £50 ish , in the end I ordered it of Gsf on eBay £56 delivered, ! , keep my petrol in the tank then
The replacement screws for the "originals" cost buttons, from memory they are around £2 for a set of 3. Quality comes cheap in that case Then VW go cheap, delete the brass insert, dont chrome the inside of the lamp unit and hold back a fair bit on the overall quality of the tail lamp lens ( thats the proper VW AUDI stamped parts) and then use an uber expensive self tapper ..????????????? something doesn't add up... LOL.. someone some where is taking the mick..
