Wholesale News

[Geoff Coenen]

While busy this AM, I received a phone call that was recorded on my cell phone.

Full Throttle Corvette was inquiring about purchasing wholesale. Since there is a preponderance of recalled miss-statements - I always use a written reply. That’s why I haven’t answered a phone in nearly 20 years or more.

I did not call Full Throttle Corvette back and instead sent the following email.

QUOTE:
“Thanks but no thanks
I'm not interested in drop shipping for a (taiwan tommy keen) distributor. And I don't want to pollute my brand with association with all the chyna crap. After 45 years - making more money working for a middle man is not that appealing.”

Some time after the President of ncrs (Gary Mortimer ncrs member #1 - [now RIP] ) was ousted his son Eric Mortimer went to work for taiwan tommy keen – just north on Cincinnati, OH. Well isn’t that’s the description that Full Throttle Corvette advertises as their “warehouse location”. Sometime thereafter they purchased or were investors in Full Throttle Corvette.

My oh my how the ncrs founder, his spawn and their purview of Corvette’s have evolved along with the ncrs in the past few years. The ncrs known for their incessant repetitive utterance of “korrect, korrect, korrect” has recent reports state their membership is shrinking by 4-5 % per year. Hmmm, what to do? By golly they now will judge just about Corvette that will pay the entry fee. (I read that at Bloomington the entry fee is $850 for judging.) And when I examine the Full Throttle Website – it’s certainly has its share of the taiwan tommy keens chyna crap – but at great prices. Apparently Gary instilled Eric with his love of Corvettes – No?

At 4 oclock TRUMP is to announce reciprocal tariffs on imports. It’s about time. I’ve said it before, if need be I’ll take it all to the dump someday.

 

[BBShark]

I am in Cincinnati and my first exposure to Keen was about 15-20 years ago. I was working with a fabricator that was across the street from Keen and they were modifying a bunch of radiator core supports for Corvettes. They said they were for Keen. It seemed weird that this tiny retail store would be selling 100's of core supports. I found out later it's basically a mail order operation. I stopped into the store because I was looking for some one year only parts for a 68 and I thought they might be able to locate them (not sure what they were). I listened to a 10-15 minute lecture about what my options were (which I was already aware of) and walked out never to return.

I might not know everything about Corvettes, far from it. But I hate it when people (who are selling you stuff), feel the need to share their useless opinion in an exchange that benefits no one.

 

[Geoff Coenen]

Taiwan Tommy Keen, a former automobile insurance adjuster entered the Corvette business when he purchased the Taiwan repro product line from Linda Layman, the former partner with Terry Michaelis. When they split up, Terry got the cars and Linds got the parts, She offered them to many people – including me.

At that time Terry first developed these Taiwan repro’s and they were not bad. 64, 65-67 dash identification bezels for radio and heater controls, 63-64, 65-67 kick panel metal trim on edge; 63-E64, L64-66 colored passenger side dash pad grad bar plastic inserts; 56-62 white, 63 black round door balls to pull back & open the door. They were not complex parts with many pieces.

Taiwan Tommy Keen went hog wild with the taiwan contacts and began to add more complicated parts – switches, horn, gas tank fuel vapor dud separators and the like. I bought a pair of his repro 64-65 exhaust bezels and were returned by the customer because the mounting holes were in the wrong position. When I wanted a refund – he basically told me to go scratch my ---.

Taiwan Tommy Keens repro of the 69-76 Copper radiator supports are cheap knockoff.
The upper left and right holes for the U-shaped radiator brackets that are bolted to the support are a big problem. GM mounted tubular spacers between these holes so that when the mounting bolts are tightened the front and rear metal covering the holes collapses. Taiwan Tommy Keens supports DID NOT have these spacers.

Realizing Taiwan Tommy Keens part was a POC, I ordered a more expensive support from Corvette Central for my customer. I did not realize they were shipping a Taiwan Tommy Keen part. Well my customer rejected this Taiwan Tommy Keen support and I ate not only part price refund but also the shipping charges both inbound and outbound. As you may know these are over size item and I lost $50-60 just on the freight. This happened just in the past 2-3 years so – perhaps they have been fixed – but I doubt it.

Over forty years ago I too once tried to have repro’s made in Taiwan. When they begin to make the repro, they send you 10 “counter samples” of what they propose to make. And the samples look great. Next you must send them an irrevocable bank letter of credit. It stipulated when the box of parts arrive on the sock in Taiwan – they get paid. When the parts arrive with thinner metal or crappy plating or other defects – you are chit out of luck. They got paid in full and it’s now your problem.

That one lesson taught me that a small vendor like me, Taiwan Tommy Keen, Taiwan (Brian) Tilley and the rest have no pull to get a quality part like Apple or GM or Ford gets when they enter that market.

I have used all 7 former branches of Wrico Stamping in NY, TX, AZ, WI, MN, NC and Winco Stamping to make my metal parts and have never been disappointed. Regretfully the NY branch was liquidated and I lost access to that tooling.

Some of you may have seen the Award I developed for the Corvette importers of taiwan and chyna chit.

Nostalgic Chinese Repro Syndicate Vendor Appreciation Pin NCRS

Nostalgic Chinese Repro Syndicate Vendor Appreciation Pin NCRS

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