Fellow Mondial Owners: I am ready to ship. Please have a look at the following link in the Ferrari Parts and Collectables items for sale at the link below and let me know if you would like to proceed. Thanks - Ron Frohock www.ferrarichat.com/forum/ferrari-parts-collectibles/495725-ferrari-mondial-b-pillars-61720300-61720400-now-available.html
I received a set of Ron's pillars, and they are awesome, quality as good or better than original, right down to the texture and Mondial Cabriolet logo, and a perfect fit, they look great on the car. Installation took 30 minutes, I did have to drill one hole on the drivers side to match the hole on the car, and there were a couple of other very minor issues that I pointed out to Ron already, but nothing that affected the installation or look of the pillars. I have included before and after pictures of the passenger side, which was my worst side before. Thank you Ron for all your efforts, huge accomplishment. I think Ferrari should acknowledge your accomplishment, as you just made it possible for owners to restore their Mondials. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Robogeek, Thanks so much for taking the time to provide your thoughts on the B Pillars and also for providing the before and after pictures. Im glad that you like them. For anyone else that may be interested.... FYI.... I am in the process of making more and should be able to ship more within two weeks. Thanks - Ron Frohock
Friends, I have a single Drivers (Left) side B- Pillar available. The cost is $600.00 shipped anywhere in the US if paid for with a personal check. I'm currently in the process of making more sets. Let me know if you are interested. Ill be putting them on E-Bay soon and unfortunately the cost will need to go up. I recently learned of some additional material charges that I am responsible for and I will also need to cover my EBay and PayPal fee's. Thanks Ron Frohock
I purchased the last new driver side pillar in 2013 I believe from Ricambi. So, I only need a passenger (right side) pillar. Anyone need a driver pillar and not a passenger side? I will split cost of the pair with someone.
Update: I'll have three more pair ready to go by this week end. Demand has been much less than anticipated.... It doesn't look like I'm going to make a second set of molds. I think I'm going to cut my losses on this project as it is too time consuming and simply not worth it. The production cost, including a small margin, seems to be the problem. I placed them on EBAY and haven't seen any interest. All I want to do is run the mold out and hopefully break even. Thanks - Ron
And he brought up a problem that my be present in the first couple of B Pillars that I sent out. The good thing is that it is easily fixable. At the bottom of the B Pillar, there is a sheet metal clip that is riveted in place to hold the removable gasket in place. I may have riveted this clip in the wrong place initially. Take a look at the location of the clip on the b pillars that you are removing and compare them to my b pillars. If I riveted the clip in the wrong place you can simply drill it out and locate it in the proper location. Again, reference your factory b pillar for the location of the hole. The hole is in the replacement part, it just might be hidden under some of the black silicone material. Poke around a little and you will find it. You can use one of the supplied metal rivets to relocate it. I also had some further thoughts about how I want to proceed with this project. Currently, the demand has been much lower than anticipated. I have them for sale on EBAY and they soon will be in the Ferrari Club of America news letter. In a post above, I indicated that I just wanted to runout the mold and move on as this adventure has me about $5000.00 in the red. However, my wife suggested that I might create a brochure and send them out to the people that had purchased my toggles and or Center Vent Wedge and Foam Rebuild kits. I'm going to give this a try as I believe that these b pillars are needed and they are excellent reproductions. Thanks - Ron Frohock
Hello everybody, I was disappointed to see that demand for these pillars has not met expectations, I don't understand it. I personally think every cab owner in the world should buy a set of these pillars, sooner or later they are going to need a set. They are an excellent reproduction, they look great, and I have put my top up and down a couple of times with them and they work perfectly. The chances of someone with Ron's knowledge, experience, and skill coming along and making some more in the future are extremely remote, at best, specially if they see Ron ended up loosing money. In fact, I like them so much that now that it appears that Ron will only produce a few, I am actually considering buying a second pair, just in case. I hope sales improve, Ron deserves to at the very least break even on this project.
Ron, don't give up so soon on sale's. I think the word needs to get out to the Mondial world, and it will, like your clips and other great fixes. 😁
Ron, I think what you are running into here is a value proposition issue. While these fail on every Mondial at some point it is the price-point that is scaring people off, or rather making them defer the purchase. Whereas most on here had had their cars for a while (likely purchased back when they were $20,000 or so), use their vehicles seldom and almost exclusively in nice weather with the top down, it is going to be a hard sell to get most of these guys to spend 6.5% the price of their vehicle on a set of rubber window moldings that is only functioning/seen with the top up. The price-point these moldings are at now and the price the cars are worth on the market unfortunately don't match up. If these were 50-100k cars then I think you might see a different demand but when a brand new boot costs $400, tires cost $500, and a major service is $1,700 (or what it cost me), the ROI (actual or as one would enjoy it themselves) just isn't there at this point in time. Hopefully you don't get discouraged and continue to produce them as people order them or if you care to hedge, make a large batch and sit on them until the cars appreciate to the point that owners can justify the expenditure. I do tip my hat to you for making the effort and it appears that it is a successful one from an engineering standpoint. Best, PPW
Thanks to everyone for their encouragement, I really appreciate the support. I do agree that the price point is scaring everyone off but there is nothing I can do about it. They cost what they cost because the tooling and materials are very expensive. They are also very time consuming to make and the volume is low. Plus, if sold on eBay, they take ten percent and PayPal also likes to get paid. I also agree to a point about the value proposition, however, I believe that most Mondial owners tend to keep a blind eye on the cost to maintain their cars, as I do, because they love them. Most sane people would never buy a Mondial as until recently, there has been no promise of the Mondial going up in value. Just about every Mondial I have ever seen has ratty B Pillars. Heck, I paid close to twice the cost of my reproduction parts to buy what I believe to be the last remaining OEM factory replacements parts just so I could have a perfect pair to reference for reproduction. I was discouraged with this project but no I am determined to get the message out there as I believe people will want them when they know they are available again, if only for a short time. If anyone has any marketing ideas or suggestions, I'm all ears. I also know there may be other enthusiast forums. If anyone wants to post on them on my behalf it would be appreciated. I also don't know how to advertise to the world wide market. Does anyone have any suggestions? I could use your thoughts and recomendtions. Thanks - Ron Frohock
Did you talk to Eurospares or Ricambi? I'm sure they would be interested in stocking this part, but there may be an issue with it not being OEM.
I believe the b pillars are a gray area for most. You have the purist that demands perfection. Then you have the hillbilly like me that bought his car to drive. From spring to fall my top is down and winter use of my car is limited because I am in the northeastern US. I have been following this thread because I was hoping everyone would jump at these and lower the price because of supply and demand. How many people bought an Ar-15 for 2 grand and now they are less than 1000? Any how don't give up just yet. You have come to far! Although I was once told that your first loss is your cheapest loss.
Mine just arrived and they are beautiful and the detail is amazing. Only my passenger side actually broke off, but the driver side is looking tired so the will both go on once I get some free time and put the top up again. I first bought toggles, then the wedge and foam kit and now the pillars. Thanks again to Ron and his willingness to put his talents and $ to work for the benefit of all Mondial owners! Len Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
All the Mondial owners need to spread the word regarding Ron's "B" pillars that he has spent countless hours in engineering and fabricating these pillars for our Mondials. The time and investment on his part needs to be rewarded.
You would think that if the following is correct: Mondial QV - Total built 629 Mondial 3.2 - Total built 810 Mondial t - Total built 1010 Ron would have had a better response to his many hours of research and development on his "B" Pillars. Hard to believe all of these cars have pillars that are in perfect shape.
Unfortunately, based on recently discovered materials and processing charges, the cost per Pillar has increased to $654.00 if paid for with a check or $673.00 if Paypal is used. Packaging and shipping cost anywhere in the U.S. is $15.00 on average. Thanks! - Ron Frohock