Harold, you are on my list, but unfortunately I haven't started delivering the valve covers yet. I have been having problems with the foundry. For anyone else interested, here is an update on the valve cover project:
- The first batch of prototype valve covers I received from the foundry (in May) were functional, but had a fairly rough surface finish. It turned out that the foundry used the wrong type of sand on the covers. I machined these covers and showed them at a local show here in Minneapolis in June anyway, but worked with the foundry to resolve this issue.
- The second batch of prototypes had a different problem, again related to surface finish. I got those in July, and again they were functionally OK, but the outside surface of the valve covers looked kind of like a bad orange peel paint job. Apparently the sand was sprayed with some kind of coating, and it wasn't done properly. Once again I went back to the foundry, told them that this was unacceptable, and try again.
- Meanwhile, I found a local company who thought they could refinish some of the recent valve covers to make them acceptable. They took a couple that I had and did a pretty good job on the large flat surfaces. So, at the end of August I went to the foundry to pick up a small order of 20 valve cover castings with that defective finish, and took them to the other company to be reworked. Short story was that they couldn't them right near the edges and corners. Back to square one.
- At the beginning of September, I received a cryptic email and letter from a new company, saying that they had purchased the foundry I was using! Everyone I had been working with at the foundry was gone. I called and left numerous messages but got not response for two weeks. Finally, they hired back a few of the people from the foundry that I knew, and one of them got back to me. So, they have assured me (again) that they understand the issues and that this next go-around, with another 20 prototypes, the surface finish will be correct. According to their schedule I will be getting the next batch of prototypes by the end of November, hopefully in time for me to display them at PRI.
I just wanted to relay this information to anyone else who may be on my list. As a small customer to the foundry, I don't get a lot of attention, and with my surface finish requirements for these valve covers they have to pay pretty close attention to the sand cores before they cast. Hopefully after all this the next batch will be right. My experience with the foundries I've used is that once they get the prototypes right, the production parts all look pretty good; this has been the case with my intake adapters and my timing covers. So, I'm hopeful I'm just about at the end of the road here.
In terms of delivery, I will be starting to deliver a few weeks after I get the first good castings, but that is not likely to be until December or January at this point. I apologize for the delay on these covers, but I am not going to sacrifice my quality standards just to get the product out; these castings are an appearance item and they have to be right, or I won't accept the castings from the foundry. If you are on my list, thanks for your patience - Jay