T3 radiator shrouds

[Dan Tenn]

I thought I remember hearing that some of the T3 radiator shrouds were worth there weight in gold. A friend says he has a box full of them. Im just curious what the rare ones are, and I will post them here for sale if there good.

[Jeb]

Jesus Man! That's the best news I've heard in a long time!

The right-hander (pipe side) is the rarest one. The left one is probably not far behind.

I'm interested in whatever side. Please let me know!

[86waterpumper]

Lol the right side ones are pretty rare, put me down for a new one if he's got several, that is the only thing holding my bike back from looking it's best heh. However, the left side is worth about 14 bucks every day of the week, at least it's worth that to me since that's what I paid for my brand new one not too long ago.

[200x Basket]

left $14 unless you are the dummy paying $90 on ebay!!! :shock:

put me down for two right sides :D

[86waterpumper]

HAHHAHAHHA that is great. Looks like it's time to buy about 10 and make a profit!

[Dan Tenn]

just curious why the right one breaks more frequently than the left. Anybody know :?:

BTW: This friend of mine is notorious for being full of trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro. If in fact he does have some, Im sure they will be very used. He has a farm that has mountains of useless crap on it. A mini junk yard.

[86waterpumper]

in fact just the opposite was the case. I have heard that tons of ice racers kept busting up the left ones, and ordering more of them, thus they have more of them left over in warehouses and such

[Full-Bore-2003]

I've been told...Right side shroud gets hot from the pipe and gets briddle and cracks easier.....

[GreenBoy]

If possible I would like to buy as many right side scoops as I can get n ;)
Some warehouses don´t have the left scoops any longer as well.
I put about ten of them into my personal storage, together with some
front fenders.
I could make everything by myself except for that darn plastics......

Once I had the chance to buy a new RH shroud on eBay.The seller
didn´t know what he was selling there and listed it by the part #.
But a Tecate guy from TX (we all know him :D ) bought that little piece of gold.
Enjoy riding boys..........

PS CGR is soon coming up with T3 SS brake discs.

[Mobular]

So why doesn't someone start reproing them in fiberglass? Instant money maker.....

[GreenBoy]

There are already two guys that make replicas.But these parts are painted/have to be painted.
Aftermarket stuff is never the same like OEM parts, just my 2 cents......

[Jeb]

...And that little piece of gold will never be on a trike unless it's a show piece only! (or I get two or three more at a good price!!)

There's a difference between vacuuming forming and Injection molding. vacuum formed parts generally are not stronger, unless it's formed from a thicker piece of plastic sheet. Hopefully they strengthened the upper mounts. Still I can't believe they are painting those vacuum formed shrouds. Getting factory matched plastic sheets adds cost though. I guess it's better than nothing at all. Fiberglass would be cheaper to build. It would still need paint. But to me is a low-quality replacement.

I've thought long and hard about this and I would love to build aftermarket injection molded shrouds. The tooling costs involved to do it right, or even to do it quickly and cheaply, are not cheap. Plus then you have to have Injection molding machines to mold the parts or contract with someone to run them for you. To make them affordable, you have to make & sell ALLOT of shrouds. You would never make your money back otherwise, which is the problem. Most people want to make money. That's the name of the game obviously. I don't have that kind of money to throw around just for the love of a hobby and to help a few Tecate owners out. I guess if I had a successful business making replacement shrouds for current dirt bikes (or some other form of plastics where I already had the machines) you could "squeeze in" unprofitable items such as 3 wheeler shrouds and just swallow the costs. But then you've got competition from established players such as UFO, Acerbis, and Maier. The best bet is every Tecate owner send email after email after email to Maier and get them to run some from their existing tooling. It seems to me Maier would sell 3 times the number of shrouds as they do fenders. Yet they still offer the fenders.

just my .02!

[Dan Tenn]

Suprisingly the guy actually has some. He has six of them, 3 right and 3 left. Im not sure what year they are, but 2 pairs are cracked and beat up, and the other pair is OK. I think im going to let him keep them until I get a T3, then he will probably give them to me. He will want a kick back if I sell them, but give them to me if I want to use them. He says hes sure there are more somewhere, but he couldnt find them.

[GreenBoy]

Even if the costs for the molds could be reduced to a minimum, where could we get the green stuff for the scoops ???
I guess making the molds would be possible for me, though it would take a lot of time.
I have to get more information on the mold stuff anyway, cause I need one for my custom Z fuel tank.
Maybe this is a chance to waste some more of my hard earned money ;)

Another thing is what Maier says on it´s homepage -->

"Let us put your idea in plastic. We specialize in producing custom work for our customers who need items produced on an exlusive basis. You do not need to order large quantities and tooling costs are minimal. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact us."

We know that Maier must have had molds for the T3 scoops, since there were some for sale on eBay a few month ago.
But maybe this is the same low quality trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro I saw from Maier before.
Before I go with low quality "new" aftermarket scoops I will rather take my damaged OEM shrouds.
Since Maier offers the shiny stuff now, we could have some luck and they will surprise us with some cool new rad scoops for the T3.
Somebody should contact them, best by phone :!:
Now it´s up to some of you guys to give them a call.............

[Jeb]

When it comes to injection molding, you buy the plastic in pellet form in whatever color you want. :) Or you can buy natural color and add concentrated color in whatever color you want. It shouldn't be any problem for a compounder to match the factory green. Kawasaki had to get it from someone. But again, dollars are involved. With injection molding, you can mold green shrouds, then purge the machine, and mold pink, blue, etc... etc... etc...

Mold costs your looking in the thousands.

Maier definitely has the tooling. Same for the Z shrouds. They used to make every color of the rainbow for Tecates, just like todays quads. UFO also made shrouds.

perhaps one could try to buy the old factory molds off of Kawasaki??

;)