Wintertime is coming and for many of us this is the time to start welding. A new project, rust damage repair or, for those who had bad luck this year, accident repair.
Our latest container arrival brought us the floorplates, wings, spare tyre boxes, hinge mounts, chassis parts… in short, all we need to get our welding job done in time in preparation to start a new meeting season in 2012.

Make sure you get the parts in your workshop in time to not delay your project!!!

Our Gascap manufacturer is a very dedicated guy, small company, but do know exactly what he speaks about, and is quality concerned, what matters a lot to me! So today I dimpled Linda and myself in a real gascap fairytale!

Thanks God Mr.Jimmy “sprintstar” manufacturer wanted to make up from yesterday absence and so came along the full day to travel, help and translate, wowh that was  a lot of help indeed, because Jerry “gascap” buddy is not as fluent in english as should be….

Green tea and gascap discussions, we can go for hours…:)

Every part is almost made “in house”, they have all kind of machines and presses for the stamping and parts making… crazy! Its like a big factory process but in small and so many different parts, never knew there where so many different gascaps, thanks God Jerry loves them all!

Assembly is done by hand, unbelievable how these guys work so precise in such quantity’s, normal orders are 10.000pcs per cap! Jerry trains his people personally, and do they know their job!

The man’s quarter

and the lady’s quarter, Girls mainly do the more precise assembly, like key matchin lockcilinders, amazing how they perform with yeyglasses!

All finished gascaps ready for packing and sending…

 Quiete sophisticated test device for vacuum and air replacement (so your tank don’t become vacuum) as said Jerry really know what he’s talking about!

after a whole day of work the food tasted deliciuos, real chinese food that is, absolutly nothing to see with what You get at your local take a way dummy… Jerry and his right hand for his company, extreme strong and a well motivated team! Happy I was here guys, and hope we can do way more in near future!

arrived late night yesterday in Ningbo China (still suffering that f***ing cold) a city we hardly know of, but with a population of around 5 million not small by any means, Trough China it seems they are known for production, a lot of electric components are build here they told us, also home base of Youngor, China’s premier fashion brand, who owns a whole city on its own here…

Today my buddy Jimmy “Sprintstar” manufacturer called in sick, but finally had his two collegeaus picking us up for no less as two factory tours, dirty and misty, but steel wheels is not exactly a very clean production process…

stamping of the centers, the heart of the wheel…

and making of rims

finishing outer edges

paint process

centers for the sprintstars, out of new moukds again, longer lip for welding without burning the chrome on the rim…just like the originals! The area manager was so happy they got finally a good product out of the last remaining chrome plant from entire Ningbo area, last year two other chrome plants had shut down from goverment for enviromental reasons.

wheels, plenty of wheels….

surprised a lot what I learned again today, especially regarding quality control, we really moved a LOT forward to a future with way better production! We reached a way to get a quality control in every step now of the production process, this means a lot for a Chinese company! And we could convince factory area managers about how important that is for us as collectors…even more special for a Chinese factory! Its so different when You get a direct contact to these guys!

We deserve a good night of sleep before taking the train to Ruian…. for more factory visit….  so stay tuned!

Linda and Bob, your real time China reporters…:)