Do you think there will be "Year One" for us?

[Dpine]

As oem items become unavailable (items that you can't buy at Autozone, ect). Specifically electronics, interior pieces, brackets, ITR specific parts.

Do you think a supplier like Year One will step up and start producing parts? I think 90's Japanese cars have a large enough following as the 50's, 60's, and 70's muscle car crowd and therefore worth while to produce. Hell if you have a DeLorean you have an outlet for pretty much anything you need.

Perhaps I'm late to the party and a supplier does exist.

[coolhandluke]

It's a key question these days as Honda both discontinues parts regularly and increases prices daily. It's a sad day currently.

Ultimately, it starts with us. No company will undertake the significant capital investment for these parts without financial data to back the investment. Until then, suppliers for Honda via alternative outlets are likely our best bet.

[Dpine]

I think ultimately for me this would be major factor in keeping the car or selling and moving on to a newer platform. I love the car to death but I worry about the day when a major part fails and the car sits with no replacement fix available. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way.

[coolhandluke]

Sourcing parts has become an extreme challenge the last few years. It's the biggest reason I hit the brakes on tracking my ITR recently. Without this community I would still be searching for a discontinued part.

[SWFL_NSX]

Still don't have a type R, but have watched the NSX community deal with this for a while.

In general, concerns are overblown. In most cases model specific parts are still available, but may have to be ordered from japan. Amyama is great for this.

In some cases small vendors have stepped up to reproduce some plastic parts that, while still available from Honda, are not that well designed to begin with, or whose design has simply become out dated. Mita Motorsports in Japan has done a fantastic job of reproducing complicated plastic interior parts that are probably better than OE, as well as reproducing OE style wheels in sizes that fit modern tires.

Lastly, the community is always figuring out new ways to fix things. The OE radio has been a pain point for a while now but a group is in the process of redesigning the circuit boards with modern components, and we're also getting better at repairing the original boards.

I would start looking at vendors who cater to the NSX and S2000 and seeing if they would be interested. Mita Motorsports, Comptech, and Science of Speed are all already focusing on selling parts for 2/3 of Uehara's projects...I think they'd be interested in supporting the third.

CLH is right though-it's up to the community to support vendors who support our passion.

[oddomatik]

One thing to consider as a balance to your optimism - there is somewhere around 5-10x the number of NSX in the US as there are ITRs, and globally that number is probably far higher.

A lot of places that used to make parts for NSX/ITR now only focus on the NSX because that's where the booming market is. Demand for ITR goes up as well, but the market just isn't there to make production runs worth it for ITR-specific re-pops. This community is awesome, but sooooo tiny compared to the NSX community. People aren't willing to pay that 5-10x for a plastic interior part that would help them ensure their break-even point or realize a profit. I don't think any of those parts places are making their killing on selling a few hundred plastic interior repops.

I talked to Shad (Comptech) just a few months ago about repopping ITR parts, he said (I paraphrase) he has no interest as there was never really much any market for it. I plan to follow up with him a bit on that, but that's where I gather his mind is now.

That being said, we'll have to pick up the gauntlet like you've mentioned. I agree that it's up to us. I was inspired by the NSX community to pick up a 3d printer and contribute to their design repository there. I haven't thought of much my R needs in the printed plastic department, but if anyone wants to throw any challenges or reference parts my way I might be down. I do plan to use it eventually for helping create molds and get into some fiberglass work just for fun.

[aw614]

I do wonder if there can be a better business justification if they don't just concentrate on just ITR specific parts, but the parts that are getting hard to find, but are shared across the model ranges of Civics, Integras, etc. Start from there first, then slowly getting into the specific ITR parts as business expands?

One interesting example I noticed talking to Volkswagen Corrado owners is despite how uncommon their cars are, they seem to have a good amount of sources for reproduction parts and community support for creating upgraded parts that fixed the design issues of some parts, these are trim specific or replacing plastic parts with metal. Though at the same time there is also a large base across the pond...

I think there is a market for it and there are some willing to pay, but at the same time, the mentality of 88-00 Hondas as being cheap and disposable still exists and people arent willing to pay for stuff vs say S2000 and NSX owners. Our cars are getting to the age of how I saw 60s muscle cars growing up in the 90s, yet they still feel far more modern.

[coolhandluke]

...CLH is right though-it's up to the community to support vendors who support our passion.

100%. This is why I try to always buy from Type R Expo sponsors first. Sometimes it's a couple of points more, I know they invest in our community, so I want to make sure I invest in them.