Who makes sells the nice stone gaurds

[Otis Campbell]

I was told that someone here makes or sells some really high-end carbon fiber stone guards for my Gen 3 coupe. Any leads?

Thanks!

[J TNT]

Viper Specialty makes them , not sure they are carbon fiber.......

[Steve-Indy]

Actually, the "high end" stone guards for Gen III and IV Vipers came from Parts Rack. I am not sure they are still available.

I THINK that you are referring to those seen on the Snake Skin Green ACR seen in this thread.
https://driveviper.com/forums/thread...2-Stone-guards

There are also less obvious types costing considerably less out there.

[Viper Specialty]

Correct. PartsRack sells the Carbon version. We sell the black plastic "next to invisible" version.

[Otis Campbell]

Thanks guys!

[Slithr]

Thanks guys!

If you don't have a lift, you might want to roll it over on its side to make the install easier

[Otis Campbell]

It's still on its roof from last week. I'll just read the instructions upside-down.

[06SRTCoupe]

I was told that someone here makes or sells some really high-end carbon fiber stone guards for my Gen 3 coupe. Any leads?

Thanks!

Otis,

Not sure if you have made a decision on the stone guards but the ones from Viper Speciality are awesome! Simple to install and they are barely noticeable. They are sleek and run with the lines of the car. Pretty much look factory. They are also much much cheaper than the carbon ones.

I had them on my 06 Coupe. I sold that car and, as soon as I bought my 09 Coupe, I bought another set of these guards and had them over a week before I had the damn car. That is how much I wanted them.

Oh and, they 100% work and protect your car.

[Viper Specialty]

ZR Thompson

He is a site supporter just look in ht venders list and click on there site.

I don't think there carbon but they do have the best price I have seen.

Some of them out there are just silly money.

ZR's are cheaper sure... they are also much smaller, and use adhesive tape in the rear. Ours include additional spacers and pins so that no tape is needed, and ours are significantly larger with regard to protected areas, but not visually distracting ones.

To each their own... but we did it first :P

[SA Heat]

I gotta vouch for Viper Specialty's guards. They were easy to install and look like something the factory should/could have done (barely noticeable and they work).

[Viper Specialty]

I'm not knocking the higher price ones.

I'm sure there was a lot of time and money spent in R&D with a produced as complicated as this one.lol

and why won't the bigger one cost more there bigger, right.

Ooof. Sarcasm.

Given someone who has "Machinist" in their username, I would think you could appreciate the fact that it takes longer to machine and requires much more material, when you effectively near double the size of the product. Plus, we have to contend with a secondary material and two additional processes for the spacers. Materials are not free, nor is machine time or shelf space. He supplies (4) pieces. We supply (6), along with attaching pins. Our costs to produce are higher, there is no way around it. Do we also charge additional overhead for having a superior product, along with a warranty and first-mover advantage? Uh, yeah, of course.

We also have to absorb all of the wasted time and money that has gone to countless customers who bought our products to use as templates to cut their own out of plexi or similar for their friends, effectively hurting additional sales potential. And worse yet, some of those same people then returned them for credit before we caught on to what was happening.

People have choices.... but truth be told I don't know why I am even bothering replying to this lol

[06SRTCoupe]

I'm not knocking the higher price ones.

I'm sure there was a lot of time and money spent in R&D with a produced as complicated as this one.lol

and why won't the bigger one cost more there bigger, right.

Your grammar is wonderful...for a 3rd grader. You even edited your comment so you had more than one crack at it. Impressive!

[ViperSRT]

Just so you know Dan I made mine out of Lexan back in 2003 long before any were on the market. So if you see some made from a clear plastic it does not mean a copycat.

[Viper Specialty]

Just so you know Dan I made mine out of Lexan back in 2003 long before any were on the market. So if you see some made from a clear plastic it does not mean a copycat.

LOL, I was not implying you.

But... when I get return shipments where customers [and I use the term customer loosely] were dumb enough to leave their cutting scraps in the box, or the sharpie marks on the product, I think its safe to assume what happened.

[06SRTCoupe]

No R&D costs? So, the parts just magically appeared and they were the exact fit? Now that is impressive!

[06SRTCoupe]

It isn't an attack if what is being said is factual. Let's review shall we?
1. Your grammar is awful. Evidence: All of your posts in this thread. 2. Stone guards do take R&D to develop. Evidence: matter cannot just appear in the shape of a perfectly made stone guard for a Dodge Viper. This is also learned in school.

So, it seems you need to go back to school for grammar AND science? This last part is merely an educated guess based on your replies in this thread.

If you have a problem with what people are charging for a product, then don't buy it. Make your own since you have such an issue with it. Or buy from someone else. This is capitalism.

[Viper Specialty]

You are correct in that I do understand time and material costs. It's what i do for a living. I am just a small job shop but there are times I see products made for Vipers "Not just your own" at prices higher than I would charge for a one off prototype part coming thru my shop.

In the case of this part there are no R&D costs. In the past I have read posts from you defending the cost on one thing or another because of said costs. Although this is not always the case I would be willing to wager that some of this R&D was a product of trial and error during a job already paid for by a customer.

In the case of these parts just about anybody can go and buy $10.00 to $15.00 of material and with normal hand tools and some sand paper whip up a set of these in under an hour.

To be honest maybe I am being a little hard on Viper Specialty. This comes from a purchase I made from you a number of years back for a upgraded water pump for the GEN 2 Paxton air to water intercooler system. If I remember correctly the water pump was drop shipped from the manufacture so there was no cost of stocking this item. There was nothing in the box added by your company. No connectors or instructions but yet after going to the manufactures web site. Your product was exactly $100.00 more than there retail price. Don't quote me on this but I think there price was under $200.00. So that's a pretty hefty mark up wouldn't you say. So this cost must have come from R&D because you wouldn't have just ordered the largest pump on this manufactures web site. Would you?

Maybe I'm wrong and you have miles of data and a dozen other pumps you purchased setting around to do all the testing that took so much shop time to justify the mark up you charged.

Or is just the Viper tax.

Well, thank you for degrading what my time is worth.

I am curious how there are no R&D costs. So, the DAY I spent producing each prototype after multiple attempts of either over-cutting or not being happy, the ~4 versions it took to get the machining correct on each type, dealing with mistakes, accounting for fitment on a product that has a different material flexibility between proto and final, my shipping expenses for the product literally 8x across the state, a complete run of "OOOPS" I had to eat right at the start because of a version number/email oversight, the rear Coupe fascia I had to buy since customers wanted these in dead of winter while no coupes were available in Buffalo, my driving and gas expenses going back and forth all over the earth between different machine shops I deal with... all of those were my imagination? Is that right? Shit, I probably had to sell 100 sets just to make a dime with all the BS that went into these originally. I think you also conveniently forgot that I don't own the CNC or the Water-Jet at this point... so what about their profit margins too?

And as for your comment on the Paxton pump. Well, that's how it works. After including the fittings and accounting for shipping, I make about $90-100 bucks on those pump upgrades at last check, and that product is $374.00 currently. So... do the math. That's about a 25% profit margin, of which 3.5% is gone right after I charge your card. That's pretty typical, nothing crazy... and given that most of the time there is a ton of phone time and explaining on how to fit, wire, and connect anything Paxton related, that's exactly where it should be. Hell, other vendors sell substantially inferior pumps for a little less, but you know they paid peanuts for them since its a mass-produced Bosch product. They are making a substantially higher profit margin than I am, the only difference is that they are harder to source for an end user so most people cant figure out what the margin is... so, where is the outrage over them?

I also just checked, and that order was NOT drop shipped, it was stocked here, and was shipped with your cooler. I went back and re-read all of the emails, and honestly, I think the vast majority of your panty-twisting was the fact that it took two weeks to ship you the order, because you ordered the product the day after we ran out of stock and had to wait for another resupply. I am sure that is playing into your "perspective", since the entire time you were short and hurried like it was my fault you were short on time.

Like 06SRTCoupe said... there is nothing stopping you from doing this yourself. If you don't want to pay for my time, then go out and order a half-dozen pumps yourself, locate the fittings, and see what you can make work on your car.

Given how small this market is, I would like to know who is going to pay my bills when I don't charge for my time adequately. You sound just like a guy who is used to producing things 1000 at a time on slim margins, or charges straight time on everything he does as to make money on virtually everything with no risk. That is controlled overhead, something that someone like me does not have the luxury of. I have to balance the scales on what is easy, so that what is hard doesn't sink my ship. I have hundreds of thousands of dollars of un-billable time and costs sunk into locating unavailable components, software/programming oddities, reverse engineering, sensor calibrations, oddball tooling, dead-end products and prototypes... hell, the proper TAPE & ZIP TIES to wrap shit on your car so you cannot tell it was ever worked on.

Do you? Because none of that comes without a price tag. If you want to try and match what I have invested, feel free. Or, just buy a Lambo, because that would be a more fun option, and you would be further ahead. What we are discussing here is exactly the problem with much of the automotive market. Convenient omission of actual time/costs invested, knowledge, and overhead. Just because you can do it yourself or are willing to accept a sub-par product by favoring dollars over quality, does not mean that everyone else wants to, is willing, or is able. Please don't put whatever value you have on your time, on mine or anyone else for that matter.

[BlknBlu]

I purchased the Viper Specialty ones when they first came out for my 09 ACR. Most of the time i forget they are even there and for as small as they are, they are extremely effective.

Bruce

[Gen3CoupeTX]

Wait, wait, wait ... Am I to believe that folks like Dan run a reputable business and expect to make a living doing so? This changes everything ;-)

[Viper Specialty]

Wait, wait, wait ... Am I to believe that folks like Dan run a reputable business and expect to make a living doing so? This changes everything ;-)

[Steve-Indy]

Guys, while I realize that their are many differences of style and taste among our group...I would humbly suggest that we call off this pissing contest and stick closer to the topic proposed by Otis Campbell.

FACT: ALL OEM tires that were used on Vipers from 2008 until the end in 2017 were indeed high performance, "summer" tires...let alone the various track variants.

FACT: The above mention tires are "sticky" when hot. Thus, they throw rocks...hence the paint damage done to the undersides of the side sills.

SOLUTION: Stone guards. All of the discussed variants that I have seen or installed help to diminish the damage done. Road or track surface certainly introduce compounding variables.

CHOICE: Pick a type of stone guard that suits your own taste...and, be thankful that we have our vendor friends around to help solve some of the problems that owners face.

Best regards to all.

[SilverACR]

This is the second thread that went this way in the G4 section recently.

[TheMadMachinist]

Well, thank you for degrading what my time is worth.

I am curious how there are no R&D costs. So, the DAY I spent producing each prototype after multiple attempts of either over-cutting or not being happy, the ~4 versions it took to get the machining correct on each type, dealing with mistakes, accounting for fitment on a product that has a different material flexibility between proto and final, my shipping expenses for the product literally 8x across the state, a complete run of "OOOPS" I had to eat right at the start because of a version number/email oversight, the rear Coupe fascia I had to buy since customers wanted these in dead of winter while no coupes were available in Buffalo, my driving and gas expenses going back and forth all over the earth between different machine shops I deal with... all of those were my imagination? Is that right? Shit, I probably had to sell 100 sets just to make a dime with all the BS that went into these originally. I think you also conveniently forgot that I don't own the CNC or the Water-Jet at this point... so what about their profit margins too?

And as for your comment on the Paxton pump. Well, that's how it works. After including the fittings and accounting for shipping, I make about $90-100 bucks on those pump upgrades at last check, and that product is $374.00 currently. So... do the math. That's about a 25% profit margin, of which 3.5% is gone right after I charge your card. That's pretty typical, nothing crazy... and given that most of the time there is a ton of phone time and explaining on how to fit, wire, and connect anything Paxton related, that's exactly where it should be. Hell, other vendors sell substantially inferior pumps for a little less, but you know they paid peanuts for them since its a mass-produced Bosch product. They are making a substantially higher profit margin than I am, the only difference is that they are harder to source for an end user so most people cant figure out what the margin is... so, where is the outrage over them?

I also just checked, and that order was NOT drop shipped, it was stocked here, and was shipped with your cooler. I went back and re-read all of the emails, and honestly, I think the vast majority of your panty-twisting was the fact that it took two weeks to ship you the order, because you ordered the product the day after we ran out of stock and had to wait for another resupply. I am sure that is playing into your "perspective", since the entire time you were short and hurried like it was my fault you were short on time.

Like 06SRTCoupe said... there is nothing stopping you from doing this yourself. If you don't want to pay for my time, then go out and order a half-dozen pumps yourself, locate the fittings, and see what you can make work on your car.

Given how small this market is, I would like to know who is going to pay my bills when I don't charge for my time adequately. You sound just like a guy who is used to producing things 1000 at a time on slim margins, or charges straight time on everything he does as to make money on virtually everything with no risk. That is controlled overhead, something that someone like me does not have the luxury of. I have to balance the scales on what is easy, so that what is hard doesn't sink my ship. I have hundreds of thousands of dollars of un-billable time and costs sunk into locating unavailable components, software/programming oddities, reverse engineering, sensor calibrations, oddball tooling, dead-end products and prototypes... hell, the proper TAPE & ZIP TIES to wrap shit on your car so you cannot tell it was ever worked on.

Do you? Because none of that comes without a price tag. If you want to try and match what I have invested, feel free. Or, just buy a Lambo, because that would be a more fun option, and you would be further ahead. What we are discussing here is exactly the problem with much of the automotive market. Convenient omission of actual time/costs invested, knowledge, and overhead. Just because you can do it yourself or are willing to accept a sub-par product by favoring dollars over quality, does not mean that everyone else wants to, is willing, or is able. Please don't put whatever value you have on your time, on mine or anyone else for that matter.

I in no way meant to degrade or devalue your worth or your time. I stand corrected on the water pump I only mentioned it as an explanation of what got me started on the R&D thing. I was wrong for bringing it up.

Being that my business is wholesale and very competitive with jobs being bid and often times many of the same things you mentioned do a rise. With extra costs having to be absorbed due to not being able to pass them on to the customer unlike your retail business. So to stay afloat in this area one needs to be very resourceful and I think that this fact has made me a little jaded.

You have my sincere apologies sir.

As they say if you get the job you quoted you are most likely the lowest bid so your losing before you even started.

[Otis Campbell]

Threads like this make me not want to ask for suggestions on here. Aren't we all supposed to be snakey-brothers?

[06SRTCoupe]

You should go check the Viper Alley out.