Badge

Now that is a nice badge.

link? price?

This is a photo from an ad for a replica coupe for sale on the Samba. I have no idea who made the badge. You can see the coupe on the Samba site. It is in the Classifieds under the heading for replicas, dune buggies, etc. There is no reference as to the source for the badge itself.

My point was that somebody is making these, and in a previous thread there was a lot of interest in getting custom badges like this in 2110, 1915, 1176, 2332 etc. 

I am guessing the builder of the car has a source, but it doesn't clarify who that is.

The car is  being brokered by "oldbug" and is a JPS build with 414 miles so I'm guessing the badge is original to the car and a builder provided option.

If you left the turbo on the Subaru engine, you could go with

Someone here had mentioned a source that cut various cc designation with a laser cuttor out of (I believe) stainless steel or CNC machined aluminum billet.

seller called me back, thought the builder had it made...

Will Hesch posted:

seller called me back, thought the builder had it made...

I know that IM and other builders have access...my IM6 has a CARRERA 2.7 BADGE on both the engine lid and the interior dash. Someone is definitely skilled at this and Henry(IM) will likely be a good source as other builders will surely be

If I am not mistaken those are standard P badges 

By the way that is a great looking COUPE with A/C and towel bar in low 40s with SUBIE power....a good deal looming for someone??

IaM-Ray posted:

If I am not mistaken those are standard P badges 

You could be right....I was thinking out loud but I certainly am not in the know

If you search the P catalogue At Stoddard you can find all sorts of badges.  Just saying

Yeah, but everything Stoddard sells are knockoffs of the original 1600 Super badge.

Panhandle Bob posted:

Yeah, but everything Stoddard sells are knockoffs of the original 1600 Super badge.

Guess that is OK since we drive a KNOCKOFF 

John Steele called me back. He has the badges made for his cars.

Has a 2110, 2336 (I think) and 2500 for the Subies

won't sell them to me since I drive a Vintage, said it would be like "gilding the hog"

guess I'm going to have to pursue having my water-jet cutter make some after all...

Will Hesch posted:

John Steele called me back. He has the badges made for his cars.

Has a 2110, 2336 (I think) and 2500 for the Subies

won't sell them to me since I drive a Vintage, said it would be like "gilding the hog"

guess I'm going to have to pursue having my water-jet cutter make some after all...

could as a JPS owner to buy on your behalf? Possibly?

After that remark by Steele, I wouldn't be inclined to pursue acquiring anything from him. 

I don't need a badge badly enough to tolerate insults or do an "end around" and have a straw man JPS owner put my money in Steele's pocket.

I'll do without or seek another source.

Panhandle Bob posted:

After that remark by Steele, I wouldn't be inclined to pursue acquiring anything from him. 

I don't need a badge badly enough to tolerate insults or do an "end around" and have a straw man JPS owner put my money in Steele's pocket.

I'll do without or seek another source.

Lol. Gotta love that conviction. He seems super dedicated to keeping the genuine parts alive for the next generation. Err... wait a minute. Nope. Just sounds like an arbitrary, crotchety old man. Hilarious line he drew in the sand.

it's ludicrous to compare fakes...

snooty woman bragging: "My diamonds are fake, but they're better fake than yours!"

I dunno, Will. I'd never endorse Steele's comment, but isn't comparing fakes a big part of this board's general conversational bent?

Ed:

Comparison , yes.........insult........hopefully not.

Will Hesch posted:

... won't sell them to me since I drive a Vintage, said it would be like "gilding the hog"

That's our John!

So very, very classy.

So good to read that John is still a legend in his own mind.

I have kept most of this under warps for years .......Sadly without fail, John constantly manages to distance himself from most everyone. Back when I taught auto shop the school ordered a turn key Hum Vee and a Speedster with a hard top, they both had so many faults it took weeks to straighten them out. I recall the year at Carlisle when he couldn’t find one of his east coast customers that was willing to allow him to display one of his speedsters at his indoor booth.  AL and I loaned him a just completed a high end black speedster for Al Shapiro for that weekend, John had the balls to pick at it while it was in his display !         Fast forward a couple of years I went to bat for a speedster friend that was owed parts ...after a few emails to John, the parts were finally sent after a one year wait.   The following year at Carlisle,  I won a donated raffle  luggage rack, He sent me one that had clearly been damaged and half ass'd fixed. Then, a few years ago at (at Carlisle) with the encouragement of my wife , I decided put my older but wiser best foot forward attempting to greet John with a sincere hand shake, he backed away and ...called me and asshole. In a millisecond "Jersey Al" rose up from within appearing from the past. Had it not been for our good friend Kelly Frazer stepping up along side of me suggesting to let it go, John would have been on his tail and I would be checking in at the Grey Bar Hotel.  Sadly, he has experienced personal and health issues and one would think by, now he would see the light.......   I mean no malice whatsoever, a handshake awaits him and I sincerely, wish him well.

Will Hesch posted:

 

John Steele ... won't sell them to me since I drive a Vintage...

The jerk store called and it was the manager himself on the phone...

now I'm laughing, and yes, out loud!

...the jerk store...classic!

^..."the ocean called, they're running out of shrimp"! 

I'm just saying?

I got along fine with John, he never failed to answer the phone or to return my voicemails or emails...... still does.   He really knows the product. 

I am very happy with my car, it took a little longer to build as his painter moved his business during the build.

The only things I had to do to it were to add some castor and let some air out of the tires.   I have driven it some 12,000 trouble free miles, with no overheating or leaks or squeaks....I don't drive in the rain or snow.

I would not hesitate to order another car from him or recommend him to anyone interested in a replica.

One of my neighbors is in fact having one built.

I'm happy for you, Bart. It's always nice to read a positive review. John has the ability to turn out an exceptional product. Sometimes, through no fault of his own, crappy parts or questionable subcontractors can derail a build. Unfortunately, John has a tendency to fuel the fire by being flippant or, worse, unresponsive when it comes to resolving an issue. 

As much as I love my car I would never want to go through the multi-year "teething issues" as I did with Mr. Steele. I certainly wouldn't want to subject someone else to it.

A guy in PA waited two plus years to get a coupe only to tear into it upon arrival.

If you're going to get some parts water-jet cut or, better yet, cast (so you'll have mounting pins on the back) and go to all that trouble, you might as well get the real Porsche font so they don't jump out at you as being different, as the one on the blue car that Bob showed way up at the top.  

The font used, while nice, has thicker vertical bars and looks "clunky" in my opinion and just pops as being different.  You can download their fonts for free:

https://www.fontpalace.com/font-download/SK+Porsche/

Panhandle Bob posted:

Yeah, but everything Stoddard sells are knockoffs of the original 1600 Super badge.

Sorry, my intended meaning was that Stoddard doen't have any optional versions of the 1600 Super badge that have alternative engine size numbers like 2110, 1915, 2332, etc. rather than 1600.

Terry Nuckels posted:

I'm happy for you, Bart. It's always nice to read a positive review. John has the ability to turn out an exceptional product. Sometimes, through no fault of his own, crappy parts or questionable subcontractors can derail a build. Unfortunately, John has a tendency to fuel the fire by being flippant or, worse, unresponsive when it comes to resolving an issue. 

As much as I love my car I would never want to go through the multi-year "teething issues" as I did with Mr. Steele. I certainly wouldn't want to subject someone else to it.

You(I) never hear anything like this about HINES/Special Edition or HENRY/IM.....I have looked high and low and it appears that they either do not run into these adversarial snafus or that they gentlemanly manage the occasional blip such that owner and builder amicably remedy issues. Our(my) money pit passion would be better suited for builders to embrace their patrons(customer is always right)  outside of a scant few whackos. 

If Steele embraced the larger picture, that simple sale of a badge, could/might turn into vehicle builds down the road rather than piss off a host of SOC readers. KARMA is a bitch and I believe there is a delicate balance that always finds its way to fruition.

Banzai (whatever your name is), regarding the other builders, they are good people. I have vacationed with Henry (we're waiting for our Electrameccanica Solo), had a drink with Kirk and had a couple phone conversations and a little business with Carey. They are upstanding people and I wouldn't hesitate to deal with them. Certainly they are in business to make money but they also know their clients (and future clients) are the key to their business so they treat them with respect. And, as a result, form lasting friendships. 

I've witnessed Mr. Steele badmouth every builder I've listed here. I've also been present to hear Mr. Steele utter never a kind word about any of his customers - I'm confident that I've been described negatively in my absence a number of times. 

So how does he stay in business? In the early days it was because he would build you whatever you wanted: flares, Fuchs, colors....just look at my car, Penny. He would also use his negative comments about the other builders to sway you to his brand. And for the past several years he has been the only one who builds coupes.

John Steele is capable of building a nice car, no question about it. But that doesn't mean he has to be a nice guy. 

Hope you did NOT misunderstand my intent.......but was totally supportive and appreciative of both HINES/HENRY as I know them and have dealt with them and was pointing that you NEVER read anything negative about them or their products, support for their products, and good will. As an owner of an IM6, with extensive discussion and exchange with IM, in addition to a past pursuit with Special Edition, I can vouch for them personally. Steele's fabric is quite evident....and unfortunate.

Oh Terry you might solo on the SOC list who bought the electric car but you are in the right area ... warmth... you know Henry built a 356 with electrics lately... just saying.

In January 2008, I wrote on a thread regarding an unhappy JPS buyer. In 2002, I did a build with JPS. In the '08 thread, I posted this:

Stan Galat posted:

In 2002, I too was an out of state JPS customer with some special requests (a Fibersteel Glaspar hardtop custom fitted to the car). In defense of Tom-- when John Steele starts with his pitch, he is very persuasive. I too was very disappointed. I too vowed to use all my tools of persuasion to get the situation resolved. But, in the end-- I took a good hard look at the car, and realized that it would NEVER be what I hoped it would be.

I also remember the run-up to the delivery of Tom's car, when enthusiasm and anticipation and hyperbole were running high. It was the season of the JPS tech-bubble. Several people (me included) DID try to warn Tom. I've been posting about my JPS "hardtop fiasco" for 5 years, to the point of nearly being a one-note-Johnny. Several of us also posted at length about the ABSOLUTE IMPERATIVE of going to California and doing a pre-delivery inspection. We posted from experience, with nothing to gain by it.

However, everybody assumes that they are different when they have their dream-car in the sights. Everyone truly believes that THEY will be the one to get JPS to build the car-of-their-dreams, rather than the car John Steele is satisfied to give them. It rarely (never?) happens for out of state buyers. At the time, I said, "John Steele is at his best when the option list is kept short". It was true then, and I assume it's true now. When I offered that particular observation, Gerd claimed I wanted to stick an ice pick in John's ear. That part wasn't ever true. I DID wish John had given me the car I paid dearly for back in 2002, but wishing can't change the past, and it's water over the dam for me now. I've moved on.

John Steele builds cars the way he wants to, as he always has. He puts time and effort into the things HE thinks matters. If a customer's priorities line up with John's he'll end up happy with the end result. If not? Tom could send that car back to JPS 100 times, and the stuff John didn't think mattered would still be left undone.

The bottom line is: John Steele will always be John Steele. He cannot be changed by threats or persuasive arguments. The car Tom got is the car JPS builds-- a good looking, fundamentally flawed fair weather toy. The world doesn't need a leaky replica coupe, but that's what JPS will always build, whether it's #2, or #222.

As I've said many times before during and after this whole episode: forewarned is forearmed.

 It was true 10 years ago. I assume it's true today. 

Banzai, I'm in total agreement with you, just thought I'd add my perspective.

Ray, I'm aware of the IM electric speedster. Very cool but it won't scratch my itch. Actually, I was worried that I'd be tempted to have Henry recreate Penny in IM grandeur when we were up there in May. Instead, my wife, Andie, fell in love with the Solo. Have you sat in one? Very cool!

I said to Andie, "Baby, I'll never be able to ride with you!"

"That's okay" she replied.