This thread may not mean much to most of you and may not effect you at all, but I'm posting it for those of you who may be interested or affected by this. Wysco Products, an importer and distributor of Chinese made hot rod automotive products is closing their doors the 22nd of this month. They are a wholesale only company. You may have used some of their products and were unaware of it. They wholesaled their products to most of the major hot rod retailers, including some of the biggest mail order houses. To me this is noteworthy in the respect that it means less competition. In the end I will pay more for the parts that i buy for the cars I am working on for customers and for myself. A lot of the stuff Wysco sold was of the street rod billet nature, but the also sold some very cool finned aluminum engine parts at very low prices. I for one am sorry to see them go.
Never cared for the quality of their Chinese junk personally, but a friend worked there, so I am sorry for him
I'm sorry this is going to affect you in a negative way, but I'm not at all sorry to see that a purveyor of Chinese stuff is going tits up. My experiences with Chinese parts hasn't been good, and after several incidents that resulted in many hours of work by me to remove and replace Chinese made parts that couldn,t and didn't do the job for which they were sold, usually because of poor quality materials and workmanship, I avoid them when possible, especially if their removal is going to be a lot of work, for which a refund of that labor isn't available.. My hope is that this outfit going under is among the first symptoms of the American public in general and hot rodders specifically have had enough and are avoiding the purchase of Chinese parts when possible. To paraphrase an old proverb: "The bitter taste of poor quality remains long after the pleasure of a low price is gone"
Got that right. They give Oregonians a bad name every time someone calls them out,which is quite often.
I read this thread and I think about the AAPEX trade show in Las Vegas, put on at the same time as the SEMA show. At AAPEX they have thousands of Chinese companies offering their products. Many of the booths get little or no traffic during the 4 days of the show. I've been told by people who know is the quality is very low.
Always sad to hear when fellow Americans are put out of work. I have no love for Chinese parts, but they are next to impossible to escape. 1st time I dealt with installing a Chinese after market part was about 18 years ago, on a friends OT jeep. We drilled pilot holes for the included sell tapping hardware and the screws stripped right out -must have been made of pot metal. Few years later I worked for a company that sold after market (i.e. Chinese) auto body parts. Some of the stuff was okay. But, when you are unloading a shipping container of fenders and find over half of them damaged, many with little shoe prints on the packaging from kicking the container full..., what are you going to do? Send the stuff back, or try to sell it? Wish this thread was telling us Wysco was loosing one of its suppliers, instead of China loosing a customer. I wish good luck to all involved. -Dave
Dress up parts are one thing. I get a little spooked when I see caliper brackets, columns, u joints, any steering/ braking stuff Well the streets will be a little safer with some of that stuff off the market. The good US employees will find gainful and probably more gratifying jobs. Good riddance.
I highly doubt this has anything to do with Chinese quality. Look at the stuff they're selling. There's not a market for that stuff anymore. You can go on eBay and buy lots of ball milled, fabbed aluminum, street rod dress up stuff really cheap, second hand from guys swapping it off since that was a fad that died out years ago already. Same reason so many of the custom chopper motorcycle shops, all the Hummer dealerships, all the little businesses who's name had a Z in it instead of an S, guys making fiberglass body kits for import tuners, are all gone. It's a dead fad. They may as well be selling cassette tapes and custom van parts.
Some of the stuff they were selling had appeal to the traditional builder. Their finned aluminum engine parts (valve covers. breathers, Spark plug wire tenders, air cleaners) did hit the traditional builder. They also had a line of suspension components in steel, chrome and stainless that were considered traditional build stuff. It wasn't product that killed them it was just extremely piss poor management, that just seemed to get worse every year these last few years.
^^^^ Sounds far to typical. The guys who actually made the wealth for the boss are the ones to get bent over. Wish them all the best coming out of this. -Dave