Cruiser Trash Parts thread

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@RevISK Sorry I didn’t see this until now. There are placeholders up on the website already. I just picked them up this evening. I need to get them installed in my truck, take some pretty pictures for the web shop, then they’ll be live.

Please ignore the CNC dust and hanging chads on the logo. These are fresh from cutting and need a wipe down.
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Big FYI: as I ramp up production, it may take a few weeks between order and fulfillment. The material is something to have to special order and takes longer to cut, so as the weeks go by I’ll be doing successive batches and stocking up. At that point shipping will usually be more immediate, unless I’m out of stock on a particular variant. Also, I’m still figuring out gray. That color seems harder to get my hands on right now.

More photos to follow this evening.
 
CruiserTrash said:
@RevISK Sorry I didn’t see this until now. There are placeholders up on the website already. I just picked them up this evening. I need to get them installed in my truck, take some pretty pictures for the web shop, then they’ll be live.

Please ignore the CNC dust and hanging chads on the logo. These are fresh from cutting and need a wipe down.
View attachment 3628189

Big FYI: as I ramp up production, it may take a few weeks between order and fulfillment. The material is something to have to special order and takes longer to cut, so as the weeks go by I’ll be doing successive batches and stocking up. At that point shipping will usually be more immediate, unless I’m out of stock on a particular variant. Also, I’m still figuring out gray. That color seems harder to get my hands on right now.

More photos to follow this evening.
Click to expand...
Hanging Chads, that takes me back.

No offense meant here, but will there be a non-logo option? Appreciate what you’re doing just don’t think it’s entirely necessary. I’d pursue making my own before displaying branding on a premium product.

Again, I’m not trying to be offensive, I just work in advertising (more or less) and I really don’t want the interior of my vehicle trying to sell me something I already own.

Looks great though.
 
It took until after dark because I was out running errands. but I got the passenger side cargo panel and tailgate panel installed. I have some custom electrical stuff bolted to back of the driver’s side panel so that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Excuse the pallid lighting. I like soft white in my dome fixtures - it’s not the best for glamor shot photography though.

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@RevISK I hear you and acknowledge what you’re saying. However, being a small-time outfit doing this entirely by myself on a shoestring budget, it’s incredibly difficult to get my name out there and garner any sort of awareness amongst 60 Series owners. All it takes is one fellow 60 guy looking at the panels in the back of your truck and saying “Cool panels! Huh, Cruiser Trash Parts ... I’ll check them out.” That goes a very, very long way because the effect is logarithmic. One customer seeds three more, who each seed three more, etc. I also understand an aversion to branding in a hyper-corporate world. I feel like I’m a far cry from wearing a tee shirt with some multi-billion dollar company’s logo on it though. It’s just me, Jim. The same dude you’ll bump into at SAS having fun on a trail or kicking back in camp.

I have a small pool of folks that know what I’m doing, and I’m super appreciative of them. Several have become good friends. It’s come about mostly via incessant social media posting, which I do because it’s free. I’m constantly preaching to the same choir though. My “marketing budget”, which includes branding, is probably $1000 per year. That’s mostly stuff I give away to event raffles in the hopes that somebody with a 60 actually wins my junk. Heck, half the guys in my TLCA chapter are surprised to learn I have a little enterprise, despite talking about it at meetings, on club runs, and in our forum.

At the end of the day, if you’re not proud to own one of my products, perhaps my stuff isn’t right for you. And that’s not meant to be snarky. I fully support people DIYing stuff. I mentioned today on Facebook that I grew up in the DIY punk and underground rock n roll world. Everything was DIY: recording your own records with thrift store mics, duplicating tapes at home, drawing the cassette covers by hand, hanging flyers for shows, making your own shirts to sell, hell the venues were mostly DIY, etc. The budgets we worked with were about the same as going out for dinner. I’m still that way to a fault, and still support anyone else being that way too. I also know I banged my head against the wall a lot over many DIY projects, including these panels. Early on I sent my second customer a set and they didn’t fit. It opened a can of worms that ended up with me figuring out there’s seven variations of these things. I wasted a lot of ABS before I even got that far too. I guess being over 40 now I’ve started to realize DIY can sometimes wind up more expensive hahaha!

Anyhow, that wound up longer than I intended. Hope you consider what I’ve said.
 
CruiserTrash said:
@RevISK I hear you and acknowledge what you’re saying. However, being a small-time outfit doing this entirely by myself on a shoestring budget, it’s incredibly difficult to get my name out there and garner any sort of awareness amongst 60 Series owners. All it takes is one fellow 60 guy looking at the panels in the back of your truck and saying “Cool panels! Huh, Cruiser Trash Parts ... I’ll check them out.” That goes a very, very long way because the effect is logarithmic. One customer seeds three more, who each seed three more, etc. I also understand an aversion to branding in a hyper-corporate world. I feel like I’m a far cry from wearing a tee shirt with some multi-billion dollar company’s logo on it though. It’s just me, Jim. The same dude you’ll bump into at SAS having fun on a trail or kicking back in camp.

I have a small pool of folks that know what I’m doing, and I’m super appreciative of them. Several have become good friends. It’s come about mostly via incessant social media posting, which I do because it’s free. I’m constantly preaching to the same choir though. My “marketing budget”, which includes branding, is probably $1000 per year. That’s mostly stuff I give away to event raffles in the hopes that somebody with a 60 actually wins my junk. Heck, half the guys in my TLCA chapter are surprised to learn I have a little enterprise, despite talking about it at meetings, on club runs, and in our forum.

At the end of the day, if you’re not proud to own one of my products, perhaps my stuff isn’t right for you. And that’s not meant to be snarky. I fully support people DIYing stuff. I mentioned today on Facebook that I grew up in the DIY punk and underground rock n roll world. Everything was DIY: recording your own records with thrift store mics, duplicating tapes at home, drawing the cassette covers by hand, hanging flyers for shows, making your own shirts to sell, hell the venues were mostly DIY, etc. The budgets we worked with were about the same as going out for dinner. I’m still that way to a fault, and still support anyone else being that way too. I also know I banged my head against the wall a lot over many DIY projects, including these panels. Early on I sent my second customer a set and they didn’t fit. It opened a can of worms that ended up with me figuring out there’s seven variations of these things. I wasted a lot of ABS before I even got that far too. I guess being over 40 now I’ve started to realize DIY can sometimes wind up more expensive hahaha!

Anyhow, that wound up longer than I intended. Hope you consider what I’ve said.
Click to expand...
Jim, As I have no dog in this fight I thought I'd throw out this idea. Perhaps you could consider offering the non-logo version for a $100.00 premium per set. We did this years ago to satisfy both types of customers. Most will not pay the premium pricing, but a few will understand the points you make in your post and appreciate the work around. Just a thought. I love your products and wish you the very best.
 
CruiserTrash said:
@RevISK I hear you and acknowledge what you’re saying. However, being a small-time outfit doing this entirely by myself on a shoestring budget, it’s incredibly difficult to get my name out there and garner any sort of awareness amongst 60 Series owners. All it takes is one fellow 60 guy looking at the panels in the back of your truck and saying “Cool panels! Huh, Cruiser Trash Parts ... I’ll check them out.” That goes a very, very long way because the effect is logarithmic. One customer seeds three more, who each seed three more, etc. I also understand an aversion to branding in a hyper-corporate world. I feel like I’m a far cry from wearing a tee shirt with some multi-billion dollar company’s logo on it though. It’s just me, Jim. The same dude you’ll bump into at SAS having fun on a trail or kicking back in camp.

I have a small pool of folks that know what I’m doing, and I’m super appreciative of them. Several have become good friends. It’s come about mostly via incessant social media posting, which I do because it’s free. I’m constantly preaching to the same choir though. My “marketing budget”, which includes branding, is probably $1000 per year. That’s mostly stuff I give away to event raffles in the hopes that somebody with a 60 actually wins my junk. Heck, half the guys in my TLCA chapter are surprised to learn I have a little enterprise, despite talking about it at meetings, on club runs, and in our forum.

At the end of the day, if you’re not proud to own one of my products, perhaps my stuff isn’t right for you. And that’s not meant to be snarky. I fully support people DIYing stuff. I mentioned today on Facebook that I grew up in the DIY punk and underground rock n roll world. Everything was DIY: recording your own records with thrift store mics, duplicating tapes at home, drawing the cassette covers by hand, hanging flyers for shows, making your own shirts to sell, hell the venues were mostly DIY, etc. The budgets we worked with were about the same as going out for dinner. I’m still that way to a fault, and still support anyone else being that way too. I also know I banged my head against the wall a lot over many DIY projects, including these panels. Early on I sent my second customer a set and they didn’t fit. It opened a can of worms that ended up with me figuring out there’s seven variations of these things. I wasted a lot of ABS before I even got that far too. I guess being over 40 now I’ve started to realize DIY can sometimes wind up more expensive hahaha!

Anyhow, that wound up longer than I intended. Hope you consider what I’ve said.
Click to expand...

yea man...getting the word out about your small business is a full time job in itself. I struggle with the same things.

I do like the ideas above about a premium price tag on stuff with no logos.....maybe send along some stickers?
 
onemanarmy said:
yea man...getting the word out about your small business is a full time job in itself. I struggle with the same things.

I do like the ideas above about a premium price tag on stuff with no logos.....maybe send along some stickers?
Click to expand...
Good work and stickers are good enough I think. People that appreciate good work always spread the word.
 
ColoYota Expo today. I was sandwiched between ToyTec and Slee, who had a GX550. I’ll keep my 60 thanks.

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Lil’ ol’ me
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Spent more money than I made but had a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Picked up a real nice 40 rear heater, full set of 40 window rubber, some other odds and ends, and got my 4.11 FJ62 third members that I bought from @3_puppies delivered via MudShip. Lifting that bin, it’s like there’s a neutron star inside … it’s heavy.

Also spotted some cool stuff:
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And as a reminder the new Cargo & Tailgate Panels are LIVE on the website. I got mine fully installed - took longer to port over some of my custom electrical gizmos - and took some glamor shots.

CFB54B4D-55B7-4BDB-83AC-BF35E4946C73.webp

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The way the sun was shining made the color appear very saturated on my phone camera. I only edited the photos to reduce the glare by bringing “highlights” down a touch, I didn’t alter the color. Below is a photo of them today at the Expo in some partially cloudy weather. I was taking a photo of @HemiAlex mug, so they’re a little out of focus, but it shows the color nicely.
8B69AE6C-A95B-4088-BDD0-7D0B138B51BC.webp
 
CruiserTrash said:
Picked up a real nice 40 rear heater, full set of 40 window rubber,
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And in case y’all were wondering, my wife and I are expecting in early June … a 40 that is.
 
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CruiserTrash said:
And as a reminder the new Cargo & Tailgate Panels are LIVE on the website. I got mine fully installed - took longer to port over some of my custom electrical gizmos - and took some glamor shots.

View attachment 3629829
View attachment 3629830
View attachment 3629831
View attachment 3629832

The way the sun was shining made the color appear very saturated on my phone camera. I only edited the photos to reduce the glare by bringing “highlights” down a touch, I didn’t alter the color. Below is a photo of them today at the Expo in some partially cloudy weather. I was taking a photo of @HemiAlex mug, so they’re a little out of focus, but it shows the color nicely.
View attachment 3629833
Click to expand...
Those look great!
 
@88Retired62 @WartHog73 I appreciate it, I really do!

@RevISK et al, I appreciate y’all too. Feedback is feedback 😉 I’m having thoughts of dialing back the cut depth on the logo so it’s brown on brown. Less visible, but still there. Compromise between my goals and “what the people want”. A rare thing given our countries political and social atmosphere haha. We’ll see which way I go with it.

FWIW, I had six people at the Expo last weekend that said they’d buy the new panels on the spot if they were for an 80, and four of them loved the logo. Crazy how different even the 60 & 80 markets are!
 
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CruiserTrash said:
@88Retired62 @WartHog73 I appreciate it, I really do!

@RevISK et al, I appreciate y’all too. Feedback is feedback 😉 I’m having thoughts of dialing back the cut depth on the logo so it’s brown on brown. Less visible, but still there. Compromise with my goals and “what the people want”. I dare thing given our countries political and social atmosphere haha. We’ll see which way I go with it.

FWIW, I had six people at the Expo last weekend that said they’d buy the new panels on the spot if they were for an 80, and four of them loved the logo. Crazy how different even the 60 & 80 markets are!
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Awesome brother, I wish you the best. Your products really are cool and inspiring.

I may be in the minority with the logo thing but it really would be a make or break decision for me.
It's not your logo, it's any logo. The only badging on my tundra is a TEQ badge I made to fill in the oval on the grill, however, I don't mind the older logos on my 40 and 62 though for some reason.
All my shirts are blank grey even.
 
RevISK said:
Awesome brother, I wish you the best. Your products really are cool and inspiring.

I may be in the minority with the logo thing but it really would be a make or break decision for me.
It's not your logo, it's any logo. The only badging on my tundra is a TEQ badge I made to fill in the oval on the grill, however, I don't mind the older logos on my 40 and 62 though for some reason.
All my shirts are blank grey even.
Click to expand...
I hear you on the shirts. Most of mine are blank and occasionally I wear a band shirt - usually the musical project of somebody who's a personal friend. Oh, and I got a couple Solid Axle Summit shirts for working in the shop.
 
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