Original Manufacturers

[Trollhole]

Kind of interesting history of who made what.

IKI which is on the backs of the reverse lights
real name is Ichikoh Industries Ltd. http://www.ichikoh.com/index_e.html

I've contacted them to see if they still have the tooling to make them or any history of them.

KOITO which is just about every other lens or light on our 55's.
real name is KOITO Manufacturing Company Ltd. http://www.koito.co.jp/english/f_index.html

I've talked with their US division and working on getting a Japanese contact.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Did these guys also make the rubber weatherstrip for the lights or was that someone else? It might be a valid question to ask (I'm also thinking FJ45LV here!!)!

 

[Trollhole]

Did these guys also make the rubber weatherstrip for the lights or was that someone else? It might be a valid question to ask (I'm also thinking FJ45LV here!!)!

Good question. I would imagine they made everything. SInce the rubber has their stamp on it. Let's see if they reply.

 

[cruiser_guy]

If they did maybe we can resurrect the mold and get some rubber made!

 

[Trollhole]

Well this is the e-mail I recieved from Denso. Basically the people who make the air conditioners.

Dear Sir.

Thank you for visiting the DENSO Website and for your message dated October 29, 2008.
Allow us to reply to your request.

We regret to inform you that we cannot provide much information to your question.
Since we are an OEM manufacturer for the car manufacturers, we do not provide services directly to customers after we delivered our products to the car manufacturer.
Car manufactures and car dealers provide distribution of parts and services.
Therefore, we would appreciate if you try to contact the car dealer near you or car manufacturer(Toyota).
We hope they should be able to provide you more advice or information.

PS.
Please contact to Toyota.
Toyota website： http://www.toyota.com/about/contact/index.html

We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Best regards.

[Your Request]
We are a buying group that is looking for any parts you manufactured for Toyota from
1958-1985 for the Toyota Land Cruiser. Do you currently have any old stock or know of anyone who you might have sold remaining inventory too? We would also be interested in seeing if you would be willing to reproduce some of these parts. Any history on these parts you made would be much apreciated. Thank you for your time.

 

[cruiser_guy]

I was a little afraid of that! Really though, if we get this stuff going I'd hope that whoever we use would do something similar, after all if we are paying for the tooling we should be able to make the sale. After we have our run and more folks want it we can always go back to the manufacturer for a second run if there is enough demand.

Let's ask Toyota and see if they will give us a release letter that we can take to Denso or whoever and say, "Hey, Toyota doesn't have any objections to you making these parts for us and here is a copy of the letter stating that!". After all if Toyota doesn't want to do this because the numbers are not big enough maybe we can get their OK?

 

[Trollhole]

I've got a good contact for Koito in Japan. I sent an e-mail today asking for information. Let's see if I can build a relationship with them.

If not I've found a good manufacturer in China that will make anything we want. It's just that it will be made in China. But it will be very economical.

 

[cruiser_guy]

I've got a good contact for Koito in Japan. I sent an e-mail today asking for information. Let's see if I can build a relationship with them.

If not I've found a good manufacturer in China that will make anything we want. It's just that it will be made in China. But it will be very economical.

I hope that the Koito contact works out. Chinese made plastic lenses fade very fast.

 

[Trollhole]

I hope that the Koito contact works out. Chinese made plastic lenses fade very fast.

I've worked with Chinese plastics. It's not the fact they are made in China it's the fact that the company that had them produced asked for the cheapest thing. You can get UV stable plastics out of China. You just have to pay a few pennies more for it.

Also Koito produces a very good product. They to have a production facility in China a couple of them as a matter of fact. Don't think that just because it's a Japanese owned company that the products are all made in Japan.

 

[cruiser_guy]

I've worked with Chinese plastics. It's not the fact they are made in China it's the fact that the company that had them produced asked for the cheapest thing. You can get UV stable plastics out of China. You just have to pay a few pennies more for it.

I vote to spend the couple of extra pennies!! Pink tail lights are NOT cool!!

 

[FineWynsFJ40]

I vote to spend the couple of extra pennies!! Pink tail lights are NOT cool!!

But they are all the rage!


Not a bad plan developing contacts in the OEM suppliers. That's the thing that every manufacturer or consumer wants, cost vs. keeping things in-country. I have no problem with parts being made in China, as you get cheap stuff only if you ask for it. That would be amazing if they had the original molds & dies, but likely they may not. We shall see. Hell, if by a miracle they still have it, maybe we could purchase some of them and bring them over here, so we can use them to run production. Just a thought.