News, 21 July 2005
GLASS SHOP ON VACATION
My glass shop guys have finally revolted and taken two weeks off. It is a hundred and fudge (as my wife likes to say) here in Phoenix. Fiberglass lamination is pretty nasty work. Because of the fumes, dust, etc., you can't just close the doors and turn on the air conditioning.
Usually the best way to solve this problem is with evaporative cooling. If you aren't from the Southwest, you probably don't know what that means, but it's kind of like this: If the air outside is dry enough you can drip water over some type of media (usually aspen shavings or cardboard-looking cellulose), blow air across it, and the temperature of the air will drop ten to twenty degrees.
With an evaporative (or "swamp") cooler mounted on the roof or in a window, you can effectively cool AND ventilate a relatively large shop space. The continuous flow of air from the cooler, through the shop, and out a partially open window, door, or garage opening, it can be quite comfortable.
Normally, our prevailing wind is out of the west or southwest. Any moisture is squeezed out by the mountains in California. That leaves the air nice and dry, so the evap coolers work pretty well.
However, this time of year we are approaching the "monsoon." Monsoon is a seasonal shift in the direction of the prevailing wind to a more southeasterly origin. Thus, we pick up a lot more moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? It means that the swamp coolers no longer effectively cool the shop. Higher ambient humidity leaves less room between the air molecules for our evap coolers to add more water molecules. This is also the time of year when the increased humidity reacts with the already-incredible heat to produce spectacular thunderstorms.
So, to get to the point, the fiberglass guys have had it. They are originally from Minnesota and have gone back there to do some fishing. I guess they'd rather donate blood to the mosquitos than donating sweat to the desert!
We should be up and running again by the first week of August. I have a number of orders in the cue, so please be patient and I will get them out as soon as possible.
PRICE INCREASES
In case you do not already know this, fiberglass resin is derived from petrochemicals. When the price of oil goes up, so does the price of resin (just like with price of gasoline). With all the mess in the Middle East right now, I think we are going to see more of the same.
I have managed to hold my pricing pretty well constant for my entire fifteen years in business. I've done this by being as smart as possible about the way I produce, market, and ship my products. Most price increases have been the result of tangible improvements to design and/or production methods that reduce installation time or otherwise improve your finished vehicle.
However, I've just about run out of wiggle room. Sometime in the next 30-45 days I will be forced to do an across-the-board overhaul of my product pricing.
Prior to that I will honor currently published pricing, and will extend that pricing to you even if you can at least get a deposit to me before the prices go up. Please contact me ASAP if you want to take advantage of this.
Thanks!
John Washington