First step is market research. This will determine the demand for the part and the value of the requested part. This entails researching the number of cars originally built, as well as the estimated number of cars currently on the road or still in existence. You may have a part that is really in need by a specific group of people, but if there is only a hundred of those people willing to buy the part, the demand is not sufficient for the cost or volume requirements of manufacturing. Once it is determined that a part is in significant demand and should be reproduced, the tooling development process can begin. The engineering time to properly replicate a part and then the hard costs of machining are extensive. A small plastic part like a radio knob can be in the $10,000 - $20,000 range for production tooling. The impression many hobbyists have is that the smaller the part is, the cheaper it must be. Not so in tooling; sometimes the smaller parts can be the most expensive to tool up due to the design.
In the case of reproducing parts for a Tri-5 Chevy, where the sales demand is much higher than say, a ’72 Impala, there is a cost factor that allows manufacturers to run more parts in production and bring the cost down. Unfortunately, in many cases, the quality is not maintained in higher volume - all in the name of lowering costs.
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