It's because the same arguments and issues have been discussed quite a few years back before.
California Gold actually had higher pricing (and successfully sued AM General for "stealing" the commerical/civilian slantback design) until they sold off enough to pay their tooling costs.
Even then, the cost of their slantback shell is still rather high in my view. And there are only about 100 or so CalGold slantback shells, about 50 aftermarket canvas back ones, and 39 factory slantback ones out of about 10,000 civilian trucks. Not a huge percentage - about 1.5 percent if you exclude the factory slantbacks. 1.8 percent if you include them.
Extrapolate that out to the SUT. Say by 2007, there's 25000 units sold by GM. Your possible sales base is 450 units. If by 2007 you have 50000 SUT's sold by GM, your sales base would be roughly 900 or so.
Now, for a 900 unit tooling run, you're NOT likely to recoup your tooling costs unless you increase your pricing. AND you have to make it not only nice enough to look like a factory job, but also make it easy enough to install for any do-it-yourselfer, as well as not void any warranties.
As for water tight fit - the seal around the shell to body and fender isn't too much of an issue. I could always silicone the area and that would negate any water issues.
The primary issue is the hatchback seal and the seal between the hatch and the tailgate. If the tailgate isn't watertight (and I don't think it is!), you're never going to get a completely waterproof seal.
My hatchback seal has a tongue and groove setup on it. It will block most water and some dust, unless the downpour is so hard that it overflows the groove.
I can take detailed pics of it along with provide a link to how it attaches to an H1. This will help with some thoughts as to how it would link up and how it's created.
Other things - lighting. I had to add a little 8 cell (AA) fluorescent light to the hatch of the slantback so that I can have lighting in the shell area. If there was a way to tap into the H2's wiring structure and integrate lights, that would be great.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ:
I have not responded but, Beastmster has actually been making the points that i have noticed while I had been begining research on this last few days. There is almost now way to make the cover water tight. I would say impossible but, that does not exsist in My thought procees. But, it can be made weather resistant and lockable. The problem is if it is installed at Our shop or is it shipped to the buyer and He has to do a good enough job to have a water tight fit. I know Our guys well enough that if it was installed by them it would most likely be water tight. Cost would fall more into Dragon's area as He and the shop Boss are skilled in using many materials. It just looks like it would run around the $3000 range or little more. You would have to keep in mind it is not just buying some material and slapping it on the rig. It has to be made a prototype first but depending on the material finally decided on it would be hand made evey time, or molded and just a pour each time, and last it could be made from a light metal that can be farmed out and tooling to stamp it out in as few parts as possile and then assembled. If You price the plain hard flat caps they run upwards of $2500. This kit will be much harder to do. So it would lean into the higher side of most everyone's estimate of $2000 up. If it had to be done in glass then it is still hand made with molds. It would take a major corp. to pick it up and automate it to get it even down to the $2000 range.
TAZ </div></BLOCKQUOTE>