Difficulty/Cost of Casting Custom Parts?

[PHATsuby]

Hey Everyone,

This is for anyone that has any experience with manufacturing or that has looked into it. I am curious the process and average cost per part on something like an intercooler endtank or an intercooler tube.

If my dreams are ever realized(and depending on costs) I would need a couple things cast and possibly a few things injection molded if possible. This would be on a larger scale but not huge, I'm thinking 20 per part.

I know casting requires a mold, and I should be able to model the part in SolidWorks myself and hopefully create a mold from that. Would it be a matter of modeling the mold then having it CNC'd and then casting? If I take care of the modeling/engineering portion anyone have an estimated cost of the creation of the mold and casting?

Secondly one thing I may have to do is a fairly organic shape not easily made by cutting/shaping tubing. In the attempts to make things as OEM quality as possible and ease of reproduction I am wondering about making resin based parts similar to the intake manifolds on the Legacy GT's and newer WRX's. Again I can likely model this in SolidWorks myself but I am not familiar with how complicated it is to get this created.

Any thoughts on cost and process related would be much appreciated. Yes I have the ability to custom fabricate as well and my intent on doing this is to hopefully make the parts very consistent and high quality.

Thanks for the help!

Ben