Unabomber's Vendor Interview: Kartboy

[Unabomber]

The following is a new type of post that I sincerely hope you will enjoy. The genesis behind this post is to further personalize the Vendor/NASIOC user experience. Like many NASIOC users, there are very few places to buy parts locally and I've supported my modification habit through the many, wonderful NASIOC Vendors. Since I'm temporarily in San Diego this spring, I thought I'd visit and get to know as many Vendors in the area as possible and share my experiences with my fellow NASIOC users. I hope that this post will enlighten NASIOC users to parts, manufacturers, and Vendors. My first interview is with Tom Deadrick, owner of Kartboy.

Can you give us some background information about yourself? I am 33 years old and was born in Livermore, CA. My hobbies include my large reef tank marine aquarium, woodworking, racing (watching/crewing/doing), and my dog a 7 year old Boston Terrier named Swift.


Tom @ Kartboy

First car: 1984 B2000 truck
Current cars: 2005 FXT, 02 Mazda Protégé 5, 03 Mitsubishi Evolution
Prior cars: 99 Subaru RS, 92 Civic Si (SCP champion NorCal), 1941 Willies 2 door coupe.


Tom's office

Work experience:
AA in mechanical drafting from a community college.
Worked for a composite shop doing race car bodies.
Worked for Plus One Motorsports doing high end suspension, tires, wheels, etc. along with aftermarket accessories.
Worked for Nitrous Flow Analysis building NMCA shoot out cars.
Worked for Swift Engineering doing composite manufacture of Indy Car chassis for Newman/Hass Racing.
Worked for Jack Roush doing prototype work on NASCAR vehicles.
I currently work for Dupont Aerospace doing composite testing, proving that carbon fiber is not hard to damage.


Waiting area at Kartboy

Any story behind the name Kartboy? I raced go-karts for 10 years, and somewhere along the way, I picked up that nickname and used it for my company.


Waiting area at Kartboy

What is Kartboy? (What products do you make/sell?) Short Shifters, Suspension Components, Shifter bushings, exhaust hangers, MAF adapters, Shift knobs, T-shirts, and hats. Fitment is for Subarus, Mazdas, and Mitsubishis.


Waiting area at Kartboy

What gave you the idea to start Kartboy? I got my first Subaru RS in January of 1999. At that time there werent’t any parts for it except for what Mike Shields of SPD Tuning was importing from overseas. And I think the stock Subaru RS shifter sucked. So I took it apart and decided to make an affordable short throw shifter. The original design was on a core exchange basis, then I decided to create a hand turned model. After selling a few models, Dale Teague gave me a call and placed an order for 50 in 2000. I spent the next several weeks after hours in my garage turning out short shifters. Within six months of Dales order, the demand for short shifters increased to the point that I decided to go from hand turning to CNC manufacture.


Waiting area at Kartboy

What is Kartboy’s contact information? 7888 Silverton Ave, San Diego, CA 92126. (858) 527-1109 or tom@kartboy.com. www.kartboy.com


Stock at Kartboy

Can you disclose any upcoming products or ideas of upcoming products (est. availability and pricing)? In 2-3 weeks, we will be coming out with a new rear shifter bushing. This will have fitment for every 5MT and 6MT Subaru. MSRP should be around $35. Installation with normal hand tools should be ½ hour.


Warehouse/workshop area at Kartboy

What do you say to someone who is frustrated about product pricing? Research and development takes around 2 to 3 months of testing as well as testing around 15 durometers (firmness measurement of bushings) to obtain the optimal firmness for each bushing. Aside from this time and expense, tooling costs run $10,000-$20,000 for each bushing. While the bushing you install today may only cost $X, when you factor in the R&D and tooling costs, you have a more expensive product.

How many bushings and short shifters have you sold (approximately)? Many thousands. I’m the #1 shifter and bushing manufacturer in US.

What warranty do you offer for your products? I stand behind my products 100% and each product is made in the USA.

What testing have you done for your products? We’ve done extensive Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on all our products and those of our competitors.


My many thanks to Tom for allowing me to visit his shop and submitting to this candid interview!

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[umscooby]

Awesome new thread bomber. Can't wait for more!

[Red04WRX]

I :love: my kartboy short shifter and bushings

I also have my kartboy sticker on my hard hat at work and people always ask what the bar code is for

Keep up the good work =)

[tom@kartboy]

Hey that me!!!
thanks Ron it was fun having you around the shop
stop by any time we'llput you to work wiring the 510/sr20det

Ps your big was of cash will be waiting for you LOL

Tom

[greg donovan]

Can you disclose any upcoming products or ideas of upcoming products (est. availability and pricing)? In 2-3 weeks, we will be coming out with a new rear shifter bushing. This will have fitment for every 5MT and 6MT Subaru. MSRP should be around $35. Installation with normal hand tools should be ½ hour.

this makes me very happy to hear!

[David Medina]

kartboy owns all...

[Patrick L]

Tom is the man!!
<---
Thx for all you help Tom.

[bezerk]

Originally Posted by Unabomber

Can you disclose any upcoming products or ideas of upcoming products (est. availability and pricing)? In 2-3 weeks, we will be coming out with a new rear shifter bushing. This will have fitment for every 5MT and 6MT Subaru. MSRP should be around $35. Installation with normal hand tools should be ½ hour.

This IS good news!

[Fish]

Very nice thread..

Tom is in fact the man..

in 2000 his shifter and bushings were the first two mods I did to my RS.

[powerslide23]

Great job Unabomber. Thumbs up to Tommy boy I mean Kartboy.

Lovin' my KB SS + bushing, it clicks in place every shift.

[fat angel]

thumbs on the thread, and kartboy rules all.

[Onederer]

what a cool idea.
four thumbs up!
and tom will be even more the man when i get down there and he learns me some of his welding tips.

[Seeing StaRS]

super cool thread idea Unabomber

[hystikal]

yeah, i agree that this is a cool thread

[mjzeigler]

Great thread idea.

I love my shifter and bushings.

[iguanamafia]

Finally Unabomber asks some questions and someone else gets to answer.

Cool thread, looking forward to the next ones.

Iggy

[InsaneAznKid]

We need more Very awesome thread! Gives us a inside on our vendors
Good Job Unabomber !
-Eric

[jagcars26]

Originally Posted by Fishguy

Very nice thread..

Tom is in fact the man..

in 2000 his shifter and bushings were the first two mods I did to my RS.

Yep me too,,and lets not forget the Atomic Fireballs

Great thread

Rudy

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

[Neek]

Originally Posted by tom

I currently work for Dupont Aerospace doing composite testing, proving that carbon fiber is not hard to damage.

***GASP******GASP******GASP******GASP******GASP*** ***GASP******GASP******GASP******GASP******GASP*** ***GASP******GASP******GASP******GASP***

[CalcVictim]

Tom is absolutelly awesome, i use his knuckleball. :-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-)v

[vile]

can you get an interview w/vivid?

hehe
j/k

damn these april fools joke, damn you all tooooo hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

[LOLSTi]

cool thread!

.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .....

[z_wrecker]

Awesome thread!!!!!

I want more


(i don't want my message to be 100 caracters )

[cboggess]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Kartboy Rocks!! Unabomber - you're pretty cool too!


MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LatentWagen]

unabomber its about time you made a contribution to the nasioc community. loafer... jeez.



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