rogerkeith

Nothing to report I'm afraid. Everything has gone silent and the informant no longer responds to my emails. Just some bum stringing us along.

I have heard rumors and I MEAN rumours that the Zeintop moulds have been located and production of the tops has commenced. I am trying to verify the information and will post again once I have something positive.

I really don't think there is any comparison between the Zeintop and the OEM part from Porsche. If you are just looking for basic protection from the weather, then perhaps the OEM is the way to go. If you are looking for style and almost a complete transformation of the look of your car, then the Zeintop certainly delivers. It is all a matter of taste. Production costs of anything in fibreglass are generally high in view of the vast amount of manual labour involved. It is very much a question of efficiencies and good business practices. In the case of Zeintec, there is little doubt these two essentials have been lacking and Christoph Zeinecker has admitted as much. I have said all along that such an enterprise would be very difficult to run successfully on a "stand alone" basis and would be be better combined with an existing concern such as an auto crash repair business or others experienced in working with GRP.. I have confidence that someone with the expertise, will see the potential of the Zeintop, acquire the moulds and begin production again.

Do not confuse Christoph Zeinecker with Andreas Zeinecke. The latter actually INVENTED the hard top design and has NOTHING TO DO with Zeintec. The two parties are members of the same family and that is a far as it goes! Andreas has his own business, "Z-Art" and currently works from Switzerland. He is to relocate and set up in Canada with a business partner. He MAY decide to manufacture the Boxster tops later on in conjunction with all his other quality products but this will be a completely separate to the Zeintec exercise. Andreas has run a successful and reliable business for many years and unfortunately, there are some who are linking him to the Zeintec debacle. This is WRONG and unfair in every regard and from my point of view, Andreas's reputation is as sound as it ever was and he should NOT be penalised in any way for what has happened to Zeintec. If Andreas decides to build the tops, they could possibly be made from aluminium which if course will make them much lighter and possibly cheaper but I wouldn't expect anything in the near future.

To the best of my knowledge, the Spin Lock Insert procedure is identical on both the 986 and 987. You do NOT have to remove the soft top but it IS a difficult and time consuming exercise which can be quite frustrating! I am assuming you do have the Porsche part inserts and the securing bolts that go with them. These are essential. If you could post a photo of the insert wells which should be covered with a plastic "mushroom" shaped plug, I will have a better idea of the task at hand. We can move from there.

Just a word to the wise! Before you launch into painting the top, have a GOOD look at the left hand side of the HATCH. Run your hand down the left and centre from below the rear window to the bottom. You MAY be able to feel some "highs and lows" here. A good spray painter or panel beater will certainly pick it up IF there are some ripples/waves in this area. If there are, make absolutely sure you have them flattened out BEFORE you paint because the imperfections become quite pronounced once painted. There were some quality control issues with the more recent tops which were not picked up until AFTER they had left the factory and I brought it to Zeintec's attention. Photo is attached.

What is the problem with the fitting? Perhaps I can help you. I fitted one earlier this year (probably the LAST one shipped to a customer) and I didn't have too many problems at all.

Unfortunately, a top for a 987 will NOT fit a 986, so please don't even try.

I very much doubt Christoph Zeinecker will be contactable by anyone other than his bankers, company liquidator and lawyers! He has recently been telling acquaintances that he has lost everything, including his house. He and the company owe money everywhere and Christoph has also signed personal guarantees for loans made to the company. A personal liability figure of 200,000 Rand has been mentioned. There is every likelihood this figure is understated! I hope he has the foresight to tell us the name of the company liquidator when he next (as promised) posts information on the Zeintec website. We will then be able to contact him and register our claims. I'm afraid I have no thoughts whatsoever that any of the unsecured creditors, trade or ourselves, will get anything out of this but it costs nothing to register a claim. The matter of possible fraud by Christoph is being followed up by the South African police at Diep River and we are awaiting the results of their enquiries. They have asked that any people who have paid for goods but not received FAX them on + 27 21715 5858 with full details, providing PARTICULAR evidence of emails which gave excuses as to WHY your items ordered, had not been despatched. I will update as soon as information comes to hand.

Christoph Zeinecker, the sole director of Zeintec, has posted a message on the Zeintec Website. If you click on "products" you will see that he is trying to sell his own Porsche. The car is financed and I don't think any of the sale proceeds will come our way!

Right. 50 tops a year at $5K apiece is not a tremendous amount of money for a small business. You'd have to sell a few thousand of them at $2500 apiece to probably make a significant dent. In terms of selling them, that is what a good retailer does - instill trust into the relationship. People like to order from a good, reliable retailer because the experience is repeatable with no headaches and problems most of the time. We deal with 250+ vendors, some multi-million dollar companies, but also many who are little guys who have created some neat products in their garage. There really are no issues like this one with Zeintec... -Wayne The feedback I was getting at my "launch"of the Zeintop during March this year was that it was very fairly priced. I had it installed on my own Boxster show car and presented it at the "Adelaide Clipsal 500" 4 day motor racing carnival in South Australia which was attended by 272,000 patrons. The site cost me a fortune! I am not going to go into the nuts and bolts here of how I came up with the figure but I had it for sale at AUD$4950 (approx US$4200 at the time). This pricing was based on my importing 6 tops by sea mail. I had virtually sold the 6 tops I had on order following this promotion but we all know I never received them. I had to provide all the boxes and packaging etc for on-forwarding which doesn't come cheaply but I was quite satisfied at the return I was getting at the end of the day. The boxes for these things measure 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres by 500 centimetres and the whole kit and caboodle weighs around 55 kilos! The boxes alone were costing me US$35 each plus the packaging. Manufacturing costs are critical in order to produce a product in GRP which can be sold by a reseller at a reasonable price and still return a fair margin. Finally, I can tell you that the tops, hardware and assembly instructions do have their shortcomings which I was addressing with Zeintec on a progressive basis. I was somewhat surprised at some of these, considering they had been in production for 4 years!

Once a liquidator had been appointed and he assesses just what the company owes and owns, he will probably hold an auction for all items which are to be sold. The moulds and plugs are probably the most valuable assets. However, to transport them would be a very risky exercise as any breakages or cracks would render them useless. To have them crated and sent half way around the world would be a very courageous undertaking! The manufacture of tops from these moulds is highly specialised work and it is 99% manual labour. I feel sure that is why Christoph Zeinecker, the director, left Germany and set up in South Africa where labour costs are much lower. If it was profitable to make them in Europe I'm sure he would have stayed there. I am guessing but I would say that there are at least 4 moulds required for each top and possibly more (two outer and two inner for the main top and the hatch). The hard part is putting them all together! The best idea would have a local company, say a successful auto crash shop with GRP experience take it on and run it alongside their current business on a "made to order" basis. I know for a fact that Zeintec shipped out 37 tops in the last half of 2009 and if they had made all they should have, the total would have probably reached 50. There were NONE shipped in 2010. This is hardly enough to keep the business running as a "stand alone"enterprise. It will be interesting to see just what does happen to the moulds but any LOCAL entrepreneur is going to have a hell of a job convincing the likes of us, that we can confidently order and SEND MONEY for these, given our experiences!! His best chance is to supply a few to distributors throughout the world and let THEM sell them, omitting ANY reference to the African continent in marketing strategies! The damage has been done.

Zeintec is to go into voluntary liquidation according to an undertaking made in April by the Director, Christoph Zeinecker. The company has little or no assets and owes money to many creditors both secured and unsecured. I am afraid we have no reason to think we will ever recover the money we paid to the company for Zeintops and other products. For more information please contact me on boxstatops@adam.com.au

I'm afraid there IS no other supplier. The tops were made exclusively by Zeintec in South Africa. If you are one of the many who have paid for tops and not received them, please contact me on boxstatops@adam.com.au if you haven't already done so. I am the Australasian distributor and I have legal action underway to attempt recovery of money.

You really do surprise me with that one as all emails directly to the company were being returned as "Undeliverable..unroutable"as early as April 15. However, it is a mystery as to what happens to emails sent via the Website as I have sent quite a number. If YOU were one of those who ordered and paid for any product or you know someone who did, please get in touch with me at boxstatops@adam.com.au giving me the details. The same goes for ANYBODY out there in a similar position. If you paid by credit card you may have a chance. I can tell you that I have reports that there ARE people at the premises but just what they are up to, I don't know. I am in touch with a lawyer and we are working out the best way to deal with this situation. If it is any consolation, I have $20,000 worth of outstanding orders which I have paid for, as the Australasian distributor.......!!