I am now back from my visit to China. I had a very interesting time touring showrooms and factories. To cut a very long story short, in my opinion, the quality of the bumpers I saw was not up to an acceptable standard. All the problems I found can be fixed, but it is going to take time.
As bumpers that are purely for show, they are fine. I don't think they will stand up to much punishment though. I have asked for some changes to be made, mainly thicker material and strengthening plates in certain places. The company are going to do some drawings and send them to us. Once they are approved they will make a sample, once that is approved they will make a batch.
We are going to continue along this path but we are also going to be looking into getting them made elsewhere where we would have a bit more control of the whole process.
So in summary the China thing is off for the foreseeable future - sorry. On a more positive note I can still arrange the group buy from Freeways at about 10% below list price. Depending on the size of the order I can hire a truck to go there and collect the goods to keep the delivery charges down.
Feel free to post or PM me any questions.
Cheers
Ian