Appbiz takes on a new life!

[JWest]

Appbiz products are alive and well!

TLDR: JWest Engineering purchased Appbiz and are making all the parts!

Long version:
Late last year, there was a “life event” with Bob, the founder of Appbiz. Bob is well-known as a good guy in the Porsche community, always willing to share knowledge and create new, obscure products.

I had discussed retirement with Bob a couple years ago, and when life tossed him a curveball it pretty much forced his hand. Luckily, I was in a position to rescue Appbiz, made a purchase agreement, and moved all inventory, parts, and tools from California to Texas.

This required me to obtain an entire new facility, since it doubled the size of JWest. It has taken a few months to get everything situated, hire and train new employees, and verify that production methods are fully in place.

Unfortunately, while Bob was incapacitated an unscrupulous newcomer to the Porsche market tried to kill Appbiz by sending notes to the dealers saying Appbiz was shut down and his company had taken the balance of the inventory. This was completely untrue, but started the rumor mill. A lot of us are enthusiasts first and love the Porsche community, but it seems not everyone in our industry is trustworthy. Be careful who you buy from!

We are merging the product line into JWest Engineering as “Appbiz Products” by JWest. This preserves the legacy of what Bob built but integrates it with another name you know and trust.

We intend to supply almost every part Appbiz previously produced. RS door panels, OE door panels, RS and OE carpet, Engine Sound Pads, leather straps, and many other, sometimes random, 911, 914, 356, and even 944 parts. There are quite a few products that were never well advertised, so be on the lookout for what appear to be new offerings. We also have new variations of existing products and altogether new items in this space that we are coming out with.

Bob’s philosophy was to have parts on the shelf and ready to ship. He started the business due to a painfully long wait for 911 door panels that turned out to be of such low quality that he would not use them. We plan to maintain this idea, which means we are more about ready-made interior products for straight-forward installation, as opposed to “custom fitted interiors”.

Now, being lovers of outlaws and customs, we can’t help but to offer custom variations and sometimes even one-off materials or designs, but we are focused on delivering fully-developed and proven products.

The products on Pelican will now be under JWest branding:
https://www.pelicanparts.com/byb-jwest
Only a few are in the catalog so far, the catalog managers at Pelican are working hard to add more products as I make them available.

[Ok here we go]

Good on you for keeping Bob and his dream going 👍

[shoooo32]

Awesome news for the DIY community!

[MikeD930]

Thanks for letting us know that you bought/revived Appbiz. I bought and installed their RSR door panel kit (leather version) 5-10 years ago. I'll be looking into the full carpet kit in the future.

[Mark Salvetti]

James, that's great news. Congratulations on the expansion of your business.

Mark

[mepstein]

Congrats. I’m happy it went to someone we all know and trust.

[jac1976]

For recent visitors to your site, we figured it out before you posted! Happy that Appbiz landed in such great hands!

[Racerbvd]

Congratulations and thank you for stepping up.
I looked for the RSA rear seat delete but didn’t see it on the bird board, is that something that you will be offering and at what cost?

[mikedsilva]

Did Appbiz also supply the silicon valve cover gaskets to our host? Or am I confusing them with someone else?

[MBAtarga]

Congrats on taking over the product line and wishing you success!

[Ryan_Cunningham]

Excellent news. Congratulations.

[Johnr352]

Great news. Where can I best learn more about the carpet kit options?

[JWest]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

Congratulations and thank you for stepping up.
I looked for the RSA rear seat delete but didn’t see it on the bird board, is that something that you will be offering and at what cost?

Yes, the rear seat delete box with doors (as pictured above) is available. Parts are slowly making their way into Pelican's catalog, but there is a lag between my website and theirs.

Price is ~$900 vinyl/carpet and ~$600 bare for you to upholster yourself.

[JWest]

Originally Posted by mikedsilva

Did Appbiz also supply the silicon valve cover gaskets to our host? Or am I confusing them with someone else?

Yes, the silicone valve cover gaskets are ours and they are available. I have been using these myself for a while before I bought the company (like a shaver). They really can be reused many times before replacement as long as you never over-torque.

[JWest]

Originally Posted by Johnr352

Great news. Where can I best learn more about the carpet kit options?

You can order samples from our website, jwestengineering.com.

These will probably take a while to get all variations onto Pelican's website. Since their system does not do drop-down options for products, they have to be added as individual items.

In general we have OE style and RS style (rear seat delete) variations for all air-cooled 911:

Perlon Felt:
Charcoal (match to trunk carpet)
Black

Plush (a short pile carpet that is similar to what you would find in new Porsches):
Black
Charcoal
Navy Blue
Tan
Burgundy
Brown

Sliverknit (the ultra-plush original carpet used in '74 and later cars - stuffed animal fur softness):
Black
Cashmere

All carpets are made right here in US, so if you bodge up a piece during the install (911 carpet is not easy), we can help you out without needing a whole new set.

We are also adding layout diagrams and numbering to the sets for less confusing installation.

[tk32]

This is great news. Any opportunity for square weave carpet now or in the future?

[JWest]

Originally Posted by tk32

This is great news. Any opportunity for square weave carpet now or in the future?

Most likely not. 911 carpet is quite challenging for the novice to install compared to a lot of cars. Lots of pieces and lots of compound curves. Square weave ups the level of difficulty considerably. You should be impressed when you see a nice install of it because it takes skill.

Now, there would be an option for me to pre-form the parts in-house to make this a viable product. However we are up to our eyeballs just getting back to the baseline of what Bob provided, so I should not even think about advanced projects like that yet. But I do love a challenge!

[Black 993]

Congrats James, great news.

[Joesmallwood]

This is awesome!!

[917_Langheck]

Originally Posted by tk32

This is great news. Any opportunity for square weave carpet now or in the future?

Second on the square weave interest.