New "32 Ford" Parts...Where does it end?

[Bruce Lancaster]

But...we in the norteast can just kick back and watch TV until October, putting our car money into a backpack as it gathers.
Then in October, nice folks from every corner of the entire world (and I think a few other planets, can't account otherwise for some I have met) will pack up every early Ford goody they have and bring them all to Hershey, where we can harvest them as easily as buying groceries in an extraordinarlily large supermarket...
In some ways we are spoiled!

[NealinCA]

Frank - Did you read my follow up post?

Originally Posted by NealinCA

I see that these reproduction parts do have a place in our hobby. There were many valid points made...like parts being made in the USA and sticking together as a hobby....I guess parts like the axles just aren't for me.

Neal

[Frank The Plumber]

Yes I did read your follow up post, and If I worded the post I made in a way that made you feel as if I were upset with you personally, that is not the case.
While many may argue the differences between a rat rodder, a hot rodder, a street rodder or a purist and argue over how parts were acquired in my neck of the woods there is something that is far worse to be, a spectator or an on looker, a guy with no car, or the guy who's car is never done. I've built a few cars in my day, some that were not so dependable, some that I wish stopped better, some that I wish were faster, some that I wish had AC, so when I built my latest one I put all of the previous problems behind and built a safe fast comfortable car, I encourage everyone to build a safe fast comfortable car, put any parts on it that you like and not to worry about what anyone thinks. The definition by popular belief is that a hot rod is any modified vehicle, so we are all hot rodders because we all modify our vehicles. Lets start giving the onlookers grief, they give plenty of it to us.

[hbleadsled]

Frank, I agree with you ,you said that so well for a lot of us. Harold central coast Ca.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by paul2748

I like your comment about "check book builders" The fact is, any original 32 part is for a "check book builder" as the price on original parts probably far exceed any repo part (unless you are very lucky in digging out a part no one knows what it is for or is in such bad condition that there is no market for it)

He He He, you must not follow Neal very closely. He's polished alot of "turds".

Tim

[dude]

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Thank God for repop parts. I don't have a 32, but think they are one of the best looking cars that Henry made. I was once told there are more 32's on the road now than Henry ever made. If that is true,there would be a lot less fellows enjoying the sport without repop parts. JMO

[rocnroll]

I just got a '32 "heavy" back from being dropped and still have less in it than their 'starting price'........just lucky, I guess.

[HOTRODPRIMER]

I don't like '32 Fords! HRP

[Frank The Plumber]

Originally Posted by HOTRODPRIMER

I don't like '32 Fords! HRP

How about a 29 or 30?, Do you like a 33 34, maybe a 5 window, Ive had about 6 65 66 mustangs, wont do another, wouldnt say I dont like em, just so many a guy would do, I think this is the reasoning behind the whole movement of wont put a part on my car if I see it on another, only so many things you can do to make it unique, I did see a really tight looking 29 or 30 on the hamb, copper colored, and I love John's"come go for a ride" I wake up in the middle of the night with that car in my head, the engine sound is so sweet. There are a lot of bench mark rods out there, but Its hard to put in variety, to me its even harder to do a pure resto, all you have is color treatment, yow.

[HOTRODPRIMER]

Originally Posted by Frank The Plumber

How about a 29 or 30?, Do you like a 33 34, maybe a 5 window, Ive had about 6 65 66 mustangs, wont do another, wouldnt say I dont like em, just so many a guy would do, I think this is the reasoning behind the whole movement of wont put a part on my car if I see it on another, only so many things you can do to make it unique, I did see a really tight looking 29 or 30 on the hamb, copper colored, and I love John's"come go for a ride" I wake up in the middle of the night with that car in my head, the engine sound is so sweet. There are a lot of bench mark rods out there, but Its hard to put in variety, to me its even harder to do a pure resto, all you have is color treatment, yow.

Frank,,I meant it as a joke,I should have used the face,,fact is I'm kinda obsessed with '32 Fords. HRP

[andyg]

Frank-no harshness intended....i'll say it up front.

I totally respect where your coming from. Someone that's been there and done that and has moved on. There's not a thing in the world wrong with that. I'm 36 years old and love to hear the older than me guys and girls talk about what they started out building in their younger days. I think my car started out as a curiousity to find out what an early car was like...the sounds, smells, looks, and everything else about living with an early car. It always seems that when I here an older than me person talking about their early days of working on an old car they are smiling. They restored, modified, made fit, and made due with whatever they had available. And although very little or no reproduction parts were available, there were quite a few nice original parts to be found. Some feel like this "skill" as a car guy enabled them to go to the junk yard find, make, or modify whatever they needed to get / keep the car on the road or make it better / faster than the next guy. To them the "skill" has been lost and thus the "check book" comments.

Fast forward to today.....I can relate to both sides of that story. I love to fabricate, change, make better the things on my car. It's nice that we have aftermarket parts that we can do that to as a lot of nice original pieces have been modified in the past 80+ years and far fewer still exist than "back in the day". That's why many on here get upset that someone has modified yet another original car or part.

When my 4 banger pooped out on me and I decided I would put in a v8 flathead to keep it on the road until I could get my "B" motor fixed, I searched and found some mint 1932 V8 motor mounts....skipping over all the ones that had notches in them....wondering why anyone would do that. As I bolted them up to my 39K original mile 1939 flattie (pulled out by someone else that wanted a sbc) I realized that the belt would not clear the lower leg gusset without being notched. Imagine my horror and new problem...do I notch these or not. Well after posting a number of adds on the old ford barn and searching for several months on the internet and swapmeets for some that were already nothched i gave up. After I got NO responses from anyone that wanted to sell me already modified motor mounts, I finally bought a 1936 LB 21 stud flathead so I wouldn't have to notch my nice origianl motor mounts.

I love hotrods and originals. I just don't like to modify nice original parts. If I personally need a modified original part then that's what I look for. I'm not always successfull in that search but I will at least try. I love and respect all the street rodders out there and repect the evolution that they have been through as people, as you yourself talked about. I love the traditional hotrodders...many are in the next stage of the evolution and coming back to what they had as kids. Some are like me and I personally found that a few years ago I could not afford the "aftermarket" parts and was FORCED to find orginal parts instead. I wanted an old car that bad. Now times have changed again and original parts are higher than aftermarket parts a lot of times. And I love the purist that preserve the history of the automakers and preserve the original cars and parts for later generations to see.

I expect that as I collect more nice original 32 parts such as fenders, etc, I will eventually have what I need to restore my car back to original condition if I chose to do that. But until I have those good fenders, I like it fenderless...a personal dedication to those who raced them before WWII.

I guess what I'm saying is this. Personally I love the streetrodders just like I love the tradional rodders just like I love the purists. There's everything right about searching, scrounging, sniffing out that part that you need. But there's nothing wrong with writing a check for it either when you need to "get on with it". I love the hunt but some don't. I'm not better than them or they better than me. Thank goodness people want to build cars themselves and thank goodness people want to sell cars finished.

Let's enjoy this hobby and have some understanding, each to the other, that we can all enjoy this in each our own way...and not be-little anyone else for having a little different opinion than ours.

"can't we all just get along?"....now someone sell me those nice parts you've got stashed....I know you got'um!!!

[Bruce Lancaster]

I think currently it would be nearly impossible to build a '32 from parts or from a very incomplete car without repro stuff in just one lifetime...if you remove money as the obstacle, you still have time as an unbeatable problem. Just going to Hershey with a backpack full of hundred-dollar bills will no longer do the job...there just aren't enough bits floating around anymore. Most of the supply has been assembled onto cars or is being hoarded for a planned car...pickings are getting slim. If I started trying to gather what is needed now, I think my grandchildren would have to do the actual assembly.
The golden age was perhaps the early 1970's, when car fleamarkets started proliferating and both streetrodding and V-8 restoring were getting into high gear...I could find ANYTHING for a '32 in the next few swapmeets, but, alas, I was a starving student and could buy only an occasional goody.
I got into '32's in the early '60's...I was about 14. In those days, there were VERY few car swapmeets, restorers were not into '32's, and traditional rodding had been buried by go-karts, muscle cars, and super-stockers. Finding anything was difficult, but since I couldn't afford anything...
Since those 1970 days, many thousands of '32's have been built, sopping up most of the parts surplus. The best parts sources remaining are streetrodders taking a different direction and stripping a restored car...

[Frank The Plumber]

I never really knew there was all this classification stuff, I wanted AC in my ride cause I stink when I sweat, I wanted a reliable power plant so I put in a 351w, I want to stop so I put on 4 wheel discs, my knees are shot so I put in a matic, I built a chassis about 20 years ago, it bump steered horribly, I wanted to chase vettes and the little punks in their cobras and tuners, I want to run the time trials at good guys events, so I purchased a professionally engineered chassis, a lot of guys on the HAMB fabricate these kind of products and sell them, ..well I bought one, I kept the outside of my truck very stock including rims, I like billet in certain applications, if a part is well engineered it will work better than my cobblings, I've been stranded on the side of the road cause I cobbled some thing together. I spent a good 3 plus years on the old girl and did every thing in my 2 car garage just me and once in a while the wife.
One of the hardest things to learn is to respect another mans vision, we all see the world different, and that is a good thing, we all enjoy a beer different, taste it different, and we all enjoy a car different too. You may not respect the fact that I bought an assembly for my brake set up, but you really should respect the fact the the first brake set up that I cobbled together ended up in the dumpster and I bought the billet assembly, you should appreciate my choice even more as you are sitting in front of me in your bumper less hot rod. By knowing my limits and building a safe product I'm doing us all a favor. I say it again use what makes your car safe, fabricate within your range of knowledge, if you can't find solid reliable safe original parts, buy good high quality, engineered components from a reputable source.

[Payne]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster

I think currently it would be nearly impossible to build a '32 from parts or from a very incomplete car without repro stuff in just one lifetime...The golden age was perhaps the early 1970's, when car fleamarkets started proliferating and both streetrodding and V-8 restoring were getting into high gear...

I agree with both it being nearly impossible to build a '32 without repo parts, and the golden age being in the early 70's, but I was wondering if it's harder now to build a '32 out of all original parts after having of nearly 40 years of reproduction parts being introduced into the market?

[Uncle Bob]

I would partially agree that it would/has become more difficult to find origianal parts over time because of popularity. The "recent" surge in nostalgia rods has tightened that market even more. That being said, a lot of those kinds of parts have been hidden away by EV8'ers over all these years. A lot of those guys are getting up there in years. Just as we've seen some of their cars creep out of the hiding (or not so hidden) spots the last few years, I suspect we'll see a lot more in the next decade or so. I've seen a lot of "collections" of both vintage and muscle car stuff going up for auction recently. Gotta believe there are stashes of '32 gold in similar deals. In fact I know of one guy up our way that has a large basement stuffed with '32 parts he hasn't been willing to part with for a long, long time (unless it's happened in the last couple years that escaped my hearing of it).

[WHITEY]

I'm really looking forward to October...

[Harrison]

I love these reproduction parts. Without them, I wouldn't have my "32" RPU.

Those same repro parts really make me appreciate the original parts too though.

JH

[TonyM]

I'll have an easier time writing a check to Brookville or Wescott than buying the real 1932 3W.



TM.

[Ray Parson]

repo parts are cool just wish we could buy one that would FIT .without useing a 5 pound hamer but i gess thats what makes it fun?

[David Conwill]

Originally Posted by JM 35 Sedan

I am personally glad to see any good quality reproduction parts being made for these old Fords and God Bless any of the folks out there who are making these parts in America. When I learn of a new part that's being manufactured for one of my cars, it makes me extremely happy and I don't care if it reduces the value of existing stock parts that some folks are hoarding and/or are asking ridicules prices for. Let the good times roll and keep 'em flat! JMO, J.M.

Amen to that!

-David