Quote:
Originally Posted by 1942deluxe
Karl, thanks for the update. Something has been on my mind the last several months. Would it be possible for our vendors to have a section to let us know of the parts they don't plan to reproduce once the stock is exhausted? I'll give an example. Years ago, I was at Hershey and visiting with one of Dennis's guys. They made the rear fender boots for the 42-48 station wagons and had somewhere around 50 sets left. He said they had no plans to retool to make anymore as they felt the demand had been met and it would have been cost prohibitive for what need was left. It would be nice to have someone from Drake, Carpenter, Vintique , and Snyders that could give that type of information without getting flamed every time they posted. At this point we don't know if out of stock means just that or discontinued. Just a thought....
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Its a great idea... just will not work.
The first problem is human nature. We run out of something and for some reason we are not making efforts to get it back into stock immediately. How many calls for the product are we getting??? Whats the effort to make this again??? Whats the potential return on investment??? What's the fun factor??? (Most vendors are in the business both for the love of the cars and to make a living, there is simply not enough profit to not love doing it). Do we abandon this part# or wait until there is enough demand to justify the investment???
The second problem is the GIGO factor (Garbage in... Garbage out). Chad at Vintique has had issues with some of his USA made stuff where his Dad was buddies with a machine shop owner who passed and the next generation does not have the personal connection and is slammed with high paying work... but Chad has not admitted that they have given him a firm "NO!". Getting commitments from Taiwan suppliers is also problematic, especially as business is often done in a person to person handshake business so when someone retires the relationship needs to be rebuilt.
The third issue is how responsive a company cares to be. Carpenter will generally drop a part number when they no longer intend to make another run, but will not commit themselves to say actually when they expect to make an active number again. Drake will tell you something, which might (by accident?) actually resemble what they are going to do (not going to do it... available again next week, coming in next month... not here two years later, in stock in two weeks... amazingly it is, etc). Chad Looney (Vintique) dodges the questions (and no longer even publishes his wholesale prices). Don Snyder is up front with intent and challenges (but carries a lot of stuff made by small garage based manufacturers he has no control over).
As to the 1942-48 station wagon rock guards, there was a post here on Fordbarn a while back of someone 3D printing them.