Vintage tin parts still available at the dealership???

So the late-middle-aged couple that lives a couple doors down from me got this cherry 64 1/2 mustang coupe. The husband is a bit of an old hot-rodder, so we chat and he swings by the garage every so often. Not great friends, but friends...

10:30 this morning, he catches me pulling out of the driveway, and asks me which direction I'm going. Turns out he needs a ride up to the Ford dealership to pick up his car.... Sure, hop in, I'll take you there.

We talk on the way up there, and he tells me about the 64. Turns out it was the 2nd Mustang in the whole state. He bought it brand new for his wife... Yadda, yadda... Cool story... Then he tells me we are going to pick up the 64 mustang because the dealer put a water pump on it and tuned it up.

WTF??? Do they still sell parts for a 64 at the dealership???
I walk inside with him, just to make sure the car is really ready to go,,, you know, so he dont have to call for a ride home if there was a problem, and he starts chatting with an old white haired mechanic. I asked the mechanic, and he said they had to order some of the parts from outside sources, but infact yes... There were still a couple parts and pieces from Ford Motorcraft, right off the shelf, that go on the mustang... Wow! I never would have thought it...

so it got me thinking... And wondering...
What other genuine OEM parts can you still order right from the dealers parts catalog that fit other vintage tin models?

Now I realize the line between OEM, NOS, Reproduction, etc, etc can get blurry when trying to answer this particular question... But still an honest question... What parts are you aware of, or have heard of being available at the dealership to fit vintage automobiles?

 

I always check dealer first. 1966 PU taillights were available at 1/2 the price of repros.

 

i work on a lot of old stuff the chevy dealer i work at- 70 ls6 chevlle, 73 rs camaro and a hand full of old vetts

 

Before we left SoCal I worked in the parts department of a large Ford dealership. Every 60 days the computer spit out a list of parts that had not sold in that time. We packed 'em up and sent them back to Ford for credit. We didn't keep any parts in the inventory that didn't move.

On those rare occasions we didn't have something, we would call any of the other Ford dealers in town, and if none of them had it, we could get it from the distributor in L.A. overnight.

So, at that one dealership anyway, there were no old parts.

 

in 1999 I got two new gm fenders for my 64 chevy truck,,according to the computer at the time,,there was only 50 left in the U.S.SO some parts are available,,if you look,,,and they were just a little higher priced than jap fenders,,,

 

Sort of OT from this but not completely. I worked at a Nissan dealer in the early 90's. This particular dealer was once a British Leyland dealer. When they went out of that business he still had a storeroom full of parts. The owner was a bit of an odd bird. I'd go in there and check out all the old water pumps, carbs this and that all the time.

I would try and get him to sell me the whole room of parts but he always had some excuse for keeping them around. He never sold any of the parts. Nobody (or very few people) even knew he still had them. (NOS dealership signs also) because he was always too cheap to replace the old ones.

When Oldsmobile folded shop the local Olds dealer bought out the Nissan dealership (and all the old B.L. parts.) The service manager knew I could eBay and asked me to help set up an account to sell these parts. I did but they never did anything with them. As far as I know, they are all still sitting there on shelves.

 

it still amazes me what is available for 67-72 ford pickups thru the dealer parts dept.

 

My Dad retired from Ford's National Parts Warehouse in Livonia, Michigan. It's was/is chalk full of old Ford parts. The dealers would place their order for a part they didn't carry in stock and Dad would send it out.

 

I've tried my local Ford dealership for parts for my 55 Fairlane and I was told they no longer list anything older than ten years. I get most of my stuff from Car Quest or Napa.

 

When I worked that the Ford dealership down here, there was apparently a guy who had a bone stock '39 Ford Sedan who would bring it in when it needed service. Oil changes, tune ups, brakes, whatever. I only worked there for about 8 months and I never saw the car, but they all swore it was true. Don't know where they got parts for it though, I'm sure not through FoMoCo.

 

Kanter is right down the road from me with their numerous warehouses, they seem to have ******ed up everything round these parts I hear..

 

Not saying that I doubt you... Prhapse it was just the dealer you went to, but my Dad bought a new Lincoln in 1999. When the original warranty expired, Ford sold him an extended warranty for an additional 6 years.

Seems kinda odd that Ford would offer to warranty a car over an 11 year span when they stop selling parts for them at 10 years.

 

I think most OEMs work on "demand history" when it comes to stocking parts. I was a Ford parts mgr in the 70s & early 80s in MI & used to advertize "original resto parts" in the papers. Amazing the responses I'd get! While many were no longer available, many small or high demand driveline parts were. I recollect one guy was resto'ing a '39 Deluxe, musta been about 1979. I was his last resort, said he needed a couple of little brake parts. Ford still had 'em. Made his day! In my early "partsguy" daze I'd pick up parts for the dealer at the Ford National Parts Dist Center over in Plymouth Michigan. They were the depot for slow moving & older items, centrally warehoused due to low demand. I used to wander thru the aisles when they'd let me, I was amazed to see what kind of stuff Henry's boyz still stocked! Bottom line - yeah, check with the dealer, you just might find what you're looking for, and it's not always NOS, but NS (New Stock).

 

About 15 years ago I had a gentleman call me (I was in sales & marketing) and offer me a job. He had developed a software and wanted to sell it to new car dealerships that carried parts. This software could be accessed by any.........say Ford dealer in the USofA and carried part numbers of all the part numbers any dealer had. I had a small business on the side selling NOS parts for Ford Mustangs............although I didn't take the job I had access to get into this software, and on numerous acc***ions I would find parts for people, like NOS Mustang GT fog lamp switches (made 100% profit margin), found a 71 Mach 1 complete grill up in Washington (made 50% profit marginand) and a lot of other parts including complete NOS front sheet metal for my 66GT along with NOS quarters.
I would think if you knew someone in the parts department at any new car dealer, as long as you new the part number you could have them access the nation wide network of dealers or main storage facility...................

 

Are you sure you're not talking about ON Plymouth Rd at the corner of Middlebelt in Livonia? That's where my Dad worked for 22 years.

 

That's the trick right there - if you have a part number, the guy at the parts desk can look it up. If you just walk in and ask for a door handle for a '57 Fairlane he probably won't be able to help.

 

I used to work in Cary NC and one time I was given a truckload of Ford parts as s**** metal by the dealer once. After looking at the parts, I realized that most of them were good and just for older cars so I sold many of them on ebay.

 

in the 80's i worked for a ford rebuild. facility and we supplied all the local dealers with anything that could be rebuilt. everything from motors to smog pumps. i was shipping 128 motors a day at the time.

 

youd be very surprised at what they have laying on the shelves at some old dealerships.

 

Sure is. I wanted some FE parts. Figured I'd try the local Ford parts dept. I tried to wait it out so I got an older guy, but no luck got some kid. He tried to tell me they didn't carry anything that old. I told him I had the parts number, the older guy overheard, showed the kid how to enter it, called up the part #, and was delivered to the dealer in a couple days.

 

you are correct - I forgot my CRS meds this a.m... Used to go from the Det Parts Depot on glendale & telegraph (I think), over to NPD every weekday for several years in the early 70s. haven't been over that-a-way in a few years.

 

When I lived in Virginia the local Ford dealer had CarQuest oil filters and CV shafts on the shelves. I highly doubt that they had any parts for "older" cars in stock.

 

You're right. Some parts folks do it for a paycheck, but some enjoy it too. I used to like looking up old parts, considered it a challenge. And to see the face of a guy you're able to say "yes, I can get that" for his project, was priceless. Finding the right parts person can be a challenge too. Having been out from behind the parts counter for over 25 years now, I still have a set of Ford parts books in the garage - they've come in very handy.

 

As far back as the late eighties I could still get the"rams horn" exhaust
manifolds for my 63 C700 Ford with a 312 Y-block from the dealer.
Dragging around 11 tons would light them up cherry red. Miss that truck...

 

I bought a genuine GM turn signal switch for my '63 Impala a few years ago. Went in expecting to be laughed out the door but, the old guy behind the counter said, "let me see what I can do for you." In about 15 minutes he had located one in inventory at a dealer in Ga. and it was on it's way. I don't remember just what I had to give for it but I think it was about $16 total! He said I had just bought the last one in the computer but, I got the feeling there was more to it than just the computer. A good parts man can find anything.

 

There is a lot of stuff out there, but you have to find a good counterman.
I went into a Ford dealer 2 years ago and went up to the old guy. Asked for the cam thrust plate for a 289. He couldn't find it, and said Ford didn't carry anything that old. Um, they built the 302 (same part, I checked) up through the 90's and they sold a few of them over the years... total *** clown.
Went to the local Mustang restoration place, and he gave me one.
In my limited experience, Ford counter guys are bigger fart-sniffers than Snap-on dealers....

 

Years back I was in the BOP dealership and there was a guy in there ordering shocks for Buick muscle cars. He was saying the Buick guys didnt realize the correct shocks for their restoration was still available over the counter and he just bought them at the dealership, marked them up quite a bit and sold them as the correct oe shocks for restoration. Apparently he was selling quite a few based upon what he was buying that day.

 

Yesterday I was able to buy all the points, condenser, new cap and rotor for my flathead....the '42-44 crab-cap style parts. They were on the shelf at the NAPA store I work at...

 

When I worked at M***ey Cadillac in Dallas, we got "restructured". You should have seen the stuff being pulled out of the storage areas. It had been in business since the early 40s. We even had a '40 Lasalle conv. on the showroom floor. Finally the corporate ****s decided we were there to make money and money only. They threw everything away and sold the lasalle. People were going home with 50s and 60s caddy grilles and fenders guages and stuff it was insane. I took home '59, '60, and '61 upholstery selection books and made a pretty penny on those.

oh yeah this was only about 10 years ago.

 

Ford went away from the old stock number system and call it "engineering numbers" now. ya gotta get the right guy at the counter if you want it looked up...
VW/Porsche/Audi maintain parts availability for decades. Mercedes-Benz not only keeps old stuff in production, they actually keep improving the original design! getting O/T but domestic makers don't even bother anymore, they just sell the dies/molds to the Chinese and then sell you their cheap repop **** in a new box. lots of GM dealers use Year One as well as Ford using Dennis Carpenter et al for their obsolete stuff. the last time i got lucky was getting a set of U-joint retainers for my Falcon at the local Ford dealer in 1985!