MTFCA Forum

So, what's up with Birdhaven? I see the Fun Projects website is down...only the Texas T site appears to be up and it doesn't list FP parts nor has it been updated for a long time. I know they had some supply issues and some parts were not available.... have things gotten worse? Is a telephone call the only way to find out what parts they do have? When they bought FP and Texas T's they picked up a bunch of popular part lines, some of which are getting scarce.

Yes, give them a call. I’ve made a few purchases from them recently and got everything that I needed including a modern driveshaft set up. I sent them my roller bearing housing and they sent it back completely redone and some tootsie rolls to boot!

Tbird wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 04, 2021 5:14 pm

.... and some tootsie rolls to boot!

In my part of the world 'tootsie' can mean a couple of things:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... sh/tootsie

So my eyebrows were certainly raised when you said said you got 'some tootsie rolls to boot' from a Model T parts supplier

In using the double-duck I came across:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RTkExKobH4
https://tootsie.com/

I assume what you got was the latter (?), but please enlighten me if I'm wrong, very intrigued!

Luke....
The Tootsie roll candy

It would be nice if Birdhaven would produce a pdf of what they have to sell...I wish I'd saved a copy of the old FP site so I'd know what they used to have.

Birdhaven’s 120 page catalog has all the product lines, call to get one.

Oldav8tor wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 04, 2021 6:27 pm

It would be nice if Birdhaven would produce a pdf of what they have to sell...I wish I'd saved a copy of the old FP site so I'd know what they used to have.

Tim,

You can probably access some of the site via archive.org (https://web.archive.org/web/20130601000 ... ojects.com) - for example: https://web.archive.org/web/20130303205 ... jects.com/

Almost certainly it won't all be there, but you can try different months/years of archives to try and find what you want...

Thanks Dan, I'll give them a call. Thanks also to Luke...I didn't know that resource existed!

They were at Chickasha....had a table in the north building.

Everybody should jump in the antique car parts supply and restoration business.

It is an incredibly easy way to make a huge fortune, provide no end of free tech support - which is always fun - maintain up to date web sites, provide instant service 24/7/365 including Holidays and Sundays, and never ever not answer the phone instantly because you have something that really needs to be in the mail tomorrow, it is 11 pm and you have to work your real job tomorrow or you see who it is calling or emailing again and you just really don't care about how cute Sarge and Buster were down at the beach today.

Stan is right, the antique car restoration supply business is a lot of hard work and very little financial rewards. It is a labor of love that has little to none rewards at times and Bill and company is doing a fantastic job. Be nice to them and to the rest of the supply companies that are out to help you get you baby to perfection.
Just my thought. Frank

Well there goes my retirement dream of making lots of $$$$.

The reality is that there are fewer and fewer people in the restoration/manufacturing/supplier business in any of the old car hobby areas. Young people are not interested in working that hard for the money they can make, it is harder and harder to find a place to have a shop that doesn't have five thousand government regulations and it is pretty much impossible to find anybody as an employee if you do manage to do all that.

It is seen by young people as a dying business and why would they want to get into that.

The biggest reason, tho, I think is that people today live in the Amazon world where they expect instant gratification, order it today and it's delivered tomorrow for a price cheaper than any local brick and mortar store could possibly provide it.

I've been at this off and on for nearly 60 years and my take on it is they are all pretty much right. You can't run a carburetor business out of a nice house in the suburbs, why would you do something that is lots of hours and work for not a lot of money and why would you put your self in a declining instead of growing business???

I like all the things I do but the auction in Shelby is probably my last one; I am no longer taking in repair work until I can get some of the back log caught up and any person who had money enough to buy my inventory and give me anything at all for the blue sky wouldn't want to invest in this --- and any person who would be interested wouldn't have any money.

It is far easier to just go get a job, put in your 8 a day, have the weekend off and have health insurance, a retirement plan and nobody calling you on Easter Sunday wanting to know where their carburetor is.

You are speaking some very wise words there, Stan.

It is so much easier to get a 9 to 5 job with benefits and pension than to provide a unique service that requires years of dedicated (and unpaid) learning, sweat, and effort.

The result is that you have become 1 in a million while the easy path crowd has just become the rest of that million.

On balance....well, actually there is no balance because we are talking 2 different worlds here. The Amazon shoppers may know the cost of everything but will never know the real value of what you, and the very rare folks like you, have accomplished and the service that you provide.

You will never be paid even close to what you are worth but not one of the rest of the million will ever be depended on so much that they will be called on Easter Sunday.

If you had to do it all over again, I suspect that you would still follow the same path.

Thanks,

Joe

If I had it to do over again I would be a lot smarter this time around.

I would do what my brothers did. Figure out what kind of business people actually make money in, build one and retire when I was young enough to enjoy the time.

When I go teach at auction school I tell the new people, Take 100 bucks from your first auction and put it in the bank where you can't touch it. Your second auction take 200, in ten auctions you are banking 1,000 from every one. Never touch it.

Nobody told me that. I went to auction school, came home and kicked a hole in the business and survived. I never worked one day for anybody else in the business. I did pretty well overall. I made some money.

And I spent it all trying to stay in business, pay my bills and my taxes, keep the crew well fed and hanging on. If I had done that 39 years ago I would have $435,000 plus the interest or accrual on the money that I would never have missed.

I wouldn't be working and putting up with people calling on Sundays and Holidays wanting free advice or complaining that I don't have their carburetor done.

Live and learn.

Back to the shop. Back to the shop. Back to the shop.

It is almost 3:30 and I have been on the phone or answering emails since 7:30 this morning. My day in the shop is just starting

I am truly saddened by the off-topic discussions and limited views expressed about peoples interests and especially younger people then thou. Society (usually)adapts to current and pending technology. A var hobbyist is likely to focus on a popular fade of automobile of their teens. Categorized as: Antique, Vintage, Muscle, Sports, Hippy Vans, Hot Rods, Lift Trucks, Mini Trucks, Low Riders, Tuners, Rat Rods, patin'ad, etc..
The Car Hobby lives on, some areas stronger than others

I saw a commercial on tv today that sums it up I think.
Guy in his late 20’s I guess was playing with his daughter. Shows us the app on his smartphone that lets him find a plumber to fix a leaking facet. This so he can keep playing.
W hy not show your daughter how to fix a facet! Because he does not know himself
. All he learned as a kid was how to play.

I am glad my daughter was welding when she was 8.
I feel better now. Dan

I hope I don't get in trouble for this:

Bill has a full time job i used to do what he is doing(not old car parts) but I know the feeling of what Stan said, The ladies at Birdhaven are great and I always try to do business with them.

For anyone that complains about a web site. Go find a neighbor or friend and ask them to teach you how to use a telephone. Pretty easy. Just dial a number and talk to the person who answers. Bill will always give you great service or his assistants will.

i'll just say that it is a pleasure to be able to do business with parts vendors who do take the business of serving the hobbyist/collector, seriously enough to make it their only business goal in life, and not a sideline. If all other vendors operated their business as a sideline, we'd hear and see complaints about them like we hear and see about Howell's, here in Texas.

If all other vendors operated their business as a sideline, we'd hear and see complaints about them like we hear and see about Howell's, here in Texas.

Is Howell's a sideline?

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:21 am

If all other vendors operated their business as a sideline, we'd hear and see complaints about them like we hear and see about Howell's, here in Texas.

Is Howell's a sideline?

Steve, Although Howell's sells direct (that is, if you ever get the parts you paid for), I consider them to be a "manufacturer", instead of a vendor. They certainly don't sell a full line of parts like Snyder's or Lang's, or for that matter, Chaffins or Bobs.