MTFCA Forum

Just finished my first order from Birdhaven. A very pleasant experience!
Dan

Bill and family will always take care of you with a smile.

DHort wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 11:41 am

Bill and family will always take care of you with a smile.

Maybe so, but I placed order 05/14/21, expecting to get it within a week, providing it was in stock. Told back ordered; they ran out and are waiting for parts to come back from their powdercoater. Accepting the delay is all a person can do. I told them not to bother or waste their money including a catalog.

Under the circumstances with COVID many parts have become backordered,not only from Birdhaven but from other sources as well. You should feel fortunate to have a source of new parts for a 100 year old vehicle! For some small parts which are subject to wear out or fail, it is good to keep spares on hand just in case you have trouble ordering new. This is especially true of after market parts. I, personally, am glad that there are still some people out there who are willing to invest their time and money to make parts.
Norm

Bill and family will always take care of you with a smile.

And Tootsie Rolls.

Out of stock/backorder is a problem for all the parts dealers. Sometimes it happens to all of them simultaneously, as with the recent drought of Kevlar band linings.* I don't like it when it happens, but neither does the dealer. It's not something either of us wants. Anger at the dealer, who is dependent on suppliers, is misplaced. If you're upset, go outside and shake your fist at the Universe. That will be just as effective as being mad at the dealer.

* I noticed ads by all three Kevlar suppliers in the latest VF, so apparently that problem is solved.

The dealers have no control over their suppliers other than hoping that as things are getting back to normal delivery and supply will improve. The world isn’t perfect in these times and we all have to learn how to deal with it.
I say Hooray for the T parts dealers and suppliers who are still trying to do what they do for Model T fans. Good for them. And I don’t think the sky is falling the last time I looked out the door.

I know that in a previous post, I bad mouthed Birdhaven for telling me that they were sending me a catalog which i have never received. As far as I'm concerned that not my current problem. A catalog won't take the place of the part that I ordered and is back ordered, so I'll be patient and wait. Fortunately, it isn't a critical need part and I can wait.

I AM glad that we have available to the American Model T owner so many manufacturers and vendors of restoration parts. We, in America, are indeed lucky. So many countries aren't as fortunate. They don't have the manufacturers and vendors and if they order from the U.S. shipping and freight can and probably in many cases, exceed the price of the part they ordered.

I don't see how Birdhaven is going to survive unless they are going to focus on a wholesale business. The Birdhaven site disappeared many years ago, the FunProjects site is gone and it looks like not much attention is being paid to the Texas T site. While many know their History and are content to ordering the traditional way, others may view Texas T as a defunct Company.

Just ordered a catalog via email form birdhaven2010@gmail.com. Looked for another way but the "Purchase" on TEXAS T Site doesn't work
Hope I'll get a more recent catalog

You can access their complete catalog online.
https://www.texastparts.com/

jsaylor wrote: ↑

Wed May 26, 2021 12:24 pm

You can access their complete catalog online.
https://www.texastparts.com/

I have reviewed every page in their so called "on-line catalog" and since I had been at Birdhaven and know that they aren't listing the parts they stock. What appears to be on-line are most of the parts that they source to other suppliers. This is all they list for FRONT AXLE - $35 higher than Lang's. so why buy half of what you need from them and the rest from someone else.
On the other hand Chaffin's has their catalog available as a download - it is a piece of art https://www.chaffinsgarage.com/catalog.pdf but doesn't take email orders, just phone or fax (I can live with FAX). Need to call early Pacific time to get a hold of someone. Just a reminder of all those Businesses in the 60's-90's that supplied paper catalogs for people to order from: Wards, Sears, Spiegel, Fingerhut, etc anyone of which could have been an AMAZON had they a vision of the future. I was an IT Project Manager for JD and we implemented a rather primitive on-line order system by today's standards in 1982, an equivalent robust Internet ordering in Europe (was called Videotex) in 1986. On-line ordering is nothing new!
What's so sad is that Wards, Sears and Fingerhut now support on-line sales like AMAZON - too late. Oddly JC Penny was deemed the first to go and is still hanging on.