Why some N.O.S. parts remained N.O.S. over the years.

[Pep C Strebeck]

Recently cleaning out some boxes and drawers and I came across some N.O.S. parts.

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

I used an NOS intake manifold some years ago. The car wouldn't run right no matter what I did. Turned out, the interior passages were half blocked with casting flash. Into the trash it went!

[Pep C Strebeck]

A few more that escaped the final quality checks.

Not that bad just a little "out-of-time" on the punch press, third time is the charm I guess.

[Pep C Strebeck]

Some of my favorites, N.O.S. Crankcase Lower Cover Bolts that seem to have missed a step. I have about 50 of these mixed in with good N.O.S. ones.

[Dan Hatch]

Are those like screw ups at the US Mint on coins?
Makes them worth a fortune?

[Daisy Mae]

LOL
You of all people know the answer to that one Dan!!
A rare & unique NOS Model T part that's useably worthless actually being monetarily valuable?? Among your standard cheapskate Model T guy?? BWAAHAAHAAA!!!

[Wayne Sheldon]

Along about 1921, Henry Ford hit upon a bit if hard times. He had spent a fortune on expanding and improving production facilities, some bank notes had become due (I do not recall the details?), and the postwar depression (lasted about a year) had hit temporarily reducing his sales and cash flow. Although one of the richest men in the whole world, he was temporarily cash poor. Faced with a potentially expensive default, Henry sent cars and "spare parts" to his many factory authorized dealerships COD in spite of those items not having been ordered. This trick was actually allowed by the terms of the contracts the dealers had with the factory, and of course the dealers were not about to refuse the deliveries because their contracts were far too valuable to them.
So, the dealers paid the CODs even if they had to borrow a short term loan from their own local bank to do so. Henry (or rather the factory) had the cash, paid the due notes, and within a few months everything was back to normal and most of the dealers had recovered from their minor setbacks continuing to again make money hand over fist.
It has been speculated by people that know more than I do that a lot of those "spare parts" dumped upon the dealers were in fact rejects that had not yet made it back into recycling. It is also known that many of the spare parts usually bought by the dealers had minor defects. The idea was that a local shop could spend a few minutes adjusting and fitting a rejected part while making repairs whereas such a short delay in the factory assembly line those few minutes could stop the line and cause huge delays in productivity.

Some defects are humorously serious enough that nobody would actually consider using them. And sometimes because they would clearly be unsafe to be used. However, often, they can with a little effort be safely used and work out just fine.

[Wayne Sheldon]

Rather than write a single post way long on two different views of the tread subject (would I ever write an overly long post?)? I split this into two separate posts.

My NOS replacement part story.
Some years back, trying to put together my 1915 runabout, I wanted a correct 1915 pan/crankcase. I had a couple good earlier ones, but I wanted a 1915 version for my 1915.
As sometimes happens in this hobby, some parts become excessively desirable, and readily available supply falls far short of demand. A given item becomes very expensive in spite of the fact we KNOW that hundreds of them lay hidden in private stashes across the country.
So it was at that time when I needed, really WANTED a 1915 model T engine pan. For a few years time, all brass era narrow nose engine pans became very expensive. Any good solid, needing only minor repair and a visit to a pan straightening jig, pan from late 1911 into early 1916 was getting three to four hundred dollars! Nice ones were going for sometimes more than six hundred dollars (I saw them!) at swap meets, and I saw several priced at over a thousand dollars, although I never saw one sell for that much (I did hear of a couple selling at about $800!).
Me, never having enough money, always on a tight budget, could not justify that much cost.
Somewhere along the line, years earlier, I had gotten a genuine NOS narrow nose pan front casting. I had paid only a couple dollars for the thing and thought that it might come in handy some day.
So, I go to the (then actually) Bakersfield swap meet looking for pieces I needed for the 1915 runabout.
I found several 1915 style pans, conditions ranging from decent needing significant repairs on up to very nice. The cheapest one, needing several cracks welded, and a small rust-through repaired before required straightening was $350. The best ones were right at a grand, with a couple needing only minor repair before straitening at between six to seven hundred.
Then, me walking down the isle, there it was, exactly what I needed. The drain had been smashed in (looked like it was dropped with the engine still attached onto a cement floor?), and a few significant cracks in the usual places, otherwise not even very rusty, and only $30. Why so cheap? The narrow nose casting had been hacksawed off years earlier and the front part left behind.
I get the thing home, and a week later begin to work my magic on it. I straighten out the smashed in drain (actually a quick easy task) and weld up the cracks, added gussets for strength, and straightened a few obvious other dents.
Then it was time to use that genuine NOS Ford narrow nose pan front casting.
I carefully drilled out the original rivets to avoid oversizing the holes. tied the pan up so that the nose was pointing down suspended in the air, then heated the areas where the casting was brazed onto the pan, tapping with a hammer and prying carefully to separate the casting from the sheet metal as the brass was melted. I cleaned up the brazed areas, then checked the rivet holes with the NOS casting. They lined up perfectly. I carefully bolted the piece into place tight and solid, then one by one replaced each bolt with a new rivet. The area was again brazed for added strength. Then the pan was checked and straightened. It didn't need much tweaking.
In a couple more weeks, the engine and transmission had been bolted in, and other parts were being installed.
In turn, I installed the hand crank.
#
@

*&$%@!

The hole in the nose piece for the hand crank had been drilled CROOKED! Yep, one of those "minor" reject parts pieces. It wasn't really bad, however, my nicely fitting and very straight hand crank hit the end of the crankshaft off-center by about 1/2 inch!
I had never even thought to check the NOS piece to see if the hole was where it belonged.
So, I did the smart thing. I walked away from it for a couple days.

I thought my way through several possible options. The pan looked really nice, and buying another one wasn't a good idea just due to the expense I couldn't afford. So I quickly rejected the idea of taking a sledge hammer to it.
I seriously considered redrilling the hole, drifting it over and enlarging it enough to braze in a bushing. It was certainly a viable option. But measuring and fitting and rechecking and reworking would be quite a bit of time consuming effort.
I thought about that process a bit more, and then considered that the casting was cast steel, not more fragile cast iron. It had been brazed at the factory, and I had brazed it in my replacement process. The part was quite strong, tough, for literally a million of them to have survived years of heavy duty abuse.
I had a couple feet long piece of 3/4 inch steel rod, and stuck it through the hole. I gathered a few pieces of scrap steel to have handy to use as fulcrums if needed, and a couple tire irons in case I needed levers. I then visualized and figured the best places to heat and bend of shrink the casting to drift the steel rod into line with the crankshaft. I needed the right places to be hot enough to bend or shrink as needed without everything being so hot that the wrong places move the wrong ways.
After a couple days thinking it through, about half an hour to gather all the things I thought I might need (most I did not need), it look less than twenty minutes to tweak the end so that the hole lines up perfectly with the crankshaft. The minor shifting of the nose piece of course resulted in some angle relative to the front engine mount, however, it was not enough to cause any problems.

[tdump]

I enjoy those success storys. so many folks woulda threw it out and started over. you made it work. I usually have a few more hours than i do dollars.

[Wayne Sheldon]

Let me reiterate, those ridiculously high pan prices were a short time fluke, the timing of which was bad for me. Since then, because the prices had gone so high, I suspect literally hundreds of good pans have flooded the markets. Prices go too high, and many people turn loose of their stashes. Since then, I have seen dozens of them at swap meets for very reasonable prices. One good friend that deals in a lot of model T parts wound up with a bunch of them, and was selling them for very reasonable prices. He, knowing me, had picked out a few that were worse than the rest, and set them aside. When I walked by, he insisted I have them for no cost, he said he did not want to sell them in the current climate and have his name attached to bad parts since good ones were then again available, and having enough good ones he did not want to store the worse ones himself. He knows I can and if needed will be able to repair them (I again wish to tell him Thank You!). If I do need another,(and that might happen?), I now have one waiting at the ready.


Great to hear from you Mack!

[richc]

Although not an NOS part, most of us have a bucket of nuts and bolts from disassembling engines, or whatever. That bucket can be a great resource when needing one or more of those pieces instead of buying new ones. The picture below was one such nut that emerged from my bucket. I realize it's not a biggie, however it seems in line with this thread. I'm sure others have come across its sibling.

Defective Castle Nut2.jpg (54.18 KiB) Viewed 109 times

Rich C.