Reproduction Parts

I was not happy with a lot of the repro parts and even used the original ones instead of the repros even though I had purchased them. I later would buy only Ford Licensed parts or used what I had or found suitable used pieces. This was my first complete rebuild that I did and learned many lessons for my future builds.

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I to worked in the manufacturing and tooling industry. In fact my last year I worked 2014 I was the engineering manager at a tool shop in the hatted China. I think the repo parts manufacturers never go to China or Taiwan to look at their tooling while they build it. The Chinese are much better equipped to build tooling than the U.S.. I hate to say that but they are. We had rows of CNC mills I think over 50 some up to 4.5 meters. We had over 35 wire EDM machines. Everything was brand new not a pile of junk like most people picture China.

To do a repo of a part all you need is a good original that fits correctly. It would be great to have the original prints but I doubt that Ford would hand them out. If I were going to tool say a full floor pan from dash to trunk I would go with a soft draw die and laser trim the outside and holes. That means that all you need is one stamping tool the draw, a laser holding fixture, maybe a flange die and a check fixture. I could see tooling that in probably 6 to 8 weeks in China. They do not do kirksite or zinc tooling in China or you could do it even faster. The best way to get a dimensionally correct floor would be to laser scan one in a car. You would have to clean up the areas with other parts on the computer.

I have often wondered why Mustang clubs like this one did not do repo parts themselves. Each member kick in a certain amount of money and they get their money back when the parts are ran and sold and they get their parts for cost.

Yes we can bad mouth China or Taiwan for doing sorry work but if you just send them a loose part that flops around to copy they have no idea in what position it needs to be. Could you see how a fender would not fit if they did not have a print or CAD model to go by. You ship a loose fender around the world and they don't have any idea what a Mustang even looks like. It is not legal to ship an antique car to China I checked. How do you set it up to measure it or scan it without a check fixture or it on a car? Anyone should be able to copy a gas cap or door handle it is the sheet metal that is difficult and the plastic is just as bad to not know where it should be.

Remember most of the tooling for your new cars came from China.

It is so sad to see the U.S.A. not keep up but our government and big corporations are to blame. Countries like Japan put 100% import duties on our cars going there but the U.S. just opened our arms and let them ship what they wanted with little duty to be fair. That fat cat buyer in the U.S. going offshore and saving a nickel and getting big bonus checks when he takes thousands of jobs away. Then nobody has the money to buy his cheap stuff that he overprices.

I went to China and brought back their money the opposite of the big companies.

Well I vented some but it is difficult to make a good part if you don't have good information up front.

David

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