I grew up in Dearborn and got to know two guys who worked in the Ford parts building.
One guy his house and garage were filled to the ceiling with Ford boxes. He had Torinos and Mustangs also. The other guy around the corner from me had a yellow 70 Cobra he was restoring. I got to know him because I had a 70 GT 429 car. I bought a set of NOS boss 302 rods from him for a 302 I was building for my 88 GT that was only a year old. He showed me boxes with new shakers in them and some other goodies. Said he would send out messages to the dealers calling back certain part numbers.
If you had contacts at any PDCs, you were in good shape with any of your projects. The two PDCs in the area you grew up in were National and Detroit. You are probably more than familiar with the addresses. National PDC is at 11871 Middlebelt Rd, and National (later renamed Ford Livonia II PDC) is at 28301 Schoolcraft Rd. After years of receiving and sending parts back to these depots, I know these by heart.
Ford had several different programs for dealers to help keep their inventories clean. The main program was PIPP (Parts Inventory Protection Program), based on the dealer's purchases, stock order discounts, and return percentage selected. It could be confusing since you could flex the stock order discount and the return percentage over time. This was before it was all computerized, and it could be intimidating and labor-intensive and cause some Parts managers not to participate. There were four different categories, and that determined which depot depot they went to. Parts could be returned monthly, quarterly, once every six months, or once annually. Since we were always swamped, and back then, it took so long, I did every six months.
Some parts Ford scrapped, and others in the discontinued stage might be sold off to companies like Carpenters, Green Sales, or someone like the one discussed above. Ford usually scrapped all code 3 parts (obsolete parts) and sent them to a salvage yard to be destroyed. Of course, that usually didn't happen, and people like our friend mentioned above swooped in and bought these pieces for pennies on the dollar since the yard had absolutely no money in the parts. I know this from helping a friend responsible for some great commission checks for me. He needed two sets of primary and secondary four-barrels for a high riser and a tunnel port 427. He needed C5AF-9510-BT primary @ $170.74 and C5AF-9510-BU secondary @ $152.50. Although they were still listed in the price catalog and the depot showed them in stock, the order packing slip indicated "not available." I called them and found out they had just obsoleted them, pulled them from the shelves, and sent them to the magical scrapyard where our "friends" go to harvest deals of the century. My 427 friend eventually put out an ad looking for these carburetors, as his high-riser and tunnel port projects were at a standstill. Someone who was one of the "Harvesters" recognized him as a 427 aficionado who had helped him with some 427 help and decided to contact him. He sold all four carburetors my friend needed for around $50.00 a piece and made plenty of money, so you can imagine how little he paid for them at the magical scrap yard. So, once again, you can see how our previously discussed person in the thread can enjoy those 20,000 + % profits! After finally realizing what was happening, Ford started self-scrapping these class parts.
After Ford started moving all the processes online, things became more streamlined, and I spent half the time on PIPP returns. That was also when, as your friend mentioned, we received the last time to return notices based on our inventory. We would then know what parts were being discontinued, and it was our last chance to get rid of them. I also received another notice that part numbers on Ford's list were to be discontinued and purged from the PDCs. I looked for Mustang, Torino, and the old '60s F series numbers, as they were always in demand and good-selling parts for us. The one that hurt my feelings the most was the letter informing me that Ford was, as of the date of the letter, discontinuing all '55-57 T-Bird, '65-78 Mustang, and the few remaining old F series parts. I imagine our "Friend' who evidently has some inside contacts, probably knew about the Mustang parts before I even got the letter!
I hope you got a good deal on the Boss 302 rods. Those were originally C3OZ-C 271/289 rods, renumbered C9ZZ-B for use in the Boss 302. They were good rods. We sold a lot to the engine builders who ran 289s and 302s at the local dirt track! Good times!
