working with restorations has consumed a large part of my life. i have
found that for the most part reproduction parts are needed in one aerea or
another during the restoration or routine maint. of older cars as the pool
of new old stock slowly deplets. what happens then is a small bunch of
enterprising individuals in posession of new items decides to become "the"
source for replica parts using the last one in existance as the model for
replication. i have found that first there are poor quality ones, because
anyone will take what they can get. then someone will improve it to
concours quality and price goes up with quality of fit. i have seen many
replicated pieces of european rubber from brazil,taiwan,england and u.s.a..
some good stuff seems to come from all ofthe sources( dodging all of the
beer cans and ale bottles).
my point is that a replica is only as good as it's original. rubber spends
it's entire life shrinking. a new 20 or 30 year old part lends poorly as an
original fit piece. i had a plinth gasket that was a new replica that was
a good 1/2" short on the bottom(for bugeye lic. lamp). why would someone go
and do a thing like that? gee i guess that after paying to make all of
those new ones from a n.o.s. one someone needed their money back out of the
project. poor quality is all over the market.
gee i bought a new bugeye grille about 10 years ago and tried to installl it
and found it wouldn't fit! a couple of the pins on the back were welded on
wrong. i was told it was n.o.s. fromm an old dealer that sold his remaining
inventory to this jag nut whom i purchased it from. factory flaw or
aftermarket? looks original but who knows. that was a 300.00 mistake and
it hangs like a trophy in my shed to this day! guy refused to take it back.
thank you hemmings motor news. live and learn. chuck.
|