Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: The Intoxicating Aroma of N.O.S. Continue reading the Original Blog Post
This is going to be a great thread, wish I took photos of the local Ford dealership parts attic I went through in the 1960's. I clearly remember standing on NOS 33-34 Ford front fenders to get to the model A parts. Hershey had lots of NOS stuff this year. Here is a box of Packard flat washers, part of leftover WWII aircraft parts. Bob
Military surplus, boneyards, drydocks, dusty shelves...... in the back....... in the corner....... in the dark. Oh, My! Personally, I'm a bonafide repurposer, finding new uses for things they weren't originally made for.
G & J Aircraft Supply in Ontario, great for hoses and fittings and shelves of KOOL old aircraft stuff, and blowed up bombs outside the door,,, need an ejection seat? They have one
Local Ford dealer built a new building and lot about 30 years ago and moved from the buildings that they had been in since the 1920's. I talked to a guy who helped clean it out after they moved, before the building was demolished. They found a lot of NOS stuff dating back to the 20's T model stuff. The same guy also helped when the Chevy dealer moved just a few years prior. They ended up with 3-4 Chevy engines, brand new in a crate that had never been ran. A couple of V8's, 283 or 327, a 235 I6, and a truck big block 427. Don't remember what he told me the guy he worked for gave for all of it, but it wasn't much. As usual, I didn't hear about it until it was all gone...
.....and for those who just have to have the belt Jive-bomber posted.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ae...825475?hash=item4d9e825d43:g:YHIAAOSwr8Rdpb2f
This speedo was NOS when I put it in my sedan. It was made in 1939. I have about a dozen NOS 2-5/8" Stewart-Warner oil pressures from around 1950 still in the sealed pouches. I opened one when I got them, but all the others are still sealed. I have a half dozen of these NOS rear-mount Stewart-Warner water temps. They came with a waxy fabric wrapped around them. With the long senders I think they might have been destined for a boat.
HAMB poser contribution to this thread. Yep. NOS parts speak to some, of the afflicted. Acknowledging my embarrassment ... shall only reveal one photo, to the HAMB NOS ANONYMOUS meeting. Carry on ... ... or should this be on the "in the house" thread ? On another note, unwrapping all that glass lense tissue paper, at the least, helped me see and count ... what I didn't know I had. That's the first step in receiving help. ( need to buy more )
This is my deal of a life time NOS find. Browsing Craigslist during my 9am break at work. I found a pair of NOS long bed fleetside bed sides for my 1959 Apache project for $500. I thought for sure that price was for each side. Nope. 500 for the pair. Called the guy, his dad had them in cardboard boxes since the 60s. Dad passed away and the son recently moved them and the boxes fell apart. Unfortunatly one was stood up on end on a gravel floor and it was in a puddle so it has 1 rust hole. But otherwise they are perfect. I was about ready to claim I was "sick" and leave work right then. 3 months later I found an NOS tailgate. That cost me more than both bedsides...
With restoring my O/T 68 camaro and being heavily involved in Chevy muscle car documentation/restorations, I have learned that NOS parts are really hit and miss with quality and fitment. It is still neat to find that old box that has been forgotten, but since some brands continued to make parts for awhile after production ended for the car, that over time the factory parts quality really went downhill, so you really have to watch how "new" the old stock is. I know some fenders and hoods that were made right before they were dropped from catalogs fit worse than alot of the aftermarket stuff as the dies and tooling was simply worn out.
Sometimes new parts were put back on the shelf way back when, because they were defective in some way not immediately recognizable. Or used parts. How many times have you removed a temp or oil sender and put the old one in the new box? This is also true with equipment sometimes. I remember in the .mil I'd need to check out a flush kit from the tool room. The one that looked almost brand new, with fresh paint &c, was defective in some way. The one that was all beat to hell and looked rode hard and put away wet, that was one that actually worked.
Hey J, What a great old place and stories that come out of it. N.O.S. is something we could not afford, but all wished we could get for our hot rods. If we could, the wrapped new stuff just had it in droves over the used stuff we could afford. The smell, feel and looks of something new...it was like Christmas every time. We lived near our favorite aircraft supply center, just a few miles away on the border of Lakewood and Long Beach. The old Douglas Aircraft Industrial Complex covered almost the whole area northeast of the LB Airport. They made all types of aircraft with the Douglas logo. When that industry started to drop in orders or contracts, various thing began to happen. The famous scrap yard along Carson St. began not to have a supply of the latest overflow from the aircraft building business going on in the nearby hangars or giant buildings. “…aircraft salvage yard called ‘California Airframe Parts’ located in a dingy complex that was spitting distance from the Oakland Airport. The shelves were stocked with N.O.S. military and civilian aircraft bits that would make any traditional hot rod guy immediately begin drooling: Gauges, marker lamps, toggle switches, and yes, killer seat belts…” But, the parts just kept coming out to the scrap yard outside from those buildings. I guess cleaning house was the order of the day. We and a million other hot rod/drag race guys were scrounging all over those aluminum parts, sheets of aluminum, aircraft instruments, seats, thin side panels, belts and what ever else we could use in our builds. It was the go to place. Our friend, Atts Ono during his 1940 Willys build went to the Douglas Aircraft Surplus Yard to get his aluminum sheets and blocks to mill all of his custom parts. Since he was a master machinist, those parts got whittled into what we all see in the magazine article and on his red 1940 Willys Coupe at the drags. Jnaki The hot rod dealers did have their supplies of N.O.S. stuff. If we could not afford it from the dealers, we could always save a few dollars at the huge hot rod parts swap meets. Our favorite was just across the street from Douglas Aircraft Complex at the LBCC Veteran’s Stadium Parking Lot that happened every month back then. Great stories and photos. So, we did have our choices for N.O.S. or used ones. Our searches were for NOS, first, as we knew it would be pristine. But if money dictated otherwise, we settled for one that we found at one of the swap meets. It all depended on what the part was that needed replacement. Blue: surplus yard Red: LBCC Vets Stadium swap meet area The red arrow shows the Douglas Aircraft Surplus Yard on Carson St. back in the late 50s early 60s.(across from the Lakewood Country Club) On the right beyond the big buildings, is the location of the LBCC Veteran’s Stadium and parking lot for the swap meets. Note: Joe Reath and Joe Mailliard both got their starts working for Douglas Aircraft prior to their history in drag racing. They had access to the old surplus yard for their extra curricular machining work, too. So did thousands of other hot rod/drag race machinists, builders, and racers in So Cal.
I have lucked up on a few NOS parts for Henrietta the '38 Ford pickup. Back in the late '60s, I got NOS window regulators and door latch mechanisms, along with NOS striker plates cheap from Ford Parts Obsolete down at Nashville GA. Still had the tags with the Henry part numbers. Radiator is a NOS still in the original Henry box when I got it. It's for a big truck, fits the pickup perfectly but has a thicker core. I like the '36 bug eye headlight lenses better than the correct ones for the truck, found a NOS set of lenses and rings still in original packaging at Hershey back in the '90s.
It will also always be better than the best Repro part...Used or Not. There's a ton of soul in those treasures too...
Great thing about new old stock is it was made by Americans when a thing called pride in craftsmanship still existed. The new stuff is either Chinese mongoloid trash or some other form of non-American garbage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I lucked up and got hired at a Ford dealership in Springerville,Az right when they were sold to a new owner. It was once a Stanley Steamer dealer and a stage coach stop. It was wild to go into the showroom and see the old pictures of horses tied up next to Model T's . We were tasked to clean out the old stalls and get rid of the old NOS stuff. The new owner had me build a 53 F-100 and take a brand new 428 CJ long block and a new c-6 for the project. We used new doors and window rubbers and fenders. What ever we could find that fit the truck. Unfortunately a lot of stuff went to the dump still in boxes. This was in 1979 or 80.
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