No friends, I'm not referring to the ubiquitous blue bottle of go-fast known as 'NOS', we're talking about *New Old Stock*, and vintage car parts in particular... 65 year old parts that have never been installed on a vehicle for some reason. I was or... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I agree that the instructions are as fascinating as the light itself. Written with care, back when maufacturers took the time to make them clear. The templates for all the various vehicle mountings are amazing. The instructions that come with foreign made crap these days are sometimes so poorly written as to be downright humorous, and often not useful.
Found this box of "junk"at a farm auction this summer.. will I ever use any of it?? doubt it, but you never know.....
NOS stuff is cool on many levels. It definately a Time capsule. The packaging especially as it all really is so much more artistic then the vacuum packed plastic that we are used to today. Not to mention that for the most part it is of a much better quality. Torchie.
trouble for me is that if the part is perfectly preserved in a nice original package, sometimes I have a tough time destroying the package and putting the part into service, where I know I will undoubtedly use it up.. time package and contents preserved no more.. bitter sweet hahaha
while NOS is best, anything with the original box and paperwork is very cool. here is an old Toy box from around 1930. I have the car as well.
You can tell cheap Chinese cardboard from 10 yards away. Old stuff is really nice, and it's great that folks still appreciate the packaging and instructions. (Just assembled a plastic ride on motorcycle for my sister, the pidgen english instructions were hilarious, almost out done by the bad photo copy illustrations.)
You all are forgetting another aspect of N.O.S. : The stuff just Works better!! Sure, the package is neat and all, the care put into production quite unapproachable today, but, this stuff is Quality!! Just one case-in-point: My 1961 Ford Falcon (the finest car in the universe, no?? ) needed new motor mounts. So, I did what many enthusiasts do; I rung up Dearborn (the company, NOT the city) and shortly thereafter received two nearly identical motor mounts. The right one lasted 2 days. Which sorta pissed me off, a lot. But, I had contacts. I called the local Ford dealer with the P/N. He laughed, said the part was truly obsolete, but, and this is golden: he told me who had them. I called this magical supplier (Bob Allen Ford, KS, you're welcome), who affirmed the presence of two mounts, which I quickly requested. These mounts, OEM and N.O.S. (I think these are both applicable) are holding up their end of the bargain quite well, thank you. And are stamped "Ford", which means a Lot to me. Cosmo P.S. As testament to "Finest car, et al", I took my wife to therapy this morn. The Falcon started up just fine, warmed up quickly, and rode comfortably there and back. Turned a couple heads, too!! All at 0ºF (heads turned were quite covered, I can assure you).
My buddy and I were just having a conversation about the thought that went into packaging. Case in point this box of sealed power piston rings, even the little individual envelopes have a ton of style. Now those same envelopes would be plain manila. JohnnyA
These lights are for my 59 pickup. Box tag marked Aug 1967, made in New York. The intake is an NOS Edlebrock O4B. Newpapers inside are from July 1969 M/T wheels from June, 1971
I really like finding NOS GM stainless trim (these are 42-48 Chev Aero front upper and center (LH)- and with easy to read part #s
Not necessarily true. Especially with electrical components and trim. Very often, if the replacement electrical component didn't work when the mechanic installed it, he threw it back in the box and back on the shelf, grabbed another and installed that one. When buying NOS electrical components, you're very, very often buying the housing and part number only, not the magic smoke that makes it work. Same with mechanical components. I had a friend who was really disappointed that his NOS wiper didn't work. I told him what I just wrote here, and suggested he disassemble it to see if something might be broken, misaligned, assembled wrong, etc. He did, and found there was a deformed spot on the cast housing that was causing the internals to hang up and bind. He sanded the bump down, and it worked perfectly. With trim, it's important to remember that trim was stamped long after the production year ended, for the crash industry (same with body panels). By the end of the run, the tooling was getting worn out. By the end of the crash-industry run, there was more bad tooling than good, and they were stamping out parts that would not have passed Quality Control during the model year. The trim that's left today is often wavy, the lines aren't crisp, etc. I did a magazine story with a concours trim restorer, and he said he feels sorry for guys who bring him NOS trim to buff and smooth out, because he knows they paid the long dollar for it to begin with, and now they want him to make it perfect, when he could have done the same thing starting with the old trim that is already on the car. He showed me a '40s Chevy front grill piece that was NOS, and wavy as hell, and I still can hear him saying "BUT IT'S NOS! The poor bastard that bought this paid hundreds for it, and he's going to pay me hundreds more to make it right... BUT IT'S NOS!" Body panels and hard mechanical parts like ball joints, etc. seem to be the best deals on NOS stuff--even the body panels will rarely bolt on without any work needing to be done... after all, they were being installed by body shops, who had to fix the rest of the car anyway... some misaligned bolt holes or a few dings didn't matter since the body shop had the hammer and dolly out already. -Brad
Yeah, its hard to use something so cool and well preserved! Then all you have is the package. But the stuff was made to be used, and where better than on a hot rod?
No photos, but I have a set of NOS in box stainless steeel stone guards for the rear of a 57 chevy, beyond the rear tire. Love the box art, and wording. "Guaranteed forever, until the year 2000"
Love the "You cannot go wrong if you follow these instructions" at top of the page. Does this make you laugh? It did me as I've seen a few wrong attempts after reading the instructions. Love old stuff like this. Happy New Year to everyone, Carp
I buy NOS as much as I can find for the cars, it fit's, lasts and works better. I have a VERY hard time destroying the packaging, so I unearth it carefully, use the part and display the packaging. I've been pretty lucky about finding NOS stuff with either destroyed packaging (but enough to protect the part) or no packaging so there is no conflict to use it. To me the REAL dilemma comes with the NORS stuff, that has some great packaging...which is sometimes worth more then the part itself.
The term N.O.S. (New Old Stock) is one of the most misunderstood terms in the hobby. All of the posters on this thread interpret it correctly, but there are a lot of people out there who think that a used, original part is N.O.S., which is not correct. It's original, but it's not N.O.S. if it's ever been used. I love original unused parts in their original boxes. To me, the boxes are just as cool as the parts inside. Even if the part gets used, the box never gets thrown away. GM used to package some of their fragile parts in those cool little "cans" with cardboard sides and metal tops and bottoms. Those are really cool.
I have the NOS part addiction too - my thing is NOS wheels and tires - I have several including a pair of 15x14 Halibrands, Firestone 4.00-15 and 5.00-16 ribs, 11.00-16 C R139 Grooved Rear dirt tires that are 14" wide and a pair of Firestone 5.30/17.00-15 Indy tires. Steve
I have a couple of cool things. My favorite are the N.O.S. Cal Custom baldy caps for '40-'48 Ford, definitely a rare item.
I have discovered to my dismay that when I went back to look at some of my old parts, that the boxes had been attacked by silverfish. These nasty little vermin will often eat just the top layer of ink and paper, and usually prefer one colour over another so chew up an odd pattern on a box or magazine cover. I am told they like corrugated cardboard, and often come into your house in such boxes brought back from the flea market, garage sales etc. So now I put the better items in ziplock bags, and if they show any bug damage, spray a little insecticide in the bag too.
Ahhh, but this is also "not necessarily true". Cars get damaged every day of the year. I've seen cars still on MCO's get totalled. Spares need to be in the pipeline the day the car is introduced, if not before. Try telling your new car customer that he has to wait until production ceases before you can order that new fender for his crash repair. Especially one year into a five year run (seem to be average these days). Upset wouldn't begin to cover it! N.O.S. might be a crap shoot, but the dice is loaded in your favor, if you will. Cosmo
I had an NOS ribbed Firestone with the label still on it. Real nice piece, but I new that I'd never use it or find a match. Sold it for BIG money. Had three NOS Goodyear bluestreak road racey tires from the early 60's. Not sure what they were made for, probably some million dollar Gran Prix car. Sold those for even BIGGER money.
I really like nos parts , when I can find and afford them , I use the ones I need , sell the ones I don't need ! With me, cash money rules and sell the parts I don't need , I don't ever want to become a poor broke HOARDER ! Just my .02 cents of thoughts !
Doesn't N.O.S. refer to OEM parts only? Most of pictures and stuff described in this post are N.O.R.S. (New Old Replacement Stock).
Here's a few from my collection. The first is a set of NOS Chevrolet back up lights for the '49-'50 Chevrolet passenger car and sedan delivery. The box is almost gone and the instructions are in poor shape but readable. They're going on my company car. Almost hate to put them on because the lenses are not available anywhere I can find and if I break one I'm screwed.
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