Bob Drake sale

philipswanson said:
One of the techs told me the story why they can't get quality stuff any more from offshore. They were getting grilles and hood ornaments from a pretty good source in China if there is such a thing. No USA chrome items any more. Their source in China dried up because that company got a big contract from Toyota. Drake's contract was cancelled. Now they are trying to find a new source which undoubtedly will be worse yet in quality.
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I have no doubt that's the story you were told. The reality? China can produce anything we can produce (USA) and of the same quality. It comes down to the quality demanded and subsequently paid for by the purchaser - in this particular case, Drake.
If he so chose, the quality would be first rate.
 
I haven't done much with V8 for 40 years (Model A and non-Ford since) but even back then complaints about Drake out-of-stock/back-order were pretty much the same as now.
 
Kube said:
I have no doubt that's the story you were told. The reality? China can produce anything we can produce (USA) and of the same quality. It comes down to the quality demanded and subsequently paid for by the purchaser - in this particular case, Drake.
If he so chose, the quality would be first rate.
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I agree-Quantity,Quality and Price . You only get two from any manufacturer that wishes to stay in business. We are low quantity so most suppliers trade off quality for price based on what we, the end consumer, will pay.

This forum is full of post about junk parts and tools . It is also full of posts about the high cost of the same. I would suggest that we can't have it both ways. If we want quality we have to pay for it and let our suppliers know we are prepared to do that.

Yes in the past we have has good quality and reasonable price but those manufacturers are largely gone - and you have to ask why -Likely they went bust or at least went out of production as the sales volumes and price obtained was uneconomic!

Blaming China or expecting them to adopt uneconomic options , as so often happens , is not the solution as they are not the problem . Karl
 
I found the 5 additional items I needed from a vendor on eBay today......i forgot to try Joes antique Auto...
 
i bought some items from drake because i wanted his quality and they sent me off brand parts- very disappointed......................
 
i had that happen once a few years back, and it took several days to get thru on the phone, and then the answer was that the discounts will automatically show on the invoice
 
So funny. I've been on the phone twice for over 30 minutes and haven't gotten a live person yet. I really don't want to play that game for it is showing full price + shipping on the payment page.

In this day and age, that's a stupid way to business. It should either be a code or automatically deducts the shipping and applies the discount while paying.

I'm about to give up. I guess Bob doesn't need my $250.
 
I was a Drake dealer many years ago and bought a lot of what I needed at the end of shows Drake was at. It was easier for them to sell to me at a deep discount rather than pack it up and ship it back to the store. I also saved freight. I've since stopped displaying as a vendor so I've had to quit selling his products. I just tried an order and nothing was in stock?
 
OK. Finally got someone. Told me to put in the comments section to deduct the Cyber Monday 15% off and free shipping. I did, so hopefully it will all work out as intended.
 
i called and was told they would add the free shipping on my order for six items of which they were out three of them. i ordered from carpender and he had those parts and a few other parts i needed and 10% off. his shipping is reasonable, $9.99 . shipping on the drake order was 27.50 for a 90.00 order.
 
Kube said:
I have no doubt that's the story you were told. The reality? China can produce anything we can produce (USA) and of the same quality. It comes down to the quality demanded and subsequently paid for by the purchaser - in this particular case, Drake.
If he so chose, the quality would be first rate.
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Kube is absolutely spot on. China can produce parts at whatever quality level the purchaser specifies. Remember they build space craft and other high tech items (think nukes). The problem is that we as consumers want the cheapest possible price and then complain about poor quality. China could and probably does produce tools that are equal or better in quality than Snap On but not at a price point that American consumers want to pay for. JMO.
 
I get frustrated, too, when the parts i need are not readily available, or don't fit quite as precisely as they should. My blood pressure goes up, then I kick the (imaginary) dog, throw the tools around, complain to my wife about cars (and cooking). Next I swear that i'm selling off the collection to the hot rod crowd and then i occasionally go vent on FordBarn. Then, upon serious reflection, I realize that if it were not for the Bob Drake's of the world i would not have a restored car. I also wouldn't have met some very nice/helpful old car guys. Nor would i have encountered the odd scumbag who bought an underpriced car from me on the promise of restoring the piece then flipped it within days. The reality is that far fewer old Fords would not be back on the roads today without those individuals and their contacts (Chinese or otherwise) who have retooled, made molds or gambled on reproducing parts in a quantity that would allow them to first break even, then ultimately make a profit. Gosh, i hope these entrepreneurs and the loathed companies, alike, continue doing what we often take for granted!
 
I've said this before and I'll say it again, if we didn't have these people like Drake, Carpenter, Vintique, etc. we would still be using that junk from Argentina. Anybody want to return to those days? I think not. Is the current quality better than the Argentine junk? Yes it is. It may not be perfect, but if you want to pay for perfect you better be prepared to pay a whole lot more money for your parts. Just look around and see the number of vendors that are downsizing, going out of business, or just selling on the internet to cut costs. It's evident that the number of hobbyists in the early V-8 hobby is declining. Also declining is the street rod hobby and owners who own the early cars. I just went to a vendor today that has a street rod parts shop in a large city. He's selling off his early parts, moving to a smaller location, and will stock parts for 50's, 60's and 70's cars. He says the market has changed and he needs to move to the later cars to keep the doors open.
The market has definitely changed and us old guys are slowly moving to the back of the bus. It's just a fact of life that time will pass us by at some point. Go to a swap meet and look at the number of people riding around in electric scooters. Ten years ago it was a rare sight, now it's a common site. The person making the best money at the swap meet is the one who rents the scooters.
To get back on track I think you will soon see many of the major vendors moving from making parts for the early cars to making parts for the later cars. They have already started and the supplies of parts for our old stuff will begin to dry up as we no longer factor into the profits of the company. Not an easy fact to accept, but it's reality.
 
Ron Pilger said:
I get frustrated, too, when the parts i need are not readily available, or don't fit quite as precisely as they should. My blood pressure goes up, then I kick the (imaginary) dog, throw the tools around, complain to my wife about cars (and cooking). Next I swear that i'm selling off the collection to the hot rod crowd and then i occasionally go vent on FordBarn. Then, upon serious reflection, I realize that if it were not for the Bob Drake's of the world i would not have a restored car. I also wouldn't have met some very nice/helpful old car guys. Nor would i have encountered the odd scumbag who bought an underpriced car from me on the promise of restoring the piece then flipped it within days. The reality is that far fewer old Fords would not be back on the roads today without those individuals and their contacts (Chinese or otherwise) who have retooled, made molds or gambled on reproducing parts in a quantity that would allow them to first break even, then ultimately make a profit. Gosh, i hope these entrepreneurs and the loathed companies, alike, continue doing what we often take for granted!
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Hi Ron:

I truly appreciate your thoughtful and well written response. You certainly have a great outlook on what the vendors in our hobby provide and you reminded me that is too easy to become jaded and ungrateful.

I guess what confused me is that, let's use B. Drake in this case, advertised a Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale, yet doesn't have a large amount of items that a fair number of his customers want in stock or how his website didn't work correctly to the sale he was promoting.

As much as we want to think our hobby is still stuck in the good 'ol days, it isn't. This fact of the modern world creeping in to our old Fords is both a blessing and a curse on many levels.

This isn't the first time someone like B. Drake has run one of these sales, yet one would think they were either ill equipped to handle the volume, didn't want to handle the volume or knew some "high volume" items would be out of stock and didn't plan to have them on hand so they wouldn't get discounted as part of his promotion.

I value the contributions someone like B. Drake has added to our hobby. I appreciate his efforts and willingness to help a lot of folks out by making parts they can purchase to get their car back on the road. That said, in this day and age, there really is no excuse for one's website not being able to handle high volume during a promotion that your company is running.

If you want to slow down, then be up front and tell your customers that's your plan. When I called, the person who answered the phone didn't even say hello. I knew someone was there because the "on hold" message stopped playing and I could hear someone breathing.

I was nice and made a joke out of it and we both had a good laugh, but it was clear the gentleman I was speaking to was completely overwhelmed.

I probably said too much, but I was a bit baffled by it all. Here's to B Drake and the other fabulous early Ford vendors staying open for another 100 years!
 
51504bat said:
Kube is absolutely spot on. China can produce parts at whatever quality level the purchaser specifies. Remember they build space craft and other high tech items (think nukes). The problem is that we as consumers want the cheapest possible price and then complain about poor quality. China could and probably does produce tools that are equal or better in quality than Snap On but not at a price point that American consumers want to pay for. JMO.
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Exactly - They are also quite prepared to produce to a low price
even though they know that the quality will be poor.
 
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