Scott Drake

[daveSanborn]

Scott Drake is NOT a classic Mustang parts vendor.  Scott Drake is a classic Mustang parts "supplier".  Scott Darke is not a retail operation and you cannot order anything from them unless you are a parts vendor.  Many of the Mustang parts houses carry Scott Drake reproduction pieces and the quality is usually pretty high.  If your search for a particular Scott Drake item through the various parts vendors yeilds negative results due to "this item is temporarily out of stock", a trick I've discovered is that you can call Scott Drake and ask them when they expect to start filling these backorders.  Scott Drake will even tell you whose (which vendor) backorders are being filled first and on what date.  With this information, you can then make arrangements with that particular vendor to get on a waiting list for the item.

This is not really a "vendor evaluation" topic, but it seems to be a better place than anywhere else to place this information.

[hivewax]

now, that's pretty slick, but i'll probably be too lazy to make the extra phone calls...  :skull

[opentrackerSteve]

I remember when they used to sell to people over the counter when they had their facility in Camarillo (not far from my playground the State Hospital - it's now 'under cover' as a Cal State campus).....

[sigtauenus]

I buy Scott Drake parts when I can because of the higher quality.  However, Scott Drake does also act as a middle man for some items.  If you look at their webpage, many of the items they list are made by other manufacturers.

Some specific Scott Drake parts that are noticably better than the competition:
Export Brace - deeper stamping, also nicer paint, ie, can use right out of the box without repainting.
68 instrument bezel - note, you still need to cut some flashing off the back that interfere to install the lenses.

Disappointments:
67-68 Outside door handles came with scratches, brand new out of the packaging.
68 Woodgrain dash on metal insert - both instrument bezel and piece over glove box have the metal insert/woodgrain over a camera case piece vice the smooth piece.  Not a huge deal because I like the woodgrain appearance, but I found it annoying that they did it that way.

[sigtauenus]

As a follow up, some more stuff since I'm installing parts.

The Scott Drake headlight warning buzzer installed easy and works.  Unfortunately the buzz isn't that loud.

The Scott Drake windshield and rear window weatherstrip is too big.  It fits the glass but fills up the window channel too much.  Its ok on the back as far as getting the bedding and glazing compound in the channel, but its unusable on the windshield.  Also, since the rubber is so thick, it pushes up against the stainless trim, such that the clips aren't able to hold the trim in place.  I ended up using a cheapo taiwan repro that fit the channel better for the windshield and the Scott Drake one went in the trash.

[DAVER]

Have had good results with most of the Drake stuff used and ordered on my last couple of '67 restos.  I'm sure Drake himself would value the feedback from this site and that he would most likely consider pushing along improvements so as to keep the quality reputation alive.