My (tiny) contribution to the hobby...

[2ndgen]

First: a public thanks to Paul (phw on the VMF). Several weeks back there was a thread about desired new reproduction parts started by the folks at Scott Drake Enterprises. In that thread I listed my pet peeve - the small plastic gear indicator used in the automatic shifters from 69-73. These pieces are very brittle and are often broken when the bushings wear out in the shifters. In the thread, Paul offered to try to make some if they were as simple as I indicated they were...

Over the past several weeks Paul and I have collaborated via the mails and the internet; I am in San Diego and Paul is in Denmark. I shipped as many pieces as I could find and took measurements for Paul; he produced a CAD model and used his company's plastics molding equipment to generate the pictured prototypes. We are currently communicating with possible vendors to make these available for sale. Paul did this to help the hobby and may not ever recover his costs...

According to my parts interchange information, this part should service automatic shifters for the following applications:

69-73 Ford Mustang
71-80 Ford Pinto
74-78 Ford Mustang II
70-77 Ford Maverick
69-73 Mercury Cougar (based on the Mustang)
75-80 Mercury Bobcat (based on the Pinto)
71-77 Mercury Comet (based on the Maverick)


Well done Paul! (he did all the real work...)

-Rory

 

[guruatbol]

Sweet!

It is thanks to many people like you two that this hobby is so great!

Mel

 

[opentrackerSteve]

That is indeed impressive and also telling that our parts suppliers still don't 'get it' that people have to go off and do this on their own.

There is a lot of garbage parts out there still - within the last 2 months I bought a repro ebrake handle and the pin hole on it is on the wrong side of the handle! WTF?!?!?

Congrats on taking this to the right level to make it available for others!

 

[crustycurmudgeon]

There is a lot of garbage parts out there still - within the last 2 months I bought a repro ebrake handle and the pin hole on it is on the wrong side of the handle! WTF?!?!?

You got that right! I bought a Scott Drake 1967 inside rear view mirror bracket and the slot that's supposed to pinch and hold the mirror is too large. I should try to find a way to shim it so I can actually use it. I've been hearing about the e-brake handle issue for a long time now. :shrug

That shifter piece looks awesome and exactly like the original.

Frank

 

[classicdoug]

Been there a few times with the ebrake handle. I just redrill the hole, but why is it so hard to just drill it in the right place?

Doug