[crackthesky]

Ran into a guy years back that said he bought several closing dealers parts inventorys back in the 70's + 80s. Ford, GM, and MoPaR. He had a large barn full. He was very ill and said he needed to move all of it soon. Never heard back from him. I stopped in last week to see if he still is. Fortunately, he had a heart transplant and SEEMS to be doing OK. Still has all the parts. He said they were from the 30's to 70's. I have a 61 Galaxie, 60 Plymouth, and a 67 GTO. I believe he said years ago that he had no room for trim and sheet metal and junked all of that but he said the other day, that mostly, all he kept are mechanical parts. He said if I made him a list, he would see what he has. I honestly, don't know where to start. I began jotting down stuff for the Ford, then Pontiac and Plymouth but realized, I could go on for days and give him 10,000 numbers. I don't want to scare him or piss him off. I'm going to try to stop back down and ask him for a little more details on what he might have. I don't think he will take me to look, but that would be nice. Does he have blocks, intakes,carbs, sparkplugs, electric motors, rears, front end stuff, and does he have a lot of certain years or just odds and ends from all years and makes? If you really think about it, it becomes a question of, where do i start and if I throw tons of #s at him that he may not have, will he get tired of looking? Unfortunately, I don't have a 61 Ford parts catalog. Do I just go simple basics and try to find stuff for my cars only and then maybe see if he has some of the real rare stuff? Make him an offer on some bulk lots? What would you do?

 

[FEandGoingBroke]

The scary part is what if all the boxes are gone and nothing is marked. THAT is a cluster Truck trying to ID everything you may or may not need....

 

[PSIG]

It's hard to deal with folks like that sometimes. I would ask for parts that have numbers that relate to your cars. For the Gal (full-size Ford), that would be parts starting with B8Ax through C1Ax. The 4th digit (letter) will determine what kind of part it is (C0AE would be 1960 and later engine parts, C1AH would be 1961+ climate control, or B9AZ could be any service part, etc. See here.). See how he reacts or if he wants specific numbers or types of parts. Gotta feel him out to know how to move forward. Good luck!

David

 

[pvan]

I would suggest just talking with the guy. Get to know him first and you can always ask him what he prefers. You might just find that he is OK having you come out to do a little picking with him if you are willing to go through stuff with him and help him out a bit and can do it over several different days. Just don't make it all about you.

 

[puttster]

Maybe he would like to sell it in e-bay but doesn't know how. You could offer to get him set up: get paypal, take pictures, find out where to get boxes, walk him through a few sales etc. That should be a good opening for you.

 

[crackthesky]

He did say that all the parts are organized, but again, not really sure what that means.
David[PSIG] said something that I've wondered about. To the best of my knowledge, GM gave you a "GROUP" #[not on the part but on the container] that breaks down to certain parts-body, interior, engine, ect. and then every part produced got 1# added, which can give you a idea of the year the part was originally made but many parts are used for years and retain the same #s. MOPAR, it looks like, just adds 1 to every part made and does use a GROUP # on the box but it doesn't help in the parts book, probably just for warehouse use? With Ford, "X" represents Galaxie? Is there a list of the breakdowns I can look at? Does Ford change it's #s every year. In other words, a C1MF-13341B[turn sig. sw.]. I believe the year is the first letter C=60s, 1=61 and 13341 are turn signal switches? M=?, does F= Fords? Would this exact same part made a year later be C2MF-13341B or would it retain the orginal # as long as it is used? Do the #s break down to spacific areas of the car? Understanding these codes might save me a lot of time and not try his patience.
I suppose every Ford person should know this, but what does "FE" mean, I believe it was big blocks for the 60s? 40 years ago I had a 67 Mustang 390 GTA and i still remember getting parts for it and being asked if it was an "FE". Were there non-FE big blocks of that era?
Again, sorry for the ignorance and thanks for any help,
Karl.

 

[puttster]

how's this

 

[ShotRod64]

The FE engines were/are 352, 390, 427 and 428 most common. 360 and 391 in trucks which I'm not sure if those are considered FE or not. 406, 410 which i don't know a thing about and not common.

As far as "FE" itself, thats a mystery and don't think anyone truly knows. Some say it means Ford Engine, some say it's the element symbol for iron. Most lean to ford engine.

Not sure on the part number question and probably forgot something on the FE story. I've heard the motors are interchangeable or can be made to work through several years but the switches might not because of shape, size or color. Sorry i'm not much help but hopefully someone knows how that all works.

 

[Banjo67]

Chances are he just wants to cash out in one lump transaction. He might have zero interest at searching for individual peices and might price accordingly. He might not even have the stuff, some folks for some unknown reason are prone to exaggeration. A guy at work, since retired, who sat right across from me mentioned a friend who inherited his Dad's old shop and it was full of old parts and this guy told me if there was anything I specifically needed, let him know. Less than a year later, I did (vacuum solenoids) and he'd developed amnesia and said it must've been someone else. I was positive about it. Another guy I worked with once was telling me (he was MOPAR nut) about him going to look at a rough Roadrunner for $300 and he really didn't want to screw with it (this was about 10 years back) so I persisted and offered a finders fee to turn me over to the guy, I'd break his arm buying a $300 Roadrunner, but the deal vanished. Yet another guy was bitching about his (can't recall the car now), but think it was a Roadrunner ragtop, said it had sat so long one of teh quarter panels had settled into the mud and rusted out and it was going to be hell to relocate and wishing he hadn't dropped 2500 on it. I immediately offered him his $2500 out of it and the deal vaporized and it "got gone to his son's buddy before he could get it moved"....
Alot of folks just like to run off their damn mouths to impress folks and don't have have shi& they'd sell. BUT, if they do, they'd likely want to dispose of the whole lot in one lump transaction rather than hunting a bracket or wheel cylinder or whatever. Just depends on the guy. Collector guys can be very quirky.

 

[puttster]

LOL, all those guys are posters here!

 

[r.n.r.racing]

The FE engines were/are 352, 390, 427 and 428 most common. 360 and 391 in trucks which I'm not sure if those are considered FE or not. 406, 410 which i don't know a thing about and not common.

As far as "FE" itself, thats a mystery and don't think anyone truly knows. Some say it means Ford Engine, some say it's the element symbol for iron. Most lean to ford engine.

Not sure on the part number question and probably forgot something on the FE story. I've heard the motors are interchangeable or can be made to work through several years but the switches might not because of shape, size or color. Sorry i'm not much help but hopefully someone knows how that all works.

FE engines are 332, 352, 360, 390, 406, 410, 427 and 428

FT engines are the 361 and the 391

The "FE" stands for Ford Edsel as Ford went together with Edsel to design this engine in the beginning.

The "FT" stands for Ford Truck as these engines are similar to the FE's, but were mainly used in heavy trucks like dump and commercial.

The 360 and the 390 were common to the light pick up trucks.

 

[ShotRod64]

Ron thanks!! Thought of this tonight and that i screwed it up on the 36/391 then just finally now found the thread it was in!! Couldn't remember for the life of me! I went through seems like a dozen! lol

Still not sure on that FE though. Not even sure if there is any written confirmation on that one and it's all up in the air. Have you seen the same arguments over it?

 

[FEandGoingBroke]

Ron thanks!! Thought of this tonight and that i screwed it up on the 36/391 then just finally now found the thread it was in!! Couldn't remember for the life of me! I went through seems like a dozen! lol

Still not sure on that FE though. Not even sure if there is any written confirmation on that one and it's all up in the air. Have you seen the same arguments over it?

FT's ARE FE's they simply have a different timing cover and crank snout.

FE's were designed in 1957 and produced in 1958 By both Ford Designers and Edsel designers so Ford/Edsel makes the most sense to me.

And this guy with all these parts and all that is a bunch of bull schart. I hear this so many times a week it's not even funny anymore.

Tell them to produce or to stop bothering you with their lies.

 

[ShotRod64]

I remember when i first got the 390 i have now there was a big debate over if it was 390 or 391 since it was out of a truck. But the 4x4 Highboys continued with 390 until '74 so i was safe. It still would of been ok either way but i wanted a 390.

 

[62XL]

FT engines also have different heads and intake manifolds than are on FE engines.

I have never seen any official documentation that tells what "FE" means... only opinions.

 

[PSIG]

And this guy with all these parts and all that is a bunch of bull schart. I hear this so many times a week it's not even funny anymore.

Tell them to produce or to stop bothering you with their lies.

Unfortunately, that's true, and a good point to notice how he acts as you go. I've also had several "barn full of parts" stories right from the owners, and only one was even partly true. That one turned-out to be a shopping cart full of generic tie rod ends and other common parts (most of them rusted) and a garbage can full of new but rotted body seals. $100 total value on a good day. Everyone thinks their junk is worth more than junk. Once in a very, very long time - it is. It's the possibility that keeps everyone's interest...

David