Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

Got a NORS 30-31 stainless cowl band from the defunct business noted, any comments on the quality? Anyone have or use on of these?

Re: Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

I in fact have one of Pete Buciak's cowl bands, I bought it from him thirty some years ago. It looked OK to me at the time, and worked well, I have never compared it side by side with an original. I also have a couple sets of his shocks and some hub caps.

Attached is an ad of his from Cars and Parts Magazine November 1981

Darryl in Fairbanks

Re: Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

I have a nos set of his shocks. Pete's stuff was top notch.

Re: Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

Here is a FB thread from two years ago on Pete...

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showth...ht=Pete+vendor

Re: Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

Leo

I put on a number of his cowl bands in the 80's of course original is beat but for a driver honestly his cowl bands seemed to fit and look pretty good if I remember. Probably better than the current repro now available if you don't want it let m&d know

Thx
Larry Shepard

Re: Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

I have his cowl band and hubcaps on my 1931 Pickup
These are very nice quality. Afordman31

Re: Antique Auto Parts by Pete?
 

In September of 1974, I was driving my 1928 roadster from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York City to place the car aboard an outgoing ocean liner bound for Hamburg, Germany, where I was to pick up the Model A three weeks later. On my way cross-country, I stopped in Chicago to buy a set of Pete's shocks, links and arms, as advertised in MAFCA's "The Restorer". As I recall, it was quite an adventure finding his house in a little town called Chicago. But find it I did! After paying for the parts, Pete helped me install them on the roadster. I had been driving the car without any shocks since "restoring" it to years prior. I was amazed at how much difference putting the shocks on made in the way the car handled, besides the expected improvement in ride. I have been a firm believer in them on Model A's ever since. As I recall on that day almost 40 years ago, Pete was quite a character. I was saddened to hear about his death a few years later. Apparently the quality of his parts had dropped off dramatically in the last few years of his life, as well as reputedly some of his business practices, such as cashing checks sent to him for parts, but not sending out the parts. The ugly spectre of lawyers and lawsuits entered the picture, too, as I understand it from at least one unimpeachable source. It's too bad that those are times that many old-time Model A guys in the hobby keep bringing up when Pete's name is mentioned these days. I'm afraid that the legacy of those bad years will forever tarnish old Pete's memory in the Model A community. That's so unfair, too, when one considers all the good years he had previously put into the hobby, offering quality parts.
Marshall
P.S. My 1928 roadster is still Germany in a Bavarian town named Traunstein, where I visited it in 1986. According to last reports, the same owner still has it! What a drive that was on the Autobahn in a 1928 Model A roadster from Hamburg to Munich! It rained torrents everyday. Can you say "hand-operated windshield wiper?" I thought you could...