Parts quality
 

Just a little rant about some of the parts I've had to use. I'm building an 8BA for a customer. He bought a new production front cover and a fluidamper. The new cover would not allow the distributor to go in. The fluidamper would not fit the crank because the bore was too small. Building a 59A with Edelbrock heads and an Edelbrock Slingshot manifold. The manifold did not fit. The boss for the exhaust crossover interfered with the right head, Had to grind 1/8 to 3/16" off to allow me to bolt it on. Then the fuel pump interfered with the intake runner, so had to grind material off the bottom of the pump. Last but not least, went to bolt some new water pumps on and the two top bolts would not clear the pulley. Had to use socket head cap screws and they barely cleared. Gets very frustrating.

Re: Parts quality
 

Who's pumps??

Re: Parts quality
 

Wow, sounds like sticking with stock OEM parts is a good idea.
Please let us know the manufacturer of the "malfitting" parts.

Re: Parts quality
 

Reproduction parts have required modifications to fit correctly from day one.

What's different today are the reasons they don't fit:

Language barriers
SAE v Metric
Third person manufacturing

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Plus lack of quality control and lack of precision to save manufacturing cost.

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Common problem. Custom Part A will work just fine with Stock Part B. Custom Part B will work just fine with Stock Part A. Custom Part A will not work with Custom Part B. Make it fit.

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the ONLY part I ever bought for our '41 ford, that was aftermarket and fit and operated as described was a PerTronix unit and running board covers from Vintique. Everything else was too wide, metric thread, too thick and just wrong. Now I only go with OEM parts. Even used are better than ill filling parts.

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So many folks place the blame on Chinese manufacturing. Hate to inform those folks but China can produce quality equal to all others.
That level of quality must be paid for.
So, when a crap part gets sold, it's on the company that sells it. They chose to purchase it from their supplier and chose to sell it to you.

To think metric vs. our standard has anything to do with it is utter nonsense. I built dies for nearly twenty years and dealt with metric specifications more often than not. There are formulas for equating metric tolerances.

Re: Parts quality
 

[QUOTE=Kube;2328562]

So many folks place the blame on Chinese manufacturing. Hate to inform those folks but China can produce quality equal to all others.
That level of quality must be paid for.



For sure! When I retired I bought a small Rockwell vertical milling machine for my small shop. A few years after I found another Rockwell vertical/horizontal mill in extremely nice condition. Later a friend passed and he had a Select Mill made in Taiwan that I bought. This company made this mill for numerous companies to their quality specs which determined the cost. The fit, finish and end product was superior to the 2 Rockwells I had used. Now nearing the end of my shop years I am quite sure that selling this little mill will put up a red flag being made in Taiwan. I did put a Baldor motor and a starter on as I was told Asian electrics are not as well made.

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Actually the "made in Taiwan" machines are still considered to be good. At lest better than the mainland China stuff and they will typically cost a little more.

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great if you know it's metric but when you're installing a part and can't figure out why the stock bolt will not thread in and you find out the repro part is threaded metric it can tend to piss you off. whoever made the repro part had the original part or a print in front of them ,why change it?

Re: Parts quality
 

I have purchased two sets of stainless flathead headers made in China that were very inexpensive (<$100). The headers themselves were of excellent quality, but all of the supplied fasteners were metric.:confused: It didn't take me long to figure out the problem and get the proper bolts and all was fine. I have to believe that the headers were made by someone who knew what they were doing, but the final package was put together by some know-nothing who just wanted to get product out the door and collect his ill-gotten gains.

There are charlatans everywhere.

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How do you know the drawing didn't specify metric?
Do you believe the Chinese and others not capable of cutting any type thread?

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One problem is we generally don't know what comes from China and what is made here in US. I am referring to building a 1956 Chevrolet that started 15 years ago so my guess is that now even more parts come from China than before. One parts house would sell the US made part and a China or other country part with the corresponding price. Then you could choose. I can remember going to Kragens to 30-50 years ago and end up coming home with a part that didn't fit. It was frustrating back then and may or may not have anything to do with China. So I feel for guys who's livelihood has to depend on getting the right parts but for me, I get frustrated for a few minutes then try to get a part that works.

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Jack,

Thanks for sharing. That's interesting to hear about the Edelbrock stuff. Both myself and my buddy have used their "new" Slingshot manifold and I've just recently installed their block letter heads on a 59AB without any issues. I wonder if the parts you have are of a newer casting and they have since changed their patterns?

Curious, did you install 8BA or 59-style heads on the 8BA block?

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As probably many of us I went through the Japan is crap period, we all know how that turned out. Now it’s the well earned China is junk period. That’s coming to an end. I’m more familiar with China in the two wheel world than four wheels and I can tell you that they are turning out some high quality motorbikes of their own and producing engines in collaboration with KTM and BMW.

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Yes the difference with the Chinese is that they will produce to a price- You pay them peanuts they will give you junk -They know it is junk but ethically they have no problems with providing it at your price . You pay the price and they will give you the best quality in the world. The middleman who buys your parts from China asks for the cheapest price to max out his profit and we get junk.

Until we are prepared to pay more to get quality (which I see as unlikely) I don't see the situation changing anytime soon.

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Kube said it all followed by Karl, much of the problem is those wanting a deal, if a set of Oem points and rotor is going for $100-$125 don’t gripe that the set you bought for $50 had issues. The Chinese copy our most hi-tech aircraft they have copied the engineering in my industry regarding cranes to the extent of pins to .001mm, the Chinese can produce to the price they are being paid to produce
You get what you pay for, do your research if it’s too good of a deal well it probably isn’t
MM

Re: Parts quality
 

My point is, if it's a repro part for an American car, why would anyone, either manufacturer or seller change or modify any part that is to be like/ equal to OEM. Us didn't go metric until the late '70's. I would expect a repro part to be pretty damn close to a part before that period

Re: Parts quality
 

I installed 59 heads on an 8BA block.