[JM 35 Sedan]

Originally Posted by 38 Ford Guy

Back orders have been a problem for me from time to time too. The gas tanks last year took 6 months for to get. I have learned to plan ahead and ask what is back ordered and not. My last order was filled which I has not in a huge hurry for. As I look at his catalog and parts offering it amazes me with the number of cars he offer parts for that are rare. The potential to recover the investment on those parts has to be really low. Banks require a business to turn their inventory so many times a year so my bet is Bob Drake has a lot of money tied up in reproductions parts that are for Woodies, Cabriolets, etc. thus limiting his borrowing ability and inventory investment into the parts that turn fast. Also, my guess is certain parts that are outsourced would require minimum number of parts to be ordered, so Bob needs to get enough orders to justify the run. I'm betting a number of the reproduction parts he makes is for the love of the hobby not a good business decision. Without his business where would our hobby be? A large number of our cars would not be done and more cars parted out to finish cars. For that alone I support him. Enough of my rant if I offended anyone sorry.......

I believe you are right on the money with your opinion and I agree 100%. Working for a large manufacturing company myself for many years, I know we did not want to keep huge quantities of inventory in stock, especially when it came to the large and expensive product. I believe Bob Drake establishes his production run numbers on some items based on known ordered quantities, hoping that he can fill the pipe line as quick as possible.