Why is everyone out of chassis springs?

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by Bob Bidonde

Many of the wonderful assortment of reproduction parts available to us have gone or are going away because of reduced demand and increased costs to manufacture. The reproduction parts market is retrograding back to what is was near its infancy. I do believe there are not enough salvageable Model A's left to bring back the demand for the plethora of restoration parts we enjoyed just 20 years ago. What will continue in my opinion are the common parts we need to maintain our Model A's such as ignition, tires, tubes, water pumps, fan belts, gaskets, etc.

The emphasis for restorers today is salvaging original parts, even those in horrible condition. We are blessed to have craftsmen using modern tools & techniques that can make miracles out of bent, cranked and corroded metal.

I think that demand is definitely down from when I got into this hobby in the late 60s, but I think it’s as much demographics as it is supply of restorable Model As. I think if we look around at club meetings or tours we’ll see that a substantial number of us are at the more mature phase of life, whereas years ago it was the same folks, but we were a lot younger. With age I think comes less willingness to embark upon a full resto project. I know that the car I’m doing now is very likely the last one I’ll restore. If I get another one it will be already restored or an original driver.

When I got started maybe half or better of the club members were restoring cars, now in our club of over 100 member families maybe a half dozen are currently restoring cars. It’s an evolution of the hobby. And I’m not seeing a huge influx of younger folks (including, regrettably, my own kids), too much competition for limited time.