Actually, in a way they did come back. These were 47 pounds of aluminum weldments and the aluminum fumes are very toxic to breath. Two of our bosses had started their own parts manufacturing facility in an old warehouse near by and that is where they ended up. I had to go there once to fix something and it was a hell hole to work in.
GM was always looking to make parts cheaper and they didn't care who did it. Automotive parts manufacturing has to be one of the most cut-throat businesses to be in. Lou.

 

I'm pretty sure that Vette Products has the original GM tooling, or at least started with some of it. I don't recall anymore, exactly where Neal (owner of Vette Products) started out. It might have been AO Smith, GM or somewhere else, but I think he originally was involved in tooling, stamping or manufacturing of some sort, related to the auto industry. I think it was through his past experience that he had access to the original tooling, and knew how to use it to make parts (he manufactures a number of stamped parts besides frames, like air cleaners).

GM usually owned the tooling, dies, molds, etc., for everything they made, even if it was something being produced by an outside company. This has been good for the hobby, because as GM has discontinued parts, they've licensed the tooling to companies in the car hobby, allowing them to make reproduction parts, using the original tooling.

 

As long as the parts meet the engineering specs, and the manufacturer isn't disrupting production with strikes, what's wrong with that?

 

There is nothing wrong with that, but if you are a good parts maker for them, GM did not try to help you out any, or really try to continue using you as a good supplier. They had no heart. Just save a penny for the bean counters. Do you know about the " give backs " that parts suppliers had to do for the big three? Also, old age creeping up, we did made the aluminum pieces for the bosses company, I remember now. Lou.

 

Glenn, I worked in maintenance at the Cleveland MTD plant for 34 years. We made all of the Corvette radiator supports from 1960-1982. They never had us make any "service part" 1968 radiator supports while I was working there..We had three hanging on the wall in spot welding department, used as checking fixtures, and guides for the three different 68 designs. One day I heard that GM ordered us to scrap all of their "obsolete" dies. They did not always save them or give someone a chance to buy them. All of the 68 radiator support dies were scrapped with the rest of the old ones. A very sad day for a 44 year 1968 coupe owner. Lou.

 

It's not GM's responsibility to help you. They (GM) are the customer, not you. The reason you have any of GM's business is due to GM giving it to you.

When I go to McDonalds I expect them to cater to me, the customer. I don't expect them to demand that I help them out, or keep spending my money there if a restaurant down the road has the same menu but at lower prices.

Unless there's a monopoly involved, the customer is king, not the business.

 

I realize this. I know it was typical for then to scrap the tooling of discontinued parts. Most of the tooling that has been saved for reproduction parts, got saved because someone had connections at GM.

The founder of Paragon, was a former GM employee. He knew where things were made, and had contacts that let him know when parts were being discontinued. This allowed him to get access to GM tooling before it was destroyed. The same is true of other companies too. Unfortunately, a lot of tooling is long gone.

As far as saving money, all of the automakers were brutal to deal with. My first job was in sales, for a cold drawn steel manufacturer. We sold some steel direct to the auto companies, and a lot to their suppliers. Hurst was one of our customers, we sold them steel for shifters, rods and their Jaws of Life. We had a special process called "turned and polished", for steel that was to be chromed, but it was a little more expensive. They refused to pay extra, and as a result we were always dealing with quality issues with them. The worse part was that regular drawn steel looked fine after working it. It wasn't until after chroming it, that the surface imperfections would show up.

I understand why they worked so hard to save money though. The car companies were always selling an expensive product, made up of thousands parts, and always in a very competitive market. If they could save a penny on one part, for a million cars, they saved $10,000. If they could save a penny on 100 parts, that's a million dollars saved!

GM did do some strange things though. A friend of mine was a foreman at the Trenton NJ die cast plant. One thing they cast there was the Nomad tailgate chrome. The 6 bars and the center bar and handle, were all cast in the same mold. GM discontinued the center bar, but continued to offer the other 6. They would take the center bars out of the mold, throw them in the scrap bin, and send the rest of the bars to plating. My friend would grab the centers out of the scrap and have them chromed. He'd buy the other 6 bars (with his GM discount) then sell complete sets of new Nomad chrome at Carlisle and through Hemmings. Trim Parts eventually ended up with that mold and sells the complete sets now.

 

Sorry to hijack this post, can you post a Picture of the entire car with that great looking rolling chas? The wheels look awesome

 

Been reading this post and reckon I should Thank You Lou for the sweat and tears you put in so that I may enjoy my beautiful '72 ... Well Done Mate!