Maybe, but they'd look weird just randomly posted on there without the accompanying thread...

Did you guys see this? - 19 iconic products that america doesn't make anymore: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance

Pretty sad really. Just like in the case of outlawing the incandescent lightbulb in the article I posted, ordering ridiculously strict emissions laws also drive a lot our economy away.

 

As I recall we ,,,canadian's...decried the "free trade act" 20 years ago.your goverment..forced us to accept and we have lost our integrety with you..in BC our own goverment WON'T buy or build a ferry here ,we no longer have the training or ability they say..good news ..MR. Hann is american and running our ferry system..and a crappy job at that in my opinion...the problem is and always will be lawyers and goverment ,with the envriomentests...and overconsumpson..yep I have 7 fords and I can fix any of them..I still buy levi jeans and ride a harley...and yes I would like to come down and spend my hard earned money visiting you guy's..but your homeland suqurity twits...can't tell terrorist from tourist...and banned me 5 years ago..so now I go to mexico and the bahamas...your loss and add the hundreds of canadians harrassed at the border..that's a lot of lost income to you and yours..

 

I have stayed out of this conversation as long as I could...mainly because I have some fairly strong opinions about the issues and don't feel that this is the forum to express them. That said, the U.S. has lost the ability to manufacture durable goods. We have very few steel mills, when I buy a sheet of 18ga cold rolled steel I am paying a high price because the old engine blocks and crushed cars that we sent across the Pacific to be made into that sheet of steel had to be processed and shipped back to me. Why can't we do that processing here? There are many answers to that question; nobody wants a steel mill in their backyard, too much pollution, etc....but I feel that much of the problem we have in this country today is based on the expectations of the people. Politicians promise anything to get elected and over the past half century or so we have been promised "fair living wages", "free health care", "a home for everyone" without regard to our/your ability to pay for it. How many people in the U.S. today would even take a job in a factory at a wage commensurate with the skills necessary to do the work? We have an obvious need to restore our manufacturing capability and a surplus of people who are in need of work...why can't we put the two together?
I buy American where I can...real American products made by local suppliers. Whether it is sheetmetal products from Direct Sheetmetal or produce from local farmers, I feel better supporting my friends and neighbors by buying their products. This country became great by building things that no other country could or would...now we are losing that edge and seem to be content to live on entitlements. My Christmas wish is that we as a country wake up and return to the principles that built this country.

 

Agreed, we have lost the ability. But we didn't lose it under the couch cushion, it was stolen by our government. This oil thing has been blown way out of proportion, Alaska and North Dakota are chock full of oil and the granola's out east have no idea how big these states are and how un-invasive oil drilling is these days anyway. We have absolutely no need to be "dependent" on foreign oil, we could supply them with oil if we could get the clearance from Washington.

I live in Gillette, WY "The Energy Capital of the Nation" and I get to see hundreds of hard working guys laid off every spring from the oilfield so that the sage grouse (which is not endangered and they are everywhere) can nest without being disturbed. Which is ridiculous because Wyoming is the 9th biggest state in the country and is the least populated state in the country (a little over 500,000 of us in the whole state). I pastor a small church here and the ranchers in my church measure their ranches in miles, not acres. Believe me, the sage grouse has plenty of room to move around.

I loved that during the BP fiasco no one mentioned that Obama has been saying for years that we were running out of oil like it's going out of style and acting as though we were down to the last few barrels, but somehow we leaked an olympic sized swimming pool full of oil PER DAY for months into the ocean and the price of gas went down.

The problem with government is that they keep making new laws every day, but never take the old ones off the books, so eventually we have to loose all our freedoms...

 

Well Said! Jag

 

When I dissasembled my 54 Ford truck, several of the pieces of sheet metal had "Made in Brazil" stamped on them. That was made over 55 years ago.

That's interesting! I just pulled out the tie rod, removed the tie rod ends, and cleaned up the rod. To my surprise the rod had the ford logo and underneath that was stamped "Made In Brazil"....
The truck is a 49 (f47) it's the same as the f1 in the 'States'.

 

Maybe somebody reading this will remember when a certain post was written, but it went something like this:

About 5 years ago an FTE member from Brazil used to post relatively often. He explained that Ford actually continued to make the 56 pickup body style until the 60s in Brazil. So, naturally, there were many more repair parts and doner vehicles available to him then we have here in the US!!

Does anybody remember that conversation?

Jag

 

Yes, his truck was produced in 1962 but had the body style (cab) of our 1956 F100.
brian...

 

Ford F-Series Brazil: 1958-1962

hope this link works.
brian...

 

Whoa, that's crazy! It's cool that there's more '56 looking bodystyle trucks out there in the world, although IMO that styleside box looks really out of place on that truck.

Mervy49 - So was your truck also shipped in to the U.S.? I wonder what year it actually is?

 

1946/68: FoMoCo assembled Mercury & Ford passenger cars & trucks specifically for the Canadian market that were assembled in Canada.

GM, ChryCo, Studebaker (thru 1966) & AMC did the same thing.

These vehicles could not be sold in the US when new. It all had to do with tariffs between the US & Canada that "went away" in 1967.

btw: Look on the upper right hand corner of the page and you'll see that Mervy49 resides in British Columbia.

 

To answer both of the above, my truck was built in Canada. It is the equivalent of the 1949 F1 in the USA. Up here they are called 'F 47's. Athough, I don't know the history behind this. I have had the truck completely apart down to every last nut and bolt and the only place I have found the 'made in Brazil' mark is on the actual tie rod. This leads me to suspect that the PO had replaced the original tie rod end someime ago. I have had the truck for nearly 35 years, so it was well before then, since it shows signs of lots of use. I'll see if I can get a pic of the mark today.

 

I cannot recall when, but FoMoCo bought the Kaiser Jeep assembly plant in Brazil. This was before AMC gained ownership of Jeep....the most traveled brand in auto history.

Don't know what F-47 refers to, maybe it's the first year this particular type of truck was first offered (1947).

Try here: mercurypickups.com

 

I guess we'll have to stick to Turtle wax and domestic beer!

 

Back in 1969 ,living in N. Wis. purchased a set of '47 stamped steel running boards from of all places =J.C. Whitness in Chicago mail order . They were stamped =Made in Brazil .