Has anyone noticed recently that parts are getting a little harder to find for our gen. trucks? I went to the local dealership the other day looking for a weatherstrip for drivers door opening...I'm told "obsolete". While there, I wanted to price a rear bumper for the same truck....again-obsolete. What happens when there is a call for these parts, say an accident? Since they cannot get the parts from Ford, does this mean we have to settle for repro? I think what's happening it that we're in the doldrums....trucks aren't really old enough to warrant reproducion items, but not new enough to find anything decent NOS at the dealership....oh well, I guess its off to the j/y !
Roger

 

Here you go...

LMC Truck Parts - Page 17

 

The trucks are 13-24 years old, how many are realy one the road(compared to newer ones)It is not cost effective for ford to make parts for obsolite trucks

 

thats why i love lmc...if you cant find it there then its not really needed

 

yep I have absolutely noticed, I need a Knock sensor for my 300Cid straight 6 in my 90 NOBODY has it I called Bwd,Wells,Borg Warner direct none have it, also called napa,oreillys,autozone,car quest,pep boys they didn't have it either and even Ford themselves Don't carry it anymore. the only place that has it is Advanced auto parts which I'm not the biggest fan of but atleast They have the damn thing. pisses me off the guy at Wells told me that theres not enough 300 straight 6 based trucks still on the road to justify production of that part Yet there are enough 302s ARE you kidding me???? 300s were used in EVERYTHING dump trucks,Mail delivery,industrial,1/2,3/4,1 ton trucks etc.

 

Its called Forced/Planned Obsolescence. By dropping production on key parts, it removes more and more older vehicles from the road, thereby forcing more purchases of new and "newer" vehicles.

 

LOTFOL HELL will freeze over before I buy anything newer than the last year production model of our body style. I'll buy an 6.9L-7.3L/420-444CID idi or 7.3L/444Cid Power stroke diesel and put it in my F150 before that happens

 

Im not sure where they get the parts at the parts house I use but I never have any issues. Its not a big chain tho.

I will say toyota/nissan dealers are the best for parts, any part you could want they stock or can get it-even if its from a 1970's celica as I found out once! BUT huge thing about them is there werent nearly as many combos and alot of vehicles shared alot of parts.

 

Its a conspiracy I tell ya.....Push the older vehicles outta service, then everyone has to buy the ****ty ECO-Turds......

-Wes

 

SSHHHHH.....

 

Quite a few!!!

 

NAIL ON THE HEAD!!! every OEM industry does it.

Thus the Aftermarket segment has a job, it just takes about 15-20yrs to get into factory grade repos and then only for models with enough interest!!


Parts are leaving dealer and local parts stores, but are ramping up greatly in aftermarket for our age of Trucks(at least the oldest of our group)

 

This is also a major factor. Especially on certain parts that were not used on many models. Consider the crew-cab trucks of this era, while there were a ton of them made, when considered as a percentage of total production of F150-F350 standard cabs, the number produced is small. End result is once the factory runs out of NOS parts, there will most likely be NO aftermarket support for certain parts on these models (rear doors, rear door panels, etc) as the demand is not enough to justify a manufacturer (either OEM or Aftermarket) producing those parts. Right now, in setting up my F350 CC project, I am having to make my own rear window switch mounting, as the drivers door panel and trim cover for the switch control with power rear windows is completely obsolete. And odds are it will NEVER be produced in the aftermarket either. Fortunately, I was able to scrounge the rear window harness from the local PAP, along with a pair of pristine rear doors (giving me a spare set of rear doors), 2 perfect front door panels from a power window standard cab, and a couple of NOS rear door panels in gray from Ebay ($200!! OUCH!!). While I can understand the factory dropping support for parts, after all it takes big $$$ to do a tooling change over to run a line of parts and warehouse them until they are sold, as a person who owns and appreciates one of these trucks, it sucks knowing that one day soon, it will only be on the road and driving by adapting and modifying parts to fit and keep it going.

The best advice is to keep an eye on the local JY's and when you see a good OEM part that you know odds are you will need one day, grab it and stash it in the garage for the day when it is no longer available and you desperately need it.

 

I've been noticing that for a few years now. We will have to find NOS or settle for reproduction or salvage yard parts.

 

Eh, I don't think finding parts will be the problem. Somebody rear ended my truck last year and his insurance company tried to total it out for $900. There's just not a whole lot of value in these things.