Providing parts and service for "America's Favorite Pony Car" can grow your business.
ATTENTION WDs, jobbers, installers, tune-up centers, new-car dealers, and anyone else in the automotive aftermarket industry. You may be missing out on an excellent opportunity to grow your business and shore up that all-important bottom line through the parts sales and service of "America's Favorite Pony Car," the classic Ford Mustang.
Manufactured from April 17, 1964 to approximately August 31, 1973, the first-generation Mustang was, and still is, loved by young and old, from baby boomers to octogenarians worldwide.Ford Motor Company produced more than 3 million (3,019,371 to be exact) units during that first decade of classic Mustang production and, if that's not impressive enough a statistic, then here's yet another bankable tidbit of information.
The Mustang Club of America (MCA) estimates that more than 40 percent of all classic Mustangs produced during the first decade are still on the road. So, if our trusty calculator is correct, that means there exists a potential customer base of approximately 75,484 Mustang loyalists worldwide; spouses, girlfriends, family, and other interested parties excluded.Translated into dollars and cents, it should come as no surprise that today's classic Mustang parts aftermarket is already a multi-million-dollar-a-year industry. However, there's still plenty of room left for enterprising individuals to climb onboard.
3 MUSTANG AFTERMARKET SEGMENTS
Essentially, the Mustang aftermarket can be divided into three segments:
1. Despite their Falcon economy car underpinnings, Mustangs have always been considered high-performance cars, so it stands to reason that hard parts, such as carburetors, air cleaners, valve covers, intake manifolds, cams and kits, pistons, connecting rods, engine bearings, ignition systems, headers, mufflers, clutches, manual and automatic transmissions, rear-end gears, suspensions, etc., are, and always will be, very much in demand.For years, the small-block Ford V-8 engine (and to a lesser extent, the big-block Ford V-8 in its various incarnations) has provided bread-and-butter revenue for machine shops, tune-up shops, and engine builders alike with brand names including Shelby, American Racing, Centerforce, Doug's Headers, Edelbrock, Holley, Hurst, MSD, Paxton, TRW, Weiand, and a myriad of other best-selling brands.
2. Conversely, the larger-sized and generally harder-to-store sheet-metal items, such as fenders, doors, hoods, and rocker panels, experienced a much shorter production run, due in part to their sheer size and the fact that since Ford no longer built a particular model, tooling was usually rendered obsolete and scrapped. Once the remaining stockpile of sheet metal in the Ford Parts & Services computerized system was gone, that was the end of it.
Of course, the obsolete sheet-metal body panels your local Ford dealer didn't have leftover in stock might have been found at your independent Ford Parts retailer specializing in obsolete Mustang parts sales; or perhaps from your local automotive swap-meet vendor, usually for a handsome price!Another viable alternative was the local junkyard. However, as early Mustangs became more collectible, the price for "crash parts" also began to increase, oftentimes to an utterly ridiculous point.
3. Cosmetic Mustang parts, like extruded aluminum and chrome trim, bumpers, and headlight and taillight bezels, were subject to deterioration from nature's harsh elements. So were electrical components and "soft-trim" items, like interior trim and rubber moldings, which seemed to experience a longer shelf life as the ease-in-handling factor and revenue value became apparent to Ford Parts & Services. However, as these items also became obsolete from the books, a genuine need arose for an alternate parts source.
SCOTT DRAKE MUSTANG PARTS
Enter the classic Mustang parts aftermarket, which began sometime in the mid-to-late 1970s."I had been doing the swap-meet thing, buying and selling used Mustang parts as far back as my high-school days," commented Scott Drake, proprietor of Henderson, Nevada's Scott Drake Mustang Parts, Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of classic Mustang parts.
"Eventually, it got to where I couldn't find enough good used Mustang parts out there to sell anymore, so I figured that if I went into the classic Mustang reproduction parts business for myself, I would have an unlimited supply of parts to sell, and that would be the end of the problem."
Scott Drake's first reproduction part was a rear trunk seal for the 1965-70 Mustang coupe. "In 1976, I spent $300 producing a die and we extruded 1,000 feet of butyl rubber trunk-seal material. I tested it out in the parking lot on my high-school drafting teacher's 1965 Mustang coupe. First, I fitted the molding to the underside of the trunk, then glued it up, and slammed the trunk lid shut. Then I took a five-gallon bucket of water and poured it over the back of the deck lid. The minute we popped the trunk lid open and discovered that it was as dry as a bone inside, I knew we were in business!"
Of course, faithfully reproducing certain Mustang "trim ware" can be considerably more complicated than others, but Drake has managed to stay the course.Today, Scott Drake Mustang Parts manufactures more than 3,000 faithful reproductions of classic Mustang parts and catalogues an additional 6,000 classic Mustang specialty items, manufactured by other Mustang aftermarket parts replicators, sold through participating Scott Drake Mustang Parts retailers.
"In 21 years, we've gone from a swap-meet business to an 86,000-sq-ft. facility and we employ 65 full-time employees. At last count, we have more than 500 Scott Drake Mustang Parts dealers signed up."
So, what does the future hold for Scott Drake Mustang Parts?
"We sell classic Mustang parts all over the world. Of course, the most commonly asked question is 'gosh, how can you make a living in a diminishing marketplace like the classic Mustang parts business?' At Scott Drake Mustang Parts, Inc., we've experienced growth every single year we've been in business and there appears to be no end in sight."
DYNACORN INTERNATIONAL
Like Scott Drake, Jim Christina, vice president and general manager at Oxnard, California's Dynacorn International, Inc. (DII), considered a leader in classic Mustang sheet-metal body panels reproduction, cites similar growth in his particular market segment."Dynacorn International, Inc. was launched in 1984, primarily as an auto-body panel-replacement company. Our first early Mustang product was a set of extruded aluminum sill plates for the 1965-68 Mustang coupe. From there, we branched out to rocker panels, reproduction quarter panels, floor pans, hoods, doors, and that kind of thing."
Today, the classic Mustang segment of DII's rapidly expanding global enterprise represents approximately 40 percent of the gross, according to Christina.
"Two years ago, we started a new corporation going under the name Dynacorn Classic Bodies, Inc., which now manufactures fully licensed replacement body shells for 1967-68 Mustangs fastbacks, 1967-68 Camaro coupes, 1969 Camaro coupes and convertibles, and 1948-54 Chevrolet pickup trucks."
Combining forces, DII and Dynacorn Classic Bodies, Inc. account for a multi-million-dollar-a-year business.
"We have close to 500 sheet-metal, bright trim, and DII molding dealers signed up. In the classic body division, we have approximately 60 Dynacorn Classic Bodies, Inc. dealers nationwide," Christina said.
FORD RESTORATION LICENSING
There was another side to the classic Mustang restoration "coin"—which eventually had to be addressed, as classic Mustang reproduction parts, or "repros," appeared more frequently on parts shelves across the country—and that was quality.One of the most commonly asked questions by classic Mustang purists was "It may look like a Genuine Ford Part, but does it meet or exceed Ford Motor Company quality standards?"
"Our goal is to assure Ford customers that the officially licensed reproduction parts they purchase through 'obsolete' Ford Parts retailers either meet or exceed the original parts specifications in fit and finish and overall performance," said Dennis Mondrach, Ford Restoration Licensing manager.
"Basically the only stipulation Ford Restoration Licensing has is that a part has to go obsolete in our (Ford Parts & Services) system before we can really address the issue. Some parts are obsolete out of the system earlier than usual and some parts go far beyond their original manufacture date," Mondrach continued.
"At Ford Restoration Licensing, we evaluate product samples of every reproduction Ford part presented, checking it against an 'NOS,' or original parts sample whenever available, and/or against the original factory blueprints whenever necessary. The Ford Restoration Parts program covers virtually every restoration part manufactured from 1911 up to parts reproduced for Ford vehicles manufactured up to the year 2000. We try to stay at least seven years back from current production models, but sometimes, a few items go beyond that.
"Our objective is to grow the Ford Restoration Parts program. If a part or component is originally manufactured by Ford Motor Company and used in the manufacture and sale of any Ford Motor Company product, then, if reproduced, it has to be officially licensed as a Genuine Ford Restoration Part. These parts have to have the original Ford Motor Company logos on them as well as the original FoMoCo part numbers. At present, we have close to 10,000 officially licensed Ford Restoration Parts in our system," Mondrach said.
MUSTANGS UNLIMITED
With retail outlets located in both Connecticut and Georgia, Mustangs Unlimited is, by comparison, the "JEGS or Summit" of the classic and late-model Mustang aftermarket.
"I started Mustangs Unlimited around 1976 after visiting the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Antique Car Show & Swap Meet. At first, we were just a local concern, but we were fortunate enough to expand the company into one of the nation's leading classic and late-model Mustang retail parts businesses, which today, stocks more than 40,000 items and employs more than 100 full-time employees," said Mustangs Unlimited CEO Chris Hoverman.
"At Mustangs Unlimited, we're proud of the fact we've helped more than one million customers restore their classic Mustangs, providing them with not only top-quality parts, but also technical support; we're particularly proud of the fact that we're one of Ford Racing Performance Parts' top 10 distributors.
MUSTANG SERVICE CENTER
North Hollywood, California's Bo Chung owns and operates the Mustang Service Center, which could be considered you're atypical "mom-and-pop" Mustang restoration parts sales and service shop.
"We're basically a two-man shop, and we service approximately 35 to 40 classic Mustangs a month. Our services range from tune-ups to electrical repairs to heavy-duty mechanical work. We also perform both cosmetic and concourse restorations. With the exception of paint and bodywork, we do practically everything in-house," Chung said.
When Styling & Performance asked Chung what the classic Mustang business meant to him, he replied, "I really like this business; I like the people in it and I especially like working on the cars. I guess you could say that 'America's Favorite Pony Car' has become a huge part of my life."
