Curiosity Question: Factory Die's

[Max]

For no good reason other than curiosity, does anyone know what happens to the original stamping dies or the actual machines from the factories from years back? I know Dennis Carpenter got some of them for their 'Officially Licensed Products", but do they keep using the same machines over the years and add new dies to them after design changes until those are worn or are there brand new machines installed after a radical design change?

Am I making any sense here?

[DanSanDiego2000]

I have an NOS exterior door mirror in the Ford box. On the box, it shows that it was made in 1961. They used the same mirror from 1953-1966, so the dies must have worked non stop for that period (and longer??). The NOS part I have shows signs of coming out of a aged and worn die. The Dennis Carpenter piece (from what I believe is the same mold/die), had much greater detail, clarity and all letters, number and logos were easily readable. It seems that the same die that had worn down so much from 53-61 had been renewed and revamped for the aftermarket use by Carpenter's. It's too bad that any of these dies ever get destroyed.

[Hawkrod]

Most old tooling and dies are shipped to foreign plants that still manufacture the vehicles. For example, our slicks were made well into the 70's in South America. Our old models are their new models. The only reason any old tooling is left is becuase it was either still in demand by the parts department or there were multiples and the other plants planned production did not dictate the need for all of the tools. Hawkrod

[Slick Fan]

This doesn't pertain to Slicks or Ford dies (forgive me ), but here's probably something that's not commonly known about the final resting place for the body dies for Delorean cars...

http://www.dmcnews.com/Resource/bodydies/bodydies.html

[64 f100]

Dies are made to be taken out of the stamping machines, as a general rule, and these dies do wear out. You can see this reflected in some of the bad NOS parts occasionally. The dies are owned by the Ford Motor company, and have mostly been destroyed over the years, although some have not. Even a small die is expensive, and can easily run into 20 thousand in cost, for a new one on a small part. Most dies are not held by Ford, but the companies Ford has contracts with to produce those parts. In addition to the dies, you have to have the presses to make the stampings, and it is generally a farmed out job. Cost here includes setup time, and eats a lot of cash, and this is before you see your first stamping. The whole thing has a lot of if's and maybe's involved in cost. I would say, making one item with new dies could easily cost you 50 thousand, before ever selling the first one. Leasing the dies and rights thru Ford and Carpenter is something I would like to know more about, but even then, it's still going to involve a lot of maybe's cost wise. Not trying to be discouraging, just don't know of any cheaper way of doing what your suggesting. The other side of the coin is doing it yourself approach. Hand make your own dies and fabricate a way of doing the stamping. Something I've thought on but haven't tried. I do make metal pieces by hand, but don't have an English wheel I need, nor anything else but a few body tools to work with.

Rich