Where have all the SHOs gone?

[93VantuckySHO]

Hopefully, none of us will be saying this anytime soon. But the price and quantity of parts is a little outrageous and makes you wonder how long can these really be on the road until it will be impossible to run. Does anyone have any insight on where the current available parts are manufactured? Is it possible to setup a massive run on gaskets, etc through a company? I appreciate the SHO source hands down and want to see them succeed, but I can't keep forking 100s over for seals...

 

[luigisho]

There probably aren't enough active owners to get a good run of seals/gaskets made. Companies are in business to make money and there isn't enough to be made here.

 

[Devin]

Cheap power has moved on, if it ever existed, from early SHOs. I think we are rapidly approaching the point where the majority of the leftover cars are in the hands of collectors, and general enthusiasts will have moved on. There will probably be beaters for quite some time, but eventually they'll all die off and with our aftermarket the Yamaha is doomed. Luckily for those invested in the nameplate, the SHO lives on!

 

[NCSHOracer]

Sadly it would be $50,000 for a group but of main bearings from clevite, it's not all that bad you would only need around 150 people to do that and more people would hopefully join in after that initial start.

 

[Devin]

Only 150 people... I don't recall a single hardware group buy that had 100 people on the initial buy!

Though it should be noted that I joined on the trailing edge of the original SHO wave.

 

[SHOdded]

Every mfr has a setup for a particular efficiency. Clevite being a major manufacturer I am sure is set up for high volume production. They may still be producing some products in low volume because they are at end-of-lifecycle but not below their efficiency threshold.

 

[93VantuckySHO]

Capitalism giveth SHOeth
Capitalism taketh SHOeth

 

[DeepPower]

For the time being, there are two paths: keep a stock of spare parts, and support SHOSource.

 

[jimtash]

Plenty of part are available. Affordable too. Problem is the people buying these cars now were either very young when they first came out or not even born. These are disposable to them for the most part. I was 17 in 1989 and working at the local Ford dealership when the SHO first came out. It was badass back then and still is TO ME. But my affinity for it isn't the same as a 20 something who is enamored with the symbolism of a Yamaha engine in a plain jane Taurus. Yet not so devoted that when something inevitably goes wrong that requires knowledge to fix, won't just turn around and sell it. Because it's easy for them to give up on.

As for you guys complaining about the lack of parts, learn to actually search the internet using part numbers. You might be surprised with what pops up.

 

[BrokenSHO&heart]

I use RTXautomotive, they are awful with communication but ship fast and have a big variety of parts.

 

[Devin]

You found some synchros?

Plenty of part are available. Affordable too. Problem is the people buying these cars now were either very young when they first came out or not even born. These are disposable to them for the most part. I was 17 in 1989 and working at the local Ford dealership when the SHO first came out. It was badass back then and still is TO ME. But my affinity for it isn't the same as a 20 something who is enamored with the symbolism of a Yamaha engine in a plain jane Taurus. Yet not so devoted that when something inevitably goes wrong that requires knowledge to fix, won't just turn around and sell it. Because it's easy for them to give up on.

As for you guys complaining about the lack of parts, learn to actually search the internet using part numbers. You might be surprised with what pops up.

 

[jimtash]

Give me some part numbers for the synchros and I'll see what I can find.

 

[zoomlater]

Sadly it would be $50,000 for a group but of main bearings from clevite, it's not all that bad you would only need around 150 people to do that and more people would hopefully join in after that initial start.

A set of standard Clevite Main Bearings just popped up on ebay (not my ad as if they were mine I wouldn't be selling them). No thrust bearing though

eBay item number:
252161542846

 

[luigisho]

A set of standard Clevite Main Bearings just popped up on ebay (not my ad as if they were mine I wouldn't be selling them). No thrust bearing though

eBay item number:
252161542846

dang. That's twice as much as I paid for used 3.2 longblock.

 

[zoomlater]

Well we will see what the market is for these parts. I wonder what a set of the original Ford versions would go for?

 

[sperold]

Makes that RockAuto deal on the crank, complete with bearings, look pretty good.

 

[SHOtimer]

I haven't put serious funds/work into my SHO for years as it hasn't needed it.

But, I recently am helping a fellow owner and doing a full upper/front 60k on his '95 ATX along with all hoses, ect. I can not believe how many parts have disappeared that used to just be readily available. It was always a given that you had to hunt for parts, but many have just disappeared between rock auto, shosource, and autozone, ect.

Glad I stock piled away the rod bearings and the 3.2 and 3.0 full upper gaskets sets.

 

[sperold]

Like Jimtash says, the internet has extended the life of these SHOs, they would be further down the road to extinction if not for that.

What has to happen now is for people to figure out how to fix the component parts. Sort of a "you send me your component, I will fix it and send it back" type of thing. Some day, someone will figure out that blower control module, the CCRM and the host of other things that plague these cars. Maybe 3-D printing will be able to replicate those hard to find crank and rod bearing (or at least print a surface on your used shells).

But, as you can see on this forum, the GenIVs are taking over the limelight, and most of the time is spent in that category, so even among the people who know about these cars, the first 3 generations are losing ground.

I have a 56 Meteor Crown Victoria, I think there are more parts available for it now than for my GenI & II SHO cars.

 

[zoomlater]

If a member finds deals online and pass those on the others, maybe we can keep these cars going....

Here is a deal if you are looking for some replacement rear stock struts on Amazon

Monroe 171781 Quick-Strut Complete Strut Assembly
Price: $33.45& FREE Shipping.
Great deal on these, but only 5 left
Maybe this is an early Black Friday deal, I grabbed some of these the last time they were priced this low

 

[zoomlater]

So who bought those main bearings, it looks it went for the asking price
Those struts dropped to $31 yesterday and are now back up to $91