Mentioned to a customer I had purchased an NOS A body 73-76 AC Heater Box a few years back. I used it to create my gasket set for that box. Told him after I was done with it I had a hard time selling it. He said that because NOS means "Not Of Standard". He said it was a defective unit that was put back on the shelf cause it didn't meet the specs/standards.

He was pretty confident so I didn't want to go down the rabbit hole with him. Guess that means there will be one less person not buying crappy "Not Of Standard" parts

A racer buddy of mine calls stuff like that "technical fiction".
Just what we need, more dis-information and creative labelling...

Learn something new every day as they say And here I thought NOS meant it was a part for a Nitrous Oxide System, DUH If someone tries to sell me a NOS part I will tell them that "I don't have a nitrous system" or that "I don't want any bad Not of Standard defective parts, I have enough junk parts as it is"


The guy apparently has never searched for NOS parts on the internet like on eBag or elsewhere. A man for being Not of Standard defective parts the sure charge more for defective parts than okay parts??????

using the "way back machine", we always call those parts "Neat Old $hit".

or going by many ebarf sellers with rusted junk ... Nasty Old $hit

Sounds like the words of a flipper. I’ve heard a lot of goofy things from people trying to get a deal so they can sell it for more quickly.

He is partially right. Many NOS parts did not fit well and were put on the shelf then came out of the factory one way or another. I usually call them Nasty Old Sh...t

And for the most part he is correct
Often parts for what ever reason did not meet the specks set so was not able to go on the line when the vehicles were built
They however were to good to be threw away. So they become service part
I have a pair of nos fenders on my 70 barracuda. Both were made missing the mounting for the header panel to bolt to on bottom

A company I worked for would every so often purge a lot of obsolete or overstock parts and literally threw them into the dumpster. Some of the employees would get caught "dumpster diving" and be reprimanded and even get time off or fired to doing this. Why? because the parts that were purged were used as a tax write-off and never to be re-used, sold or anything again. Big fines for tax fraud or tax evasion if caught. If back in the day they sold parts and didn't write them off then I could see them being resold or used. If they were written off and used as a tax credit, then Oh and some parts were purged not only as obsolete but because it cost more to warehouse them than what their current value was or what the warehouse space cost to keep the item.

My dealer parts guys always told me that the factory ordered/made more parts than were need for the anticipated production and earmarked some of that over-production for the replacement parts system. Dealer service departments needed certain parts on hand before the cars even arrived at the dealer. IOW, some parts went directly from the manufacturing point destined to go to the parts depots and dealers parts rooms.

I believe it was the standard at the time, and may still be to have 10 years worth of stock on hand for each car.

Last time I checked it was 7-10 years on stocking parts for model year. But if the same part is used and reused it goes or starts from the last model year an item or part was used on.

Try and find a muffler for a 2015 Ram 2500 5.7, NS1 already a couple years ago!

many years ago a good friend of mine toured the parts depot in Detroit . He said there were dumpsters full of mid to late 70s sheetmetal , fenders , doors , quarter panels by the tons. Trim mdlgs by the thousands .

All of it slated for the dump / recycling . Absolutely NONE of it could be purchased

I can kinda understand a part that isnt boxed, like a bumper or fender being a cull that never made it to production, But anything in a box? No way. Production parts (say a carburator, or radio) wouldnt be shipped to production in individual consumer packaging….to expensive and too much waste and work for production personnel to deal with. I worked for Kenworth truck assembly plant for 17 years…EVERYTHING that was rejected by assembly was SCRAPPED, strict rule to ensure it never made it onto a truck.

just put a flowmaster on it

The same goes for warranty and for sure recall items that must returned, destroyed or guaranteed to NEVER be put back into circulation. Most warranty items have to be returned or held at the dealerships for 90-120 days then destroyed with proof.

Same thing was done in the Ram truck assembly plants, bad parts were scrapped right then and not saved.

We got in trouble at Toyota if we took a part off the car we worked on in post production and it touched the floor. I laid an obviously junk glovebox on the ground by my bench and got a defect write up. Supposed to write in it that it was bad, even when it rolled in the building all jacked up at first glance. Some smart aleck told me I could do writing or a picture or something.

I later drew a skull and crossbones on a bad part and sat it down. Some jerk ran over later expecting to write me up. He held up the part like a prize. Should’ve seen his face when he saw what I drew.

I remember "NFG" back in the day at B&M Trans...