Thanks! I was really meaning a competition in the actual making of the Ford Tooling Parts, and not sales.
C5ZZKGT, I might be able to make things a little clearer, or I might just confuse you further, but here it goes anyhow...
Scott Drake and Daniel Carpenter are friendly "somewhat"-competitors... They both manufacture and/or distribute a ton of reproduction parts at a wholesale level, but the array of products they offer differ substantially. This entire industry is so intertwined from a supply standpoint, that you can't afford to make enemies.
You're probably seeing a ton of "Ford Tooling" products in Drakes catalog or website, and making the false-assumption that they are affecting the manufacture of those parts. They are not (to my knowledge) manufacturing anything from Ford Tooling, they are simply buying Ford-Tooling products from whatever/wherever the manufacturing source may be, and re-selling them, in the spirit of carrying as complete and comprehensive a product-line as possible. If Drake is doing any Ford Tooling stuff, I welcome correction.
IN GENERAL, all of the Ford Tooling dash pads come from Universal Urethane in Las Vegas (Dashes Direct), all Ford Tooling stamped-sheetmetal comes from Gerstenslager in Wooster Ohio, and most everything else (with exceptions) is pretty-much either manufactured by Daniel Carpenter, or the Tooling is out-sourced by Daniel Carpenter. Carpenter's facilities have an impressive range of manufacturing capabilities. And over time, Carpenter has made the commitments and transport/storage investments to accumulate enough Ford Tooling sets to sink an aircraft carrier. He's got the market cornered on old Ford Tooling, some serviceable, some maybe not.
Drake's typical M.O. is to engineer/research/manufacture new toolings, either in the U.S. or overseas depending upon the product. If you met with them, you'd find the dedication and ethics to be sky-high, even though they get some criticism from time to time. I attribute some of that being due to the fact that not everything that comes in Drake packaging is actually proprietary to Drake, which is where brand-marketing can make things confusing to the individual hobbyist. Hope this helps!!
