Custom traction bars are done!

I love this website.....someone states there opinion and is chastised for making "negative comments". I made a valid point, nothing negative about it, the fact is John Calvert has taken legal action against several companies for trying to copy his product (someone probably should have warned Mad Max about this before he put in all the effort). I never held a gun to anybody's head and told them to not buy Mad Max's bars. The major point of Mad Max making his bars was that "Cal Trac never made a Maverick specific bar" which is complete Bull Sh*t. The fact is that they have always made a Maverick specific bar. THAT IS THE POINT If some of you people don't get it now......well, you never will.....

 

I think after reading this post, I want whatever you have been drinking today.

 

Traction bars

Cometgt1974 ,i said this was not an attack against you ,in my opinion you are a great member to this forum and you have helped me in the past with your valid and valueable opinions . I believe you have a lot of ford racing knowledge an alot of sb ford knowledge ,im mixing my booze ,1 hand bud,the other hand corona with lime, you choose your poision ,im buying ,the drinks are on me ,cheers brother ,Happy thanksgiving

 

Guys- I appreciate those of you who made encouraging or defensive posts on my behalf, I really do- but comet is entitled to his opinion and he is correct on this point- calvert does have a part number for a mav, I was unaware of that myself until recently... I didn't bother to research all his part numbers because from the outset: I DIDN'T HAVE ANY INTENTION OF COMPETING WITH HIM.... his (he wisely patented it anyway...but if you dig, you'll see that his was in fact "inspired" by a homebuilt traction setup that was used by popular match bashers with names you'll recognize, in the very early 60's) design is fantastic- I take nothing away from him at all... other than I can provide a bar that produces the exact same result, with the same durability, for significantly (for MOST of us) less. When you're on a racers or resto budget- every bit helps... and after you add it up, between the extra he charges, the hardware he doesn't include and the shipping- it was close to 100 bucks more... and now that I've decided to say 'screw it' and just sell off the sets I already have on hand for 2 and change... the difference becomes even more pronounced.
I'm not in the "traction bar" business- I build cars to customer spec-I just offered them so the guys who want that style traction bar would have them available to them and just a bit closer in reach, money wise.

I don't want this to go on any longer, I feel really bad about creating tension here in my home forum. I won't post in this thread again, I'll start a new one for the 3 and 4 point tower braces when I grab some good shots of the 2 set ups on my car, after the weekend. I fully expect people to show up in that thread and point out that mustangs unlimited and others already offer a brace setup (actually its for a stang and has to be slightly modified to work, but whatever)- I don't care, mine is made with top shelf hardware, specific to the mav and looks trick. I can make it to order AND I'm going to sell them for around $100 bucks less than the others... again- just because I love mavs and mav folks and I want everyone to have trick hardware on their maverick, because the way see it: if one of our cars looks sweet at a show, it raises us all up a bit- I know I feel that way when I see some of the awesome engineering you guys put into your cars and wicked combos, etc.

I wish you all a goodnight and I sincerely hope that everyone, even you comet, had a great holiday.

 

We wonder why we have such a hard time getting parts made for our cars..

 

The particular part in question has been made for our cars for years and years, but thanks for your always brilliant input Jamie.

P.S. did anyone get the memo that you need to run a solid front bushing in the front leaf spring eye when using this "style" of traction bar??

 

I'd say that everyone concerned 'got the memo' since there are several posts at the beginning of this thread dealing with that specifically.

There is no need to be insulting to Jamie or anyone else- Several folks on here defended me and even to them, I said that you were entitled to your opinion and not to be too harsh in their rebuttals toward you- and STILL you do not return the same courtesy or respect. Your tone is clearly demonstrative and condescending. I don't think anyone here, including you, comes online to get grief from relative strangers. We could spend a day at the local DMV if that were the case, so lets all just quit now.

I'm deleting this thread after Comet gets his last digs in- its clearly gone beyond its intended purpose. I come on here to be in a positive place with fellow good natured gearheads- I'm an old soldier and I've had my life's fill of hostility and tension. Car crafting for me is an escape and I'm not going to taint that with this rubbish.

After PMing back and forth this AM, I believe I have a total of 4 sets on hand, remaining. Just PM me if you have questions, want a set, etc etc and we'll avoid all this unnecessary nonsense.

 

You generally have to take what he says with a grain of salt. And as usual, he missed the point with what I said as I was not commenting on weather they have been made for years or not. Obviously they have, and a simple link to the site and/or part number would have been enough facts to get the point across, though obviously that was not his whole intention as evidenced by further posts in this thread. Chastised? I have some cheese for that...

 

You guys should be thanking me, I got the price down on the bars!!!

 

John Calvert does have a patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F5354092

And, so does Moroso for their Competition Engineering "Slide-A-Link"
http://www.competitionengineering.com/catalog/CategoryDisplay.asp?CatCode=13116
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...alvert+AND+Cal-Tracs&RS=Calvert+AND+Cal-Tracs

It is not my intention to defend one forum member over another or take the side of one over another. It is not my desire to say that anyone is wrong or anyone is right. But, I would advise everyone here to familiarize themselves with certain phrases such as intellectual property, patent infringement, idea theft, etc. Indulge me with an exaggerated example.

Milton Bradley owns the copyright on the game Monopoly. They do not own the rights to the word monopoly. However, another game with the word monopoly as a prominent part of the name may not be a copyright infringement, but it could be a trespass of their intellectual property. Milton Bradley does not make a Monopoly game with the streets of Atlanta nor Maverick shaped tokens. If I made a game and called it Property Moguls of Atlanta that used Atlanta street names, Confederate money, Maverick shaped tokens, and sold it for cost, at no profit to me, I would still be in violation of MB's ownership rights of Monopoly. Regardless of whether I make money, break even, or give it away, I have still infringed on their intellectual property. I have also prevented them from income because some of my games sold or were given away. Those that bought my game did not buy theirs. Will their lawyers come after me? You're dadgum right they will.

Now, if I make my game just for my use, if it is used only in my house or while I'm present, I don't make it available to anyone else, and only make one, will MB's lawyers come after me? Even though I may be in violation of their intellectual property rights, I am not potentially taking anything away from them. So, their lawyers probably wouldn't even find about my game, much less say anything.

Making something for your own use is hardly ever construed as a violation.

 

Very well stated, Hawko. I personally think this is the very reason that FORD's lawyers are constantly on the look out for unlicensed products . Even though a design may have not been used by them in a long time, it was their design to start with. I know that there are limits on the time that an unused design lies dormant before it becomes public property, unless the company keeps the design copyrighted. In times of lower sales and less corperate income, companies look to past products to reclaim some of the profits generated by people like us, people who for whatever reason, prefer the older designs. Now a few hundred Maverick parts are a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of Mustang parts available, but if they aren't licensed by FORD, they are considering them theft of their designs, and are not making any profit off of them. I know FORD is not as quick to license products as GM is, and it hurts them in the long run. Anybody making a copy of anything available commercialy should be careful not to infringe on the rights of the original manufacter, because the lawyers are looking for stuff like this for the easy bucks.