I had some time today so I made a slide to illustrate a Cobra related part. My example is what Ford defines as C3AZ-9355-A Sediment Bowl. These bowls are more commonly called fuel filter canisters and will fit a variety of applications. I will totally ignore variations in painting and text for this study. This is just an example based purely on shape and application. To Ford they are all the same. I did not try to find pictures of the shapes I have seen but chose three very different physical shapes to illustrate with.
Cobra wise what “production” or “assembly line” fuel pumps with integral fuel filters were is very easy because all fuel pumps were 1963 model year ones. There is no need to worry about early or later model year versions of sediment bowls and that is good because there were quite a few in design shape, paint, text, and or brand name identified.
On The Left:
That is an original 1963 “production” or “assembly line” part a brand new Cobra went home with. The original owner still owned the car when he took this picture for me. For some period of time, before Ford made some type engineering change (engineering changes are anything changed on purpose), one could buy exact replacements at their Ford dealer. At some point in time, like after Ford no longer used the exact part or purposely changed something, the original production design became new old stock original design. (NOS as used in the hobby for decades before the mid 1970s.)
In The Middle: For some reason(s) we do not know Ford changed the part from 1963 production design to this service replacement design. Another common description would call this a factory authorized replacement part and another used widely description before the mid 1970s was new replacement stock. At some point in time, like after Ford no longer offered exact part or purposely changed something, this design became new old replacement stock design. (NORS as used in the hobby for decades before the mid 1970s.) The confusion in parts buying includes sellers that don’t know the difference in production parts and everything else or don’t care about the differences for any number of reasons. NOS gets a new meaning of new plus old.
On the Right:Eventually Ford got to this design. To Ford Motor Company this is the same as what brand new Cobra was fitted with in let’s say March 1963. Ford is using the same sale part number it did several decades ago. The confusion here is sellers offering new made “modern” design parts as “NOS 1963” parts. The implication is that they are correct for a 1963 model year car. Well they are and they are not depending on what one calls correct. To Ford they are correct because they will retrofit all the way back to the 1963 model year and perform correctly. To somebody keeping a car on the road they are correct because they fulfill a need. To a car restorer trying to return a 1963 car to as close to day one everything they are just a new replacement stock part or new old replacement stock part.