Bob Drake has been fascinated by cars since his boyhood years in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was introduced to car body and paint work by his father, and his first love was a 1934 Ford Victoria that he chased down the street when he was a teenager. After he finished high school, his family moved to southern California and he began making his living as a draftsman in the aerospace industry.
By the mid-1960s, Drake had also developed an avid interest in trading pre-’50s Ford cars and parts at swap meets. In 1971 he and his wife Pat began manufacturing early Ford parts in their garage in Woodland Hills, California: Their first products were authentic reproductions of cardboard glove box interiors for 1932–1934 Fords.
During the past 35 years, Bob Drake’s inventory of parts has grown to over 5,000 products. His original one-man garage operation now employs a staff of over 50 and is housed in three buildings with a combined space of over 75,000 square feet in Grants Pass, Oregon. The company is the industry’s leader for Ford parts for 1932–1948 cars and 1932–1966 pickup trucks. Many of the parts are based on the original Ford blueprints: The company is officially licensed by Ford to make reproductions. Since 1985, Bob Drake has developed an additional line of hot rod parts and accessories.
Several times a year, the company publishes a periodical sales catalog in full color, showcasing over 2,000 selected products. It is produced by a publications team made up of expert graphic and Web designers, writers and photographers. A comprehensive, 400-page catalog is in the works for publication next year.
The look of the glistening chrome and steel parts brilliantly displayed in the catalogs is deceiving. Behind the simple beauty of these parts are complicated and demanding manufacturing processes involving cutting edge CAD engineering, a variety of casting and mold-making techniques, extrusions, metal die stamping, fabrication and detailing. Bob Drake and his skilled research and development team painstakingly map out the processes for each individual part.
Over his career, Bob Drake has amassed a museum-worthy collection of Ford Motor Company memorabilia, including dealer wall posters, manuals and signs; Ford fliers and advertisements; cutaway motors and ad displays; molds, tools and dies; and other rare collectibles.
The collection also includes restored Ford vehicles: a black-lacquered 1932 hiboy roadster (a roadster without fenders) built in 1977 by Dick Magoo, a 1938 Cab-Over stake bed truck, a black 1940 standard coupe, a red and gray 1946 8N farm tractor, a black 1949 convertible (the actual car that appeared in the 1955 James Dean–Natalie Wood movie Rebel Without a Cause), a black 1965 Mustang GT fastback, and a red 1966 Mustang GT convertible.
Beyond the Ford memorabilia, Bob Drake has also assembled an impressive collection of automotive art, with more than 50 paintings by the famed LA/Portland car artist Roy Jones, who claimed to be influenced by artists Jan Vermeer and Andrew Wyeth. The collection also includes fine works by renowned artists Dan McCrary, Randy Giovenele and Tom Fritz.