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🎉 Celebrating One Year in Oxford

On the 4th of November, we proudly celebrated our first anniversary of trading here in Oxford. What a year it has been—full of learning curves, challenges, and plenty of great moments.

🚚 Our First Shipment (and a Shed Upgrade!)

One of the early highlights was our first big shipment. It arrived in more boxes and crates than we ever imagined, and for a moment we weren’t sure it would all fit into our shed! Most of it did—but the larger items like fuel tanks and panels needed extra space.
To keep everything organised and ready for you when you need it, we’ve now added a ten-foot shed just for these bigger parts. We have now started to order on a monthly basis, but it is still taking a bit of time to get the shipments here from the US.

📞 Kerry Joins Full-Time

Thanks to your ongoing support, Kerry is now able to be on the phone and the shop floor full-time. He absolutely loves hearing from you all and is living up to the nickname our kids once gave him—“Mr Have-a-Chat.”

🚗 Hitting the Car Show Circuit

Taking over the business has also opened the door for us to attend several fantastic car shows this year.

Caroline Bay Rock & Hop – Timaru

Our first event of the year, shared with friends from Oxford. Timaru turned on a stunning day, and it was great to catch up with friends and family who share the same passion for all things automotive.

Southern Grilles & Gasoline – Invercargill

We also made it down south for the second annual show, where Kerry was honoured to be invited onto the judging team.
Even though the weather was a bit cloudy, the indoor venue was amazing, and the turnout of cars and bikes was truly impressive. We’re already excited to return next year!

Hotrods to Fernside – North Canterbury

A small local show at the Fernside School – another beautiful day and some very excellent examples of local cars here in North Canterbury. If you’re nearby next year, it’s a brilliant family day out (and supports the School too!)

USA SEMA Las Vegas – An Unforgettable Experience

A major highlight of the year was the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for SEMA in early November.
Neither of us had been to Vegas before, and the scale of the show was unbelievable. Thankfully, Kerry had done plenty of homework so we knew exactly who we needed to find and talk to.
Even after three full days, we still only managed to see a portion of the exhibits—there was just so much to take in!

🏖️ Next Stop: Beach Hop 2025 — Whangamatā

We’re looking forward to heading north to Beach Hop in Whangamatā this March, and we hope to catch up with many of you there.

📦 Growing Our Stock for You

We’re committed to improving our stock levels over the next 12 months to make sure we have the parts you need, when you need them.
We also have plans to expand our range and are working on kit options to help make things easier for both you and us.

🙏 Thank You

Thank you all for your support throughout our first year. We truly appreciate every call, message, order, and conversation. We’re excited for what the next year will bring and look forward to continuing this journey with you.

Loyal Ford Customers,

Well, we’ve made it through the first big step—We headed up to Tony’s in Palmerston North, packed up all the stock and shelving, and got it onto a truck. That part was relatively smooth sailing. But once we arrived at our place in Oxford, the real work began. Unpacking everything was like solving a giant puzzle in reverse!

We had to recreate Tony’s carefully planned layout from the old location, which, of course, meant a few tweaks along the way to get everything running in the right order (my need for things to be in numerical sequence kicked in). After a bit of rearranging and some good old-fashioned teamwork, we finally got everything where it needed to be.

It’s a work in progress, but we’re getting there—slowly but surely.

We’ve placed initial orders with our suppliers and are now just waiting to hear when the next shipment will arrive at Lyttelton. More boxes, more unpacking, but on the bright side, more stock on the shelves means we’ll be ready to pack and ship out orders to everyone soon.

 Thanks again for everyone’s patience as we make this transition!

Cheers Kerry and Trudy

In late 2024, the business was sold to Kerry and Trudy Ford, two passionate individuals eager to carry on the legacy of Northwestern Ford. Kerry, a seasoned mechanic with years of hands-on experience (back when working on cars meant working with engines, not computers), is ready to continue the work Tony started. Trudy brings her background in banking and accounts management, ensuring the business stays on track and customers receive the best service possible.

Together, Kerry and Trudy are committed to helping you with your restorations and keeping your classic Fords running smoothly.

Thanks to Tony’s years of dedication and to Kerry and Trudy’s new leadership, Northwestern Ford is poised for even greater things in the future.

We look forward to this new chapter!

The First 20 Years

Northwestern Ford has a long and proud history of being all things Ford. Owner and self-confessed ‘blue blooded’ Tony Thake talks about how it all began.

“I’ve always loved the full-size Ford cars from owning a ’55 custom-line in my early years to Mercury’s T-birds, a ’58 retractable and a ’56 Victoria to name a few, but I could never get the parts I needed when it came to repairing or restoring them.”

“So back in 2003 I started Northwestern Ford, importing a few parts with the cars I was bringing in from the U.S. Today, we have over 20,000 parts and it’s growing all the time. Windscreens, gas tanks, seals, brake and suspension parts, door handles and much more. We try to have as much variety as possible.”

“An example of the quality parts we stock are our suspension parts. Imported directly from Rare Parts in California, their suspension parts are as original, or in some cases better, which means you don’t have any installation or replacement issues. Other examples include EMS panels for ’55 – ’58 models, disc brake kits and boosters for ’55 – ’67, which includes the T-bird bolt-on – no fuss!”

“Quality’s important to us because there are some cheap rubbish parts out there, which costs restorers more in the long run.”

“Eventually I thought it was time to get a website together, a place where you could search as much of our stock as we can get online, get a price and even be able to purchase online.”

“We will be constantly adding new stock so feel free to email or phone me for pricing or just good old-fashioned free advice – I’ve had to solve a whole lot of different problems over the years so I’m sure I can help you out.”

“There’s even a place on this website to list that spare 390 or car you have for sale.”

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