The Carpenter Industries Story


Dennis Carpenter took a life-long hobby and molded it into a successful business. It was his passion that created one of the world’s largest remanufacturer of obsolete Ford Parts.

Dennis grew up on his family’s farm in Dover, Minnesota. He attended St. Charles High School, and graduated in 1956. Much like many young men, Dennis was fascinated by motorcycles and automobiles. It wasn’t just the looks of them he liked, he was also fascinated with the way they worked. In 1957, Dennis stuck a tri-carbed, 312 Y Block with a ¾ race cam into his first car, which was a lowered 1952 Mercury 2 door hardtop with turn pike cruiser skirts. Two years after that, he bought a 1957 Ford convertible and promptly installed a ¾ race cam in the Y block, hooked it up to a pair of lakers, then bolted on another set of cruiser skirts.

Dennis moved to North Carolina in the early 1960’s after serving in the Military Police at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and quickly became a well-respected stock control manager at Woonsocket Spinning Mill in Charlotte. Dennis still had the passion for classic Fords, and began tinkering on a Model T. While having some machine work done on the Model T, Dennis met Bill Simpson -- a man who would be pivotal in the birth of Dennis Carpenter Reproductions.

After years of searching for knobs for his 1940 Ford Deluxe Convertible, Dennis set out to make them himself. He contacted Bill Simpson, the man who had previously worked on the Model T restoration with him. Bill made an injection mold for Dennis that he could use to make his knobs. After many late nights of experimenting with different plastic formulas, Dennis finally made a suitable set of Carmel colored 1940 dash knobs shortly after midnight on New Years morning, 1970. It was the start of a new decade, but more importantly, the start of a new company that would eventually manufacture thousands of parts and ship them all over the world.

Dennis started showing his creations at the Hershey, PA swap meets and noticed that the demand was there for other plastic and rubber parts. He had been making the parts in the basement of his home, but a faulty switch in a curing oven caused a fire. Fearing for his family’s safety, Dennis moved his new business to an old train depot in Concord, North Carolina. Misfortune almost followed him there, as a freight train derailed and crashed through his rented section of the depot, scattering inventory everywhere. Fortunately, Dennis had purchased a new building for his business the day before and planned to move the headquarters to Hwy 29, right down the street from Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Dennis borrowed $500.00 from his life insurance policy and bought his first plastic molding machine. The demand for his products soared, and Dennis took out a second mortgage on his house to get his second molding Machine. Although it seemed risky at the time, the investment paid off. Dennis Carpenter Ford Reproductions now resides on 300,000 square feet of industrial building space. Most of the footage is dedicated to manufacturing and warehousing of the nearly 6,000 Ford restoration parts the company makes itself. In the early 1990’s, Ford Motor Company implemented the “Official Licensed Product” program requiring reproduction part manufacturers to comply with certain regulations and license reproduced parts that were distinguished by the Ford trademarks. Ford recognized Dennis Carpenter’s prominent standings in this industry and chose him to liaise between Ford’s licensing requests and other reproduction parts manufacturers. As early as 1985, Dennis was aware that Ford was scrapping its obsolete tooling. After many years of personal campaigning, along with the help of a few classic Ford enthusiasts within the Ford organization, a new program was born: Classic Parts from Original Tooling. In June 2000, Dennis Carpenter Ford Reproductions became the first licensed member to use obsolete tooling, and today has become the largest manufacturer of parts derived from these tools.

Now, Dennis and his son Daniel Carpenter, who shares his father’s passion for the automotive Industry, are working together for the future. In the last 10 years, Daniel had quickly become one of the leading manufacturers of Ford Mustang reproduction parts, and now joins Carpenter Industries as it continues to grow.

-- Terry Rodenhuis contributed to this article.