Hot Rods Went to the auto supply store today OH MY!

There's old guys at the parts stores around here, but not all of them at actual car people. It's just a job to them. Good parts counter people are few and far between.

 

I can't imagine the rack of books it would take to contain the information available on the parts stores' computers. You can't expect a kid to know about parts that were new when his grampa was being potty trained. His ability to find those parts is limited by the system he is given. Old Harve at the mom and pop knew those parts because they were the parts of his youth. The computer system at the parts stores is a tool, you can either fight it or learn what it needs to know to get what you want, as some here have.

 

Used to tell my students that a good parts man (woman) was worth their weight in gold.

 

Jeez, just pick one out of the Weatherhead cabinet sitting on the counter!

 

You don’t wanna petcock, it might follow you home

 

Lucky enough to have a family owned parts store in my town of 5,000 run by old car friendly people and I use them every time I need a part. I WANT them to stay in business.
Never bought a part for myself on Amazon or Rock Auto. I support my locally owned business people. Happy to hear some shops won't honor any warranty issues from those 2 places.
Folks will post here or bitch to their friends about no local bakery/shoe store/name a store your town no longer has and then hop in the car to drive over to Walmart(nearest one to me is 15 miles away) because they can save a buck. If more people shopped local...even if it's a couple bucks more...your neighbors would possibly still be in business.
If your that damn broke that you have to shop at discount stores I guess that's your issue.
A long time friend of mine just retired early from being behind the counter of a parts store. 40 years in the biz. He got fed up dealing with angry people who asked for parts by the wrong name,gave poor descriptions of a part or asked for stuff that hasn't been available for years. He said he tried his best to decipher what people wanted and as a car guy often knew what they wanted but got burned out by people bitching at him if he didn't have a part they wanted. Reading this thread I can understand why he left. As previously stated, do YOUR own research before heading in. My 2 cents... I'd say 5 cents but I stopped at the parts store today,had a nice chat with the owner,bought a part I could have saved some money on by buying it online. Paid with cash and walked out with said part without having to wait until it was shipped to me knowing if there was a issue I could walk in and get a replacement that same visit. Have my helmet on,let the grenade tossing begin

 

I don't think it will be getting any better any time soon. a dismal future in every aspect of life is the best we can hope for. just be glad you were lucky enough to have lived in the olden days.

 

Just another standardized rant thread about how things are not like they were back-in-the-day.

The horse left the barn, the door was closed, the barn burned down, the property was sold, and has been a completed housing development for a few decades.

It's over. Get used to the future. It arrived a while ago.

 

I always look up what I need online, identify the brand and PN from the store and write it down and give it to them when I get there. Saves time and frustration.

 

Now days as a parts consumer, to achieve needed parts I use the on-line parts catalogs of O'Reily's, NAPA, Rock Auto and Autozone.
This saves me frustration, allows me to find who has the best quality, best price, and if they have it in stock.
Being a modern day on-line consumer, allows you to be one with the modern day parts counter person.
Saves a lot of the frustration, a familiarity with their world, and time at the store.
This topic of course has been beat to death, and as the years progress will only become worse...best to adapt sooner, rather than later.

 

My post wasn't and isn't necessarily a slam on the parts guy/girl it's merely a statement of the world we live. Frankly my first inclination is to buy local and not the internet. I was out and thought I'd stop to pick up a few parts as I usually do.. Try as we may it isn't always possible and certainly almost as difficult if not more so to buy parts made here. But that subject has been beaten to death numerous times.

 

@anthony myrick said " all the parts counter guys that speak our language are gone, so I learned their language"
This speaks volumes. . . . .
Anthony is the guy who adapted.
Those who don't adapt get frustrated then post on socials about how the world is going to crap.
The stuff you want is out there, we just need to re-learn how to find it in this ever-changing world

 

Nobody taught me. I was an inquisitive kid. Learned on my own. Tore shit apart, figured out how it worked, put it back together, etc. First engine I resurrected was a 1922 Maytag that my Grandfather bought at an auction for $0.25. Started tearing apart bigger stuff, at the age of 14 I was laying under a 1964 Olds Dynamic 88 telling my Dad what we needed to do to replace the bad Slim Jim transmission.

 

Welcome to the new world.

Retired full time GM parts guy here 1970-2017 and during the same time period and into retirement part time Harley Davidson parts guy 1999-2022.

The electronic parts catalogs have made it so the guy who last week would ask you “You want fries with that order?” today asks you “Make ,model and year” and looks up the oil filter for your Kia. But that’s about all they can do. My last GM parts manager said “with these electronic catalogs anybody can do that job” to which I said “until something goes sideways”.

Just another reason I’m glad to be out of the business today. Between that and dealer groups owning multiple dealerships in the next few years those good counter jobs will be replace by minimum wage key punchers.

 

You should try the formerly N.B. Pease antique auto parts business in Palmer, Massachusetts. Nelson Pease sold the business to a former employer. The business for now, is only open in Fridays, and Saturdays. The business has millions, and I am not kidding, of antique auto parts from the Teens to the 1970's. I remember going there and watching Nelson putting point sets together from a jar full of separate pieces. N.B. Pease has been around for about 50 plus years. Nelson would buy out other parts businesses when they wanted to get out of the business. 1-413-283-7620

 

Nice @nickthebandit ^^^ I'm definitely going to check this place out.

 

I called the number and asked if his fridge was running.... I bet the guy is cussing his phone by the end of the day tomorrow!

 

I find that by not trying to “outsmart” the parts people and actually help them to find the obscure parts I need I can avoid being the old, asshole customer complaining about parts people that can’t read their mind to get their obsolete part that was readily available 50 years ago…

 

THIS FORUM HAS POSTED
0000001 DAYS
WITHOUT A NEW PARTS STORE RANT
DO YOUR PART
HELP ESTABLISH A NEW RECORD

 

There's a difference between a parts counter warm body who just follows the computer and a trained parts person who uses the computer to find out what they need to know. A couple weekends ago I was working on my OT modern daily pickup. I needed a CV axle boot kit. The early 20's guy at Napa looks up make and model in the computer, and asks "front or rear?"... A parts person knows that whatever make from whatever years are solid rear axle and don't have rear CV boots, the kid just following the computer doesn't.

Because parts stores have gone more to chains that want to decrease costs, they hire unskilled people for a lower wage. The parts people I grew up with in a small town knew when to use the computer when they came about, when to use books, and knew the stupid questions not to ask. The majority of today's parts counter people don't. It's really sad to see a useful skill go away as those of us who are looking for something weird are forced to carry the parts knowledge.

I dated a girl who went through school for parts, she knows her stuff. At my local Napa, there are about 6 or 7 people that work the counter. The one you want to talk to if you have a puzzle you can't solve is a woman in her late 30's. Everyone else, old, young, male or female, are warm bodies with a pulse.

YEMV.

 

"They can't find a part that isn't normally requested in their 'puter" says the guys furiously typing this into their keyboards.

Petcocks have not been a separate part of the radiator for quite some time so of course terminology will be foreign to most of the people just trying to make ends meet, you aren't going to get a parts wizard for minimum wage or a step above it.

I will add that as a former Kragen (O'Reilly) Auto counter person, I would keep a mental list of customers who were more interested in being difficult to work with rather than using their words to help me understand what they were looking for. So every time I would see them I'd just flip the "dumb switch" on and be less willing and helpful. Treat folks how you want to be treated, if they don't know, use it as a teachable moment instead of braying on and on about how "nobody knows nothing anymore."

 

It may be the future, but none of us are here cause we have a hardon for the latest, greatest (so called) shiny fucking thing that the civilians drool over. Tradition? Yep. I hyperventilate and sweat if I run into an old time hardware. They're rare as Hell, too.

 

Lmao, civilians? Are we in the service here now?

I have some old stuff, yeah. But I love my modern cars too. Some of you guys are so militant it's hilarious, while typing comments on your cell phone at your online forum....

So go trad! Throw your phone and computer out the window!

Why do these kinds of threads always pop up on a Sunday.... Lol.

 

My comments were not directed at you in this thread, it is odd/strange etc that even younger folks don’t know what a petcock is. I still refer the the plastic knobs on my OT vehicles as petcocks.
Damn, never realized I was getting old!

 

The F150 Lightning has independent rear suspension.

Did you know that?

 

A whole bunch of trucks do these days, not to mention the ones that that have Rezeppa joints (otherwise known as CV joints) on the driveshaft itself.

 

What gets me is that people are still blaming the person behind the counter, who, in most cases, is not even earning a living-wage. You want them to somehow to be dedicated automotive professionals, with an exceptionally large wealth of knowledge, especially about long obsolete, and now quite rare things.

For all that might say "well, get a better job then" just shut it. By not paying better, these stores will never have anyone that sees this sort of thing as a potential career, let alone anything that they want to keep doing even to the end of their scheduled shift.

You cannot simultaneously require that we have a permanent underclass of workers, on the edge of survival, and demand that they also excel at ANY job.

Ever been short on food, because rent took 50% of your take-home pay?

Try learning anything when your belly is empty, and you have not seen a doctor since you were a teenager.

 

cock valves
stop cock
gas cocks are for 'gas' as in air
petrol cocks are for liquid fuel
motor cycle cock valves = limited area to cast in designation liquid fuel
abbreviate petrol to pet
pet 'rol' cock
petcock

you want DT drain tap
1/4 npt

 

Yep, it's called supply and demand. One of the oldest standards in the business world. Demand goes down, so does the supply. No need to have a huge supply of items and not be able to move them quickly. Warehouse space costs money. Faster moving inventory generates money faster. Slow moving inventory cost money to keep in the warehouse. As demand drops, availability decreases, so the items become more costly to get and resupplying the items costs more money to keep in the warehouse. As time moves farther away from the last time an item was used, it gets more and more expensive and harder to find, and those that have never used or even seen said product don't have knowledge of it. It's not surprising anybody under 30 has never changed a set of points or tuned a carburetor, they haven't been used in production cars for years. Business is in business to make money, not satisfy every customer, even though a satisfied customer will be a repeat customer. You want old parts? Look for someone who deals in that type stuff, not a generic parts sales store. Don't expect everything you need to be in one place, autos are so specialized now that parts don't just interchange like they do on our old stuff. Used to buy a Ford starter or a Chevy alternator and it would fit most all their products, not any more. You can't blame them for not stocking items they may only sell one of in a years time. Like I said above, it's supply and demand. It's been the standard of business since business began...