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

I worked behind the counter at an AutoZone. There computer will tell you, or would at the time, that a Corvette did not ever have a 427, that. GTO only had a 326 or a 400 2 barrell. You get the Idea, and I spent hours looking for anomolies. Between AutoZone and Kragens, I could get parts for anything , and I was building or fixing damn near everything from 1950 to 2000, mostly muscle cars and 50s cars. In the same town, a kid at Napa told me there was no such car as a Henry J, even though it was idling in front of him. My point is, I knew what interchanged, and how to manipulate the books. I recommend you know what you want, and have a part number, but realize, these places don't pay crap, these kids have horrible schedules, and many times don't care. Sometimes you get someone who cares, or like me, knows there stuff . Other times, it's a person who can only function behind the McComputer .Most everything you need can be bought, or is in stock, you just need to know how to get it. I prefer online anymore, however,I will look it up online and see how close I can get it.

 

I work in a speed shop, probably earning over double what chain store employees do, just got of the phone to a Mechanic chasing a vibration in a 289 after changing the flywheel, turns out it is a bunch of miss matched parts. I explained the differences in water pumps, balancers and late 5.0 50oz change to help him ID it and figure out where it's gone wrong.

No chain store gives a shit about 60 year old engines, nor are they going to pay for the knowledge. Especially given you all want the cheapest price. You wanna drive obsolete stuff, you figure it out or pay up

 

Actually, at the Napa store I work at on Sundays the boss had set up some generic accounts that we can use for example if someone comes in and is buying supplies to paint a car, there's an account that gives them body shop prices. or a small-time farmer, they get large farm discount prices and so on, and it's okay to use them with others at our discretion. But if someone wants to come in and come across as an ass, then full retail it is! lol Larry

 

I believe we have exceeded the previous high in the auto parts store/ counterman yammering posts by a large margin...

 

https://www.agscompany.com/
Since 1931. Good stuff. I first used them in the 70's. Mike

 

Nail on the head right there, Lloyd.

 

Everyone has needed help in their life at one time or another . Just man up as Lloyd , explained it , if you don’t know say “ I don’t know help me and we will get through this “. Makes everyone’s life a bit easier . Male ego , is defined as a true Bitch

 

Back when I was in my productive years I used to get a good discount at O’Reilly’s, but now they just give me the bum off the street discount, even though I helped build their business to what it is for years! Now they just forgot me! My friend had a shop and bought a huge amount at O’Reilley’s and he didn’t get a good discount!
Since I am rarely in a hurry for a part, I shop online now! They forget me…..I forget them! Just my way!





Bones

 

Around here you just tell them to put it under the South Dakota Stockgrowers Assn.

 

One thing I have noticed as I have grown older is that my "connections" have faded away, even the connections I made through my initial connections.

 

My pal just went to Lowes for a pulley and after much conversation and drawing a picture still didn't
get thru

 

The red part above is my pet peeve. Spent years in the early years of computer integration into non-computerized processes. There is simply no reason for the knowledge the experienced parts person learned from the books shouldn't be in the new system. Except that, coding, data input and repetitive testing by experienced people is expensive.

I just don't understand why so many online and store systems are so bad. Say what you will about Rock Auto, their catalog lookup process is the gold standard. I use them to find manufacturers PNs, then search that PN all over the net.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^A buddy of mine was in O'Reilly tech support-- they use Rock Auto's web site to look up number's.

 

When I started dealing with the local parts stores, the manuals had 3 or 4 price sheets, white, pink, yellow I think. Your business volume determined which sheet (price) you got. I bought on Dad's business name but paid cash so he never saw any impact.

 

The kids that work at the local Auto Zone are car guys, judging by what's in the parking lot where the employees park. However, it's all late model import stuff, so I don't have any expectation of them being able to help me with vintage parts.

 

A white elephant gift from a car club winter party many moons ago. For the record I now go online, look up the part, make sure it's in stock at the local parts store, pay for the part and then go to the store and pick it up. Problem solved and stress free transaction.

 

I'd be willing to be they work perfectly fine for the vast majority of what they are asked to do on a daily basis. It makes zero sense to spend countless dollars to fuss about the tiny minority that doesn't work for cars that have been obsolete for 50 years.

 

It's not the age that is the issue, it is the lack of detail. For example, some 1/2 trucks now have independent rear suspension, but that is not in all listings, just the need for the VIN. Why not provide the option to bypass, year, make, model, vin and just allow a search for year and suspension, when you want a list of shock options for a given application.

Lots of systems require a specific data list before you can even browse for anything. See my comment about Rock.

 

When I worked at Joe Basolo’s in Muskogee, in 1971 we had those price sheets. List, for pricks, high net for most folks, low net for shops, jobber for certain other parts stores and Joe also had a distributor sheet that was close to what he paid for the part. I can’t remember what the colors were now, been too long. But the price when from $10 list to about $2 disturber!




Bones

 

There exists a persistent lot of people that refuse to accept this.

 

Again because 99% of the time it is used it works perfectly fine. These systems are designed for specific modern vehicles where you have a VIN that you provide and get exactly what you need. When joe blow orders the part for his vehicle that is wrong (because there are different variation for the same make and model depending on VIN) because he looked it up himself "knowing what he needed" it costs a company money to refund, re stock deal with the same customer again for the same transaction. It also cost them more money to design a system that will lead to more issues increasing the cost further.

 

I am absolutely certain that there are very few people here that fully understand the costs involved in designing, running, and maintaining a parts inventory and indexing system, and all of the backend technology that is involved Despite the locally generated graphical user interface, this often a decades-old IBM AS/400 system* (think green-screen IBM 3270 or 5250 dumb terminal).

I would wager that even fewer would consider how this expense of even a slight redesign of these systems would compare and/or contrast to the gross margins that provide revenue to these parts stores.

The short of the long of this is that these parts stores have the least expensive technology that they can get away with to serve the maximum quantity of customers, as quickly as possible.

Anyone that believes that people like us are, or even should be included in that group is out of their damned mind.

The HAMB-era ended 58-years-ago.

*For perspective, I am one of the last of a generation of people that still knows how to support an AS/400 system, and I am in my mid-50's. Replacing them will require replacing ALL of the backend technology, and that may have to come not because the tech failed, but because the operators and programmers died.

The cost of migrating from one of these old systems, to a new one, and the time involved, is astronomical.

Here is a ProTip, and a warning:

When these systems can no longer be supported, and it is necessary to replace them, guess what is not going to be included in the massive data porting to the new systems?

I will give you a hint, the old parts will disappear.

 

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Hush your dirty little mouth man! Don't say those words lmao! Just like all of us, all good things must end

 

Change from one industry (cars/pickups) to another (heavy trucks) after having experience in yet another (ag parts) and having started off in military logistics... you'll find that the situation is exactly the same but the knowledge base is vastly different.... and I also broke away from parts several times doing fabrication work and warehouse management... keeping track of all the crap I've learned is getting to be a chore, and I keep having to learn more....
fortunately, I'll be retired before electric cars REALLY become mainstream! I can avoid getting electrocuted with normal cars...

 

A good friend of mine was a partsman for 40+ years. He passed away a year ago in his early 70's, and hadn't worked in auto parts in nearly 20 years. He could still recite the part numbers for a SBC, SBF, BBC, and BBF fuel pump, water pump, and starter in several different configurations. That was a different breed of parts guy than we have today. I'm nostalgic for those days.

 

I'm lucky I can remember the way home from work

 

Went for a fitting this afternoon and look what I came home with.

 

I do not want to conform!!!!!

 

What is its proper name? The one on the package.

 

A best friend of mine many years ago had quite a few chrome plated, add a nice chain, and sold them during the “pet rock” craze.. some of you may know him…. The Reverend Scrub Hansen.