Projects We're getting old

Two parts stores close to me still carry old stuff. Senter in Plaistow,NH even had a sbc points distributor! And NAPA Georgetown, MA. Excellent counter personnel, I feel lucky.
At CAPS a couple years ago the young kid says " what year engine?"
1968
"Our computer doesn't go back that far"
Good bye

 

Yea, last time I needed a cap and rotor for a 60’s GM points distributor, they also had to order them. It’s all about demand and movement of parts. Not many folks walk in needing stuff we need anymore. There has to be room for all the fancy waxes and cleaning supplies so can’t keep these obsolete parts.

 

Recently at the parts store needing a part they didn’t have in stock but could order for me. He turned the computer screen around to show me and he was on Amazon. That’s happened a couple of times. I like to support local business but......?

 

I thought that was until you got to first grade. Must be part of the cycle of life.

 

There was a Caps across from GE in Lynn where I used to work. Used to be a good place. They also owned a junkyard that was behind the store. All long gone now

 

I've been old for 50 years. I was in my late twenties when I got to a 4 year college. One of my instructors took our class for a tour of the new Under Graduate Library. The young lady showing us around explained how they had hired a bunch of average students to write the instructions for the new non-print media. Then she said that all of the in coming students already knew how to use it. The only ones who needed the instructions were old guys like me.

 

The headlight bulbs were probably 6V, which is why a special order. 6V went away 60 years ago.

 

The question they always asked me in the “chain” auto parts stores is: “What year and model car is it in? So rather than tell them that it’s a sbc in a 1940 Oldsmobile, I tell it’s a ‘68 Impala or something that the engine might have originally come from. Saves a lot of confusion…

 

Last I remember we had new Autocar (White) Expediter chassis with them in the Early 2000s. Not car I know.

 

You are lucky, all the NAPA stores around here were bought by Car Quest. Fargo Auto Parts was bought by them too. (The last independent store)

 

The real shocker was the kid didn't know what I was talking about! We looked on his computer for awhile and for sure it said 'special order'.
Moved to Texas in Dec 2019 and lost my go-to parts girl in Bakersfield. Southern Auto Debby was awesome. She drove a SBC powered Deuce Coupe and never had to look up a part number no matter how obscure the part was. She just walked back to the shelf and got it. Nowadays I go to O'Reilly's for oil, belts, etc., use Summit, ebaY and Amazon for most other stuff. I love using Summit just to see how fast the stuff arrives! Most things I order @ 5 in the afternoon, they arrive 8 the next morning! Almost think they could ship parts between rounds @ a drag race.

 

The last two parts people that could do that retired several years ago here. Most knew their stock room back in the day.

 

Just yesterday we brought Little Truckdoctor home from the hospital and today he is taller than I am, and I’m 6’2”. That was 14 years ago, where did the time go??? My favorite Garth Brooks song is “I’m too Young to Feel this Damn Old”.

 

I discovered that the spark plugs that I am using cross reference to a 2013 Rolls Royce. I can't wait to spring that on the parts counter person.

 

He said it was 12V in the middle of the very first line of the first post. Hows you reading comprehension?

 

I started working in auto parts in the mid '70's. We didn't have many parts for your 1935 car then either. I used to do manual inventory, keep card files and hand write tickets. I was glad when the computer came out. I never used software to look up parts. That was after my time. I did keep ~50 feet of '70's & '80's catalogs. They have been in my attic 36 years. Rock Auto works too well. Mike

 

As far as helpful suggestions go regarding aging, I can attest to the "regularity" that Metamucil brings ... every morning at 7:30 the "train leaves the station". Unfortunately, I never wake before 8:00

As far as favorite underwear goes ... it Depends

 

Exactly! I know I am not old enough to be a grandpa…

 

Ha! when you were a kid, you added the half because you wanted to be older...

 

I am so old I don't buy green bananas anymore.

 

I recently had the realization that I think I'm probably older than Santa Claus.

As winds of change blow over the land
And the past gets swept even further from hand
Crafting hot rods and customs
Vintage and fine
The old man in his workshop
Slows the passage of time

 

Having a favorite GB song is a major problem !

 

Ah yes we were due for this topic again, it's been too short. But seriously you are on the internet, you can find damn near anything you need. Chain stores are there to make money, non-high volume moving parts eat into the bottom line, so they become regaled to being special order. Most DIY people these days are working on their daily that was manufactured within the last 25 or so years, classic collector vehicles are not the focus of big chain stores. If you're gonna keep playing the old car game you need to utilize the resources currently at our disposal and lower your expectation that our type of vehicles are not the center of the transportation universe anymore. There is a verse from a song written by an East Bay punk band and it goes "Times are gonna change, so change or step aside." I think about that line often, keeps me ready for the next thing.

 

I'll be damned! After years of reading your posts, there is finally something you said that I can agree with.

 

everything is a special order so they can charge you more had one place would not place the order until I made the purchase yet did not no the price and could not process it until I made the purchase without knowing the price ??walk away never been back

 

This reminds me of back when I worked at a car dealership. A recent arrival at the used car lot would show up with quartz halogen headlights. I would go to the parts department, buy two regular seal beams and swap them out to get me some good lights. I guess those days are gone.

 

What about the old fella that went into a diner and ordered a two-minute egg for breakfast? They told him he'd need to pay in advance!

 

I knew I was getting old about 15 years ago when I saw a kid rolling around in a fully restored 76 Camaro. Those things were always parts cars for real cars.
In 98 I paid $250 for a 79 T top Z28, drove it home, 4 hours later the body was cut into four pieces and rolling out of my driveway in the back of a hulk haulers truck, and the entire drivetrain was mocked up under my 56 F100 I was building at the time.
I rarely waste my time going to a parts store anymore. With rock auto and amazon for new parts, ebay for other parts I'm covered for all nine of my vehicles.

 

Since the beginning of time adaptation has been the key to survival. Everything costs something. Not adapting costs something. Adapting also costs something. But, whether you adapt or not, you can still be a grumpy old man.

 

If they kept a part in their inventory for two years, unsold, and heated it, lit it, insured it, dusted it and moved it few times to make room for faster selling parts, they would charge you more for it too.