Hot Rods V belts are obsolete?

Why would they?

The last production one left the factory 21-years-ago.

The average age of a car or light truck on US roads is 12, 9-years after the SBC vanished.

Most small blocks, even the brand new in 2003 ones, are long dead.

 

McMaster Carr is a good source for belts.

 

I think you're missing the point, everyone understands we are a free market capitalist society and I think most of us are pretty happy with that system and we are venting or frustrations with like minded people.
I think the point of the conversation was is people want to go to a parts store to buy car parts, not electric scooters or floor mats for the garage floor, car parts and car related items.
Do those items sell? I can answer that question as I sold parts for probably 10 years and I was forced by a bean counter to sell the non-car related junk and I would say a super large majority of the time people didn't come in to specifically buy those items but if they were in there they would occasionally buy them. Was it enough to constitute the used up floor space that is debatable especially when you think about an actual car related item that was not sold because the space was used for debris that could have been bought anywhere. I do know that when I worked at CSK (now O'Reilly's) we had a key on the keyboard that was to mark "lost sell" because something wasn't in stock, I marked that key every time somebody would leave the store without getting what they wanted at the parts counter if the item was available and we did not carry it in stock. So for example using that fan belt we were all talking about for the last three or four pages I would mark "lost sell" on part number 15530 (or whatever the part number was I'm not going back pages to look).
The problem was most countermen did not do this so V belts slowly disappear, I would mark a lost sale if we were out of stock on said belt or a sparkplug or any other item that we normally stocked that I felt we did not carry enough of. For example why would you only carry eight champion spark plugs of a certain part number when there is room on the shelf for 24 of them? It's not like the item is taking up any extra space as the space was already allocated for the part number.
Marking lost sales is part of being a counterman and it is part of being a good salesman.
Now since 15 or 18 years ago I have since moved on and I no longer mess around with cars parts sales (at least not new stuff). I obviously am not the average person when it comes to working on my car as I am a certified mechanic or at least I was before it expired but by that same rationale I am definitely a do-it-yourselfer and I just like you or probably anyone else reading this thread and we are part of their target demographic who actually work on cars and change their own oil or wash their own car or replace hard parts. Now I can't speak for you or anyone else but I don't go to a parts store to bite on automotive items in fact I don't think I've ever went to a parts store and bought a non automotive item other than maybe a soda on my way out the door at the register which that is considered a impulse buy and many people do the same thing.
Because of the local parts store not having parts for my vehicles I refuse to go to a AutoZone or an O'Reilly's because they hire people that are absolutely unknowledgeable about the products they are selling and they choose to sell things like ice chests or those electric scooters they don't need my business and judging by everybody else on this forum they too are done with the idiots at the parts store... Those are called Lost sales, I personally spend literally thousands of dollars every single year on new parts because I got quiet the side hustle fixing cars and reselling them for profit, sometimes it's late model junk usually it's older vehicles but the fact of the matter is I buy everything online now because if I got to wait for them to get it and it cost 30% more what's the point of getting it from the parts store when I could have it delivered to my house and not waste the gas or the time or have to push through the sea of unrelated debris.

 

In the kids defense they quit selling the Crown Victoria in 2012 he probably was a little kid.

 

Almost my exact experience before it was O'Reilly's...
The district manager and the regional vice president had no business being in the position they were in...
I told my district manager that it was probably the best thing I ever did ironically he got fired a few weeks after I quit if I would have known I probably would have stuck around a little while longer since I made myself unrehireable lol

 

My V belt from Amazon came in yesterday! Marked in big yellow letters, "USA" and the brand name. Then a little further around the belt in little tiny font, "Made in India". Wonder how a belt can be from two countries?
It does look like a very heavy duty belt, and should last forever on a car I only drive about 3000 miles a year.

 

ohhhnooo...now the made in some foreign country yammering will commence...

 

The only thing that seems to matter anymore is "make the sale" and return customers don't matter, seems to be the direction that marketing has gone.
The world has changed before our eyes, trying to make sense of things is a waste of energy.

 

That may mean USA spec belt rather than the rest of the world or intended to be sold in the US. USA spec meaning measured in inches rather than millimeters.

 

Surprisingly common in western style business. Managers and Senior management,
who have no clue about the products and don't care about the customer. Their only
priority is numbers for the next quarter, so they can get their bonuses. They think they
can do everything with numbers, without bothering to understand what they are trying to measure.
W. Edwards Deming said: "Leadership can only be provided through profound knowledge."

 

Local Case IH or John Deere dealer is your best bet on engine duty V belts anymore.

 

@Squablow you said gremlin, I love those things

 

It was interesting reading these 4 pages of posts and opinions about V Belts. I just retired from a Goodyear belt plant, actually Continental now and for quite a few years already. I probably know more about v belts than the average guy does. Anyone have any questions, I'll give you the best answer I can.

 

So, are they really “obsolete”?

 

Not by me, they're not. The made in USA , yes.

 

I don’t know, I ask at my parts store for a belt by application and I have it in the morning, works for me.

 

Wouldn't that be a wonderful world if I could go to my parts store and tell them I've got a '39 Chev, with a 1990 SBC engine, and custom alternator mount, and have them spit out a part number!

 

They do that all the time, just cant guarantee the part is the right one lol.

 

Reminds me of one smart ass woman at a chain parts store when I went in to get a part for my old Austin gasser, and she asked me for make, model, etc. and I told her that wouldn't work. She looked at me and said, "Let me decide what will or wont work."
So I tell her it's a 1939 Austin A8 with 327 V8, and before I finished giving all the details her manager stepped over and told her she wont find it in the computer, so better let the customer finish helping her find the right part.
At least he had brains enough to not let her go further and look more foolish.

 

^^^^^ The days of being under or over qualified. Where did it go?

 

Right out of college I worked the parts counter in a marine warehouse. The company sold ski boats, runabouts and fishing boats. Volvo Penta, Mercruiser, Evinrude, Johnson, Force.

In addition, for some unknown reason, management had “secured” the regional distribution rights for British Seagull parts. These were oddball small outboards first engineered in the 1930s, mainly used as auxiliary power in sailboats. We had a shelf of boxes containing individual Seagull parts, none costing more than $3. We had no literature on them, just a photocopy exploded view of one of the many models they produced.

Every couple weeks some sailboat guy in a smelly turtleneck and smoking a pipe would come in looking for a part. This would turn into a 45-minute exercise of going through boxes and trying to match something up, all for a $3 sale. While we searched, we had to endure this geezer telling us what a wonderful outboard this archaic old turd was, and how as an official distributor we had an obligation to understand it better. In short, we were stupid and terrible at our jobs.

Does this sound familiar?

Finally the warehouse computerized. Now management had sales data, and could see how many salaried hours were being burned for a handful of trivial sales. More important, the data proved what we’d been saying for years: Sailboat guys were not buyers for the cool high-markup accessories we carried in the showroom for ski boats and runabouts. In other words, no upselling, no add-ons. Just a waste of time.

The Seagull stuff went in the dumpster. Coincidentally, British Seagull went out of business a couple years later. But you can still get parts for the things online.

 

“We had it tough in the old days …..
except for parts”

 

There is a lot of talk about kids working in parts stores that don't squat about auto parts or even cars in general. The problem isn't necessarily them not knowing auto parts. The problem is they aren't trained on how to find the part the customer is describing. It drives me crazy when you go in and they want to know what it is going in. It's a 454 and I need a water pump. What's it in? It's in a 51 chevy styleliue deluxe. I don't show a listing for that. Of course not, find anything with a 454 and start there. Or if I tell them it is in my 1977 Riviera the smart ass old guy shouts out Buick didn't put 454s in Rivieras. No but Riviera Boats put them in their jet boats. Can you just get me an alternator? We don't sell boat parts. And that is about when I leave. If you tell them too much info like it's a 505 (.100 over 454 w/4.25 stroke) or 503 (.030 over 454 w/4.375 stroke) BBC they are lost as last year's Easter eggs. And if I need a part quick, I don't have time to teach and train them how to find it. They work there, they should know how to find it. But it is the store's responsibility to train them on how to find the parts. None of us were born with that knowledge. When I used to work for AutoZone, they used to pay for our ASE certifications. They wanted us to know as much as possible about the job we were hired to do. I don't think the companies even care anymore, if the employees can spell car let alone find the right parts for one.

 

Capitalism requires the minimum, and nothing more.

 

In order to get to where they can see the part number they first have to enter the information they ask you, it’s the computer program, if you expect anyone to know an application for every obsolete engine/vehicle combination you are setting yourself for failure. If I have something custom I have an application that I can have them enter to find the parts. But I understand how their system works, others may not.

 

Senter Auto Parts in Plaistow, NH is a family run store and I feel very fortunate to have them 10 minutes away. They have everything - I mean everything! Examples from the last few years:
Fuel line fabbed up new ends pressed on, fit perfect.
Straight weight oil
5/8"× whatever size v-belts
Oil filter for the flathead right off the shelf
All brass fittings for gauges, lines, plugs, intake, everything
Full autobody supplies including paint
Lug nuts for 3 different cars
SBC distributor
Wierd bolts and hardware
Flathead spark plugs
Radiator hoses
I go there and I leave with everything I was looking for always-amazing.

 

My '39 Coupe has a '67 283 in it, I know this and will ask for parts for a '67 Chevelle with a 283.
Telling the counterperson it's a '39 Ford with a '67 283 doesn't help, nor impress.
Same applies for my '40 Ford Convertible with a '50 Olds 303, or my '40 Ford p/u with a '56 Buick 322...they're not impressed, or any more apt to get you what you want.
We have a lifetime of knowledge of our era of cars, use that knowledge to get what you need, rather than going down a dead end street of irrelevant questions.

 

The problem with the people at the store level is they only know what the computer says. If they didn’t program the computer for any vehicle prior to 1965 and your car is bone stock, they won’t have parts for it, because the computer won’t pull them up. Even though the same starter solenoid was used for years after. I don’t expect them to be interchange experts, but a basic way of navigating to the part’s class, manufacturer, approximate year of manufacture, or anything that helps narrow the search should be doable. With all the computer tech, why can’t they have visual references to compare to? If they don’t want to spend the money for programming, go back to a set or 2 of paper catalogs. Let the customer look through and find the part if they don’t have the time to. Most of the time, I’ve already searched out the part on line and can give them the part number to what I need. So it really annoys me when I get the 100 question game. And some parts used on our cars didn’t come on anything from the manufacturer. What showroom buyable car came with a dominator carb?

 

Because all of that costs more money than they are making on the odd old part they might sell. Pretty simple economics. Their system works for the vast majority of the business they conduct.