Sitting and relaxing on this rainy Sunday morning in Pennsylvania. Thinking to myself how much I really would like to be paging through a good Ole JC Whitney catalog. Even when I wasnt looking to buy anything it was enjoyable looking at all the cool, stupid and useful parts and products and just killing time away. Gone forever. I do seriously miss it.
Yep, I remember the days of perusing the "wish books", PAW's, JC Whitney, Victoria's secret.... Don't have any of the old books to thumb thru anymore.... ...
My mother would bring them back from Florida for me when I was a teenager. I probably still have some of those books mixed up in my stash of old magazines. They had some great cross reference charts on parts and what would fit what.
I haven’t seen a JC Whitney catalog since I was a kid, more than fifty years ago. It was my dream catalog because I don’t remember ever buying anything from it.
I bought stuff from them back in the late 60s early 70s. I didn't have a checking account then so I would have to go to the Post Office and get a money order. I was always satisfied with what I bought. I do remember getting catalogs from them forever!
If I recall, there was an identical catalog ,with lower? prices called E I Warshawsky. One company was at the corner of Arch and State Streets, the other at the corner of State and Arch. Lots of Model A and old Jeep stuff. Sadly missed.
J C Whitney was the Harbor Freight of its day. Some stuff was very good, some not so good. Bought my first set of tools from them, still have and use some of them.
I went there as a teen, and yes, there was some difference in pricing between the Warshawsky and J.C.Whitney catalogs. We used to go to the Archer and State store and order parts from the counter men in the back of the store. Sometimes we used the Whitney catalog to get a cheaper price and the counter man would say he couldn’t honor that. A quick visit to see Sol, a Warshawsky brother in law that ran the windshield wiper, fog light, etc counter fixed that every time. Sol would yell, “Give it to him, dammit!!!” I think old Sol appreciated us working the system.
Always read the Whitney catalog as kid when arrived in the mail … Especially liked the old car section in the back … kept one from ‘69, fun to page through - sold a lot more cool stuff than I remembered!
Used to peruse the catalog a lot. Sort of like surfing the Net nowadays. Bought a few things form them, and worked out well. Dual exhaust kits, and the headliner that's still in my coupe today!
I spent a lot of time day dreaming looking at JC Whitney catalogs. Bought the few things as a mostly broke teenager that I could afford. Somehow surfing the interweb for parts just doesn’t have the same appeal. Looked at Honest Charlie catalogs for the real performance stuff I also couldn’t afford.
I bought rings, bearings and a gasket kit from JCW for my first engine rebuild at 16. Later I bought some brake parts and misc tools for my '36 Chevy PU. I spent hours laying on my bed reading every ad on every page.
I bought a 1968 JC Whitney catalog on ebay. Cost 7 bucks I think. Worth it though, friends come over we look at it.
Loved those catalogs. They started sending them to me when I was in high school. I always wished that I had saved some of them (car magazines have been saved since I started buying when I was 9). Ebay to the rescue! Bought JC Whitney, Midwest, Honest Charley and Almquist catalogs in the last year. Honest Hisself books are my favorite, especially from the 50s and early 60s.
My memory of JC. Whitney was the two week delivery that seemed to take forever. Always happy with product though.
My grand parents had a pretty worse for wear '56 Chevy station wagon in there garage. When I was 12 I would go down in the ba*****t and sit in it and think of the possibilities and spend time polishing the pitted chrome. After a year of bugging the **** out of them and against their better judgement they gave in and gave it to me even though I was not old enough to drive yet. It needed a tail light lens and after searching the local wrecking yards and coming up empty handed, I found out about J.C. Whitney. It was the only place at that time, that it seemed you could buy one, so I did and then more catalogs followed. Like others here I spent hours looking at all those artists renditions of things I could not afford on a paper route salary. They captured this kids imagination for sure. Thanks for bringing back some of those now old but fond memories.
I have a 63’ catalog I like to peruse for inspiration, and bought a set of chrome valve covers for my 65 Barracuda in 1985. They still look great and never a leak. They had some good stuff.
Seems I remember J.C. Whitney going through re-organization bankruptcy sometime in the late '60's. Things got a bit weird, you would order a set of seat covers and get a set of floor mats instead! No explanation, it was sort of a ****-shoot, always hoping that what you received was worth more than what you ordered!
Roy Washawski sold automotive junk (I had a 39' Ford then and ordered new bumpers for it, when they arrived w****d in a burlap sack the chrome was already pealing off, made in Brazil tag still attached). He did have an amazing fine art collection including many real Tiffany lamps I sold him during the time I was in the art world in NYC in the 90's. He took our hard earned $ for junk hot rod parts and turned it into a major art collection!
I had a 55 Cadillac he**** 50+ years ago. Lived in a small town in a South Carolina county with 600 licensed auto shops that reconditioned vehicles for the southeast US. There were several auto parts businesses I badgered to find a header pipe for the Cad. Absolutely no luck despite their best attempt. Checked the J.C. Whitney catalog and found the part. When it arrived, it was exactly what I needed and very high quality. I was hooked.
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