When things go wrong at Autozone....*score*

So I went to Autozone yesterday to return a steering wheel puller I got via their rent-a-tool program (which is **** because all of the bolts stripped themselves with minimal pressure...another story). I couldn't return them because I had left my receipt at home, so I left, mad at myself, in a private little huff, and got back in my truck to go home. As I'm backing up, I see a car in the rear view, sitting in the lot a couple of spaces back. I instantly backed up and parked my truck and got out to check out the car...no getting *too* close to it because it just kinda feels like an invasion of privacy. Not a minute later and I see a jolly fellah coming out of Autozone headed towards the car, smiling. I ask him if this is his, he says "yeah", and I ask if I can look closer.....which turns into us standing in the parking lot for an hour talking about everything he's done to his car on his own over the past 40 years. Here's the car:




He's done *everything* himself...and multiple times, as it seems his car is a wreck magnet. The Merc was in the move IQ with Walter Mathau as a press car!

SO, back to the parking lot....he's telling me about things, and how he just found some replacement lights for the grill. I mention that I think the Merc grills have a lot of character and thought about trying to see if I could fit one on my 50 Chevy. He says to me, "Hey, I've got an extra grill at home...if you want it, you can *have* it." ....!!!!!!. I say, "heck yeah" so we roll to his place and shoot the breeze for another hour. We talk about all of the cars he's fixed up from complete rust buckets over the years, but before I go, he loads me up with all of this:



So I made a new friend, got to hear a ton of cool stories in the process, and turned a cruddy visit to Autozone into a great day.....even if I didn't end up getting *any* work done for once!

 

Nice..

 

Great score , its crazy how we make new friends and score cool parts it always pays to stop and shoot the ****.

 

Thats a shot from half court at the buzzer score, nice.

 

have you heard the term " the sun shines on every dogs a#@ every once in a .... well yesterday was your day.....very cool and made a new friend to boot.....

 

Karma.

Rich

 

That is awesome.....nice score!

 

Stuff like that is just awesome. Thanks for sharing.

 

See, Autozone is awesome - just not for tools (or parts help)

 

doesnt happen often enough..great deal

 

Sounds like this guy you met probably has lots more stories. You'll enjoy them a few at a time. Try to return the favor by helping him out next time he needs some muscle or an extra pair of hands.

 

Thanks for sharing that - it made my day to hear about yours.

 

That's awesome.

 

There are thousands of old fella's out there who don't have sons or daughters or they have them, but their not interested in cars or hot rods, just itchin to tell some youngan about his experiences, his cars or his hot rods. All of them have some good, interesting stories if we stop long enough to listen. And, by-the-way, those youngans, most of them anyway, are good listeners if given the chance

That's why I find this site so damn cool. I have met many many many new friends, both old, young, what I used to call wierd and different, but all car nuts and easy to talk to about my favorite subject.

Long live the HAMB,,,and old guys.

 

Finding and talking with good People will always make your day.

 

Load of cool parts - nice!
New friend - priceless! Hope you keep in touch with him.

 

To meet a cool car dude and get some free stuff sounds like a lucky day. Double SCORE!

My local "StupidZone" has it's parking lot attached to a college campus parking lot. The only luck you'd have at that store is if you don't get run into by a non-driver foreigner blasting their way into the lot to make it to cl*** on time.

Whenever I go into that store I'm lucky if I can leave without being red-faced and frustrated at the ***** behind the counter who can seem to find his *** with both hands let alone an auto part a customer comes in to buy!

Marty McF.

 

Yeah, we traded all of our info/numbers. My wife and I are going back over there soon...she makes her own yarn from sheep wool and there's a sheep herder down the road that he's going to introduce her to...while we sit around and BS some more It's sad, but I don't think his kids care about the cars

We plan on it...he doesn't do car shows. He said he stopped going when more and more people started coming up and asking him "Hey, what's that worth?"

Indeed..DOUBLE score You know, I like our Autozone in some ways...but most of the people behind the counter aren't very nice or knowledgeable. I asked them if they carried POR15...and the guy (a manager) looked at me dumbfounded...so I said "You know, frame/ch***is paint.....it's *black*." , He looked even more dumbfounded and looked towards the paint area as if to say "I dunno...how about *you* go look." The Advance Auto Parts store is MUCH better IMO.

 

On a side note...does anyone know of any 49-52 Chevy's that have a Merc grill like that on them? I'd be interested to see how it looks and what they did to make it fit.

 

Incredible story.......theres some really cool people still out there.

Sure put a smile on my face!


But I think the best score you got, was the friend you made.

 

I agree same here, Adv AP is way better.

The bummer is the Adv AP here had a great manager a couple years ago then replaced him with a lying **** bag *** kisser corporate dumb***.

M. Mc F.

 

and more expensive

 

Indeed, it would take me forever to post all the stories that he told me in the several hours that we shot the breeze.

 

You probably made his day as much as he made yours. That's good stuff.

 

Man, I wish I had an autozone story like that, I (well my wife) had to go back there three freakin times because they kept giving me either the wrong or busted starter for my 390 in my truck. Hopefully if I keep up my Karma chips I will score like you did one day.

 

Keep saving those chips, one day you'll cash them in! I've had so much go sideways lately that I guess this was an "even it out" event

 

that's a great story about your new friend.

but Autozone should have been able to find the transaction in their computer and reprint the invoice , saving you an extra trip and some frustration

 

I popped out my credit card and asked him if they could look it up that way (as every other store on God's green Earf can), but he said "I can only give you store credit, so you may want to go find that receipt". The funny thing is, they have all of their loaner tools in these specific red plastic cases...at least the smaller tools that normally come in plastic blister packs. He should have known right off the bat that it was one of theirs. Whatever.....I'm actually grateful that his treacherous douchebaggery came to p***....or my good luck wouldn't have occurred.

 

That is a great story.

 

Now are'nt you glad you forgot your receipt? If you had'nt you might not have gotten into that situation to start with. There are no accidents they say.