Are there any real parts stores left?

I didn't read the rest of the post, yet, but thought i'd give you one lead.. Working at the shop i deal with counter guy's all day long, and have only found a few that can cater to what we do...
In other words, even if they are not into hot rods or custom's, they were around "in the day" and have a much more rounded dictionary when it come's to parts.....
When i have a part for an old car i need, i call Part's Plus on Lake ave, the old Vics auto parts.. Ask for Steven..
He used to own the place, then sold it to Parts plus, but still works the counter....
He's by far one of the best part's guy's i know.
If you happen to call him, tell him i told you to contact him...just mention the name of the shop i'm at..
He'll either take care of you, or tell you to get the hell away because i drive him nut's and he dosn't want any more cRaZy's bothering him!!


Stay away from the large chain store's.....aside from oil and filters, the occasional can of paint, the only thing they are good for is aggravation..And cashew nut's....Alway's wondered why the hell an auto part's store sell's tub's of cashew's....fuckin strange..

Tony

 

Next time they leave you standing there in line to go answer the phone, whip out your cell phone and call from the counter. That way you are sure to get helped.

And while we are on this subject, why is it that the big chain stores now carry everything except auto parts? The Pep Boys by my house has mini bikes, 4 wheelers, go-carts and motorized scooters all at the front of the store. They only have one small isle of actual parts you might need in the very back. I went in there today for a freeze plug for a SBF, and they don't carry them anymore. The manager told me to try some little independant store 20 miles away. But if I needed any stick on portholes or flames, they have 4 isles of that crap. What the fuck?

 

"Back in the day" there were about 5 different parts numbers for every car on the road. Your typical counter guy in a parts store needs more of an education than a doctor to make most of you guys happy. At least the human body never changes. 100 years of cars with a hundred new models each year adds up to more info than any brain can store. Of course usually the guys I see complaining are the ones that tell you all 350s are the same, then get mad when you toss a distributor cap for an LT1 at them.

 

The answer is no. There are only corporate models. If you try to find a Model A in this model, they just laugh at your ass. I work at O'Reillys, and it is the biggest fucking joke on the planet. We will have something for an old car on the shelf only long enough for corporate to pull it. I am the one guy behind the counter who knows anything about the old shit. Forget asking anyone else. I AM THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS MY FRIEND! I could give a shit less about fuel injected. Don't waste my time with foreigns. Give me a frame that stops on all drums with an engine that has no overhead valves, and get the fuck out of my way.

 

I wasn't going to reply to this thread, but this comment I thought I might as well.
In a lot of the mom and pop stores , NAPA , Carquest etc. ,that person on the other end of the phone likely is a shop or mechanic for a fleet of vehicles that spends anywhere from $2,000.00 - $15,000.00 a month and he/she can usually provide more information than "they are all the same" as a lot of the DIYers do.Also, I might add that these DIYers are also the first to blow their corks when they got a part that didn't fit what they were trying to hamburger together into a gourmet meal. After reading many of the posts on here I sure as hell am glad I don't deal with some of you. Did every one of you fall off that truck that was loaded with instant knowledge? Some of you act like you did. Stop and think about this, everyone of us started edjucating ourselves from zero. Most of these "kids" have seen pictures of cars that had points and carburetors - probably with a cow or something in the background which they also have only seen in pictures. Most also have no intention of learning anything about hot rod or custom car building. They are there to make enough money to get through school / college so they can go out and get a job that pays much more. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get a gearhead that does it cause they love being around autos. These guys again , don't learn it all overnight. Try and find a store you like and maybe get to know the people behind the counter and treat them as you would want to be treated. Many of you guys have created a great working relationship with your parts store. You may not always get the right part , or the cheapest part , but you will at least get the satisfaction on not hating your trip to chase parts and sometimes even develop great friendships by doing it this way.
Just my .07 cents (inflation) , Dave

 

Is it over? Did we win? Or are we still the dumb asses that should know their hat size? If you don't know what you want how the hell should we? If you think it's bad now the talk is that O'Reilly's is trying to buy CSK. Talk about no choice. That's O'Reilley's, Checker, Shucks, Kragen, Murry's, and a couple more I can't remember all in one big pile! And they will take the most useless computer system from all the stores and share it, but don't blame the countermen. We work for parts, there is no money!

 

When manny,moe,larry curly and brothers daryl and daryl start paying more than $7 an hour we'll get people (men & women ) that have a fuckin clue. until then your better off knowing the part number before you walk in
just my.02.......+tax

 

Last week I needed some studs longer than stock for a 60 olds axle. I went o my favorite cqr quest about a mile from my house, walked in and told him what I needed. He turned around, pulled down the book and we looked it up. Had no problem. I don't even go into one of the other chain stores around here when I know I can get it there.


jerry

 

best way to handle a autozone type store is to go to their website first and look up the part yourself. Then you can go to the store with the part number already. Dosnt work for Napa because their online catelog is limited. I like advance auto parts because I can find stuff on their site that the stores dont stock but with the part# they will order it for me and it gets there the next morning.

 

I like going to the local Pep Boys just to mess with them. Once they told me that according the their computer, the only cars made in 1966 were Volkswagens and the computer does not lie. It took 3 people and 15 minutes to tell me yes, they could get me a radiator for a 1968 Corvair (there were no 66 or 67 Corvairs, only VW's). I have had them look up blinker fluid, muffler bearings, cans of compression, etc, and they actually look for these parts.

I asked for an axle seal for a 9 inch Ford rear one time and I had the part number. They asked for the year, make ,model. I told them 1957 Ford and the guy said are you sure its not a VW. I just walked out. I drive 20 minutes to an Advance Auto Parts where the do have a good computer that dates back to the late 50's and knowledgeable counter men.

 

I agree with the chains not paying a hoot, but when they hire somebody to sell parts, shouldn't they ask if they have any general automotive knowledge?

A few years back my daughter wanted to learn how to do simple maintenance on her car. I said that I would help her and she told me the car needed brakes. So we went to Checker and got pads and shoes for 98 Sunfire Gt. The pads and shoes were Raybestos, so I thought they should be correct. Well when we started on the drum brakes, I instructed her on how the shoes go on the car, mainly pointing out that there are primary and secondary shoes and how they are oriented. So she goes and looks at the shoes on the car (which were correct) then looked at the new shoes and said "Dad, what gives?". Well Raybestos packaged up 4 primaries, so I called Checker back and asked if they had another set that was correct, and they said they did. We take the shoes back and ALL their sets were wrong. I asked the dude if he knew a primary and secondary shoe if he saw one and he said yes. So I asked him to identify them in the box and he pointed out that this is the way they came and they were ok.

We got our money back and went to A.Z. and they at least had the right shoes.

Really sad that they at the least don't know simple things like this. But then again retail sales of anything is much the same, just try a Radio shack, or a hardware store for some wierd part.

 

JOBS AVAILIBLE ANTIQUE+CLASSIC SALVAGE OPERATION in ARIZONA
***WE WILL CONSIDER ANYONE WHO MAY EVEN NEED TO RE-LOCATE THEMSELVES AND/OR THERE FAMILY****
I know this isn't jobbing .com but I was reading this thread and counting the complaints about the counter guys you deal with for this hobby. Ever entertain the idea of trying that salesman seat out for yourself. I have been looking for someone who actually has some general knowlage of classic cars.
Desert Valley Auto Parts Phx, AZ
DVAP Casa Grande CG, AZ.
Freds auto Phx, AZ See partial inventory at www.dvap.com
Must have the following talents to jump on board
Age 18-80
Must have (a memmory), (common sense), (computer basic skills), (drive to earn $MONEY$), (people skills), (100% follow through), (good communication abilities), (a double jointed thumb bone), (a cell/home phone), (drivers license), and finnaly the (abillity to work for a familly owned opperation, established in AZ which encompaces over 125 acres spread out on 4 separate "yards", with the latest total inventory topping 7700 cars)
HOW COULD DVAP.Com USE YOU IN ITS CREW?
1. INVENTORY CONTROLER>
* 7700 cars is no joke, Only 1257 are one our combined current inventory that is at our customers fingertips NOW!
** When finished our younger uneducated car hobbiest sales men will have the ability to rattle off to callers whats inside the yard, from there fingertips in seconds.
*** With that person coming into contact most with our inventory, they can make our operations more efficient by locating items for "IN-TOWN" customers, cutting the "WAIT TIME" in half.
2.OPERATIONS MANAGER>(No Double/Jointed Thumb Needed ....Sorry)
* You must be able to manage people. ( I would like to see some Proof of this)
** Must sell, *** Remember Customers Names, ***** Ability to do each job we do,(if in an emergency)sell, pull, package,clean, market, restock,load,forklift,clean toilets,and make money!
3.COUNTERMAN/SALES>
* Salary or Salary+ commision or 100% commision/ Bonuses on whole car sales
** Must be smart, Nice, Presentable,
*** NO THIEFS NEED APPLY
APPLICANTS basically must have the desire to see to it that "ALL" customers who enter our Junk yards leave wth a smile, with parts, and with a plesant memory of his/her visit...............THE END
E-mail a reply and I wil take the steps to get ANY THING CLEARED UP OR ANSWERED 800-905-8024 623-780-8024
THANKS JASON MCCLURE "THE BOSS"

 

Ha real part stores! there is still a few! please search them out and dont feed the corporate greed machine! places like oreilly,advance bla bla , i worked at a small independent warehouse that was bought out by oshmileys and they suck!!alls they want to employee is 7 dollar an hour walmart rejects ,During the hiring they ask NO automotive questions???..i now work for a employee owned auto parts store.find youre independent autopart stores!! and support...Joe

 

LOL, there is so much wrong information in this thread it's hilarious. O'Reillys doesn't ask any automotive questions in the hiring process? Give it a rest and cook up your bullshit for another day. I sure wish I was born knowing everything like all the Einsteins posting in here. Can't imagine why you can't get help after going in and screwing with the counter guys all the time either. Some of you guys are just tooooo cool for school, man.

 

Thanks Tony. The local Advance has more candy and cashews then they have auto parts.
For the people attempting to defend these great chain stores, good luck. It's not about knowing everything, it's about selling parts. Or trying to get the right part for the customer, regardless of wether they know all the needed info or not. Go the extra mile, know something about what you're doing, stop being lazy and assume if it isn't right there in the computer it must not exist. Take some pride in your work, no matter what the pay is. Pay comes after hard work, not in advance. You don't like making 7 bucks an hour? Bust your ass, get a customer base that will call you specifically, or only talk to you at the counter, and your pay will reflect your hard work. I'm sorry, I will feel no sympathy for you unless you actually do your job. Which is to sell auto parts!

 

This is exactly what I started doing. After spending nearly 40 yrs in the parts business I can feel your frustration. As someone else said, the most important thing is to build a relationship with a counter guy. Even if he's not the best at least he will try.

 

In Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada it's

Autoparts Extra.

Danny, Big Al, or Brian are the guys you want. And Dan for paint and paint supplies. These guys will do whatever it takes to get you the part you need, no matter how weird the request. They're freindly, helpful and will special order anything in without you having to pay in advance or even make a commitment. Most stuff, if not in stock, is there within 4 hours....

I stopped comparision shopping about 2 yrs ago. If it isn't speciality hot rod stuff I need, then I get it there.

 

Man,what a pompous ass! No one is defending these stores just the folks feeding their families by working there. These businesses are set up to skim the cream from the auto parts business. They only stock and sell what sells the best. Face it, what we buy is a drop in the bucket if it was significant it would be on the shelf or at least in the computer. When I worked at Car Quest the computer only went back to '60. The books were better but every year a few years were dropped from them. At least there were illustrated catalogs, spec catalogs and exchange books. There were also older parts guys to talk to or call to get help. In the new places the computers pretty much list what is available. At Kragen we have very few illustrations, specs have been dropped from most catalogs and most of the old guys have retired or worse. The computer program sucks and only works to look up parts after answering a generally annoying and useless set of questions. When you get there the screen is hard to read and there is little information past price. If you've been given the wrong year or model you have to go out and start over. Car Quest's computer was much better. So, how the hell is an 18 year old kid supposed to know that the distributer cap for a '56 Chevy V8 will fit a '52 Studebaker V8 with a Delco Distributer? The rotors are different but the Chevy one seems to work better in both. I was in high school when the last 235 was made. Why would you even begin to think a high school kid today driving a Rice Rocket would know what carb kit would fit an engine he's never heard of? As for pay and promotions you just don't understand how corporate America works. It's who you blow, on the other hand maybe .... Lazy? Don't even go there! Bust your ass, Go the extra mile for an asshole who doesn't even know what carb is on his "Hot Rod" I think not! Actually do my job? Is that to plan and make a parts list for you? Why do I work there? 1. Beer money 2. Hot Rod Money 3. Discount on what few parts they have that I need 4. To help folks in my town to best deal with this parts house problem. 5. Its the only parts place for 20 miles. 6. To make sure as many Dickheads as possible get the wrong parts. By the way if you often get the wrong parts it might have something to do with how your counter person feels about you! It's a parts guy thing. The parts situation will only get worst as our cars get older. I remember thinking when I was in high school that in a few more years my '38 Ford coupe would be an antique, now I am!

 

Hey guys, I'm not defending anyone, but I would like to point out that businesses have to pay taxes on their inventory every year. Not so bad if you've just got one store, but when you've got thousands, all that money adds up in a hurry. That's a big reason that AZ, AA, and the like primarily stock items that they can move quickly. Now I don't like it, but as far as I'm concerned, that's the government's fault for taxing people multiple times. Just some food for thought.

As for trying to employ people for the least amount of money they can get away with so they don't have to pay for experience/knowledge, yeah, there's no excuse for that.

 

It isn't any different in other retail establishments.

 

All you're doing is reinforcing my point, which is simply do your job. You dare to call me a pompous ass, when you state that one of your reasons that you work there are to "make sure as many dickheads get the wrong parts. I got news for you, I'm fully aware of the information that is available to parts guys, they simply are too ignorant to know it. You sir, are part of the problem, not the solution.
I know how Corporate America works-you view it slightly different because you are obviously one of the many people who feel that you should be well paid first, do the work second. A parts guy thing? Yeah, whatever. You are clueless, take pride in your work.
My take on this subject is now over, it's quite obvious that there are plenty of people that feel the way I do. Maybe if you "parts pros" would actually attempt to sell parts, instead of "making sure as many dickheads get the wrong parts", we wouldn't have a problem. If you take offense to what I'm saying it's because you are one of the people I am talking about. Because if you were a hard working "real" parts guy, you would know damn well I'm not talking about you.

 

So just because it's no different in other places, that must mean it's ok, right? Innovation sucks. We should all just do the same as the next guy and not have to worry about silly nuisances like excelling and making more money.

 

Here is a link thet might help "some" of you. Its a list of links to my suppliers. Some work great! Some suck! But it just might help you find a part number to give to the "parts guy".

http://www.sturdevants.com/products/parts.shtml

If you really need more help email me and I will see if I can help. because I love my job...

 

You are clearly not even close to being one of the guys I'm bitchin about. Thanks for all your help

 

Are there any real parts stores left?
YES, there are a few. BUT, when you find one, give him ALL your business. Don't pick and choose when it's convenient for you. Let him make his money, as he doesn't have the buying power of the "chain" stores. If you go to him only for specific parts, he will soon be out of business, and you're back to the runny nose idiots. I've got a guy that's awesome! I tell him that I'm building some weirdness, describe the upper and lower hose requirements, he sends me a box of a few, and ALWAYS, my hoses are there. Nice, factory looking, no flex hose garbage, etc. That's just an example. He appologizes on prices sometimes, and I tell him, don't worry about it. It's worth it to me NOT to go to Autozone, and be told the computer doesn't go back that far, and I'm a worthless DOUCHE by some zit faced fuck

 

My rant was basically started because all of my good parts guys have moved on and everyone I run into behind the counter is worthless. I would GLADLY pay a lil more for good service, someone who actually likes their job, and would go the extra mile to make a customer happy. Unlike the vast majority of modern day parts guys, who'd rather send people off with the wrong part.

 

My parts guys GIVE me copies of those books, they always have spares floating around.

 

Thanks! I try. But I too stuggle to look stuff up. It gets tougher every day! Our trany parts supplier just took all the powerglide numbers out of the book(good thing I kept the old one). Anyway....I hear what you guys are bitchin about, I have some kids working for me that are the same way but, I just cant pay enough to get someone who cares anymore and I dont think it just in the auto parts business either.

 

FWIW when I worked at the 'Bone in the 80s I could never understand why the phone was more important than someone right in front of you. It would piss people off when you'd pick it up while you were helping someone, but you'd catch hell if you let it ring or put them on hold, so there was no winning. Blame corporate, not the schmuck making 7 bucks and hour behind the counter. He probably has to answer the phone with some stupid phrase, and then ask you if you want shop towels or fuel injector cleaner when you ring up.

The system is designed to work for the LCD, so they can hire anybody off the street to work behind the counter. Same with the customers, they cater to the broadest bunch they can, and that ain't hot rodders. We had a *few* parts books that we'd let the hardest core customeers look at, or match up what they were looking for in back.

The chain stores are the cheapest places around, and you get what you pay for. No service.

If you go there expecting cheap parts *and* knowledgeable parts people, you're probably going to be disappointed.

You gotta pay more for that, and in this day and age everybody expects internet cheap prices, so there's a reason the independent stores are gone.

I liked what someone else said, look for the joint that's old and doesn't have a lot of glass or a flashy sign. That's so true. When I spot one I either write down the address or go inside to check it out. The better ones seem to have fairly crappy aisles of merchendise but a big parts counter.

And maybe a generic vending machine or two by the door. That's a good clue too!

Actually come think of it, recently I've used a few places that a friend of mine turned me on to. I'm not sure they sell retail, so I don't want to give the numbers out publicly, sorry They cater to garages and aren't the cheapest, but they didn't flinch when I asked for a 153 tooth chevy 350 flywheel, and didn't ask if the car it was going in was a 2 dr or 4 dr LOL

Actually they turned me on to another place, transmatic parts, auto trans only, that helped me out. The owner looks like he's 102, the place had no windows and was in an industrial park in Glendale. The counter had a TH350 sitting on it and there were flywheels and stuff hanging on the walls, boxes and racks of parts everywhere. Ron the owner founded it 45 years ago and still works there. Probably the last time they cleaned the place, too Anyway, I would have saved some dough by ordering online from JEGS or something, but lucky for me I found this place and was able to get it same day, and got to see a neat old shop. I wish I'd taken a picture. They're big into obsolete auto trans, here's what their site says
[FONT=helvetica,arial][FONT=helvetica,arial][FONT=helvetica,arial] Trans-Matic carries parts for transmissions from 1941 - Present:

Jetaway, Buick Special
Hydromatic, Crusomatic
Cast Iron + Aluminum Powerglide
C-3,4,5,6, Models 5 + 10
Lincoln, Dynaflow[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]



http://www.transmaticparts.com/faqaboutus/
[FONT=helvetica,arial][FONT=helvetica,arial]818-246-7788
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=helvetica,arial][FONT=helvetica,arial] We carry a huge selection of hard parts, soft parts, transmission mounts, technical manuals, flywheels, torque converters, rebuild kits, obsolete parts - new, used, rebuilt - we've got it all! [/FONT][/FONT]


<table style="width: 298px; height: 31px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="bottom">
</td><td align="right">
</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Those shmucks make THAT much?