A friend bought engine bearings for a rebuild. They came in plain white boxes. When you opened that box and slid the inner box out, Michigan & Clevite boxes. Sometimes you got quality parts, sometimes you got no-name stuff from Taiwan.
I used to get a lot of things from JC, that I couldn't find locally. Electric choke conversions for Rochester 2 bbl carbs, stuff like that. Bought a complete early 70's Mopar electronic ignition system, and adapted it to my 55 Olds (No Pertronix back then) Went over 100K miles without ever replacing anything. Cost about 8.75$
I always remember thinking how someone ended up with a job penning all those parts renderings for the catalog.
Seems like it would have been a perfect job for one of Mr. Whitney's nephews, or maybe an errant brother-in-law.
Haha. Me too! Also, at 12, mapped out the ultimate 327 with the most radical cams and chambered exhaust. Remember the discount stickers that were on the back cover?
........"chambered" exhaust, unless you mean that it was canted... Loved the way those sounded. Think the early Z-28's were the first I heard them. So very cool!
I went to their store on the south side of Chicago a few years after I moved to suburban Chicago from my little Michigan college town in the early seventies. It was definitely an urban experience far removed from my suburban apartment, but calling it a rough neighborhood gives the wrong connotation. Lower end working cl*** would be a more appropriate description, from my recollection.The customers were a gritty looking bunch of mixed backgrounds buying accessories and hard parts to keep their hoopties running and give them a little bling. The place was packed, ramshackle buildings probably from 1900 or older, with merchandise stacked in the four foot high free standing tables / bins like I remember Ben Franklin or Woolworths having in the 1950s when I was a kid. Most of the stuff was low quality imports from Argentina or Japan. There was a junkyard maybe a block away, which I thought was run by Warshawsky, and I ***umed some of the used /reconditioned parts they listed came from there. My first recollection of mail ordering parts was a $6.00 clutch disc for a Corvair van my buddies and I bought for $35 in college a few years earlier. I think I also bought bearings, rings, and a gasket set for my 55 Chevy while in college. The bearings where imported King brand, maybe from Brazil, but seemed to work fine. Warshawsky was a pioneer in sourcing auto parts offshore. Twenty years later, after they abandoned their original inner city location, I sometimes took a Saturday drive to their new warehouse in LaSalle. If you went to the back room / clearance area, in the corner behind the access doors to the actual warehouse, you could watch the parts pickers hard at work in a modern warehouse, far removed from the 1900s wooden tables I saw at the city facility years earlier.
I stopped by the Speedway facility in Lincoln a few days ago while p***ing through Lincoln. The girl at the counter told me they stopped printing their real, traditional catalogs a few years ago and only do small “sale” versions now.
@finn is correct with his ***essment of the area, it might have been rough and tumble but I never felt threatened there. I have many recollections as a kid in the ‘50’s riding the CTA bus to Chicago’s Loop, the downtown shopping area, the bus went through that area. If it was automotive related that stretch of State St. had it covered. Bumper repair/chrome shops, machine work, magneto repair shops, clutch rebuilders, junk yards and plenty more. Today State St. has been gentrified, it’s not exactly the high-rent district but certainly upscale.
Great reminiscing thread. No lie, my first car I bought at 14 years old was a VW dune buggy. I purchased several parts for that dune buggy from JCW! This was mid 70s when they were starting to go down in popularity. Also same time when Summit was getting more popular.
I always wondered about this every time I'd see their ads offering used engines, transmissions, generators and what have you. For a mail-order and catalog outfit selling used parts seemed like just asking for problems.
The last items I bought from them were rear leaf springs for my 64 Fairlane. One product that is stuck in my head is the Pipe Organ Speakers for the rear package tray. So cheese. Lol.
Today I buy USA brand name parts from RockAuto that come boxes with USA brand name & made in India/Taiwan/others, few parts, if any are mnufactured in USA. I will say, no complaints with the parts or Rockauto.
J.C. Whitney had a mixed bag of stuff, but also had many name brands. I bought Manley pistons, Holley carb, and Weiand manifold for my first 301 from them in 1971. Long before instant gratification: fill out order form; get money order; mail in order; wait; and without tracking or notifications one day stuff is on the front porch!
If you really want to cl***-up your back window you need to install a "Winky", the fake fur cat with light up eyes! Or maybe his name was "Blinky"???
^^^ Depended if you used the cat-figure whos' eyes blinked synchronized w/the taillights(left eye/left t.s. etc) or not. & maybe used 2 cats, one on each side of the back window. Some were hooked to just brakelights. I'm guessing some just blinked randomly... Never had any of those things. Always wondered how many stayed on the back shelf, & how long... (maybe should be in the "Ever Wondered..." thread... ???) Did order some gauge sets, not SW - couldn't afford them. They sent Farnia(sp?), found out yrs later they were good quality gauges. Also got a wire-crimpers set. Was a very good crimper, still have it some 50yrs later, the non-insulated terminal ends were also good quality tin-plated copper. None of these brands were name-mentioned in the catalog, although some speed equipment was. Didn't like the ****-shoot-guessing as to what quality you might get, so didn't order much from them, but the catalogs were good entertainment. . Same for AutoWorld catalog of models n materials, but they did tell you which brand you were getting. Marcus...
True. A friend ordered a hot camshaft from them. No mention of brand in the ad, but when he received it, it was an Iskenderian.
One more I just remembered ( posted it some years ago but ) Just after H.S. Met up with this kid, Jackie, had him a '56 Ford Y block. Showed up at the hangout one night. sporting dual exhaust, A true bargain from J.C. Whitney less than $10. A foot of tailpipe with chromed tail tip. About 8 inches before the bumper was teed into a flex pipe to run up under to the other side. Then a clamp to hang the second chromed tail tip.
About 30 years ago I ordered a set of fender liners to keep the salt of my metal ones on the truck I took to Bonneville. In the box was a complete cam, hydraulic lifters, springs, retainers, and keepers for a SBC. The cam card showed the exact specifications for a L-79 350hp 327. It was boxed in the name of JC’s performance cams. Wolverine. I still have the complete set-up. I have not a use so far.
I would read the Hotrod magazines and pick out which cars I liked the best, then I would open the JC Whitney catalog and build them in my head. That was back in grade school in the late seventies/ early eighties when I was a fairly skilled model car builder. My dad p***ed away but the catalogs kept coming.
Faria. Well known and respected for their marine gauges. They had a few types of auto gauges in the '90s (80s?). I have a set in my '31.
Hello, When we sent away for a free catalog as little kids, we were happy to have something we could actually read and see what others were buying as for fun parts. A set of 5 inch long chrome louvers. We each had a dollar and sent in the actual cash to buy the parts. We were going to attach it to our red wagon sides and make it special. Back then, there were no things as checking accounts for us and only our dad had a banking account. We did have a savings account that had $5.00 each as we got a surprise at Christmas morning one year. So, if we saved our money after cutting the lawns front and backyards, we were able to save more money in our own desk drawers for cash or if it got large enough, our dad took us to the bank, when he had business at that place in downtown Long Beach. Then as my brother got his first car, it came with whitewall tires. So, when all of the older teenagers came over to our house for the hubcap exchange and drag racing film viewing, the two cars with white wall tires were front in center to see what the flipper style hubcaps looked like. I was the hubcap exchanger and tape attachment person. But, those that liked the whitewall tires did not have the cash to buy real whitewall tires. So, the alternative was add on whitewall tires. But, first everyone laughed at the first teenager who painted his blackwall tires a nice wide white with oil based paint. It looked good from far away, but up close, something was not right… YRMV Jnaki So, since the local Pep Boys did not stock the white wall add on rubber items for blackwalls, the J.C. Whitney catalog was as good as a stamp, envelope and cash inside taped to the paper saying what was ordered. At the time no one thought of any other way to send money for the items. Cash in the U.S. Mail? What a concept… Yikes But, it worked and a week later, a set of rubbery whitewall add on trims arrived in the mail and the teenager could not get over how much he liked the add on addition. Until, of course, the first time he s****ped the curb in parallel parking and the curb ate the rubber addition and made it scratch heavily, like a giant blem. So, he ran with them until the comments were too much and then he got rid of the add-on fake whitewall trim pieces.
Cash thru the US Mail? Back then, it was rarely a problem, although I never sent large amounts, it always went thru properly. Everyone just wrapped it up in a couple sheets of paper, &/or used a "privacy" envelope. NBD. . & mail actually got delivered in a reasonable amount of time(read: ~ 3 business days, or less). & 5Window; Yes, I wish I could afford them now. Haven't looked lately, but iirc, they weren't cheap(price-wise). Wish I still had that set, but it went w/the 32. At that time(early 70s), I had no idea they weren't just some cheapo JCW spls. They were nice. . Marcus...
The Jalopy Journal
