We'll REALLY be screwed when the mail order guys fold, too!!

we never had any decent speed shops in town. we had honest charlie's which was great if you owned a monte carlo that you wanted to put ground effects on. the new incarnation sells more t-shirts than anything and way over-priced v-8 flathead powered bikes.

for a while we also had a super shops who could get you anything you ever wanted from a catalog unless you wanted to pay 3x the price for a decent set of slicks or were building any smallblock chevy.

now all we have is douglass engines, formerly douglass headers. they dont do headers anymore. hell they dont even do engines, they sell more groomes engine replacements than they do build anything.

we do also have race engine design who used to build some hot stuff, just so long as it was sbc. they are typical of mom and pop's too...build it cheap and sell it high. they pay their employees peanuts and it shows.

so for me, a mopar sorta guy, death of the mom and pop speed shops is no big deal. im used to ordering from catalogs, dealing with folks who have no idea what you are working on, and assuming that the only hemi ever built was the 426.

 

I went into A&A auto in Rochester Hills last night for a few bits for my 350. They have a whole wall dedicated to Holley parts. It's actually a pretty good shop and they have some good staff in there as well. I never really thought about it before, I guess I just took it for granted. Just an FYI..

 

I am.... Here we have an assortment of shops to choose from, as long as you run a SBC or SBF... I use one of the local older parts houses instead of Advance, AutoZone, or PepBoys... I can get Holley parts pretty easy and if I really need something there are a few of the chains that have 24 hour stores now. I still mail order somethings (i.e. Nailhead and specialty parts). I try to give fellow HAMB'ers my business when possible. Definately getting at least a debit card for your bank account helps.... this isn't the 70's...

The local guys take care of me, and they're not as much a speed shop as a parts house....

 

Sadly, that means he too will probably be out of business soon.