Hot Rods Went to the auto supply store today OH MY!

Just remember, it's 2023. There are no longer Chevelle's and Camaros on every Corner, the old man doesn't drive a 63 Pontiac to work, and Grampa doesn't have that 56 Chevy Longbed. All the vehicles I mentioned may as well be model ts or Roman Chariots A carburetor is as

Quaint as a tube radio. The average used car will last about 15 years. Your target Demographic is a Honda on every Corner, Grampa has an 03 F250, and dad saw a Pontiac on TV once ,

 

See post 166 above

 

Where the difference comes in is not in age of vehicle but the attitude of the counter guy.

Go into a parts store where "car guys" work and they understand that sometimes you have to look somewhere else besides a computer, maybe, actually open a book and look that way etc.

Most car guys I would bet would know what a petcock is, along with the fact that most "car guys" understand a hotrod or a modified car isn't always 100% stock as far as parts application so he might have to expand his search a little.

Where as most today do nothing but get in, drive their car home, next morning get back in and drive it to work with maybe a stop by Walmart to get an oil change oh and gas.

These are the ones that have no desire to delve deeper into anything other than a simple computer search.

That's the part I hate, cars guys helping car guys get the parts to get their car on the road. And when I was younger the part stores were full of them.

BTW I have built all my computers since 96' including over clocking and playing with basic and C++ along the way, still build all my computers to this day. Just because I love cars it doesn't mean it's the only thing I know

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Once again, the blame being put on the workers. It does not belong there.

Most chain parts stores do not pay a surviving wage, let alone at thriving wage. This is a plain fact. Most do not have any benefits, of any kind, except where required by law.

Anyone that has the aptitude to do anything that pays any better that that is doing that.

People are not working in those stores as a career. It is just a job, until they can find something better (if they can). Fast food across the street pays better than the parts store, and fast food has benefits!

There may have been a day and age when you could work in a parts store as a career, and even retire from one. That day has passed.

Asking for a "better attitude" who is earning sub-survival wages at a completely generic retail job is bizarre.

There are no "car guys" working at chain parts stores. They simply don't earn enough money to be "car guys".

With what the chain parts stores pay here, you are lucky if you are an "apartment having guy", or a "daily eating food guy".

There might be a handful of independents that still pay well enough for that, but none are anywhere near me.

 

My town…autozone, Napa, monument, o’railys, all quality seems sketchy at best. I seem to be able to mail order better quality parts online. I order almost all my nuts and bolt stuff from McMaster Carr.

 

We need to buy a Babbel CD and learn chinese so we know the part numbers

 

Not where people's heads are at, but the chain parts stores where I am pay the same wage per hour that I got paid, in rural Connecticut, to be a shipyard welder, in the late 1980's.

Working the parts counter might have been a career at one point, but it is no longer.

 

That's a sad fact that applies to so many jobs today. There was a time when a department store clerking job was a career, same with waitressing, gas pump jockey/lube rack worker, grocery store worker. the list goes on. Today, the base/entry jobs don't pay a living wage. And to cut labor costs even more, a lot of these jobs are scheduled for less hours than are required to provide benefits (insurance, etc.). Greed has taken over the business owner's methods today, not the vision of sustaining a service/supply business that will provide a living for employees. "Traditional" doesn't exist in the business world today.

 

They can't make change either

 

Geez,,I haven’t carried cash in such a long time. The only time I have it in my wallet is when I’ve returned something and policy/system they have, pays it back in cash.

 

Must be a slow week .

 

I did.. it reminded of the ones Scrub sold and it’s why I mentioned it. I do remember Scrub sold them with instructions also.

 

Lmao!! Ain't that the truth! I'll see you guys on the next Hoffman bitch thread

 

That is a great book, I have one too!

 

Good deal, at the bottom of the instructions out of the picture frame was a 1980 date.

 

Same as the annual bitch about enamel paint, upholstery, and replacement stones for brake hones

 

Looks like one was started today.

 

Lol I seen that!

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that, there's still a few here and there. The local NAPA has a couple of guys who are pretty good, but the fact that they rarely have what I need in stock is the obstacle there. When they don't even have a FL-1A/21515/1515 generic Ford oil filter on hand (and that's been the case more than once), you have to wonder who makes the stocking decisions. O'Reillys has one younger guy (with a hot-rodded '80s Camaro) who has tried his best for me a number of times, occasionally with success. AutoZone is worthless....

One big issue IMO is these computer systems they use don't seem have any pictures attached to them. The paper catalogs had pics in the back by part number, sometimes a big help. This is one reason Rock Auto is popular, but their propensity to use 'generic' pics sometimes short-circuits its usefulness.

I don't give the countermen grief when they fail, I know the issues they face. Corporate America, in its constant quest for ever-higher short-term profits, has been 'dumbing down' what used to be at least semi-skilled jobs for years. Employee costs are the one place where they have the most control over expenses, so many will do whatever it takes to reduce those costs to as low as possible. Few spend much if any money on job training anymore. How many job ads have you seen that only want 'experienced applicants', well, where do you get that if you can't get a job?

And when some lucky soul gets that minimum-wage job, then what? It may not be actually enough to live on, who picks up the slack? WE do, as taxpayers. Public assistance, in the form of food stamps, medicaid and rent/utility vouchers are the hidden labor costs...

 

Starting out as an E1 Storekeeper SR (storeroom box-kicker), we started out restricted to putting stock on shelves per punch-card records. Get used to that, go up a rank, new task is opening boxes and matching up shipping invoices and billing lists. So on and so on, up the chain; get to where you show a skill for something (finding "lost" inventory was mine) and you get specialized. Some of us did nothing but search paper catalogs with endless columns of figures identifying material ( I did that, too, something about code reading I was good at), but it was a team effort to manage inventory and keep tended units supplied without busting their OPTAR budgets. It took six years to get anywhere near qualified for some of the trickier jobs, and not a lot of that translated to the civvy world except to keep plugging away until you learned the particular process for any given system (Ford used to easy as cake, VW/Audi was dead simple, GM had to be different, John Deere, New Holland, etc and so on ad infinitum) and many of them just aren't compatible. Shit, somewhere in there I learned the Hollander numbering system, and promptly forgot it. And I'm sixty; not going to get into learning much new stuff just to retire with more shit clogging my brain cells. Once I hang this hat, that's it. God help the new kids on the block.

 

For stuff like that I don't go to an auto store but an engineering supply store. Petcocks are used in many things. But not cars any more. Same if I want a Bearing and seal for for an old school engine water pump. Pretty rear to find anything useful for cool old cars in auto parts stores.

 

I think over the last few years there have been shortages of materials and manufacturing capacity for maintenance parts like oil filters. Unfortunately, for some of us, that means it makes more sense to cut production on now slower moving items (like FL1 and PF25 oil filters) and concentrate your efforts on producing the items that 90% + of your customers are buying. In many cases the parts stores would still like to stock these once common items. But all they can do for now is sit on their outstanding backorders until their vendors can ramp-up production again.

 

Today's auto parts store nightmare. My grandson's 2008 Trailblazer had the water pump bearing take a crap. I checked Rock Auto for a price $24- for brand x / Delco $41-. Problem is Friday delivery. Kid wants his car so I went to local parts store . They quoted $69- . If I wanted a Delco it was $96-. The kid will have to wait until Friday. Are these guys serious?

 

Don't forget electronic ignition!

 

The FL-1A and its copies aren't that slow moving. Used on many Fords, Mopars, Jeeps and Mazdas to name just a few, and well into the '90s if not further.

 

That’s why I am fortunate to have a locally family owned parts store, with the owner on the counter six days a week. Also a few pretty good associates who, if they don’t know, keep looking. Their new computer system can seemingly find just about anything, and comes with every brand cross referenced if you bring in your number. Plus the owner has years of printed catalogues in racks and stacked on the counter. Plus a pretty complete machine shop. The only drawback is sometimes it’s like the general store, always a conversation about something other than parts. A small price to pay.
If he doesn’t have it, it will be there the next day. They’re affiliated with Parts Plus, with a warehouse within 50 miles. They do more business than AZ, ADV’d and NAPA combined. Ironically the owner also owns the NAPA.

 

I was in ORileys yesterday, and about to leave with my stuff. Over heard the hispanic looking guy at the next cashier say to the cashier, " The blinkity blink, she no blink". I managed to get out the door before laughing.

 

Just hit the NAPA by my office yesterday. Had a couple minutes and walked around looking. Best stocked I have seen a parts store ever. They had a plum full two tiered rack with all the hard copy catalogs along with the computer. Got a break on a battery thru our company discount

 

Around these parts I think that translates as "my dink-dinks ain't workin' "!

 

This right here is the answer. I sell supermarket refrigeration parts and I get paid to be one of the best damn parts guys in the country. It is my job to live up to that and lucrative enough to actually try. I don't see the same taking place in any auto parts store. I've actually considered a business as a middleman between o'reillys and the end users... I have to dig up all of my own part numbers anyway so why not do it for other people?