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

We have one privately owned part store left I know of in Huntington Beach, Ace Auto parts. Bruce’s family were car guys. He recently lost his only longtime help so things got tougher. I buy all I can from him. He stocks VP racing gas and some fittings along with Lucas hot rod oil. I like a Wix 51515 oil filter for my 56 Y but it’s tough to fit with power steering and I never remember the shorter one. I went to him and found he hired an older retired gentleman to help. I told him what I thought was the number but he couldn’t find it and I was no help. Bruce said since he overheard us while waiting on another customer and said it’s for a MOPAR. #51085. I had said 50158. We are going to miss him if he ever closes...

 

Its not a drain cock - its a drain tap.
the word cock implies something is turned to open and then returned to close
i.e.
to 'cock' a deafun.... turn ones head to the side
a dog will 'cock' its leg to have a pee.
to go of 'half cocked' = flint lock
knocked into a cocked hat.
etc etc

 

Another example of the differences in English and English?

Common in some parts to call an outside faucet for hose connection a sill cock. And they don't 'cock' to open, rotate yes.

 

That's a hose bib, spigot, or external faucet.

 

Another year, another thread bitching that people born after 1990 aren't magically familiar with cars built before 1980.

 

But it's a tough crowd here, lots of the guys born after 1950 know all about cars made before 1940...

 

Eighteen-year-olds were born in 2005.

That is 40-years after the last HAMB-acceptable vehicle was built.

 

And, @trevorsworth was born in 1996

 

Plus the imperial to metric transition cross threads

 

I needed an e-brake lever clip for my Ford, the one that holds the lever to the rear brake shoe. I should have brought the mangled one with me. This was on a Friday evening, I went to Pep Boys, Advance Auto Parts. The "parts" people were truly stymied. I had them do searches up into late full-size Fords, nada zippo, zilch.

Saturday I got up early and hit the oldest parts store around. I described what I needed and the guy comes back with a box full in about 10 seconds.

 

It gets more than a roll of the eyeballs when inquiring about a simple commonly used piece or part in hand yet, & they want the make, model, vin #, & engine cu.in.

 

Things change, welcome to life

 

I do this now. Huge time and confusion saver. A few years ago I was assembling an engine with my son and wanted to show him how to double check the bearing clearances with PlastiGauge. Sent him to AutoZone because it's close. They told him they don't know what that is. He went to O'Reillys. Same thing. Looked it up online for him when he returned home. They both carry PlastiGauge. Around here the turnover is huge, so most of the time you get a counter person who knows very little.

Opposite experience. Went to Bakersfield this week with my bro. Needed a bolt, he suggested O'Reillys. Huh, I'd never bought a bolt there. Went in, they all called him by name. Not one guy, but the whole staff all knew him by name. Damn. I gotta be nicer.

 

Picked up plastigauge last week. Walked in with the part number. Counter person says “we got it but I’ve never sold any”
Took em a few minutes to find it but was a successful trip.
And most local parts folks know me by name or by what I cruise up in.

 

Most of the partsmen I dealt with have either retired or passed away. The parts stores have relocated to the industrial area far away so it is much easier to buy online.

 

On a further note, this is a good era for buying parts. Before, when I wanted to find old hot rod type parts, I would find an ad in some magazine and order a catalog from some place to see if what I wanted actually existed. Then I would have to send them a money order and guess how much shipping would be and hope it would arrive. Now I simply google something stupid like "brake reservoir filler hose" and presto - there is a picture if it actually existed without looking like a total idiot in front of the parts counter.

 

Try going into a parts house and asking for a Chevy manifold stretcher!








Bones

 

Lol. I drilled the holes out larger before I was told “they make a tool for that “. !

 

X 3 Saves me a lot of time and frustration!

 

'95! It's been a long road and I still don't know that much. In time I'll develop a specialization in what I work with personally, but I'll never have the kind of back pocket knowledge that someone who grew up amidst a saturation of these cars has.

It's silly to expect a parts counter person to know anything about early model cars. To most of them, it's just a job... some of them might be car enthusiasts, but most people who are really amped up about cars look for better paying, more hands-on jobs... and if they are trained at all beyond the use of the catalog system, it's only basic stuff concerning common recent cars. To further complicate matters, their system is developed around a relatively recent semi-standardization of part numbers and catalog terms. With some critical thinking and a good attitude you can help your parts person find what you need. I have been able to get nearly everything I need for my '71 car from AutoZone and O'Reilly, and many of the things I needed for my 8BA. A lot of parts in inventory for older stuff were bought from older parts stores' liquidated inventories, or inherited from stores that became franchises, and those parts may be catalogued in a weird way. Knowing other models that the part you're looking for came on helps.

Almost everyone at all the parts stores around here knows me by name and knows my car... they know I have a good attitude and am not there to give them hell, so they don't mind taking extra time to help me find what I'm looking for.

 

Funny people bringing up Plastigauge. Last summer I went to O’Riley’s looking for the stuff, and the young fellow helping me had no idea what it was. Turned out it was his first week. Still, he managed to find the stuff. He was very apologetic because they only had one, and I had asked for six. So I explained that the box he’d produced actually contained 20 sleeves, and the price on his computer was per sleeve, not per box.

Fortunately there were no other customers there, so we had time to talk. He was very curious to learn what Plastigauge was and what it was used for.

I was happy to help him because I remember the dread of the unknown during my first few weeks working at a parts counter back in the 1980s. Specifically a marine parts counter, specializing in Volvo-Penta. We didn’t have a computer. All we had were parts books written in Swedish. Every customer interaction was an adventure as we poured over exploded engine diagrams and tried to parse out what part the customer needed. Most customers were understanding, and recognized how difficult it was to work with those cryptic manuals. But every so often some asshat would get bent out of shape.

Anyway, now I’m very patient at the parts counter because I realize that expecting a young kid to understand the workings of my ancient hot-rod is like somebody back in the ‘80s expecting the younger me to be conversant in Swedish.

 

I needed a tire tube for my pool float when I close the pool in fall. I put an exercise ball in the middle, it lasts for years. It looks like a fat planet Saturn.

Anywho, I'm in Advance and the kid starts asking, what car is it for. I tell him its for a dog house. I walked over to the tire repair stuff and found one.

 

I never worked in a retail position, but I had a roommate who worked fast food. He told me when guys would come in and start giving him shit and all laugh about it, he’d place the order, give the guys in the back cooking stuff a nod/ etc and they’d spit in the food.

True or not, kinda stuck with me (was funny 40+ years ago) but I’ve always worked with anyone behind a counter.

The plastigauge story above…I called the local AZ for it with the part number. Not stocked but they told me the next town over had it.
So took a drive and (didn’t take the pn down) and asked the young guy for plastigauge. He had no idea how to spell it to search it, he called the manager up, think SHE was the manager, and she said “yes, we don’t sell much “ and told the young man where it was in the back. Guys, she was maybe, maybe, 40 years old.
She had left by then when he came back with it, and he asked why it was for. We had a nice conversation about it that went into the whys, how’s, etc it’s used.
Heck, I spent 25 minutes in the store, (only person at the time) who could be in a hurry to double check main and rods?
Anyone that wonders (and it’s been mentioned many times in this thread) that all information is asked and “you wonder why”, have you ever thought to stop, and just ask the counter person why do you need that information?
Their answer will be easy ti understand, or maybe you won’t get it and they’ll ask you “do I really need to explain it again “?

 

This site is becoming less about building and driving cool vehicles, and more:



We already have a new rant thread to replace this one when it trails off.

 

Link?

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/no-response-no-courtesy.1288754/#post-14813338

 

One of grandpa's traits that we swore would we never let happen to us.

 

I'm very lucky. I have a Napa guy that saved all of the old catalogs and is really into helping with Hot Rod parts.
I'm also 40 minutes from a Summit retail store (that may be a curse, ha-ha).
But yea, if you're expecting coherent help from the generation that can't seem to get the cheese slice on a hamburger, forget it.

 

It’s interesting around here that the folks with the least amount of common courtesy are the older people bitching about the young people with no common courtesy.

As far as threads like this here on the HAMB, go build or drive an old car. Might actually enjoy the hobby again.

 

And yet we manage to keep them running and driving. Old cars are a luxury market. Parts stores deal in numbers. How many people buy a water pump for a small block Chevy vs a Toyota? There are vendors for us, we just need to look.