You Can Tell You're at a REAL Auto Parts Store When...

You're in a real parts store when you explain to the girl at the counter that you're building your own IFS and want a rack and pinon steering, lowest possible cost with right hand thread SAE on both ends of the inner tie-rods, and she replies; "front or rear steer?"

 

As someone who has worked various auto parts counters for 25 years, I must tell you that there are just as many retarded customers as retarded countermen, so don't be too harsh on your counterman if he seems to be having a bad day; some days it seems like there's a neon "Mentally challenged motorheads welcome here" sign in the window!

 

Ture, there are two sides too a coin. My favorite dumb customer was about 11 years ago. Guy came in to buy a crank kit for his 350 SBC. So I sold him one. A day later he says he wants to return it because it was ground wrong and the pistons hit the valves. I told him he didn't have a 350. After getting the casting numbers of the block, it turned out he had a 305. I reminded him to "carefully" number the rods and rod caps to make sure they are matched. I get him a crank kit for a 305 and he calls a day later because the new crank kit was ground wrong. This time the rod would "lock" on the crank when the rod bolts were only hand tight. I asked him to bring one rod and cap with the crank. When he comes to the store I look at the rod and cap, they are both number as 1. When I hand tighten the rod bolts, the rod would lock on the crank and I couldn't turn it. I looked at the rod and cap again, they were definately not matched even though the numbers matched. I asked him when did he number the rod and caps. He told me after he took the block apart he put the rods and caps in a pile and just numbered them one at a time! I told him he now owns a crank kit for a 350 and 305 Chevy, no returns for stupid people!

 

THATS the best one yet! ...

 

This might sound like a rant.
I sell auto parts for a large chain parts store in Milwaukees inner city and we have a very good machine shop "out back".
With NO care at all of sounding arrogant, because I don't care. I am the BEST counter person in Milwaukee. If your part is available, I will find it and then sell it to you, and I will get you the best price I can. From rebuilt Holly 94's to a NEW clutch for your Model A Sedan that runs an 8BA wth a 46 Ford Pickup truck Toploader 3 speed. Which brings me to this point, don't forget the counter person that has forgotten more about auto parts, then most of the so called top builders of today will ever know. Sometimes you people sound so stupid with crap you ask for.
Yes, most stores are filled with inexperienced individuals, but the truth is, the majority of auto parts stores do not pay all that well, be realistic, how much of an expert do you expect to find for $8 or $9 an hour? As shity as it sounds sometimes you get what you pay for. The majority of customers to chain parts stores are not working on a 58 Chevy Impala or a 34 Ford Roadster, they are changing the timing belt on their daughters 94 Civic and those are the customers that keep the sotres doors open and the lights on. The days of Ma and Pa stores are long gone around these parts, so just like that Buick Nail Head water pump you need for mock up on your roadster project, sometimes you have to search for the right store with the right people.
So I really have no point, I guess I just need a hug. Just keep things in perspective and remeber if it was that easy finding the parts for building, maintaining and modifing these vintage machines we love so much than everyone would have one and how uncool would that be!

Cheater Carl
Cheaters Car Club, Milwaukee
S.M.T.A. Southern Milwaukee Timing Association
8 Time Mr. Nude Milwaukee

 

you can call and ask for a part "for my truck/car" and they tell you they have it with out asking any questions....Motor size air power whatever....year..etc

 

You know you're in a real Auto Parts store when the moron behind the counter is full of crap, tells you shit that you know is wrong and the Boss comes out and explains to you what the dick-head has told you is wrong, and apologizes.

(this happened to me last summer). I know the people I do business with, went in, there was a guy I'd never seen before, asked to help me. I asked for the fitting to adapt my old R-12 vacuum pump to connect it to the R-134 gauge set since I'd run out of R-12 supplies, decided to do R134 only, bought a setup, and low and behold, the vacuum pump don't connect. I was told there was a fitting that would change it over. Anyhow, The guy said, boisturous as hell, "You aren't supposed to mix R12 with R134", started giving me a long lesson on EPA rules, ask me if I had a license, said They don't make one of them, you have to buy the R-134 vacuum pump, because it's illegal to use anything that's had R-12 in it, yatta-yatta-yatta-,

By this time I was walking toward the door, wondering where the regular guy was. I didn't know he was in back, but I was going on down the street, to look for the fitting elsewhere. (Three days later, Ebay was loading up with the fittings, selling them like hotcakes)
Anyhow, over my shoulder, I told him. "what you told me is wrong, They make the fitting, I'm looking for it, and you shouldn't make up shit that you don't know about."

He got riled, I was afraid maybe he was going to go Postal the way he was yammering. He was telling me how long he'd been working in auto repair, warned me (again) about R12, but didn't finish, because the Boss, (I know him) came from nowhere, asked "What the hell is going on"!. (scared the shit out of me, thought he was yelling at me!)

The guy told him, "this guy wants a fitting for converting a R-12 vac-pump to R-134, and I told him,,yatta-yatta-yatta.....The Boss cut him off, said "go in back, I told you to watch the counter, to call me if somebody needed help. Then he told me he didn't stock the fitting, demand was'nt that much and he'd been sending people that wanted it down at the PARTS AMERICA store, and apologized, said that guys kind of slow, he normally works in the brake shop, cleaning parts.

My point is; lots of inexperienced counter help, when they don't know, will say so and find somebody else that knows. If they don't, I know this from experience, it's due to improper training by the employer.

Bad telephone manners;............ improper training.

Don't know where the shit is when asked, wave and point, if we have it, it's over there";.......improper training. Which means, in a nut-shell, the boss don't give a shit.

The NAPA store, and the PARTS AMERICA store that I frequent are not CHAIN, per-se, they are MOM $ POP, because the GreyBeards running them have been there since Jesus Christ was a PFC. They still have the vendor's books on a table behind the counter and if it isn't in their head, ain't in the computer, then they hit the books.

A good, experienced parts guy/gal has almost everything in their head. I ask for a distributor cap for a '29 chevy.
"Don't have".
I say I've got a Chevy 250 in it.
He asks, "HEI or points?"
I say "points".
Guy turns on his heel, I think maybe he forgot me already. Comes back, without looking in the computer, with a box. Then he says, anything else?", then, "shit, now I got to put this stuff in the computer".

Now, I know I'm in a real parts store.

 

' just gotta jump in. I've read every message in this post.

D&H Auto Parts (independant) in Malaga, NJ. When I had the '56 F100 stock, they'd always have what I needed. When I started swapin' engine, trans, rear they'd give me rad hoses, belts, etc off the nails to see what would work and "bring back the rest".

Somebody workin' on something out in the lot... Frankie would be yellin' part numbers at me as I was walkin' in the door with whatever part. You could always tell when they had a stupid customer just before you, because they'd share the story.

I'm now in Colorado Springs and have yet to find much more than chains. One NAPA store on Fillmore, however, has some realworld, honest-to-goodness partsmen... The kind you respect. They couldn't find rear brake springs for my 58 3100, pulled out the books, cross-ref'd, called a commercial truck brake shop a few blocks over and then sent me there with my money. How could you not go back to these guys?

Do you really flip fries? I thought it was burgers.

 

Hey I am looking for a 710 cap...

Dawg

 

when..........
you can drink a beer while they tally up your total.

damn I miss that place.

FONZI

 

Absolutely!!! Tops is tops! I am surprised that someone in Texas knows about it.

I was in Pep Boys (Lake Forest CA) and the guy behind the counter swore that there was never any such thing as a "Ballast Resistor"! He explained that the computer did not have it listed, and he knew a lot about cars because of his tuner Honda!

 

Common's in S. San Francisco and Monument in Pacheco,

 

Someone in the store calls me "Sir"______EVER!

 

the counter-person doesnt stop waiting on you to answer the phone!

 

When they don't ask who made Desoto...

 

You oughta ask for flathead parts

 

is she married?

 

So how bout it guys?We need a HAMB O'DEX of indie dealers addresses etc. As Tommy Sugested. ALSO how bout a Hamb PARTS interchange. IF we can all chip in and start providing part numbers for current Borg-Warner/etc etc parts that we can find at the chain stores, (napa/Zone/Advance etc) It'll never be finsihed but mabye its a start!!!

 

When you tell them it's a Dodge 315 and they don't correct that to "318"

They all nod their heads reverently at the mention of the Mopar flat 6.

Can instruct you in the preparation of leather and rawhide for automotive purposes.

Great Grandfather was a Wheelwright and Grandpa ran the livery stable where horses were shod.

Will sell you various substances like Stoddard Solvent, Kerosene and cutting oil in bulk from 50 gallon drums. You bring your own container although they can sell you one.

1200 square ft of shelving and parts storage illuminated by 4 naked 60 watt lightbulbs.

 

MMMM Stoddard Solvent.. Next to MEK and Marvel it is the best sex lube.

Dswg

 

You can buy MIG wire, but not speaker wire...
They have wire wheels for any grinder imaginable, but none for a car...
They have DP-90 and Hot Rod Black on the shelf, but there isn't a neon or fake chrome rattle can in sight...
And finally, when you ask if they can get hard to find parts, the owner says "I don't fuck with import shit"...that's when I knew I was home.

 

Piston and tire ashtrays and no cell phone accessories! I forgot to mention those critical elements of a real parts. From the looks of this thread there is still hope for mankind as long as there are still REAL parts stores around most parts of the country.

 

...when there are NO 'hot pink' 3-bladed wiper blades on the "impulse buyer counter.

...when the employees' parking lot has a few old trucks and cars and there isn't ONE Honda with a soupcan tailpipe and ersatz decals.

...when the guy at the counter can juggle your request, handle a guy on the phone, slurp his coffee, and doing it all with a Lucky dangling from his lips.

 

When you can ask for a part for a Roadrunner, and the guy won't say: "that's a Pontiac, right?"

Happy Friday everyone!

Bill

 

My parts store just got bought out by O'Reillys. Wow, it went to shit fast. Ricer crap all over the place. I used to know the name of everyone that worked in that store, they have all quit except, except for this one kid. This kid back in the day pissed me off so bad that I yanked the book away from him to look up a part number. All the guys I knew there were dieing in laughter. Now this damn kid is manager there. Been there less than a year.

 

When you say 440 Plymouth, 455 Olds or 350 Buick and they know what you mean...

and don't ask you for the metric conversion into Liters...

Derek

 

Speaking of which, you should have worked the counter in the mid '80s, when there were thousands of rear drive G.M.cars on the road that could have a Buick, Chevy, Olds, or Pontiac 350 under the hood. I'd say at least 75 per cent of the "mechanics" didn't have the slightest idea of how to tell the difference! I had to devise a line of questioning--"Is the distributor in the front or back? Does the oil go in the valve cover, or in a tube sticking straight up out of the front? Does the intake seal the valley, or does it have a valley pan?" When I was a kid, I figured anyone that worked on cars for a living MUST be a motorhead....so much for assuming things!

 

When you ask about "that old carb with the 97 on the side" that has been sitting on the counter for 50 years and he sells it to you for 10 bucks.

When you know that if you do something stupid in the store he knows who your Dad is and will call him.

Joe

 

good parts stores are harder and harder to find the 2 stores i use (napa a block away and the oreillys next door) i have my own books at my shop i look up the #s and walk behind the counter get my parts and sign the ticket ..if they give me crap i ask them to look up a water pump for a vw bug...sad thing is some will look it up ...even make calls looking for it......