Folks Of Interest Parts availability issues...

There was a post about the non availabilty of SBC roller lifters and about how Mac´s don´t stock some parts. I think most anybody has noticed that even some of the more common parts for our cars have become harder to come by . How are you dealing with this? Searching for NOS? Asking your buddies to check their parts pile? Make your own?
Reason I´m asking is I´m just rebuilding a 235 and a 261 Chevy 6. Luckily rockauto had the right bearing sizes for me, but no gasket sets for both the 235 and the larger bore 261 and no rings for the 261. Living over here it can be kind of hard on the budget to have parts shipped from several different vendors so I try to buy all parts from a single source to save on shipping. I found out Chevy of the 40s showed the rings in stock and they also had gasket set, but only for the 235, so ordered 2 complete 235 gasket sets and a ring set for the 261 in .030 oversize from them...the bearing sets and an extra 261 head gasket are coming from the rock. After all was said and paid , the Chevys of the 40s parcel was €550 / around USD 620. For a set of rings and two set of gasket sets that is.
Luckily rockauto had a single 261 headgasket, so I can use the second 235 gasket set on the 261...
The bearings from rockauto have not shown up yet, so I don´t know yet what they will be after tax and customs fees, but around €400/ USD 450 is my guesstimate.

I would have bought the parts locally, but no dice over here...
This is not meant to be a rant at all and living in a town that has a big BMW plant I´m aware that even the OEMs are having trouble getting their parts. I´m not earning my bread building cars so it´s just a little inconvenience. But how do you professionals handle this? I´m just wondering how you guys are dealing with this situation...

 

Choose your battles carefully? I recently bought a new project, I made sure I could get parts for it before I bought it. No real issues so far.

I passed on a few that parts just aren't around for.

 

PS: And I´m not here to bash any of these vendors. They bent over backwards at Chevs of the 40 to find my rings . Year one are also apologizing monthly for still not knowing when the windlaces for my Chevy which I ordered in August may or may not show up. I think all vendors are struggling more or less equally..

 

Jim, that´s exactly why I mostly have Chevys. Everyone was telling me it was easy to get parts for them, and that they were cheap

 

Sometimes you have to think outside of the box a bit. Too many old car guys are all too used to going to the old car trinket vendors for what amount to rather common parts. = engine parts and many chassis parts. Quite often if you can get the OEM part number or a good part number from a major manufacture who made those parts back in the day such as TRW engine or chassis parts you can do a search for that part number and find it being offered by a vendor on Ebay who buys out old stock from warehouses but doesn't spend a lot of time or effort to research the part, Something like this add
eBay item number:
163959995454
If you know what you are actually looking for you found the part for 10 bucks, if you don't know what actually fits you are going to move on to one with a better description and higher price.

 

It's not just the older cars that part sourcing is getting tougher. Even late models have been a problem also.
Some manufacturers have parts but no cardboard to put them in. Or they are a part or two from building an assembly.
Those 200 container ships off California's coast have a great deal to do with it. Another thing is the American workforce doesn't want to work and doesn't. China hasn't gotten it's production up to snuff either.
I don't know what the answer is but given time it should work itself out.

 

Hell, I struggled just to get some .090" thick 5052 H32 sheet today. Drove 60 miles round trip to an old standby and found some rems. Bought a little extra just in case. Saved on today's high sky shipping fee's too. Bought a wiring harness (NIB) the other day. Dam wire hanging out the back of a relay socket on soldered terminals no less and one of the flashers will never fit properly. NO Quality! Then there's folks on Epay selling junk for big money like their sitting on a pile of gold bars. It seems worse than ever these days

 

It’s going to be like this for a while… get used to it. Once you break the supply chain, there are downstream issues that occur that don’t resolve quickly. Adapt and overcome.

 

Any insight as to why they can not be unloaded? I’ve seen the satellite views, I originally thought was it had to do with the virus and possible transmission of it.
But now I wonder.

 

Lots of reasons, some political, but one of the biggest is they don't have room for them and can't get them moved off the dock quick enough. Some pics I've seen the docks just don't have space to put anymore until a bunch of them are moved.

 

The problem was mostly political to start with, now the troubles have multiplied and covers a lot more variables. There is no quick fix, and I'm not real sure they have started working on the fix too hard.

Some of those container ships have gone around the lower tip of South America to dock in the Gulf of Mexico states, but that adds at least a month to the trip, and adds a lot to the cost. Those that have made that trip is pretty much what you see on the shelves right now.

 

Crazy. Merchandise sitting, I assume paid for? And not being able to be resold. And another shop closes down while waiting.

 

I´m actually closer to the " let´s fix it" than to the " let´s buy it new "camp. But lately on of my laundry dryers in my shop broke a belt, so I tore it apart and ordered a new belt for it. It took 6 weeks to show up. It would have been easier to buy a new dryer...

I guess that´s the only way to deal with it.

 

Try living in the UK! since we yanked ourselves out of the EU everything has just gotten more expensive, more awkward or usually both.

At least once your supply chains in the US get sorted you'll be ok, we've got years of self inflicted foot shooting to come

 

Jeff, remember you are part of the witness protection program, so please don´t tell anyone that both Jay and Günter are doing their best to make a Ford guy out of me...I wouldn´t admit it in case they succeeded, hahaha

 

We all have to be resourceful for sure. I can’t imagine what the racing folks are doing. Due to the supply chain issues and lack of workers, some longtime suppliers won’t make it. I’m building a 34’ Ford and luckily I have all of the hard parts. I’m starting to resource the seals and rubber products well out front of need.

 

Yikes! And I thought we had it bad in Canada.

 

A preplanned part buying process works pretty well, you order the parts you know you are going to need ahead of time, the problem is that lead time for ordering parts is farther into the future then it used to be.

We have a race engine shop here in town, right now, they have the largest number of blocks waiting for parts that they have ever had, and the last couple of months are traditionally the slowest time of the year. They usually get swamped in April, and they are really concerned. They are predicting there will be a lot of racers without motors this year.

I guess this should be a heads up, if you need your motor done for this racing season, you better get on the ball right now. They told me the parts ordered that used to come in about every 2-3 weeks is more like 2-3 months right now! I wouldn't expect that where ever you live is any better.

 

Jeez Baumi, those ol Chevy engine part prices are nauseating! It's taking some of the fun out of things.
I agree with the strategy of ordering parts far, far in advance when possible, and while you're waiting continue to keep your eyes open.
Nowadays, I'm feeling that when certain replacement/service parts become scarce, the parts houses will be in tune with the "increased market demand" and they'll jack up the price.

No doubt there's true material shortages, but I believe a lot of the price increases are a gouge job with an explanation that "they're in short supply". Anytime I read or hear "last one in stock", I envision 100 of them on their warehouse shelf.

l wouldn't be surprised if some people have begun to hoard parts, buying multiples and stashing them for fear of not being able to find them or paying a huge price increase down the road. Sort of like the ammo buying frenzy...

 

my next build im buying a running driving donor car...Fu%k all that hassle..long gone are the days browsing the back 40 of the local autoparts stores.

 

no trucks older than 3? years allowed to take containers off the dock ( emissions rule in cali) only unloading 8-10 hours a day

 

I for one may never buy another project to redo again. That is exactly what I have been doing for decades.The idea of waiting so long for a certain part that may take months or never come is taking my desire to build a project away. I am sure it is taking it’s toll on prospective buyers by scaring them away from the possibility of a short build turning into a forgotten project. There are so many projects out there. Just my thoughts…… at my age. Hope I am wrong.

 

The parts situation is very bad right now. Last year we waited 8 months for a ball joint to come it. I ordered a side window yesterday and was told there are over 100,000 pieces of glass floating in the Pacific Ocean waiting to be unloaded. This kind of stuff wouldn’t happen if we still made stuff in this country.

 

Ca. truck ban only allow trucks 2011 or newer in the state. Then you got their other newer law called something like ab5 that doesn't allow owner operators anymore which before this they said about 60% of the truckers that picked up at the ports were owner operators. So this isn't helping but there are many other factors involved besides just the new stupid trucking laws in the country of Ca., I mean the state of Ca.

 

Yep, I waited for 6 months once for a part for my off topic truck and wasn't happy with the plastic ends on it so I ordered another one for a spare because I figured those ends won't last long in Wi. winters on a moving part and the next one came in 5 days with aluminum ends on it, much better.

You just never know when you will get something. I am still working at the store(grocery) for 6 more weeks and it is amazing how you can be out for months and then finally get it for a few days and then you cannot get it again for another month or two.

I am glad I have more than 1 project going at a time, It would drive me nuts if I was doing 1 and had to wait for parts for it.

 

I've always tried to buy stuff a little ahead of when I'd actually need it, just like the set of wheels I bought. But when you start looking and not finding, it does get worry some. I'm glad I have most of what I need to finish mine, what I do need is pretty common stuff so maybe it won't be hard to find. Just glad I don't live somewhere else where stuff has to come from the US and the wait time is so much longer. Bad enough the wait time we have already, I can't imagine some of the wait time you guys in other countries have

 

I regard myself lucky , because I have been living this gearhead crazyness long enough to gather up a decent stash of parts. Whenever I bought a car in the USA it ´s been filled with big and little parts for me and my friends and this helps a lot in saving on shipping costs. And when I´m ordering consumables I usually buy more than one of everthing, because 2 or 3 oil filters, wheel cylinders or gasket sets don´t cost more to ship than just a single item. There´s always that point when the vendor has to go to a bigger box, but I´ve become pretty good in keeping things reasonable. This system has gone down the drain now that we have to order from many different sources, but I´ll use that as an excuse to procastinate and see what happens, hahaha

I´m glad my engine builder was able to cut both my 261´s main and rod journals to only .030 undersize, because the .040 that I figured we´d need would have been not available right now.
Maybe we should just learn from Mark @Moriarity and be smart and put our money in stocks of Accell plug wires and plugs he´ll have to protect his house like Fort Knox come the time we run out of plugs and wires

Anyhow, some mentioned to bring production back home,and we have this discussion over here too. As much as I like this thought , the trouble I see , we already don´t have enough workers, resources and work facilities to make what we should now. Most companies are hiring ( myself included) and I´m getting zero response. Nada.

Let´s hope the best so we can keep our old rigs on the road for the times to come. I´m not throwing away old parts anymore. My wife´s 52 Suburban is running on a well used 60´s 327 cam and lifter, all original GM, because the new cam was eaten by a bad lifter... Not sure if I placed every lifter on it´s correct lobe, but the engine seems to be happy with 20k miles on the old 327 cam...20 years ago I would have had sleepless night if I knew something in my cars or engines was not up to snuff, today I kind of gave in and just don´t tell the engine. Hahaha

 

Even the "good" lifter in the above picture looks bad.

I'm very wary of new flat tappet cams and lifters, since they will fail if the heat treatment and material is not very precisely controlled. That's a lot of details for an unknown off shore manufacturer to get right (or wrong).

 

I agree.
This cam had 20 min of break in and went flat after 32km of driving. I´d say less than 40 mins of runtime in total. See how the worn lifter is nicked on it´s side? That was me touching it with pliers. The old GM lifters were much harder than these... they could not be nicked that easily.