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History Chevrolet treasure

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by rodncustom, Aug 11, 2009.

  1. rodncustom
    Joined: Sep 24, 2007
    Posts: 1,313

    rodncustom
    Member

  2. dabirdguy
    Joined: Jun 23, 2005
    Posts: 2,404

    dabirdguy
    Member Emeritus

  3. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,829

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    whoever did the photos and article must be some sort of idiot. 60 year Chevy dealer full of NOS parts and this numbnut is taking pictures of pop bottles and unrelated garbage.

    I like all the dealer showroom posters and stuff, that one shot where the guy is looking through all those showroom banners shows some cool stuff. most of that stuff got tossed when the new models came out.
     
  4. I love stories like this, my dad tells me that the front fenders and various other parts on my coupe were NOS items he found in the attic of the Chevy Dealership he was working at in the early 70's
     

  5. Lost1
    Joined: Oct 26, 2006
    Posts: 121

    Lost1
    Member

    Purty cool...Thanks
     
  6. Del Clark
    Joined: Feb 21, 2007
    Posts: 631

    Del Clark
    Member
    from DeLand,FL

    I just wished I had found it! HA!
     
  7. tunes
    Joined: Oct 10, 2008
    Posts: 100

    tunes
    Member

    WOW! What a find.
     
  8. Scott K
    Joined: Oct 17, 2005
    Posts: 824

    Scott K
    Member

    Cool find....but I can see why GM wanted them gone. Looks like they were operating on a shoe string (given the condition of the building). Doesn't fit the corporate image.
     
  9. 40 & 61 Fords
    Joined: May 17, 2006
    Posts: 1,999

    40 & 61 Fords
    Member

    I bet there will be more stories like this surfacing with all the small town GM and Chrysler dealerships closing. It seems like most of dealers that got the letters were small town 2nd or 3rd generation run small volume dealers just like the one in the story.
     
  10. J&JHotrods
    Joined: Oct 22, 2008
    Posts: 549

    J&JHotrods
    Member

    Great read. Thanks for sharing.
     
  11. customcory
    Joined: Apr 25, 2007
    Posts: 1,831

    customcory
    Member

    Back when I was 16 years old I worked at a Chevrolet parts department. We had a list of dealers that we could call to look for a part if it was backordered from GM and we couldnt get it fast enough.The list was all the dealers in the southeast. My dad was always looking for 55 -57 Chevy stuff, before reproduction. So I get the bright idea to take the list home and my dad wrote each dealer if they had any old stock still in the bins etc. We got a responce from about 70 percent of these Chevy dealers saying they would be more than happy to get rid of their old obselete parts that they couldn't even look up in the parts books anymore. Our whole family took about 2 weeks with a station wagon and as big a U-haul as we could get and made a round trip thru the southeast to round up NOS parts. We went from Georgia up to Virginia and everywhere inbetween. We would go thru attics , out buildings etc. getting there stuff. We would come out of those places black with dirt, pile the parts on the floor, and they would make us a price. This was the seventies. We didnt hardly pay anything for what we got. Lets see if I can remember some of the finds, how about finding 20 sets of 55 Chev bumper tips , Gold and silver 57 grilles, I pulled many deluxe accessory steering wheels up out of the box to see what we had and put it in the pile. Dealer filmstrips , projectors, banners, complete 58 Chev air ride systems in the box, brand new 36- 48 Chevy grilles, endless bumper sections and bumper guards etc. There was nothing we didn't find! We cleaned out the south. Later on when my dad started selling this stuff, other parts dealers would come up to us and say they would go in Chevy attics looking for stuff but the dealer would say John Vaughn had already been there and bought all we had! That happened more than once! All I can say that it was a expierence of a lifetime. We have about sold it all now, but I'm still selling the oddball , 4-door parts now on e-bay. My dad sold this stuff at Carlisle Penn. from the very first meet they had. Old Frank Spittle, whos one the HAMB , bought many a part from my dad. I know all about finding Chevy treasure, this seemed like a good time to brag about it. If you ever bought anything from my dad, you bought some of the treasure. By the way, since it was the seventies, we left all the 61 and up stuff there because at the time who would have thought those "new" cars would ever be popular enough to restore:rolleyes:. Maybe youve bought stuff from us.:D
     
  12. Keep
    Joined: May 10, 2008
    Posts: 662

    Keep
    Member

    Nice post, amazing the gems that are still out there. I am sure the people that bought it will be laughing all the way to the bank.
     
  13. Great story Cory!
     
  14. customcory
    Joined: Apr 25, 2007
    Posts: 1,831

    customcory
    Member

    Thanks Tman.A Bryson City, n.c. Chevy dealer was our biggest and best haul. They had stuff mostly from the 30's and 40's some early 50's stuff because the dealer moved or something then to a new building and the old building was used for storage etc. It was a time capsule. A dealer near me in Morgangton , Cutting Cross Chevrolet , had a lot of stuff and hired me to go thru and identify what they had and make them a list of their old stock. They didn't have time to do it. The owner was a old car guy and had all the promotional models from 49 on up, Vettes and trucks also, all lined up in a glass case in the showroom. One of every year. He knew what he had was valuable and didn't sell any of it. I don't know the situation now. The Chevy dealer in Richmond , Virginia was bought out by Glen Pace , a big parts dealer back then my dad was telling me a little bit ago. He didn't know about this dealer, or we would have been there to try to get it. In Penn Yan , New York theres a old Chevy dealer building that you can see the old yellow and black , green accessory boxes thru the dirty windows. Couldnt do anything about that place, I was just passing thru! I wish I could remember more, I knew we hardly ever found any Vette, Cameo parts, The holy grail back then was 55 Nomad eyebrows, never saw any of those either. Good thread!:D
     

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