I was at a cruse night with my 40 pick up and it's 302. I guy came up and told me he had the same truck and was putting a 350 chevy in it. I told him , you can't do it.
You got your oil changed at a dealer??? It better have been free... Changing your own fluids is hot rodder 101. Doesn't matter what car it is.
Sure isn't. There have always been the good stores and the bad stores. And personally, I'll take the pizza faced kid who doesn't know it all (and realizes it) over the "old timer parts guy" who thinks he knows it all and won't listen to anybody. Some of the worst parts-buying experiences I've ever had were with the old guys who thought they were God's gift to auto parts. Some of the kids over the years have had trouble finding me stuff, but we've always sorted it out eventually. I've never had one (literally) yelling at me that "they never made a car like that!" (the car was bone stock) or blow my bell housing to pieces by giving me a clutch that was "better" than the one I asked for (and had in the car before). As for the problems with non-stock cars and looking things up... I just start off telling them, "This a modified car and isn't a combination you're going to find in the computer, so let's try looking it up as if it's a ______ and go from there." Does wonders for avoiding the confused looks.
Last year I was doing maintainance on an enclosed trailer and found the wheel bearings on one wheel looking a little rough so pulled them out and went to the closest parts store, a ma and pa store with the 40 plus year old son working the counter and a couple of high school kids that evidently work there. I laid the parts on the counter so they could look at the numbers after telling them the make of the trailer. The parts guy/owner turns to the high school kid and says we need part number POSxxxx thinking he is a funny guy and evidently thinking I wouldn't get it. I wanted to get the trailer put together so I let it slide after he finally found the bearings. I drive right by that store on the way to a NAPA store and spend at least another 15 minutes on the road. The Council Bluffs NAPA store does pretty good, not as good as the NAPA store in Atlantic but the Atlantic store has adequate help to do a good job. Customer relations can either kill or make the business. I worked in a IHC farm equipment/truck dealership in the 70's as a parts guy, I didn't know as much as I would have liked but we were using books and some common sense back then. Funniest customer that I had come in wanted gaskets for Harley! I told him that would be a little tough but he had the gasket with him, so we went back to where we had a board with gaskets on it, found what he thought would work and sent him down the road. That was a good learning experience for me. I worked that job for a little over a year, I liked it, but my legs and feet didn't, lot of hours on my feet. Glad I made the change to something else.
This thread reminds me of the part store my Dad got most of his stuff from. It was run by a very angry old man that knew his stuff. You'd go in there, ask for a part. He'd scoff at you, spit his tobacco on the floor and hobble off to the back to get whatever you wanted. If you asked nice he'd let you flip through the books and find whatever you were looking for, and on really good days you could wander though the back and find that odd piece you were looking for. Sadly he died, and they sold his stock at a local auction sale. In the next town over, we had an old guy that was a Ford dealer and mechanic during the 20's. He had a 30' x 100' quonset full to the rafters of old Model T stuff. You name it he had it, literally. It burned to the ground. Every piece destroyed. After that he stuck to rebuilding starters, generators, alternators etc. But every now and then when you'd go to drop something off, he'd have parts of a Model T electrical or ignition system strewn all over the place. When I left that town 15 years ago, he was in his late 90's, deaf as a stone and still working every day. He died and took a vast amount of old pats knowledge with him. Sad But True
And......."2 or 4 wheel drive, engine size, 2 or 4 barrel carb, A/C, manual or automatic.......???" The list goes on.
I worked over a year at autozone. I learned during the interview that they do not care whether you have ANY automotive knowledge or not. The ONLY thing they care about is numbers.....dollars and cents. Now you would think that since profit is their main focus, they would actually want you to put forth some effort to sell parts. What they want you to sell is the crap that THEY (corporate) cram down your throat.....fuel injector cleaner, towels, oil change "specials", all those overpriced lil packages of antisieze.....you guys know the drill. I have a good friend that works at O'riellys, they arent quite as bad about it he says. The actually try to sell PARTS. I spent ALOT of my time there providing tech support.....my first day there I had a kid with a busted brake hose try to buy hose clamps to "fix" it with because the hose itself was too expensive. I got to the point where I dreaded going to work because of people exactly like that. As far as the paper catalogs go, the chain stores have them. Ask to see them, I promise they're there. We got them on a regular basis, everytime they were updated and/or revised a new copy showed up. I know the local hot rodders and would go out of my way to help them get what they needed, but I gave up on the rest. It wasnt worth the weekends at work away from my family, and the low pay, to keep arguing with people whom have NO business whatsoever trying to work on their cars.
went into a auto zone last week to get a set of king pins for a 54 f 100.The guy said He had know ideal what king pins where,At least he was honest,After I explained, He found the part number to order.This was from a 40s year old.
that is also why I left autozone.. our store was great... for reasons I stated before.. but I just couldn't take the corporate BS pushing the profit stuff.
see thats the kinda new person to an auto store ya want... i betcha $5 that 9 out of 10 people would have said.. we don't have it.. I didn't even know autozone could get kingpins lol.. and I worked there for 2.5 years.. prolly cause no1 ever asked me for them...
oh and I'd like to ask all of y'all t be patentent when they ask you down to the color of the vehicle... over the years manufacturers have done some really goofy stuff mid year production changes etc that actually make a difference in a part.. i forget what year it is of chevy truck but theres like 10 different options for the rear brake pads, and theres about 5 options that change what pad wound up on the truck. so If ya don't have the part in hand and your at a discount parts house expect to get a bunch of silly questions. some times they do matter.. and if its up to the guy behind the counter, they want to make sure ya don't come back. I always asked everything but told the person that it may not matter but lets get the facts right.. because every once in a while it will come back to bite ya when you don't ask.
A couple things here to consider. First, I usually change my own oil but not always. I'm gettin' old and old bods on cold cement floors are not a good combination! Nowadays, many dealerships offer free first oil changes to their new vehicle customers (mine did and I took advantage of it). AND, I just found out that having the dealer do the oil change costs just a little bit more than if I'd bought the stuff and did it myself, and eliminated the 'old on cold' thingy. I won't go to the "drive-by" oil change places anymore. 99cent oil filters on a $$$K vehicle?? No thanks. (BTW, I do change my own oil in the '56, but not the DD)
I went to the parts dept of our local (big) Chevy dealership in town. I asked the kid (20ish) if there was a possibility to order some heavy duty push rods for a 1966 409. You never know. The kid tells me Chevy never made a 409 engine. Maybe I meant a 400 that was bored out.Trying not to laugh or freak out over this. I calmly explained the whole 348/409 motor thing to him. He stares at me like I'm from outer space and says...nope never made that. I must be mistaken. Chevy never made a motor like that. So I asked if there was an older parts guy on duty, sure he says. As he's walking back into the parts room, I hear him back there laughing about some dumbass at the counter asking for parts for a 409. That I must not know much about Chevy motors. So out comes the older guy (this time 30ish) I tell him what I'm after, he tells me the same thing, never made a 409. He's trying to show me pictures in a parts book and explain to me that I must be thinking about an overbored 400 SBC. I thanked them both and left. What the hell has happened to parts people?
I've always been parts guy, 25 years and counting. Fifteen years in american car parts retailer and after that in Harley dealer. I've always faced the mixed vehicles and builders and it ain't problem. I've always built and serviced my vehicles and can handle almost anything comes up. MOST customers don't. They should go to service not to parts counter. Some difficulties to deal with today are -stupid wrong type next owner of vehicle who doesn't have a clue of anything mechanical. Older guys and older vehicles were and are easier. -stupid sales computer systems are typically not made to compare anything and do not show dimensions or even good picture. Books were better and more on there were interchange reference books and buyers guides. These computer sales systems try to help just anyone to sell replacement parts but fail when it comes to modifying anything. -stupid warehouse management systems place the parts by number only or by popularity, not the same type parts next to each other. Small shop is easier to handle than large with more parts. -stupid co-workers who don't seem to have any kind of memory that asks every time the same questions and look like it was their first time. No matter how long they've been at work or how old they are. They just don't belong there. Most always they do something else at home. Wheeners used to be local and now worldwide thanks to internet forums.
I worked with a guy in the late 70's that was really good with the ones that are not gearheads. He DIDN'T know a thing about cars, other than oil and gas. He talked their language. He also found their parts. If he got a customer that knew more than he did, he called one of us over. He knew his limitations. The thing that really got to me, was when we had to start asking what month and day the car was made (ricers). Then in the late 80's the domestic's started it. I got out when the computers started to really take over. Very limited options with what you could do. Had to have everything, year, make, model, etc. That was totally frustrating to have to deal with. I remember a lot, but not everything. I used to be able to go back and grab whatever part they needed. I feel sorry for the newer parts people. They just don't have the experiences that most of us have had with the older vehicles. They just don't know what they have missed out on. Some will eventually have that experience, but I won't hold my breath.
We have an old-time big parts house in town, 3rd generation now. When I first started going in there in '73, the second generation was in charge, one brother had the parts house, the other the machine shop. Parts man was good, and always had enough time to sort through a problem. His son was about 15 at the time, stocking shelves on summer vacation- he's now the owner. I helped him set up a narrowed 9" in his first hotrod, a '57 Chebbie, he knows me pretty well and knows my gramps owned an International dealership when I was a kid, and I've been reading parts books since i could read. So I go in one day, he's at the far end of the counter buried in a catolog and nods, whatareyaupto? I tell him I'm getting some valve cover gaskets for one of my Galaxies- a car he knows well. So a new guy, came from another store, and has that I'm infallible and everyone on the other side is an idiot attitude, swaggers up, "I can take care of you- make, model, year, blah blah". So I tell him lets make it easy, give me valve cover gaskets for a '66 Thunderbird with a 390. "Sir, just give me the actual make, model, year, and engine of your Galaxie so we don't get the wrong part". Owner starts to grin, keeps his head down "OK, it's a '62 Ford Galaxie 500XL, 406-6V, manual trans car with a '63 427-8V, C-6 auto and 5.14 gears." Expert's face goes blank, owner laughs and says why don't you get him his '66 Thunderbird gaskets now?
I tried to get info from the dynomax catalog on a part tonight, advance autocrap, they don't know how to look up the prices or anything, gave up, wrote down the numbers and after calling about 7 people, I find out it was discontinued 15 years ago, even the help on their website was worthless. so probably half their catalogs are junk. I find it on another site 150 bucks, ouch!! even it's discontinued, look on ebay and I find whats probably the last one on earth for 20 bucks, they were clearancing discontinued items. nice stainless steel two into one exhaust outlet.
Last week a young man behind the counter did not know what a distributor cap or rotor was. I showed him the old cap that I was looking to replace. He said he'd never seen anything like that. The computer did not list "roters" either. It could get to where only certified persons could make any repairs, its not as bad as it can get. For many of the newer cars it is often much cheaper to order parts online and wait a couple days as prices can be ridiculous. I can use the parts lookup computer just as well as most people behind the counter.
It kinda weird that the some new cars don't even have dizzys at all. Or carbúretor. Most are FWD. Maybe don't use gas at all. Are made of plastic parts that are glued together. Have everything controlled by computer and electric motors even if basic lever or cable would do the job better. What seems to be electrical wire it's not. It data link. Or in some cases not even that. Wireless communication is now common. So, today the parts guy rather should be cabable of servicing that kind of vehicle owners and service stations. Our old car hobby is about 1% or less of the business I believe. I realized this kind of change in vehicles late 90's when I still worked with US domestic car parts retailer. 80's came fuel injection then FWD cars and diesel truck parts etc. After millennium I started to work Harley dealer and look what we have now on bikes too. Fuel injection, catalyst, electric throttle, wireless service computer and on. And we still sell panhead parts too. It takes more and more to be a good parts guy. Always have to learn and never forget anything.
one of my personal favorites was when i took a busted u joint from an OT 4wd with 44 inch boggers. Threw a conversion u joint ont he counter and said " i need that joint , shes a conversion 1/2 ton chevy to 3/4 . Kid looks at me and says " they dont make those" I pointed to it and said " they sure do , i didnt build it ha ha " then the manager came up and informed me that they hire salesmen , not mechanics. I walked out.
I posted earlier saying as how we need to do for ourselves some of what the counterpeople used to do for us. But I STILL have to relate one of the funniest ignorant counterperson stories ever: Me: "I need a front driveshaft U Joint for a '96 F150, 5.0 engine, 4r70w transmission." Countergal: "Is that two or four wheel drive?" I'm not woman bashing- there's a parts store near my house (one of a two or three store local outfit) that has a gal working the counter that is as good as any counterperson I've seen, and I've seen some good ones.
Call Patrick's Antique Auto in Casa Grande AZ for all your Chevy "6" and flatty information. One of the reay good guy's
Call Patrick's Antique Auto and Truck in Casa Grande AZ for your Chevy 6 information. One fine family to do bussiness with and always very helpful.
I don't say this to disturb anyone, but: Times are tough, bound to get tougher, and folks are getting squeezed into jobs they haven't the experience for, and aren't suited for. Some of us here complaining are bound to be next, and if it's me, I'd like to work across the counter from somebody with a little understanding and patience. If I work at a parts store, you know I'll do my damnedest to get you what you need. Please meet me halfway. Thanks.
My home town napa store I can walk in, tell them what I was needing for one of my 54 trucks and they would a- walk to the shelf and grab it without looking up the pn, b-recite the part number or cross reference another vehicle that used the part, c- discuss possible issues during a swap. Anytime I wanted they would let me bring home a catelogue for research. The one down the street from where I live now, a-laughed at me when I called asking for axle seals for an 84 jeep grand wagoneer telling good luck no one makes a part for it anymore, b-couldnt find me a bearing set by a set number, c-said I couldnt get a pinion bearing without buying an install kit, d- couldnt cross reference a 1330-1350 u joint, e-said a 1/2" 20 pitch rh thread lug nut was a rare and non stocked item. Everytime I think I should give them another shot they screw it up. If I ask to see a catelogue they freak out, ask what vehicle it is for, debate what "custom application" means and how a specific vehicle doesnt matter, then they dont know which book to give me to look it up myself. Ive come to learn if they cant find it in the computer they dont know what to do. I now walk into most parts houses with pn now.
Well I have been a parts guy for 15 yrs. in GM dealerships. I take pride in my job and love doing it. I grew up with my grandfather owning a bodyshop and my pops wrenchin at the dealership so I bleed oil. The sorry thing is any more most of your paper catalogs have been tossed. Over the years I have held on to those and the microfisch. The other bad thing is most all of the stuff has been discontinued. But I will take the time to look it up and at least give people the old part number. I work with two guys that have been in the business for alot longer than I have that are dumber than a box of rocks. They wont even attempt to help people out on older stuff. Our electronic catalogs only go back to 76. Usually I hear them telling people that and step in and help. Anyway it sucks that the good parts guy is a thing of the past. Im in my 30's and love the challenge. Sorry for the long reply.
I miss the REAL parts stores too. My dad worked in one store for 49 years starting in 1958, and I grew up in that store. The pay sucked, but it was what we loved cause it was all about cars (with a few tractors thrown in).Unfortunately, the Chain Stores moved in, and it all went to hell..The hours are way too many, the pay is lower, and the poor kids behind the counter are just there till a better job comes along. The independents don't have the buying power to compete, so they finally get bought out buy some conglomerate, or just close up. But after 37 years of it myself, I don't know how to do anything else...pity us old parts guys a little please....
Sad started in part in 1983 and learned from former garage owners that usEd to arc shoes.... On Ramblers! Google it Junior Now I can't get work - probably look too expensive on paper. Only time I have any success in a parts store is when I teach the fellas what a De Soto is .... I don't mind really, just wish I could get paid for the training. Lol
The Jalopy Journal
