places like O'Connor Classics on Scott Boulevard in Santa Clara. Not only
is the staff friendly and helpful. .[. . .]
the place is clean, well stocked I've never had to special
order parts. . .
Heh. In general, I'd have to agree, but oddly enough, Kim went there
a few months ago to get me a couple little items for my birthday. One
was a new shift knob for the B, the other a new key fob with the MG
enameled on it. The shift knob came home with her; the key fob was
out of stock and had to be special ordered. She prepaid and it arrived
at our home in a couple of weeks. Funny that the one exception was a
simple cosmetic bit.
I should make a point of going to O'Connor more often, just to get to
know them and to drool over the selection of vehicles they have. Also
it's close to the Auto Parts Club, where I am now a member. Bay Area
car folks should investigate this place; yes, most of their parts are
for mass-market domestic and commodity imports, but their prices on oil,
shop towels, cleaners and the like are really good. I bought a gallon
of Castrol LMA there for $11 last weekend (regularly $20), and since I
have four cars that can use it, I probably will use it up all at once.
I figure I saved more than the price of my $10 membership on my first
visit (well, the LMA accounted for 90% of it).
The best place I found for Triumph parts was British Motorsports in
Campbell. . the lesser of three evils I guess. . like I said. .
Wow. If they're the *best* -- Not that there's anything really wrong
with BMS, it's just that their attitude always seemed to be that they
were the tiniest bit irritated at having to get my parts and write up
the invoice. Still, the selection is usually good and I've only once
or twice had to special-order things that they didn't have (and those
were odd bits like bearings for cranks reground to a size that no one
in his right mind would actually use, and things like that). They're
just not always the friendliest or most personable folks in the world...
glad I don't own a Triumph if for no other reason than the shitty
support one gets from the parts houses out here!
Well, offsetting that is TRF of course, about whom I hear almost nothing
but good reports. I suppose I'll have to try them out for MGB parts, just
to see if that side of the house is as good as the Triumph side. Still,
it's worth noting that owning any old car is, to some extent, only as
good as the support you get for it, and that a lot of the enjoyment of a
car comes not from the marque's interesting history or even its particular
vehicle dynamics, but from the irritation level required to keep it working.
I've also been able to take advantage of the fact that the manager of the
local Economy Imports has a '72 MGB, so when I need regular items like
filters, belts, hoses and the like, I can pick them up easily. So on the
one hand it's not as exclusive as a Lotus, but on the other I can afford
to drive it every day and maintain it regularly because I can buy the
regular bits at the same store where I buy Castrol and engine degreaser.
So Roger, where do you get bits for the PA?
--
"Do you ever wish you had a joystick with a big red button on it so
you could just nuke the person when you send a reply?" -- Kim
Scott Fisher/sfisher@wsl.pa.dec.com/DEC Western Software Labs/Palo Alto, CA
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