Paul Schneider wrote:
>
> I just sold my '65 Rambler American (being born in Kenosha, I think I have a
> genetic predisposition to AMC products).
Hmmm, having worked in the shop of an AMC/Jeep dealership in 1979, I can
only say, "y'know, there's a cure for that." <g>
> Getting parts was difficult. Few
> aftermarket replacements were available. Many had to be NOS from a few US
> suppliers. Hurray for the big three Triumph parts suppliers. I may not
> always like their pricing or quality, but at least you can get the parts.
And that, after all the partisanship exhibited occasionally, is the very
point. The parts are available. Get the best ones at best price.
> I stopped by my local NAPA store on the way home. Great guys, they always
> dig to find my old car parts. On the back shelf, they had a BECK ARNLEY
> parts catalog. There is supposedly one in every NAPA store. BECK ARNLEY
> sells import car parts. It had quite a section on Triumph parts (brake
> parts, ignition, engine, etc.), from 2's through 7's. A lot of gaps and I
> am unsure on pricing, but it may be a local source of parts for a quick fix.
> No financial interest, bla bla bla.
Some NAPA stores still have sources to Beck-Arnley distributors, but
it's getting to be that fewer and fewer want to bother. The market
volume just isn't there for most of them. Still, it's worth checking--no
sense in abandoning a potential source.
Some places, depending upon the product, have been in business long
enough to have all sorts of resources not generally available. A couple
of decades ago, I lived and worked in the Muskegon, Michigan area. At
the time, it was full of companies who did and and had done work for the
major automakers, and the history, in selected places, was
extraordinarily long.
I knew a guy years ago who had had someone tow a 1938 or 1939
Chris-Craft motorboat into his yard, and the owner said, "I just bought
this, and I want you to rebuild the engine. Everybody told me you could
do this at reasonable cost. If you want the job, I expect you to do just
that."
So, the guy pulled the engine, an old 4-cylinder Hercules with an
updraft carburetor, and discovered that it had extensive water damage
and that the engine was seized and this was going to a major job and he
would probably lose money on the repair (he was not the sort of person
inclined to do such for the love of a challenge). So, he visited his
ordinary supplier for parts, and asked them what they had available. The
guy at the counter said, "hey, wait a minute, come with me." And, they
climbed vertical ladders from the first floor, to the second, and then
to the third. In a corner on the third floor was a crate with an engine
in it. The parts clerk walked over, swept off the accumulated dirt,
threw back the tarp, and said, "I knew we had one laying around
somewhere." The guy thought, "hey, it looks pretty close--maybe the
owner won't know it's a different engine." How much? "Well, the company
owner's probably forgotten it's here, and it's still in cosmolene, and
it's been a long time--no guarantees on performance, but, well, $800."
He paid, took the crate home, opened it up, cleaned the cosmolene off
the engine serial number plate, and discovered that it was exactly the
same model as was in the Chris-Craft, and that the serial numbers of the
engines were only eight numbers off, and that it was, for practical
purposes, a new engine, thirty-five years old, same as the one he'd
contemplated rebuilding.
Get to know your suppliers. <smile>
Cheers.
|