KPH speedo's

[Steve Drueck]

Bruce we may have met at Long Beach or Pomona if you went there. Do you have any photos of Z&Z ?

Z&Z Auto
C&C Classics
US Muscle Camaro
The Camaro Cannibal (Minneapolis)
National Camaro
Jerry's Classics
Chevy Parts Warehouse
Jack Coopers MuscleCars
Jerry Marmon (Carolina Camaro?)
Landmark Classics
Harold Young Camaro Classics
A&W Camaro
Thunder Road Classics Muscle Parts
Paddock West
Classic Reproductions (Jerry LaShure)
CPX (Camaro Parts Exchange)
Arizona GM Retail
American Classics (Div of Moroso)
American Chevelle and Camaro(Bill Harris)

All gone

[Xplantdad]

Steve,
We may have....Sorry I don't have any photos of Z&Z

[Mr70]

Forgive me for getting off topic here guys.
Wow Steve...That list is a timecapsule in it's self.
I was a weekly customer of Bill Harris who owned/ran American Chevelle here in Waukegan and later Zion,and then became Speed Sport Automotive.
He & I constantly did trading & selling.Is he still around?
I really liked him..I thought he told me he was a mechanic at Brigance Chevrolet too.

I still have all the old Business cards from those I visited/bought from in the Late 1970's early 1980's.
Some are still w/us,some are not:

*Dennis Dunlap-D&D Musclecars & Parts
*Brad Bradley-Rapid Transit Systems
*Bob Broome-A.B. Performance
*Ron Norman-McHenry Classic
*Chuck Schuster-Parts Finders in Menomonee Falls Wisc.
*Jerry Buller-Camaro Country
*Larry Gueths-Parts Finders in McHenry Il.
*Doug Lakosh-Gm Parts & Acc.
*Dan Leahy-GM Muscle
*Mike Walker-Camaros Unlimited
*Mike & Tom-N.O.S. Numbers Our Speciality locating Service.
*Jack Pustil-International Speedometer on Irving Park Rd.
*And you can't have a list like this w/o good Ole Loveable Ralph at Chicago Muscle Car Parts.I remember visiting his shop in the Winter full of space heaters when he was in the city an he's still out every local swapmeet at 6AM today.

[William]

Jerry LaShure set up at a Corvette swap in Milwaukee maybe around 1980 with a score he figured to make a pile on. He had a dozen or so NOS red line '67 Corvette Goodyear tires. The 'vette guys all had a good laugh-they were 7.35 x 15, not the 7.75s Corvettes used. No one knew what they really belonged on; he probably threw them out.

I believe Bill Harris recently passed away. Plenty of Billy Harris stories out there.

[Steve Drueck]

I bet there was a KPH somewhere in their inventories. (staying on subject??) Billy Harris ended up heading south to a place called Iuka, MS . He sold his trailer and goods way back when and left some tire tracks and a streak of red ink behind. He was exteremely good with Chevelles, and NOS parts. I remember him talking about his years in the service dept at Brigance or McInerny, remember in the day on Monday morning the 70 Chevelles would be lined up outside the service dept after a hard day at the track Sunday!! Lots of those engines were supposed to be hit with a sledge hammer to destroy them after warranty work, rather than return the cores. Wonder how many got a second life years later! Your list looks like a Vettefest in 1985 many are still with us, Ron, Chuck, Jerry, Doug , Dan and Mike some disappeared, Ralphie had the garage on Ottawa in Harwood Heights and drove a van he called the "Love Machine" I think it was held together by the rust! We used to run laps at the high school at midnight he is an encyclopedia of Firebirds and Pontiacs. Jerry LaShure re-surfaced about 8 years ago and sold me his literature collection and was making sports collectibles. His ex-partner Fred is still buying every big block Chevelle convert he can steal, and has lots of cool cars. Brad Bradley was running the CPX store.You can find him now at http://wcca.wicourts.gov the others I lost track of, you might know possibly. There also was a local shop that briefly sold GM perf stuff called Parts Performance, The Fiberglass Shop in Addison, and of course there still is the famous Chevy Shop on Cicero AV south of Addison Av. Wonder how many Nickey motors went through those doors at the time! And MSR (Motor Sport Research) didn't they always have a couple of Z28 crossrams in the display case) Madison Classics Gary Esse (king of NOS) and Mainly Vettes and Bill and Dale (the Pekin Boys) probably round out the bunch no wonder there are so many COPO's Yenko's and ZL-1's right here in the area. Its been very active since day 1 with dealers like Mr. Norms Nickey and Jack Douglass and Gibb Chevrolet in the area, not to mention Hult, Dale, Yunkers, and lots of others. zzzzzzzzzzzzz ok wake up everybody

[Xplantdad]

Wow Steve...Cool info!

Nobody is sleeping

[scuncio]

I always figured the rumors about Brad B. were just rumors!

[Mr70]

"His ex-partner Fred is still buying every big block Chevelle convert he can steal,"
Ha!...He just bought George O's.

[William]

Vettefest '85: the good 'ol days!!

If the motoring public didn't know then they do now: Vendors got to be pretty good friends. This led to a certain amount of parts/customer/info sharing. Problem solving was also an issue. Maybe Stevie remembers who did this; I do not. But it is kind of funny.

In those days there were a lot of parts still available from GM and all of us had them on display, usually in the original packaging. Everyone knew someone that worked for a dealer so certain people would walk around with a notebook recording part numbers off your inventory. One vendor really tired of this and came up with a plan. He went throught the P & A price book and came up with a couple dozen non-returnable part numbers with huge prices. He then had labels printed with these numbers and pasted them on all his packaging. Some poor schmuck trying to save a few bucks on a rear view mirror would unwittingly order something really miserable like a school bus frame.

"That will teach 'em" said the vendor.

Don't know if anything like that ever happened but GMPD did change its ordering policy around that time.

[Mr70]

Don't know if he did that,but it sounds like a classic Chuck Voelker move to me.
May he rest in peace..