KPH speedo's

[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..

[Steve Drueck]

Billy I thought the bus frame was LaKosh's idea, especially cause it was non-returnable. Maybe Rudser. GM made many large items call-back items around that time, which meant they would call the dealer to confirm the accuracy and quantity of the order. At least in our zone. For folk's who don't know it, GM used to be the 98% supplier of resto parts in the mid 80's. So you could spend hundreds of hours in a parts dept poring over GM Master Parts books, Parts History books, and just plain ordering anything you could out of a group number to see what would fit or look OK for a Chevy. Often it was a tedious and expensive route as items got tossed and hundreds of hours might only yield a couple of good parts. Just because Chevy listed a part for a Camaro didn't mean it wasn't a "replacement" part that didn't resemble the original very much. Also at that time you could only order Chevy parts from a "Chevy" dealer, B-O-P Cad parts had to be ordered at their respective dealers. So you also had to connect with other GM lines to find acceptable parts to restore a 60's Camaro/Chevelle. It was a tedious task, I remember spending hours and hours in the parts dept at my nearest dealer Keystone Chev (formerly Nickey) they just let me look up and order all my own stuff. Some people thought I worked there. If you persevered, there were a few treasures to be found, like trim rings only sold by Olds, Caddilac smog pulleys, or horn contacts for Corvettes. Nowadays, GM has discontinued about 98% of workable parts, so Chevy dealers now have to call aftermarket suppliers for parts if they have a Camaro or Chevelle in the shop. In fact, GM part labels are now printed and stuck on aftermarket parts as GM still wants a piece of the revenue. But back then, between pushing a baby in a stroller (playing with a $30 Rosewood), nursing a leaky trans on a rusty tow vehicle, and trying to feed the kids and pay rent on 5 garages, the practice of razoring off part numbers or switching wrappers was a common practice for trying to squeak out a living. I remember a few of the people you mentioned that used to write down part numbers at swap meets, I bet they still have a few C10 Pickup bed assemblies in their garage that they got by accident. That was all in fun, but unfortunately yesterday and today, there was and still is rampant fraud in the markets with unscrupulous dealers trying to pass off fake cars and parts, today its Ebay that attracts the majority of them, so folks beware, if a dealer just popped up out of "nowhere" selling parts or cars, chances are they will soon return there, when you find out you've been had. This website is the most fantastic place that gives folks the help they it need. And the efforts and time involved mostly go unrecognized. That's why

[Steve Drueck]

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

George -O is Magnific-o !! that's a steal at any price, just wait 5 years and see. Hard to describe the perfection of George's work especially on a T-Bird, Camaro or Chevelle. Way to go Fred!