KPH speedo's

[William]

Don't believe so. He was exclusively NOS. I remember because he unloaded some Corvair parts for us, which most vendors avoided like the plague.

[John Brown]

Was the 1985 event still at Arlington Park or at the Amphitheater? Back in the early years Als' meets were really good buying meets, at least for me.

[William]

Whichever, we did 'em both. The Amphitheatre was in a rough neighborhood as I recall. We were sitting in a nearby restaurant about 5 am when some drunk rolls in. He gets obnoxious with the guy behind the register who immediately belts him a couple times, comes around the counter and drags him out the door. Guess he knew his clientele.

Ever go to La Porte or the swaps at Notre Dame?

[Belair62]

[ QUOTE ]
The Amphitheatre was in a rough neighborhood as I recall

[/ QUOTE ]
William...that would be an understatement !

[John Brown]

[ QUOTE ]
Ever go to La Porte or the swaps at Notre Dame?

[/ QUOTE ]

Did LaPorte, at Notre Dame #2 I was the only one selling Camaro parts at a Corvette swap (really did good!!), Aurora, Alsip, St. Charles (in September), Wheaton, Belvidere, Grayslake early on, Sante Fe Speedway~wow!!, Iola, Jefferson, Elkhorn, Crown Point, Valpo, Maumee Oh, Wapokeneta Oh, Bowling Green Oh, Indy 500 Infield~BIG WoW!!, Super Chevy Indy from day one, LaSalle Illinois Speedway, Peotone (since 1979), and about everything else I could find since 1972. Started out selling my "obsolete" drag car leftovers. Found there was more joy in buying than selling. After all, it's not what you sell it for, it's all about what you bought it for.

[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!

[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

[Belair62]

I agree about George O...he freshened up the underside of my Y Camaro a couple years ago. Steve it's great to have such a well established and knowledgeable parts supplier sponsor this site. Thanks

[William]

Hoo boy, Rudser!! Aka Lo-Gross or Wholesale Larry, he was a character. I remember him circa January 1984 in line at Bill Jacobs. It's 15º and most of us have coffee; Larry has a Bud.

Speaking of GM parts availability I doubt the motoring public knew that GMPD Canada was not the same as GMPD US. Parts that were n/a here sometimes were still in the books there and vice versa. The real angle was prices were often different, sometimes dramatically. We used to buy 69-70 Chevelle exhaust tips by the dozen and parcel them out profitably to other vendors under US dealer net. There were all sorts of other angles: buying the $8 truck AM/FM antenna accessory kit that was mostly the same stuff used on cars, getting new 480 distributors direct from Delco for $100 less than GMPD, wheels direct from Kelsey. One odd part was the 69-70 deep groove alternator pulley. It was actually made for aviation use; buy direct for about 1/2 of GMPD wholesale. There was also some angle on COPO Camaro upper radiator hoses but I do not remember what it was. For a while we had a lot of them.

One of of my jobs was going through the P & A price book the day it arrived looking for parts that had gone non-returnable. That was a good indication they were still available but discountinued. Sometimes they just forgot the R which is how we ended up with 40 pair of 69 Chevelle front fenders.

But for every angle you found GMPD would have one for you. Order 69 Camaro 396 emblems and receieve 70 Nova 396 emblems, 1-piece rotors were sent under the 2-piece part number, 68 Z/28 rocker covers became chromed 69s, etc. If it fit and functioned that was good enough for GM. Although sheet metal was still available in the early 90s the fit was very poor, heard lots of complaints.

[John Brown]

Not only were the 1111480 distributors cheaper direct from Delco, they were still available after Chevy was sold out. (I was working for a warehouse at the time.) The last one I got from Delco was a restamp from the factory. Sold it in the blue stamped Delco (not a label) box as a core last year. I also had friends at several GM dealerships that were on different inventory systems who would give me a copy of their printouts or let me search on their computer system. I used to pull obsolete parts from dealer stock all over the country. Could buy Holley carbs cheaper from Roy Johnson than we could get them direct from Holley too. Not many people were aware of the date stamps back then either. Wish I had it all back to sell at todays prices!!