The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay I learned something today by accident

Both Parts Stores I worked for back in the early ‘70s had guys, myself included, who didn’t need catalogs for the common stuff. Just go back in the shelves and get whatever the customer asked for. One place had a major distribution warehouse along with the retail store. Full service Machine Shop in the back, turning crankshafts, camshafts blueprinting and balancing engines. Rebuilding heads for cars, trucks and heavy equipment. Built a lot of race engines for the round track boys and the drag racers. The second one also had a Machine Shop and was a NAPA dealer. Places like those 2 just don’t exist anymore. National chains with kids running the computers at the counter are the norm. If your lucky there is 1 old guy that has hoarded the old catalogs and is still willing to look something up. Our local NAPA is such a place but the 2 owners are scaling back on their hours.