Dumbest look

Dan Richardson · Sep 16, 2015

I'm looking at buying a Ford Model A. I went to the local Ford dealer and ask the service manager if anyone there had knowledge of a Model A. Silence. Then the parts guy said they could not get parts for them.

jeffcat · Sep 16, 2015

If you go to the Hershey Fall car show next month the show is awash with parts. First full weekend in October and just the flea market is over 60 ACREs of walking and looking! Go every year and spend like 6 hours of looking. I cover maybe I/6 of what is there.

Nebraska Kirk · Sep 16, 2015

If you really want to screw with them, ask about the FIRST Model A, made from 1903-1904!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_A_(1903–04)

RLA · Sep 16, 2015

I'd buy the Model A..... Snyder's Antique Auto Parts
12925 Woodworth Road
New Springfield Ohio, 44443
888-262-5712.
I use this store for all my Model A needs. We are a Ford New Car dealer
& we still service a few of them..

dr sportster · Sep 16, 2015

What did you think they were going to say ?

Richard G. · Sep 16, 2015

Plenty of places to get parts. Google Smith and Jones parts in Columbia, SC. Have them send you a catalog. Lang's is another good place.
I can get any part I need for my 17 Model T. Model A's are even easier to get parts for.
Dealerships are a joke even on modern stuff.
Richard in NW SC

GordoSD · Sep 16, 2015

Model A not fast enough for some hiways. Look for a Model B

JF in MI · Sep 16, 2015

About 25 years ago a work associate went there to sell the rear body of a '59 Corvette he bought from someone (they were useing it as a planter). He bought a raffle ticket for a reasonably restored '63 split window Corvette coupe. Another guy won but the rules were you had to be there within something like 5 minutes of the drawing. The guy didn't show and my friend had the next number and won the car.

fixerupper · Sep 16, 2015

Model A parts are as common as dirt but watch out for the quality of repro parts. There is a reason most repro parts are cheap to buy.

CenTex Farmall · Sep 16, 2015

Now go to a tire store and tell them you need new casings, or "casins" as my grandfather would say.

ss55 · Sep 16, 2015

If they did have the parts, you probably wouldn't like the dealer's prices. Search the web for some Model A car clubs. Forty years ago dealers didn't carry those old parts, JC Whittney (spelling?) did.

souNdguy · Sep 16, 2015

typical of today's society.

in the 'old days' you went into a dealer or parts house and there was a huge row of binder books and a guy with grey hair.. he knew all the parts and what bins they were in.

nowadays there is a computer and some guy that failed the 'steam up a mirror by breathing on it' employment test at burger king working the counter.

They have no idea of why a vehicle starts and runs.. have no ideas about models or any basic knowledge of things mechanical... may not even be able to use the computer well..

they type in a few things.. if the search parameters don't find anything, they look up glassy-eyed and tell you they no longer have parts.. yada yada..

pete 23 · Sep 16, 2015

I thought, from his post, that he was wondering if someone there, at the Ford dealer, was knowledgeable about a Model A. Not if they could get parts. And by the way, around this country a model A is a green two cylinder tractor. Found that out when working at the Deere dealer. I think I had a funny look on my face also when they were talking model A.

ObsoElitist · Sep 16, 2015

Dad and I pulled into a Cadillac dealer in his 36 convertible and asked them what kind of trade-in we could get. Not enough.

dhermesc · Sep 16, 2015

I pulled onto a dealers lot with a 1959 Series 62 convertible and asked them if they had any wide whites to put on it.

Dachshund · Sep 16, 2015

I went into our local - useless - Ford dealer, and asked for parts for a 1986 F-350. I got blank stares, and the comment that the truck was "older then anyone working in the parts department or shop, so nobody would even know what to look for".
I went to the next closest Ford Dealer and got what I needed....

Barnes-Baker, in Trenton, Missouri, in case you want to know....

Steve@Advance · Sep 16, 2015

Back in the late 70's, probably to around '90 or so, one of the local Ford dealers had a man working the parts counter, middle age, real cowboy in all appearance, pants inside his boots, pearl snap shirt, hat (always), had a slow southern drawl that would confuse Junior Samples! After dealing with him a few times, it was obvious he had minimal reading skills, very quiet, very polite, every sentence ended with sir or ma'am.

Evidently he had every part number for every Ford ever made stored in his brain! He never looked anything up, but could have the part you wanted on the counter within seconds! He even knew combinations that would work that were never offered. I was doing an engine swap on a '70 F250, took out a 360, put in a 460. A 460 was not offered in '70, but he knew what frame mounts I needed to make it bolt in! Amazing man, don't know what happened to him, went back looking for him, he was gone.

D Slater · Sep 16, 2015

Generation thing, Same kids that have a dumb look about something old can tell me to run some program on a computer and I have the dumb look.

TomH in PA · Sep 16, 2015

"What did you think they were going to say ? "

My thoughts exactly. Why would someone at a Ford dealership know anything about a car which has been out of production for over 80 years? Find an antique car club and ask the same question.

RBoots · Sep 16, 2015

Dad had a '29 Model A, sold it last year. Cousin has a '14 Model T. Other cousin has a Model B pickup, not sure what year. Dad's neighbor worked at a Ford dealer a looooong time ago, he is very old, actually worked on Model T's when he first started there, I believe it was after the T was in production but still commonly driven.

Ross

old popper · Sep 16, 2015

Back in 2000, I was pushing snow with my 1950 JD "B". Went to shift into reverse and pulled the shifter out in my hand. Went to the closest Deere dealer, and while the kid at the parts counter looked up the parts (they had them) I casually says "Geez, this tractor is only 50 years old and already I'm having problems. What does that say about your quality?" Talk about dumb looks!

MarkB_MI · Sep 17, 2015

You must have been joking, but I missed the punch line.

sms · Sep 17, 2015

I've known a few like him. There was a parts store near me back in the late 70's that had been a GMC dealership before that, they had some NOS parts for my 38 GMC on the shelves if you could get the right guy to look for you.

Robert Major · Sep 17, 2015

Hi Steve
I have met a few of those guys in my time at shops that new things like your guy. Some of the other guys in our dealer networks upset them and all of a sudden they couldn't get parts without a number. When dealing with Belarus some of the numbers were real hard to find with 5 different parts books that we had.

The parts guy didn't need the number as he knew it and shelf location . That was his payback for upsetting him, and these guys used to have to come grovel to us to get the stuff for them. Quite often Gary would say tell that bunch to wise up when we ordered for them. He knew who wanted that part as soon as we ordered it!!. it was just about making life very difficult for dealers with no respect for him.
I'm thinking your parts guy ended up in a hole in the ground just like most of the old guys and brain stored info, plus many parts books from years ago. I have lost several older friends with huge amounts of this knowledge they never shared all of with the next generation.
At 41 I got older guys and younger to come ask me about stuff they have never done or seen with some things. Man I'm becoming that next generation of older guys L.O.L!
Regards Robert

Ozlander · Sep 17, 2015

That old guy was working at Oreilles several years ago. I needed some wheel bearings and went to NAPA. They didn't recognize them and couldn't figure out how to order them.
Went down the street to Oreille's, walked in the door, the old guy said, 'them off a trailer', yep, 'how many' four.
He walked back, got them and put them on the counter, about that fast.

Dumbest look

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