Vintage car parts shop

barrysweet52

In Adelaide South Australia we have only one shop to go to, to find old car parts. Owner is a real gentleman in his 80s and with serious health problems. I use to tease him that he spent Mon to Friday remembering things to impress everyone on Saturday. The business doesnt sell much and so soon most of it will be cherry picked by an interstate similar parts business and because of transport costs most will be scrap metal. Are there still places in the USA where there are similar businesses. There must be 200 headlights from mainly 1920s and 30s tied to the ceiling, and tall and narrow rows of heavy boxes of misc parts 1910 to 1960. Only way to look for parts in the big heavy boxes is to struggle outside and carefully empty the boxes. All very time consuming. He doesnt Ebay or post anything. I will post some photos.

Old Fogey UK

Buying the whole lot would sound like a good business opportunity for someone !
If he has any Stabilite headlight lenses for 1934 Terraplanes, please put me down for a couple (my '34 Hudson LTS has Terraplane headlights).

BigSky

Man, I could use a pair of headlights for my 37 Hudson!

barrysweet52

BigSky, the buckets are the same or can be used 1937 to 38 and some of the 1939. Our tech adviser can confirm this. The stainless edge strip is avail - people save this and the reflectors when they throw the rusted bucket away. I had to use 2 buckets to make one. Plenty of mounts are advertised. Only problem is the spring clip the small bolt goes thru to lock the light. Making small things like the clip is not hard.

KEL 39

I believe I have 2 buckets
You may contact me at XXX darleen2@telus.net for photos
Drop the XXX 
Ivan L.

37sedanguy

By the term "buckets" what do you mean? The outer bullet shaped housing or the reflector that fits in the housing? I'm not trying to be a smart aleck. I'm a novice with a 37 Custom 6 sedan. Thanks
Bill N.

Jon B

They mean the steel housing.

barrysweet52

I went back to the Vintage car parts shop to look for a Essex headlight today. Old parts are getting harder to find and sometimes we need several to make one. Here are 2 photos of the headlights wired to the ceiling. At least 10 headlights wide by 15m along the roof. 

Hans

very nice facility!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rusty_apache

I just love the “Henry made a lady out of Lizzie” poster on the left! A very popular song of the day.

LanceB

Very impressive collection!

drivergo2

A shame to see a lot of that scrapped but that’s what happens, We used to have three or four here but people get old and sell out we’re down to two now. But I am spoiled it’s only about a 15 minute drive to both, Hope someone saves it 

BigSky

Barry, are those photos of your personal stash?

barrysweet52

I wish it was my stash. Ive saved all the few Hudson parts he had. Photos dont show how high the shelving is, the depth of the walkways and how you step over boxes to get down the walkways. Boxes are too heavy to have a look in.