Big Shout-Out for Orielly's Auto Parts

[Sheepdip]

Had a right passenger side exhaust leak earlier this week and long story short it was a cracked manifold just above the exhaust pipe donut boss, wow only got 50 years out of that thing

I looked up the Dorman Brand at Orielly's website and went to my local store to order a pair.... they had me 2 brand new Chinese re-pop sbc Dorman Truck Manifolds to that store in 4 hours!

They were $107 and $117 each including gaskets and A.I.R. plugs and fit perfectly like they were made for it. With my buddies help all fixed now.,

[68C15]

my personal experience with Dorman is not quite as pretty. Don't get me wrong. They can make some nice stuff, as long as it's not made from metal rubber or plastic

[68Gold/white]

Originally Posted by 68C15

my personal experience with Dorman is not quite as pretty. Don't get me wrong. They can make some nice stuff, as long as it's not made from metal rubber or plastic

Or electrical!!!

[shifty]

Plastic especially.

But what I will also say is this: GM actually recommends using some of Dorman's products on discontinued GM stock parts. I had the North Carolina warehouse ship a GMT400 intermediate shaft made by Dorman to my local dealership as a replacement for their discontinued stock GM part because it's no longer available. Found an error in their catalog and they gave it to me at the cost of the wrong part they sent (40% less than the Dorman part normally costs, IIRC).

It is what it is these days ...

[Sheepdip]

Well I have not knowingly used any Dorman Products to form an opinion good or bad until now, and I can say the manifolds as stated earlier fit perfectly, no grinding, no hole reaming and were perfectly flat where they mated to the head exhaust port surface's.

My original post was to commend Orielly's for getting these things to me in a half a day from another store or warehouse.

That's pretty quick service in my world!

[weq92f]

.
Thanks for this. Had no idea Dorman made exhaust manifolds!

Wondering now what else I don't know. Hmmm.


-klb

[special-K]

I know when a part specific to these trucks goes up, I am first glad to find it is still available, then I expect to wait for them to get one in. So I get the point of this post. You have a manifold failure in your old Chevy and within a half a day have the part in your hand, which you wouldn't have thought at the moment you found the fracture.

Good to hear your O'Reilly store did what they're supposed to. No O'Reillys in this area, but this is my routine experience with my local NAPA. A part they don't have in the morning will be in by 1pm and in the afternoon a part they don't have will be in by 9am the next morning. Advance also gets the part in next morning. NAPA is a regional group with their warehouse about 1/2hr away in out hub city Frederick. So I could go get it if I need it now. Advance has constant stock trucks rolling and not sure about inter warehouse couriers. This is all if it is at the warehouse. No store can stock everything, and that stuff has to take a day or two for shipping. Some folks are fortunate enough to live near enough to a main distribution center for that auto parts corp and benefit from basically the full line of part carried being available quickly.

I got you one better. I had the same thing happen in a '72 K/20. Went over a bridge on the interstate and the truck sounded like an old tractor. The manifold had separated where it collects. I wired it up to get home, went in the shed, and got another manifold. Now that's what I call great service!!

[68Gold/white]

Originally Posted by weq92f

.
Thanks for this. Had no idea Dorman made exhaust manifolds!

Wondering now what else I don't know. Hmmm.


-klb

Dorman makes very little....the manifolds are imported, same stuff as all the other brands of imported manifolds with a Dorman label.

[special-K]

Yeah, in this day and age we need to watch how we use the word "makes" and use "offers" in it's place. Plenty out there sellin'. Not too many out there makin'. It's the wonderful word of Middleman! He needs his own comic strip. He is our super hero!

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by Sheepdip

Had a right passenger side exhaust leak earlier this week and long story short it was a cracked manifold just above the exhaust pipe donut boss, wow only got 50 years out of that thing

I looked up the Dorman Brand at Orielly's website and went to my local store to order a pair.... they had me 2 brand new Chinese re-pop sbc Dorman Truck Manifolds to that store in 4 hours!

They were $107 and $117 each including gaskets and A.I.R. plugs and fit perfectly like they were made for it. With my buddies help all fixed now.,

Good for you ,,I too can get a part from ORielly's by the next morning by 10 am ..they have it flown in by plane and then a courrier delivers all the parts the next morning .to all the stores some 30 miles away from the airport.

[Sheepdip]

Originally Posted by special-K

I got you one better. I had the same thing happen in a '72 K/20. Went over a bridge on the interstate and the truck sounded like an old tractor. The manifold had separated where it collects. I wired it up to get home, went in the shed, and got another manifold. Now that's what I call great service!!

Funny thing is up to about a year ago I had a good original GM pair on the shelf in the barn but ended up trading them off to a fellow that needed them for a project. Always my luck....never need it till I get rid of it.

[CG]

What ... Is ... Going ... On ... Here?

I was waiting for the usual slam fest when anyone mentions an auto parts store, but no, its a love fest ... OMG, the aliens have landed!

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by CG

What ... Is ... Going ... On ... Here? OMG, the aliens have landed!

We've been here forever ! NANU NANU

[special-K]

Originally Posted by CG

What ... Is ... Going ... On ... Here?

I was waiting for the usual slam fest when anyone mentions an auto parts store, but no, its a love fest ... OMG, the aliens have landed!

We'll get to that. No one asked if he got the right part or how many tries it took yet

[70STOVEBOLT]

I bought a pair of Dorman UCA shaft kits. Just installed them, but have not driven the truck. Hope they hold up. I can't say if they are made by Dorman or just supplied by them, but they look to be good quality. Time will tell.

[davischevy]

In the seventies my wife was office manager for a company named Jobbers Motor Supply. JMS was the mother company/warehouse of Continental Auto Supply stores.

Continental Auto Supply and O'Reilly stores were in Arkansas and Missouri.

When my wife got pregnant with our first baby and she quit. Shortly after JMS/Continental Auto Supply sold to O'Reilly Auto Parts in Springfield, MO.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by davischevy

In the seventies my wife was office manager for a company named Jobbers Motor Supply. JMS was the mother company/warehouse of Continental Auto Supply stores.

Continental Auto Supply and O'Reilly stores were in Arkansas and Missouri.

When my wife got pregnant with our first baby and she quit. Shortly after JMS/Continental Auto Supply sold to O'Reilly Auto Parts in Springfield, MO.

You reminded me of a resource I had for parts back in those days where it took more than turning on a computer to be resourceful. There was a place in a not so visible location I dealt with named simply "Parts Jobbers". It was like a back door operation that supplied shops and maybe local parts houses, too. You had to know to know. I don't think they even had a sign up.
I had a mechanic put me on to them. They found parts!! You didn't expect anything yesterday back then. Just getting the part was a blessing. When I couldn't get rear drums for my '70 Custom Camper/30 from Chevy when I totally rebuilt the hubs/brakes/etc I called them. They found me a pair somewhere in the country and stated there were only 9 left... period. This was before internet and they had a heck of a network of some sort. I think they had every parts warehouse in the country in their Rollex and they would call until they found the part.

I remember one time I went for some part and they had me pay, then sent me directly to some big wholesale distribution warehouse so I could get it right then. They were all about being helpful to the customer as if it was themselves needing the part.

[Grumpy old man]

Everybody complains about how hard it is to rebuild a truck today , I'll bet a few of you remember hitting 4 junk yards in one day looking for a fender or radiator or driving 50 miles to the only speed shop around to window shop for speed parts ? At least the guys working in those speed shops knew exactly what they were talking about and knew every part they had in stock , Brings back memories of sitting on the kitchen phone with the 4' cord for 20 minutes waiting to see if they had any left .

Yeah a kitchen phone , The one in the living room was for important phone calls . LOL

[70STOVEBOLT]

I remember looking in the back of the Hot Rod, etc. magazines and filling out the order form and mailing it in along with a money order and then waiting for parts to arrive. The alternative was going to the speed shop like Grumpy said. We had a pretty decent one in town that carried all the big names, and they stocked most of the popular stuff too. Ahh, the good old days.

[davischevy]

Tim, the Jobber Motor Supply didn't have a sign either. Even though my wife worked there, I had to buy parts through the Continental Auto Supply store next door. I got a pretty steep discount though.

[special-K]

And all you youngins, that is how life back in the old days, as he licks the egde of paper before rolling up his smoke

Yeah Larry, I guess there was some sort of law about whole sales to the public, underselling, or just an unwritten code for watching one another's back. This place I dealt with would tell the warehouse they were sending a guy to pick it up, as if I worked for them. I couldn't buy directly from their sources but they'd make it happen. I guess that was equal to drop-shipping today. I didn't mind driving to get the part. I was a good hour drive to Parts Jobbers as it was. Might as well keep driving to come home with the part the same day.

I was a mail ordering fool in HS. I remember back then most people would say "If I can't put my hands on it I'm not buying it" or "I'm not sending money off to hope they send me something back". Seriously, people would make me out to be a fool for doing mail order. And now look at where we are with Amazon. Yup, been some changes goin' on.

I'd do the look in the back of magazines at ads, order a catalog (had to pay), send a m.o. so I didn't have to wait for bank clearance, and wait for the item. People would always ask "Where did you find that" or "How did you know about those?". I think the biggest one was the set of 37/14.50 Armstrong Tru Tracs mounted & balanced on 10" wagon wheels from Dick Cepek in San Diego. Tire shops around here didn't even have computer balancers yet, let alone one big enough to do those tires. This was back when 12.00s were 32" tall. The truck got noticed and I got asked a lot! I always got what I ordered, except Lipton Soup. When I was about 6 they had an offer for Tootsietoy antique cars for $.25. I taped a quarter to a card in an envelope and sent off for a Model A Coupe. It never came and I was devastated. I vowed to boycott Lipton soup for ripping off innocent kids. I came to realize a postal employee probably pockets it. Imagine that now, a whole quarter!

[davischevy]

In 1988 I sold two 1972 Cheyenne 1/2 ton 2wd pickups. On brought $7,500 and the other $6,500.

That was top dollar back then. Somebody asked me how do you sell trucks for that kind of money. I told them I advertised them nationally (Hemmings, and Chevy Corvette Buyers Guide). This person asked how many inquiries I got.


I got two calls and sold two trucks. It didn't happen instantly. I had to send in the ad, wait for publication, wait for calls, send pictures to buyer.


No shipping either, The buyers came and picked them up.

[special-K]

We ran along the same lines. When I saw '88 and $7,500 I thought "Musta been nice trucks" because that was top money. I remember the first one I saw one hit $10k a few years after that. And it was mint. I paid $7k for the '72 K/20 Cheyenne Super Custom Camper I bought in '91 and people around here thought I was crazy... but they sure did drool over it. It wasn't restored, just really nice and really loaded.

It was Hemmings, Roundup, and I forget the rest. By '89 there was Pickups & Panels In Print by the National Chevy/GMC Truck Assoc with free classified section. Never sold any there, but had a running WTB for K/20 hubcaps and tow hooks. Went from feeling I was the only one after those items to where we are today. Who'da knew??