What did YOU do today?

[Ranger850]

Stayed home from work so the cat would have someone to sleep on all morning.

Naw.. it was just too rainy/windy.. cat was a bonus though.


Now I'm headed for coffee, donut, and napa. Thats probably it for the day lol, got a case of the lazies.

Save you gas, NAPA doesn't have the part you need. (Never Any Parts Available)

 

[Curious Hound]

Save you gas, NAPA doesn't have the part you need. (Never Any Parts Available)

I’ve had a lot of good experience with NAPA over the years.

 

[Blmpkn]

They pretty much had what I needed this time.. almost..

Needed another quart of oil to finish filling the '96.. the 4 quarts that i already put in it are Napa branded "high mileage".. but they were all out of that -__- so I grabbed a bottle of Valvoline. Close enough (Probably the same stuff anyways)..

4 qts of pennzoil synchromesh to put in the tranny..

..and most exciting.. one of those 'easy cheese' style cans of RTV. Can you say bourgeois?

Completely forgot I needed to get some gear oil though idk how.. bought the RTV for the sole purpose of a rear end fluid change -__- dummy




Most depressing was that dunks was all out of old fashioned (plain ass) donuts had to go with a glazed instead. Meh.

 

[Lefty]

Glad your happy with it! You've been talking about getting one for a long time lol

Yes too long! Next is new brakes, probably cross drilled slotted rotors and uprated pads.

 

[Ranger850]

. almost..

that part . . .

 

[Ranger850]

I’ve had a lot of good experience with NAPA over the years.

The brake shop I worked at was next door to one. my experience is very different than yours.
We would call them to see if they had said part, there answer was almost always, " Yeah we got, in another store, it can be here in a few hours, maybe tomorrow".

The good thing about my city, is, there are a lot of parts houses to source parts from.

 

[bilbo]

I’ve had a lot of good experience with NAPA over the years.

I think it depends on the individual location (like most things). The small town I used to work in had one that was great. An older guy manned the counter and while not the fastest he was always helpful and the store was clean. Normally, even if the parts were in stock at the store closest to my house I'd have them sent to this store and get them after work as the experience was pleasant.

The Napa 30 mins away (but closer to home) was a shitehole. People would be smoking behind the counter with their friends at times and they would act like it was such an inconvenience to help me. I stopped there once for some coolant test strips as I didn't want to wait. I asked for them and the cashier seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. I gave him the part number and he said they didn’t have any. I had checked beforehand and it said they had them in stock, and I had spotted them next to the jugs of additive on the shelf behind his head. I informed him of that and after an eye roll and sucking his teeth he sold me the test strips.

 

[Roert42]

Had to travel out to Washington from eastern Pa for work.

I changed from flying out of Philly to flying out of Allentown. Literally take 10 minutes from getting out of my truck to drop my bags and get through security. Use to take me about an hour and a half at Philly.

Only down side is there is a very limited selection of direct flights so I get stuck with longer flights and layovers. Philly I could go almost anywhere in North America with a direct flight.

 

[Rick W]

Save you gas, NAPA doesn't have the part you need. (Never Any Parts Available)

I like Napa, but I don’t like their prices. When I moved here 30+ years ago, an unexpected fringe benefit was that the huge Southeast regional NAPA warehouse is only a couple miles away, and they have a sales counter. I kind of use them as a last resort, but they almost always have the part there. That and emergencies, but emergencies are few because I’ve always had multiple vehicles. Never had much use for the little neighborhood stores.

 

[Roert42]

There is a Napa near my work that has been around for almost 60 years, use to be colony auto parts before they become a Napa franchise. Pretty decent parts availability, but I’m cheap and don’t like to pay over the counter prices.

One Napa near my house has bank hours, so I’ve never been there.

Other Napa hear my house is about be smaller parts house, been around forever, decent availability. Really really nice people. Profusely apologized the one time I had to bring back a part that failed prematurely.

I almost never consider anything other then Napa if I want to get parts local.

 

[Rick W]

Another Rick’s tips, actually two. I have a really nice high-quality thin point pair of needle nose from my father (50s?). Of course, the rubber hand grips were gone decades ago. About 15-20 years ago, I had the brainstorm to use some shrink tube and make new grips. I tried the dip stuff, but it was too soft, didn’t last long at all. Depending on use, they have easily lasted 3-4 years, and it takes five minutes to redo them.

I redid them today. I run the shrink tube a little long in case I’m poking around with something electrical so the butt is covered, and then I take a little half inch piece and put it around the last little bit of the handle, so it makes it harder to slip out of my hands, even if they’re greasy.

Notice the crafty use of the smog pump return box, and the box to send a fuel sending unit for rebuild, in the background. I wanted to spruce up my pictures a little bit for you guys, from the paint stained plywood table saw/work table. Do you like it?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The Napa 30 mins away (but closer to home) was a shitehole. People would be smoking behind the counter with their friends at times and they would act like it was such an inconvenience to help me. I stopped there once for some coolant test strips as I didn't want to wait. I asked for them and the cashier seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. I gave him the part number and he said they didn’t have any. I had checked beforehand and it said they had them in stock, and I had spotted them next to the jugs of additive on the shelf behind his head. I informed him of that and after an eye roll and sucking his teeth he sold me the test strips.

This was literally every NAPA I’ve been in has been like this until probably 5 years ago. As that was nearly 20 years of buying parts from NAPA only when absolutely necessary, it’s a little late to get more of my business. I have no problem going elsewhere when I’m not wanted. I’ve had some go-rounds with Advance Auto and Autozone over dumb counter help. Finally ended up with a commercial account and stopped dealing with dumb counter help. Bonus is that my parts get delivered to me now. Should have gone that route 20 years ago… it’s so incredibly nice to need a part, pick up the phone, make a friendly call, and like magic the parts show up. If there’s a problem, I pick up the phone again and it gets fixed. I don’t like people much, so I’m all for this minimal contact thing, I’m allergic to stupidity, lol

 

[bilbo]

This was literally every NAPA I’ve been in has been like this until probably 5 years ago. As that was nearly 20 years of buying parts from NAPA only when absolutely necessary, it’s a little late to get more of my business. I have no problem going elsewhere when I’m not wanted. I’ve had some go-rounds with Advance Auto and Autozone over dumb counter help. Finally ended up with a commercial account and stopped dealing with dumb counter help. Bonus is that my parts get delivered to me now. Should have gone that route 20 years ago… it’s so incredibly nice to need a part, pick up the phone, make a friendly call, and like magic the parts show up. If there’s a problem, I pick up the phone again and it gets fixed. I don’t like people much, so I’m all for this minimal contact thing, I’m allergic to stupidity, lol

I agree, even better if I don't have to speak with someone on the phone. In spite of their faults, I like the RockAuto model as far as interaction. No frills, graphics, or flash animations. Just lists of parts.

The good NAPA I was referring to is in a town of about 1500 people, serving mostly farmers, elevators, and such. The crappy one is in a city of around 60k. The Advance there was ok as it was staffed by some old salts and very business-like, but O'Reilly and Autozone were a lot rougher. I couldn't bring my kid with me to those stores as I'd have to explain language to him he wasn't really ready to understand. My mouth is filthier than most, but I usually reserve that language for private-ish situations where I'm not going to be around young children. Especially so if I'm acting as a representative of the company I work for.

In the big city I live in now there's Autozone, NAPA, and Advance as well as a couple private/one-off stores. All meh, but Autozone is probably the least worst. Thankfully I have enough rolling stock that I very seldom need to set foot in any of them.

 

[sgtsandman]

Should have driven it more. It's getting upset about the low use and acting up.

Actually, I've found that there is something to that. I had a couple of vehicles that were only driven on weekends or for family functions. They developed more problems than the daily driver, which was older. Swapping between the DD and the family vehicle every week made those issues go away. Well, at least as much as one would expect with their age and mileage. But the issues that mostly only pop up from vehicles sitting went bye bye.

 

[sgtsandman]

I doubt Tik Tok would have even considered us, the tree fit under the closed tonneau cover.