Alexander Bilan wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
>  AB> I was thinking of those weekly parking lot meets that are free 
>  AB> to attend.  We have two in our area, one on Sundays put 
> [...]
> I should be so lucky...
 AB> Where do you reside?
South central PA.  York county,  though I'm actually near the outer edge of 
the Harrisburg metro area.
> Hmm.  I don't know of any such in the area here.  I keep 
> hearing stuff about some of the things that people are able to 
> find in their libraries,  and it amazes me,  compared to what 
> I've been able to find locally.
 AB> Our local library is not complete by any stretch of the 
 AB> imagination, but they do have a large number of manufacturer 
 AB> service manuals. Unfortuneatly they get stolen over time. They 
 AB> *had* a set on my pickup truck.
> Perhaps,  if I'm real lucky,  I can find such a thing at a local vo-tech
> school.
 AB> Don't discount your local regular highschools.
When I was in HS,  there was *one* in the town,  and it pretty much covered 
all aspects of things,  compared to the two that this particular town used to 
have,  one with more of an academic emphasis and the other for "trades".  
These days (at least around here) there seems to be a lot of emphasis placed 
on bigger districts,  encompassing many towns,  since most in this area are 
too small to be able to do such stuff as high schools,  etc. by themselves.
Anyhow,  there's a local vo-tech school about 5 minutes away from where I 
work.  
 AB> If its got any form of autoshop check it out. The older the 
 AB> autobody or mechanics teacher is, the better the collection. In 
 AB> one highschool body shop, the instructer HAS Three, yes, three 
 AB> body service manuals that cover my 1973 Nova... He had a dam* 
 AB> fine collection of genuine GM literature that he got as a 
 AB> "student" taking GM courses and as an instructor in the early 
 AB> days.   The downside of this story, I went back to the school 
 AB> at the end of the school year to see if I could talk him into 
 AB> selling one of the body manuals...Retired. Unlocatable. --And 
 AB> it ain't that I didn't try, I work for the same board 
 AB> (non-teaching), so had some databases to look in. (Remeber what 
 AB> I said about getting parts when you find them?) =) Also, many 
 AB> of the mechanical courses have an impressive collection of 
 AB> manuals. Again, they are not complete, but most seem to have a 
 AB> collection that would set an old car enthusiasts nuts eyes 
 AB> bugging.
Yeah.  Anyhow I do think it's a good place to check out...
 AB> Another tip; Visit EACH highschool and talk to the instructors 
 AB> if thats the route you want to peruse. They DO NOT know the 
 AB> status of another schools collection.  Many times, the 
 AB> collections happen to be the instructors personal library and 
 AB> will be locked away in their own offices, so don't expect the 
 AB> schools library to have any information, if any.  Same with the 
 AB> college I went to, the library had general service information, 
 AB> the real books where in the shops.
Makes sense,  though in the case of what's around here I think that I'll 
limit my searching to the vo-tech schools,  the others aren't likely to have 
shops and such in them.
> that,  and I'm trying to track down their exact location and a 
> phone number. That strikes me as the best bet,  particularly 
> since someone told me
 AB> Shouldn't be too hard to find.  You must have some sort of 
 AB> autoparts store in your area with some enthusiasts behind the 
 AB> counter.
I got the number,  now I need to get a hold of them...
 AB> Heck, goto the Mopar Dealer. They will know. Just cause they 
 AB> are a dealership doesn't mean they use new dealer parts 
 AB> exclusively.
The dealer gave me the price (and didn't even talk about availability,  I 
guess he just assumed I wasn't gonna go for it),  and that's about it.  Can't 
say I cared much for the attitude I got from that particular place...
> Nope,  though it did occur to me that a body shop might be another place
> to try for a source of those parts,  other than the ones I'm looking at so
> far.
 AB> They do have the ability to get a surprising number of items. I 
 AB> found I can buy a new dashpad for my 83 truck new through a 
 AB> body shop supplier. But as with anything, each supplier is 
 AB> keyed more towards one brand than another.
Somebody told me a while back that those are available for a lot of older 
vehicles through J. C. Whitney,  of all places.  Come to think of it,  I have 
one of their catalogs around here someplace,  and need to see if maybe *they* 
have those bushings...
email: roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com 
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