GRATIOT back in the day

-
SSing

SSing

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Messages
1,097
Reaction score
334
Location
upland, sweden
Part of "our" history…
BTW... Hemi Alu Heads: Must have been left over from ´65?
What do you say?

20180825 GRATIOT.jpg
 
expensive for 68 for the hemi heads, you could get a complete hemi option on a purchased car for close to that back then.
 
WOW!! I remember the good old days, well some of them!
68 was about 10 years before my racing days but I was looking back then.
 
I still have Gratiot catalogs from back in the day, I would gladly buy ALL the Mopar parts in the catalog for those prices now...
 
And RAMCHARGERS still in business...
And Mopar introduced their Direct Connection Program in 1973 or something...
Dragracing was still very big for Chrysler.
Bracket Racing had also become very popular at this time... Right?

20180826 Ramchargers.jpg
 
Gratiot is a street in the Detroit area. You're not from here. It was a Drivein up until the 80' Yes its a waterfall and the screen was on the other side.
 
72Dart6pack said:
Gratiot is a street in the Detroit area. You're not from here. It was a Drivein up until the 80' Yes its a waterfall and the screen was on the other side.
Click to expand...
oh, drive -in movie! I worked at a drive-in movie in Seattle in 68. I bought an NOS 340 6pak setup from Gratiot, or Couch back in the mid 70's. $300 sticks in my mind.
 
Gratiot auto supply was 2 mile down the road. That's how it got it's name. It's just a street.
 
72Dart6pack said:
Gratiot auto supply was 2 mile down the road. That's how it got it's name. It's just a street.
Click to expand...
For the youngsters on the forum: I don't know for a fact, but I always assumed they used to buy up old stocks of parts from the big 3, and vendors for the big 3 and sell them at great prices.
 
The store still stands. But is now a Medical Dispensary for well you could guess? Yes you could buy a lot of NOS parts there at a lower price.
 
Sorry to hijack your Gratiot thread but that's cool stuff. I worked fro Esco Auto Supply in my home town. The owners also had Central States Distributors Warehouse which supplied stock and performance parts to speed shops in the Midwest. Dang guys, those were the days. We had a open house in the store I was managing and who should stop by but Vic Edelbrock! Those were the days!

Esco resized.png


img133.jpg


img141.jpg


img140.jpg


img143.jpg


img144.jpg
 
In the early 70's, I was in the bay area of CA visiting my Dad and brother, driving my AAR, and I needed to pickup a new distributor cap, so I drove to Vic Hubbard's Speed & Marine in Hayward (?). The counter looked like it was 100 ft long. I asked for an HP cap, and the counterman brought out about 10 to choose from. That was some kind of speed shop!
 
Ah yes, the days you could smoke a cigarette in the speed shop next to a display of sidepipes! I spent many a day in the Super Shops store in Mundelein, IL.
 
grjammer said:
expensive for 68 for the hemi heads, you could get a complete hemi option on a purchased car for close to that back then.
Click to expand...

Agree, but it had to do with them being Alu heads maybe?
The new alu castings didn´t come till a couple years later I think?
 
Caint believe yall start a thread about Gratiot and nobody's posted this yet. Bunch of homos. lol

LINDA GRATIOT.jpg


@toolmanmike those are some awesome pictures. These kids growin up today will never know the coolness of those old speed shops. I worked for a local chain like that in Macon when I was 17. Looked just like the inside of that one. It was great.
 
hahaha, love the pics. did you see the giant parts book holders? There was a lot of info in those old parts books. Nowadays, some online sites shut you out of the info, if you don't have the correct make, model, yr, and now vin, too. It makes it harder to outsmart the computer programmer.
 
rustycowll69 said:
hahaha, love the pics. did you see the giant parts book holders? There was a lot of info in those old parts books. Nowadays, some online sites shut you out of the info, if you don't have the correct make, model, yr, and now vin, too. It makes it harder to outsmart the computer programmer.
Click to expand...

That's why I like O'Reilly. All their stores still have master catalogs, although finding the personnel with the knowledge to use them is quite different. We use ours all the time. In fact, that's one of the requirements that I put into affect at our store. Every employee must be able to use the catalogs proficiently. They have even implemented that in other stores in our district. Before I started it, they were "just there". I asked my manager about it and he said it was a damn good idea so we put it in place. It's worked really well. It really teaches people about different product lines and how to go about finding something off the map.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's why I like O'Reilly. All their stores still have master catalogs, although finding the personnel with the knowledge to use them is quite different. We use ours all the time. In fact, that's one of the requirements that I put into affect at our store. Every employee must be able to use the catalogs proficiently. They have even implemented that in other stores in our district. Before I started it, they were "just there". I asked my manager about it and he said it was a damn good idea so we put it in place. It's worked really well. It really teaches people about different product lines and how to go about finding something off the map.
Click to expand...
I've never seen the parts books used in the O'Reillys around here. I don't think they occupy any countertop space, anymore. All computers and monitors, now. I once saw a guy pull an old catalog from underneath the countertop.
Love the Linda Vaughan pic, headlights and all!
 
rustycowll69 said:
I've never seen the parts books used in the O'Reillys around here. I don't think they occupy any countertop space, anymore. All computers and monitors, now. I once saw a guy pull an old catalog from underneath the countertop.
Love the Linda Vaughan pic, headlights and all!
Click to expand...

They are not on the front counter. They are on the parts shelves behind the counter. Each volume is about 5" thick with several different product lines. I've never counted them, funny to say, but I think there are around 20 volumes. We update them every month. Of course, each store may vary with that.
 
I only go to NAPA as there is still old people behind the counter and parts catalogs on the desk...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top