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I had a ’67 Rover P6 2000 and needed a fuel pump about a decade ago. I walked into a NAPA and the guy first thought I was asking for Land Rover parts. Once we got that cleared up, and he was absolutely sure he’d never seen of or heard of Rover, let alone a P6, he typed it into their computer and they had a fuel pump in stock.
It’s not exactly a “still available” situation, but I sure am grateful to AutoRicambi for bringing back the Turbo-specific hoses for my Fiat Spider Turbo that hadn’t been available since the 80s. This is a Spider variant that only ~800 or so of were made, and probably a small minority of those are left. But they tooled up all new parts!
NA Miata parts, all of them, literally almost every single part (except new headlight motors). When I bought my NA almost 3 years ago, I knew they had great parts support by Mazda and a ton of aftermarket companies but nothing prepared me for the multiple versions available of every. single. piece.
Even Mazda is happy to build and sell you a brand new Hardtop for a car that has been out of production for 27 years. Oh you need a door card? Would you like OEM, plush and fancy, aluminum, acrylic, carbon fiber? How about window switches? There’s about 10 different options in various states of fancy, and also as many options for window cranks should you have a lower spec car. Body Panels? sure get any one you want, brand new from Mazda, for cheap aftermarket, or in Carbon if you want!
The list goes on and on and on, but I understand why you still see a large number of NA Miatas on the road, there are effectively zero parts on it that can break that can’t be easily sourced, and cheaply replaced. It genuinely is a perfect first project/fun car chassis for that alone.
Same goes for my ’93 Toyota Corolla Sedan w/7AFE mill. I can order anything online, and get most common parts at the local parts store. Fairly cheap, even!
Which is good, as the rig has over 270K miles and I’m replacing pretty much everything as I go.
Except… the carbon canister for the tank vent system. New, if you can find one, start at $300 and look uphill. I got one off a low-mile, totaled junk yard rig for $100.
How about things you’re shocked aren’t available, that honestly you’d really think should?
Try finding a new A/C compressor for a Pontiac GTO/Holden Commodore with the LS1 engine.
Is this an old car? Yes
Is there anything very special/unique about this compressor? You wouldn’t think, but they’re apparently rarer than unicorn pubes.
My 18 yo refrigerator crapped out a few days ago. A diagnosis pointed to the door switch. I was thinking it would be hard to find but no, Amazon had it, 2 for $10, delivered next day. Fortunately I had been able to override the bad switch till the replacement arrived so both the fridge and freezer stayed cold. When the new switch arrived it took about 2 minutes to put it in and the fridge worked fine again. No food was lost, yay!
Oh you wanted CAR parts? Does still being able to buy a $12 can of freon off the shelf in a SFBA auto parts store count? Somehow that hasn’t been legislated exclusively to the dominion of grossly overpriced specialists.
Can’t in Washington! No pound cans of R134, can only buy the 30lb pigs with an EPA cert.
My refrigerator crapped out last Fall too and I was pleasantly surprised to find out the local appliance store had the replacement thermostat in stock. Which was fortunate because I was leaving on a multi-day trip the next day and it would not have been fun to come home to a refrigerator full of spoiled food.
I just changed mine! The little rubber tab that keeps it from rattling was black on the replacement whereas my original was red, but it just pulls right out so I could insert the red rubber into the new clip. Talk about timing!
You’re probably looking for something more specific, but I’m surprised that sealed beam headlights are still readily available.
Hell yes! Seems like they’ve had that same dedicated spot on the shelf at Auto Zone for decades. Picked one up recently for an ’89 Accord. A little surprised they also had ball joints & tie rod ends in stock for that car as well.
I can’t say I’ve suffered terribly needing OEM parts for something.
My biggest miss was needing a new CHMSL on my ’97 Econoline due to a leak, and the shop only being able to source it from a junkyard (this was 2018ish). That surprised me, assuming the 2014 models’ one would be compatible.
On the other hand, if you look up the upper glovebox for a 2012-2014 Prius v (mine broke after some hurried removals during multiple infotainment/sound upgrades), the price new from Toyota is $450+. Luckily I found a perfectly serviceable replacement on eBay for $95.
But then, there were only about 150,000 Prius v’s sold in the US, as opposed to (for example) nearly 200,000 Ford Excursions. So I guess that hurts parts availability when there’s not overlap.
There’s a way to fix this?!? I just assumed I should accept it due to age on my Boxster. You learn something new every day. Ordering parts now
I think that mine was like that when I bought it in 2009. I’ve just left out the windstop because of the rattle.
It might be but honestly, for the 7 or so dollars it might be worth a shot!
In general, air-cooled VW parts. There’s definitely things that no one makes any more, especially when you start looking at parts for early models. But on the whole, you can still buy damn near any part for an air-cooled VW. I’d argue that they have some of, if not the best, aftermarket support of any family of cars in the world. I know there’s a lot of support for domestic brands here in the States, but on an international level, the air-cooled VW is hard to beat when it comes to parts availability. I suppose I should throw a caveat in here, I’m mostly referring to Bugs, Buses, and some Karmann Ghias, I know it can be tricky finding parts for models that didn’t sell in the same numbers. Overall it’s still pretty impressive.
Yup, some VW squareback-specific parts are made of unobtanium. Not many, but some.
I’ve got two spare square backs in my yard,what do you need?
Ignition switch for a ’67?
I’ve got a 71 and a 72 ,will they work?
Unfortunately no, ’67 is a single-year model (first year 12v, last year carbs), but thanks for checking. A ’71 has several single-year parts as well.
I found that out the hard way when I impulsively bought an abandoned Squareback last year. Even worse for me was the lack of Type 3 specific knowledge online, given it was my first ever air cooled VW. I distinctly remember coming across 2 or 3 different blogs that had pinned messages at the top from 5+ years ago saying “the end is near, here’s me signing off” which was sad to see. That said, a cheap disc brake conversion for the rear was a great upgrade given it just used calipers from the front and Type 2 (I think) rear discs!
The Samba is a great resource for all things air-cooled VW including Type IIIs. There is an old-school email list for them that tends to focus on fuel injection engines. It isn’t real active, but there are some really knowledgeable folks there and they are maintaining the archives. vwtype3.org
2.0 liter bus engine exhaust parts are super hard to find if you want a stock muffler or cat.
To solve that riddle for my ’80 Vanagon Westi (non-CA), I bought an entire other ’80 Vanagon (CA version) Westi with a bad engine, but good exhaust. I swapped the exhaust and other bits to fully comply with CA smog requirements (which took some convincing at the CARB insepction). Sold that second one for what I paid for it to a father / son who wanted a camper project.
(N-1) of my motorcycles are over 40 years old; checking with a dealer is step four or five on the list, behind eBay and places like Partzilla.
A week ago I found a very rare rear brake master cylinder on eBay. It’s used but in excellent shape; an actual NOS item would genuinely be in Holy Grail territory. In 8+ years of near-constant searching, I have found exactly two for sale (and grabbed both of them).
A couple years ago I found (also on eBay) something else approaching grail status: a[n] NOS fuel tank, still in its original box, for a bike that had a one-year model run. It felt pretty graily, and the tank is now on the shelf in my office.
It still surprises me that almost everything for later Renault 4 models is still being made, except for the powertrain, doors, wheels and interior trim. Chassis and bodywork parts are still being churned out in a couple of places, and for basic stuff like engine ancillaries, headlights, taillights and other bits and bobs, you actually still have a range of offerings to choose from. Then there’s the tons of New Old Stock parts, which sadly have become pricey in the last couple of years, but availability does not seem to be a problem yet.
Sometimes it’s hard to explain how cheap it is to daily drive a late Renault 4, but I’ll try: late last year someone reversed into me and I had to replace most of the front end. Brand new grille: €25; brand new headlights: €30 apiece; brand new unpainted hood: €150 (paintjob added another €50). Labour would’ve added up to another €150 or so (the bumper needed some straightening too), but this was paid by my insurance company, which quoted the damage in a little over €800. My mechanic made some good, easy money that day.
In general, I’m always surprised at how available motorcycle parts are, esp. bike specific hard parts (not consumables), even for fairly old stuff.
I had a Revzilla coupon about to expire not too long ago, so I thought a bit about my parts stash. Perusing the catalog, I was shocked to find that a replacement windscreen for the fairing on my ancient Suzuki was in stock, not to mention the decal that blends the edges into the fairing’s color scheme!
I’ve kept the current one in decent shape, but as it’s made of that typical look-at-it-the-wrong-way-and-it-scratches motorcycle plastic, I fee good knowing I’m ready once it finally looks too terrible.
Can we count tires as a “part”?
I know there are plenty of old designs available for faithful restoration jobs, but I’m talking about a tire that was outdated back when I first started changing tires in the early aughts.
235/75R15 Goodyear Wrangler “OWL” (Outline white letter)
These things are still available at your local wal-mart for about 100 bucks a pop, and if memory serves, they were once an original equipment tire! On the NINETEEN EIGHTY SEVEN Jeep wrangler.
Tires are constantly being introduced and discontinued as time passes, and even some legendary tires like BFGoodrich A/T’s are still around, but even they receive routine updates (currently, they are on thier 3rd generation)
But these Goodyears? They’re pretty much the exact same tire you could order from a catalog 3 and a half decades ago. No changes, no little differences. Just pure 80’s engineering, available for you still!
On the opposite end, I miss the Goodyear Eagle 245/45R17 Gatorbacks that my Mustang GT came with. Goodyear made them seemingly forever, and then stopped. Dated, sure, but good everyday performance tires, befitting an everyday performance car like a Mustang. I ran through a couple of sets of them.
Coker will still sell you a bias ply tires, for when you really want to be period correct with your classic car. Debated them for my Beetle but they’re expensive, and I figure the Beetle doesn’t need to be any more unsafe than it already is. I got a set of radial whitewalls for all of $330 instead.
Tires for the Renault 4 are readily available and cheap. A few chinese brands seem to drive down the price, but polish-made Kormorans and thai-made Falkens are also competitively priced. And if you want to go for the fancy stuff, Michelin has got your back.