All the discussion in the thread about online buying got me wondering. What supplier do most people in this forum prefer? I know who I always call first. What about you?

Have fun,
Kevin

We have a place here in Long Beach not too far from my house called Foreign Unlimited. They are a typical street and off road VW parts house and have mostly stuff for the type I engine. However, I have found that they will go all out to help out anyone with VW needs. I have gotten great prices and not had to pay any shipping on items purchased there. The guy even found me a new synchro slider for my 901 trans. Met Pelican's price and once again, I did not pay shipping. I have bought gauges, gaskets and engine parts as well.

The thing that got me the most was when I was installing a used European Motorworks header nad needed copper gaskets for the stub pipes to header tubes. I asked everyone where to get these including Chris Foley (RacerChris). They all said buy some copper sheet and make them. I did. It took an hour to make four. Next time I went to Foreign Unliminted, there the gaskets were, hanging on the wall. Thicker, nicer and open on one side of the bolt holes so you could slip them in with the nuts and bolts already in place. NOW, I ask them first. Then I work down the line.

I'm still impressed with Performance Products for more Porsche specific items. They offer urethane suspension bushings in street and race grade. When I bought mine from Pelican, they didn't know the difference. So, I bought some from Performance and sure enough, they were much harder. I gave the others away. That all having been said, I have spent more money at Pelican than the rest. Mostly because of the BBS. But now, we have 914CLUB.

Out in the SF Bay Area the 2 best places I can think of are High Performance House (Rich Bontempi) in Redwood City or Parts Heaven, Porsche Auto dismantlers in Hayward.

HPH and EASY ...

As I gussed Auto Atlanta didn't fair too well.

I have no experience with them but have been told that Hussy is not a bad guy.

Too bad he doesn't get involved in this forum and create some satisfied customers.

We need all the good resourses we can get.

I hate chasing parts when my car needs work.

Just a thought.

Bill Lynes

You should add another option to the list FLICS (Friendly Local Import Car Shop) That is where I always try and go, because if I order by 10am the stuff will be there by 1pm THAT DAY!!! If I am in the middle of a project, there is nothing better than getting what I need, later that day. Plus they have a machine shop. Although, if they fall through, then the second part of my answer would be Pelican Parts.

-Chris

We just lost our local Euro/VW parts shop due to retirement.....now we only have Kragen and Manny, Moe and Jack.....

GPR and PP, get the first call....then a few searches for a better rate if I have the time.

AA would not get he sweat off my balls.....

I always check with a local parts store called Roy Rogers, if they can't get it I go to Pelican. For hot rod stuff I go to Rich Johnson in Plano Tex. As for AA, they can go take a flying I have never had any good come from them.

Mikez Ball sweat - I am way to visual a person for such references ....

James

Stock OEM stuff: Pelican
Upgrades: Paragon

For OEM stuff Pelican has always been very helpful, fast, and well priced. They've taken some heat lately, but I haven't had reason to complain.

For performance upgrades Paragon has not only always had the parts, but the knowledge to go with them. That can be priceless. Very very good prices to boot.

-Ben M.

given my last go round with them, not tweeks. we'll see tomorrow if the 2-3 day delivery is only 3 days late. i thought i'd go to gpr and check out the prices, nope, site under constuction.

kevin

Pel. parts gets firtst shot w/ me. if they dont got it i try perf.prod. or ebay.....then to tweeks or AA. AA has alot of hard to find stuff tho. such as replacement door handle rivet screw things. (changing a right side door handle to a left side by changin the door pull itself. )

FLAPS, EBAY, PP...

In order:

Paragon, Stoddard, Zims.

I'll be placing an order this week, probably with HPH or Paragon.

-Rusty

For a quick purchase of oil filters, gaskets, plugs, anything Bosch, I go to Small Car World in Albany. They've usually had everything I've needed over the years for all my cars: various VW Squarebacks, '77 BMW, '94 VW Jetta, '94 Toyota truck, and the 914. Their prices are also better than Pelican 90% of the time on tune up stuff. For example, I redid all the vacuum hoses and it cost less than $1/foot. Pelican tries to get $3/foot for the same stuff.

For catalog stuff I've given Pelican most of my business. When Performance has their 15% off sales they beat Pelican. I think Wayne is wrong to say we have to call to get a price match. It's too much trouble to get the EXACT SAME PRICE. They should offer an incentive to call in if they can't reprogram their web site.

Paragon has gotten some of my business too but I thought shipping was a little slow. There was probably something that wasn't in stock in my order but I wasn't in a hurry and was happy with the transaction.

I've never tried Tweeks or AA. I wish HPH was closer to me. When I buy used stuff it's usually at swap meets or from other 914/Roadglue guys who are parting out cars.

I've given Pelican a good deal of my money. It's been 6 or 9 months or so. I'm not thrilled about the stories I've been hearing of late regarding their service.

I spent $1k on parts from Rich Bontempi (HPH) and had Brad transport them to Dunkle's in L.A. while I was catching the swap/show action and dropping off a 1.7 motor to Burr. I met Rich once and toured the shop. I know I can tell him "I need a watchamadinger for a 74 2.0/4 and I don't know the size" and I KNOW I will get the right part.

I made one purchase from Jason at Paragon. Great guy, good service. I'll have to do more business with him in the future.

I made one purchase at GPR in the past. No complaints. I will give them some $$$ also.

I'm not very tolerant of poor customer service. I've never purchased from AA, and I most likely never will.

hmmm, where in the bay area are you? it takes me less than 30 minutes to get there either from oakland (home) or SF (work) ...

Andy

I'm in El Sobrante. Without traffic it takes a minimum of 1.25 hours to get to Redwood City. Any other time with traffic it's impossible. Spending $8 on gas and putting 100 miles on my car negates any shipping charges I'd have to pay from the usual vendors.

i have had no trouble w/ any of the above listed companies. tweeks and AA are a little slow to ship. performance products is a little bit expensive and had a 3 month backorder on my springs, but PEL. parts has my business #1 because they are so punctual. here in a day or two!

I have quickly figured out who actually builds cars and who pushes parts. Its all in the sales people... Gint nailed it with his HPH reference. People who build/service the cars turn out to be MUCH better with parts sales than anybody with a wharehouse. You get what you need every time..

Now..if he would just step up and get a real shipping person and have UPS pick up every day he would be all right.

I buy from GPR (because the owner is a 914 guy)

I cant believe I heard the name "Roy Rogers" this means you are close to "Skip Page". I used to buy my parts from "Roy Rogers" when i was in North Texas. Good place.. owned by a preacher.


B

Shipping is important to me for obvious reasons. Rich is pretty much a one man op so the communication and shipping issues issues are to be expected. If it weren't for that I'd buy from HPH almost exclusively. It's tough running a business these days. I like to support the little guy whenever I can.

Yeah.. "little guy" has 3 (yes THREE) Vipers. His 98GTS.. the new Viper competition coupe..and a new Viper convertable. Not too mention his 3 914's. Obviously he is a good business person..


B

You know what I meant.

If he can buy Vipers and run a small business, more power to him. He deserves to succeed.

Brad, that was a funny story about your experiences with AA. Now we all know what to expect when we get on their "shit list".
I will be careful when I open there packages from now on.
Geoff

Interesting topic...

I checked Performance Products because I always get 20% off or price match, and I can pick up the part and save on shipping. I would like to mention, and I have told the management over there, that I have noticed more often that the parts I'm looking for are not in stock. I then got a call from the owner. He wanted to know my opinion about his bussiness and what I would like see them do in the future for Porsche clients. I couldn't believe it...

Also, after voting I relized that lately I used two others for most of my 914 parts buying. BMA, in Burbank, CA, they're a parts wholesaler and can usally come up parts for a few dollars less than any sale price elsewhere. And Shing's VW Parts, a small chain (well 2 that I know of), and they also have been able to provide parts less expensive than any of the cataloge places. Of course both of these I pick up the parts myself, no shipping.

If the building you buy parts from doesn't say "PORSCHE" on the outside, your almost guaranteed to pay less for the part.

-$.02
Mike D.

Zim's Autotechnik

1 (800) 356-2964

HPH or Brad's warehouse.

Rich at HPH always knows exactly what I'm talking about when I ask for "The thingy that goes on the (blank)" It's amazing that he understands girl talk!!

Fair prices, within driving distance (~30min) and I can have the part in my grubby little hands on the same day. Plus he's just such a gosh-darn good guy!

Jen

UPS always charges me (rather large) additional fees (in addition to shipping) whenever I order stuff from the States. I'm glad that I can choose the USPS air-mail option from Pelican.

There are two places I go to here in Tampa whenever I need some engine bits or pieces; Total Performance and Fisher Buggies. They're mostly dyed-in-the-wool, hard-core VW & Type I/II, but you can get the occasional "generic" T-IV stuff some-what easily. You just have to pickup on the "Oh, Por-shuh T-IV there, huh?" lifting of that one eyebrow.

But when it's 914-specific, Pelican Parts gets first crack, and I live all the way on the East Coast. Heck, down the block from AA at that! I've compared equal baskets of parts between PP and AA (hold on ... suddenly got the urge to go potty), with AA having the best price on some items. Than I saw where I was getting totally hosed on shipping rates with AA (NO CHOICES!), only to have PP come out cheaper in the long run; go figure. AA has GOT to be getting a kick-back from FedEx!

I've bought stuff from GPR, Tweeks, Performance Products, JC Whitney (Oh, CRAP! Can you say that here?) and FLIPS/FLAPS/FLICS/FLACS, but not at the amounts from PP; heck, I oughta own STOCK!

I'll give a few more words about Parts Heaven, here in the bay area. Those guys have always been pretty knowledgable and helpful at finding any little odd part I've been looking for.

..plus i gotta admit its great fun (and depressing at the same time) to browse a lot full of $70G+ dreamcars that have been wrappped around a tree by the previous owner.

I get most of my new stuff from HPH as well, his prices are competive and I don't have to pay for shipping.....luckly for me I can go at lunch and take the company vehicle so there is no real extra cost for me.....the advice I get from Rich is worth the drive even if I had to pay for gas and transportation myself


I have not bought from GPR in ages, nothing wrong with them, i just sorta "forgot" about them...last big ticket purchase was from Jason @ Paragon since he had the best prices for Koni Yellows.

How about you here in Europe ??

Is there any others than me and Jeroen ??

I get most of my spareparts from MittelMotor or one finnish Porsche guy, who order them from Germany or Belgium. I have heard a lot of good from english Type-911, but have not yet ordered anything from there.

What is the URL for HPH ?

http://www.highperformancehouse.com/

Better to call. He's sorta a one on one person.

I like HPH because it's so close and Rich has new and used parts. Rich's prices are always very fair. I have only one mild issue with HPH: it's a total sty.

The yard is full of cars and car parts piled up all over and tarps are everywhere. You have to navigate through this labrynth of used and rusting parts to even get to the "parts store." Once there, you can't really get into the "parts store" door without someone being there to unlock it. Inside, you can't browse for parts by yourself except for a few things under glass.

I guess this is a minor issue but I just think it would be way cooler if Rich cleaned up the place and made the store more of an open, browsing type store, so you could go in and take your time and just "shop" and end up finding things that you need even though you diddn't know you needed it.

Minor complaint. I still go to HPH first and then Parts Heaven and PP. Sometimes I go to the dealer when I need a special part immediately and the price differential (with pca discount) is pretty similar to PP.

Douglas

AA takes to long ,and the 4 times ive ordered from them they sent me the wrong parts 3 times ....the time they got it right i had to wait 2 weeks on my accelerator cable cause they lost it in shipping. liveing in central illinois sucks,ive got to order everything.

You should try Brad Mayeur. He is in Peoria which cant be too far from you.


B

I missed the story of what Brad found in the package from AA. If it was I am thinking I wouldn't doubt it.

I missed it too. Where is it?

There's a whole nother thing here too. Who offers discounts for PCA or whatever members??

I always ask for my 25% PCA discount at Performance which puts their prices right in line with most parts houses on many items. In terms of shipping and order accuracy Performance has been the best for me.

I can't be bothered with price matching or low price guarentees. The vendor needs to put their best price up from the get-go.

Pelican screws up my orders surprisingly often. It does make me reluctant to order from them. GPR ships accurately but not quick so if I need parts for next weekend I make sure the order goes in on the preceeding Monday. Fortunately shipping is only one day since they're just "up the road." I really like the guys at GPR though and that keeps me going back. My local FLAPs, VeeDub Parts Unlimited in Huntington Beach will have the generic stuff, hoses and the like, but not much TIV and no p-car parts. Vee Dub does have shockingly low prices on VDO (CHT for $69 for example).

Have fun,
Kevin

anyone ever ordered from "docncy's" ? they seem to have some parts...at ok prices. no experience with them...just curious -_-