(first posted 8/14/2012) Kids: Want to know how we (once) pre-teens and teens spent the way-too-much free time we had back in the electronic dark ages of a half-century or so ago? We read books. The classics, of course, like the famous J.C. Whitney Automotive Accessory and Parts Book (J.C. deliberately called it a book in order to let us tell our parents we were indeed reading a “book”– as though they really cared then, before the invention of helicopter parents). Now, one simply didn’t read a JC W book cover-to-cover or randomly, without some higher purpose; no, we exercised our developing minds by using this book in a very specific manner, kind of like an app.
Before even opening it, you had to pick a certain make, year and model of car that, for some inexplicable reason, was of intense interest to you– and no,not a new one; that didn’t really work. You’d pretend that at the age of 12, you somehow had the requisite amounts of money and legitimacy to buy a used car. We were modest back then; after all, this was long before Lamborghini Countach posters became the wallpaper of choice in the ’80s.
For instance: Around 1965, one of my favorite subjects for this exercise was a 1961 Chevrolet Impala two-door sedan with a four-barrel 283 V8 and four-speed stick. Why that particular car? Well, the 12-year-old mind is a mysterious thing, but let’s say that among its virtues was that it was highly unusual; in fact, it was the only two-door Impala sedan ever made. Whether one could have talked a Chevy dealer into ordering it with the four-speed is another question, but one not relevant to our topic.
Having the object of one’s MMing (MM = Mental Masturbation, for you latecomers) session firmly in mind, you then opened the latest edition of the “book”, and began the grueling mental task of deciding exactly what to “buy” for your recently acquired car. A custom grille, perhaps? Hmmm; the ’61 Chevy’s is pretty clean, so no thanks. Next page. Camshaft? Yes. Engine dress-up kits? Yes. Kleenex dispenser? Not just yet.
It’s important that those of you born after the JCW golden era understand the real legitimacy of calling these catalogs “books”. They were substantial, and offered virtually any and every part or accessory even the most crazed MM addict could want or imagine–everything from pipe-organ speakers, to complete engines (taken from Chicago’s many wrecking yards, I assume) that opened up all sorts of possibilities for engine swapping.
How about a 392 Hemi in a Jeep CJ2? Why not? More than likely, JC even had the adapter kit so that the MM session rules need not be violated. Obviously, I was raised Catholic.
Anything and everything one could dream of that even vaguely related to use in, with, or on an automobile was in the pages of this holy book. Yes, an Emergency Oxygen Unit! (upper left on right page). My 1956 DeSoto definitely needs that. An Auto Shaver (upper left on left page)? Well, of course! I can practically feel my beard growing at the very sight of it. It’ll look fine on the dash of my 1961 Falcon Futura, and really impress the girls.
Or how about placing Winky the Safety Cat on the rear parcel shelf of a 1953 Starlight Coupe? And don’t forget replacement bulbs…they might be hard to come by locally. Then again, maybe too girly? Pass.
JC Whitney books would just appear mysteriously; I really don’t recall from where. Sometimes I’d stumble into an older one, perhaps left behind by the former owners of our house. Let’s see….shall we do a 1949 Olds 88 fastback coupe with ratty upholstery? Supreme Woven Saran Plastic or Supreme Melostrength Fibre?
After starting a south Chicago scrap yard in 1915, Lithuanian immigrant Israel Warshowsky soon began buying parts inventories from failed auto makers. In 1934, his university-educated son, Roy, joined the firm with expansion in mind, and placed an ad in Popular Mechanics offering a “huge parts catalog” for 25 cents,with the name JC Whitney on the cover. The rest is history.
And Roy was quick to embrace the changing taste of car buyers, and set aside a whole section to VW and other popular import brands. I remember the Renault Dauphine section vividly, and even had an MM session with one, maybe even more than once, perhaps.
But the VW section quickly became one of my favorites, and I would endlessly agonize over exactly which size Big Bore Cylinder kit to buy for my 1964 VW 1200…whoa! Fantasy meets reality! In 1973, I really did have a ’64 VW, and now the JCW book took on new meaning. But not necessarily in the best way. Now I actually had to send in money, and the stuff that came back had a decidedly cheap feel to it. Kinda ruined the whole MMing experience.
JC was a pioneer in finding cheap sources for their parts, like Brazil and Mexico and such (Update: Japan too, back when “Made In Japan” had a very different connotation), or just junky US made stuff; they were ahead of their time. I bought some tune-up parts and such, and a black vinyl cover for the spare tire that had lots of pockets in it for holding tools and the Emergency Oxygen Kit and such. I loved that, and made sure it moved on to my other VWs; channeling my inner Kraut. But pretty soon, JC Whitney went the way of so many other childhood fantasies that were so rudely popped.
But now that I’m old and losing my grip on reality; we’ll let’s just say it’s probably fortunate that I’m limited in what I can show you to the few random scans out there on the interwebs (thank you all), but it’s just as well, because if I actually had a 1965 JC Whitney book, I wouldn’t be writing about it; I’d be having a hell of an MM session right now. Let’s see…a 1962 Dodge Lancer hardtop coupe…
I once ordered a reground crankshaft and bearing set for my 1967 MGB after I spun a bearing or two. It arrived in 30 days and I rebuilt the engine. Great place to buy parts in the mid 1970’s!
How many “artists” were needed to draw all the parts?
I have one of these catalogs around here somewhere; bought it on Ebay not long ago. 1960s I think. Back in the day (the memories flood back in) I recall buying a floor shift setup after we converted my ’54 Chev convertible to stick shift after the PG went on it. From having to go under the car to tighten and adjust the linkage, I learned about the value of Lava Soap. I bought for some unknown reason, a Rolls Royce hood ornament. I have always had a love of “steelies” with dog dish hubcaps and trim rings. I recall buying a set of those trim rings for my 1963 Karman Ghia convertible
J.C Whitney catalogs were definitely on my preferred reading list in the 60’s.
I must admit they were a distant second to MAD Magazine.
But they still got plenty of eye time.
Is there a particular product that still bounces around in your memory?
I remember their camshafts that replaced “soft” camshafts (I believe in Chevys).
Good memories.
I was suckered into (Oh! the shame of it!) buying one of those “Engine Rebuild Kits” that consisted of some metal pellets and a mysterious fluid to be added to the oil. It was supposed to restore the cylinder walls/compression/etc. as you drove. As a poor student, a real rebuild was out of the question. If you have to ask did it work, then YOU were ripe for any number of J.C.W. “fixes”, LOL!! 🙂
Anyone else remember one of the brothers on Car Talk describe the (possibly first year) Lincoln Aviator as “a Ford Explorer that J.C. Whitney threw up on”?
And it allowed Warshawsky to build a fine collection of restored full Classics that didn’t have a whiff of low-budget at all!
Warshawsky used the Sears catalog as a template for their. It isn’t exactly coincidental that both companies were headquartered in Chicago. Chicago, because of its central location astride the main transportation routes, was the center of the mail order world, a vast purveyor to the rest of the country and the world beyond. I first found a J.C. Whitney catalog at the local public library when I was 10. I pored over the grill pages and learned to identify almost every car dating back to the 1930s. It gave me the impression that you would be able to restore just about any old car using a J.C Whitney catalog. I spend a lot of time on the Jeep and VW sections wondering if I could build one from scratch using the Catalog.
The closest I came to actually buying something was when I owned my VW and wanted to replace a bumper and fender. Instead i found some stuff locally. I never did send them any money but I got catalogs for years.
I somehow acquired an Honest Charley catalog at the same time. I spent a lot of time studying it and the J.C.Whitney. They definitely helped stimulate my young mind in good ways, mostly
“Warshawsky used the Sears catalog as a template for their own catalog”
*&^%$#@!
In the early 1980s my father was an automotive salesman, and he would take me on sales calls to Blue Star Auto just across the street from Warshawsky Automove pick-up counter retail shop.
Both the owner of Blue Star Auto and Roy Warshawsky got their start on Maxwell Street selling hard to find parts in Jew-Town/Maxwell Stree and ran from there to brick and mortar stores.
Blue Star went main stream and Warsharsky went buying dealer stock. Blue Star Was scrappy also buying out other auto stores and dealerships inventory, but only keeping A, B and C selling items – selling most C and lower selling items to other dealers. Warsharsky did the same but began cataloging the B, C and lower selling items, and adding oddball items, and making themselves into a niche market seller.
I was fortunate to begin owning throwaway cars in the early 1980s – I graduated in 1984 from High School – Warshawsky and Company was on 21st and State Street until well after I went to college.
You could walk to the counter and order all the fenders for a Jeep CJ, or a VW Bug, Super Bug, or other. You could order floor pans for most imports. You could order a five or seven light tachometer that you could screw to your dash for like $12.00. That was a usual stop when me and my buddies would by a $100 car, new wire set was like $16.00, and a triple horn was like $8.00. A barefoot gas pedal was like $5.00.
We bought all that crap.
We usually replaced our burned out mufflers with the Warshawsky cherry bomb for about $14.00.
We went there often, usually for the shit you didn’t need to keep a car running, but you wanted because it was cheap and it looked good to a teenager. I remember buying straight recycled 30 weight oil for my 1973 Toyota Corona Mark II wagon – never burnt oil until the engine seized!
In the early 1980s my father bought a 1954 Hudson Hornet. It had been in the front yard of a professors yard in Indiana who had bought it new, and each of his daughters had used it for many years, though each painted it with various colors of exterior house paint.
He was in the sales end of automotive fluids and left it at his buddies Lafayette, Indiana Zayre store. They took the head off and poured a few quarts of Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder and let it sit a couple weeks.
Then they took a 2 x 4 and a 3 pound sledgehammer to each piston and wacked hard. Vacuumed the oil out, put the head on and we drove home to Chicago. I followed in his 1978 New Yorker, making sure the 6 volt tail lights wouldn’t get him pulled over.
Eventually my father painted it a 1972 Camaro yellow, close to the original Hudson yellow, but he had 12 quarts of the Camaro yellow from years before.
At some point my father took over the writing of the Hud-Nut newsletter for the local Hudson Club. He used his previous time in the industry to find parts for club members.
When Warshawsky Chicago was wrapping up as a retail operation in the mid 1990s one of the owners asked if he’d like to walk through the warehouse. The warehouse was on Cermak – just east of the coal fired power plant – about three blocks west of Halsted Street. Five stories, plus an eight story tower, the Warshawsky had been buying dealership inventory since the 1940s.
We were able to walk through the tower, about 105 degrees up there without window that opened, and found hundreds of new old stock Hudson parts (that was all we were interested in) tail lights, trim rings, hub caps, just about everything you could imagine. There was a brand new Hudson Twin H intakes with brand new old stock carburetors!
We bought what we needed or wanted to give to friends, as much as we could carry. The elevator either was out for the tower or didn’t go that high. Either way we left many multiples of what we were able to carry.
Note that the family made their first money buying new old stock from dealers. It wasn’t until later the went with the everything catalog. When they went JC Whitney to western Illinois the scrapped all that brand new old stock parts they made their first money from.
At some point the amount of the old stock became a burden and they had to let it go to just go catalog.
Imagine if that that warehouse still had brand new 1954 Hudson tail lights. 1957 Chevy trim pieces, 1964 Impala grills! All that amazing factory stock would have taken thousands of dollars to store (after already storing it for 35 or more years) and then to transport, and then to inventory. It’s no wonder they had to scrap it.
Alas, that was one of the best automotive experiences in my life.