I originally wrote this as a comment to the AMCO shift knob discussion (https://forum.sunbeamalpine.org/index.php?threads/leather-covered-shifter-knob.31576/#post-231378), but decided not to hijack that thread and to start another one.
I am always amazed by what used to be readily available, both from places like Sears and from local auto parts stores. I remember buying a fitted car cover for my SV from Sears around 1979. Also seeing a muffler for my car sitting in the window of a neighborhood foreign auto parts store* a few years later and buying it just because I knew I'd need it eventually. I also remember going into another local neighborhood store around 1980 to buy a tune-up kit. The clerk told me they had just found an AMCO top in the basement and offered it to me for $25, which I bought even though I had a relatively new top on my car. I tried installing it years later and it turned out to be too small; the flaps on the side sat too high to snap down. I assume it had shrunk, but it might also just have been defective. Still, it is hard today to imagine a time when Alpines were just used cars.
*Speaking of memories, when was the last time you saw a "foreign auto parts store"?
I am always amazed by what used to be readily available, both from places like Sears and from local auto parts stores. I remember buying a fitted car cover for my SV from Sears around 1979. Also seeing a muffler for my car sitting in the window of a neighborhood foreign auto parts store* a few years later and buying it just because I knew I'd need it eventually. I also remember going into another local neighborhood store around 1980 to buy a tune-up kit. The clerk told me they had just found an AMCO top in the basement and offered it to me for $25, which I bought even though I had a relatively new top on my car. I tried installing it years later and it turned out to be too small; the flaps on the side sat too high to snap down. I assume it had shrunk, but it might also just have been defective. Still, it is hard today to imagine a time when Alpines were just used cars.
*Speaking of memories, when was the last time you saw a "foreign auto parts store"?