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Antique Auto Supply has been featured in many news paper, news, and special interest television shows. Here is some of the media associated with Antique Auto Supply: |
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) March 12, 2006 A man with everything He's got the part you need for your old car, if he can find it Author: JOHN AUSTIN; STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER Edition: ArlingtonS Section: Advance Metro Page: BB1 Index Terms: Arl Article Text:ARLINGTON . Other than a rusting 1951 Ford half-ton truck with a busted windshield, there's not much out front to mark Stacy Brown's place of business on a side street west of the Krispy Kreme on Cooper Street.But despite the lack of advertising, Web site, or even an answering machine, the stocky, white-haired grandfather has somehow brought a nice-sized chunk of the old-car world to his unmarked doorstep. Brown owns Antique Auto Supply, which specializes in parts for American cars built between 1909 and 1972. The business he began as an Arlington High student now takes up nine buildings full of new and reproduced parts. "He's probably got the most unique business around," said Forrest Johnson, who dropped in last week for a couple of 1936 Ford brake shoes. "There is no other place in North Texas like it." Richard Rawlings, owner of the Gas Monkey Garage in Dallas, agreed. "This is like a whole swap meet in one building," said Rawlings, who left with a pair of chrome Ford taillights for a street rod he's building, plus a magnetic funeral sign from a hearse. "If I need something, he's freaking got it, no matter how obscure. The problem is, can he find it?" That's a fair question. The front building is piled to the ceiling with water pumps, heater knobs, dusty key blanks and obscure accessories for automotive brands, some of which haven't been made in decades. A rack of manuals also holds several mint-condition Chevrolet children's coloring books from the early 1950s at $15 each. Old hubcaps for Packards, Lincolns and other makes hang from the rafters; a weathered punched-metal Ford sign that probably dates back to the teens ornaments one wall; a neon Kaiser sign hangs from another rafter; the glass counters are packed with curiosities such as a set of vintage Ford china and cutlery, and decals from the long-gone Dallas Ford assembly plant that read "Built in Texas by Texans." Hand-labeled cardboard parts bins tower so far up that it takes a ladder to reach up into the darkness. "I bet he's got a million parts in there," said Johnson, who like a lot of customers has been a friend of Brown's for decades. "If he sold it for a dollar apiece, he'd be a millionaire." "But you haven't found me a buyer at a dollar a pop," said Brown, grinning. "If I could bust a $100 bill, I wouldn't come to work today." If he is a millionaire, it doesn't show: Brown was wearing a red polo shirt with a quarter-sized hole in the belly as he manned the counter last Tuesday, and although he had on a clean shirt on Wednesday, it looked as if he was sporting the same khaki shorts. "The art is not in making money," he said. "The art is doing it." He's got only one incoming line on an old wall phone, and he answers it himself. "I don't have two lines," said Brown, 63, talking over an episode of Happy Days on a little black-and-white TV in the corner. "I can't talk on two lines at once." Apart from one woman who has the unenviable job of trying to put the inventory on a computer . it took five years to log just the Ford inventory . it's pretty much a one-man operation. The twice-divorced father of two grown daughters makes change from an old manual cash register and writes out receipts by hand on a hand-cranked machine as the roll-up doors let in the breeze. If Brown is on the phone or pulling parts for someone else, customers have to wait. "Do you want the dash pot?" he asks one caller as a walk-in customer cools his heels. "Or do you want the bracket mount for the dash pot?" But nobody seems to mind. "I didn't know you were here," says a middle-aged man who had just found his way to the store through word of mouth and bought a door handle for his 1930-something Ford. Brown just grinned. "I've been sittin' here waitin' on you for 45 years," he said. Actually, Brown has been in his present location since 1980. But he started salvaging and reselling parts from junk yards in 1957. "In 1961, I rented a building and started keeping regular hours," he said. "I'm a dealer for 56 dealers who make Ford parts." He's also a keen scout for auto dealers who are going out of business or who want to sell their inventories of "new old-stock," or NOS parts. Brown recently scored big with two old small-town dealerships on his way to a car show in Denver. He fondly recalls a junket a couple of years back when he bought so many NOS parts it took three semis to haul the booty home. "I feel like I hit gold mines all the time," said Brown. "When you eat, drink and sleep this stuff, it's intertwined in your dreams. "I like the game. I've been very fortunate in this life: I've gotten to do what I want to do, and very few people get to do that." The only downside is that his daughters don't want to take over when he's gone. "I think about retirement every day, but I know nobody's going to buy me out," said Brown. "It's going to be a hell of an auction one of these days. "I'd sure like to be here for it. I'd be high bidder." John Austin, (817) 548-5418 jaustin@star-telegram.com Caption: Antique Auto Supply is stuffed from floor to ceiling with old and vintage auto parts. And owner Stacy Brown is always on the lookout for more, watching for dealerships where he can buy parts by the truckload. STAR-TELEGRAM/DARRELL BYERS Stacy Brown, owner of the Antique Auto Supply vintage parts shop off Cooper Street in Arlington, has thousands of parts in stock and no sales help. STAR-TELEGRAM/DARRELL BYERS Copyright (c) 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Record Number: 1999541 |
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Texas Contry Reporter Came to visit and conduct a two day interview. Aired weekend of September 30th 2006 Show #996 This week on Texas Country Reporter... Get new parts for your old car from the Antique Auto Collector. Stacy Brown, Antique Auto Supply, 1225 Colorado, Arlington, TX 76015. (817) 275-2381 Find out how one Korean War veteran became the last person to ever graduate high school in Spade, Texas. Sherman Jones, 806-622-2258 Plus, check in with the winners of last summer's Texas Country Star competition. Now 10 City Run is taking to the airwaves with their first single and a brand new video! www.10cityrun.com Texas Country Reporter, it's what the Lone Star State is all about! |