sourcing weatherstrip

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

 In AD7-181 David Creer seeks the current address of a company which has
probably been out of business for thirty years, because he needs to get the
weatherstripping, which is not available locally, for a hardtop they made. 

If he does not have the catalog of J. C. Whitney, 2319 S. Throop Street,
Chicago Il. 60680 he should probably get it. They have page after page after
page of weatherstrips, window channels, glass gaskets. Lots of junk, too, but
they almost certainly have something which will do the job well. Little
companies like Royal Coachman and Parish Plastics lived off the generic
materials market.

In the early days of Alfadom in the US, before ARI was established and there
were well-stocked dealers in every major city, J.C. was a treasured resource,
cited for one thing or another in practically every early issue of Alfa Owner.
They even had overhaul kits for ZF automatic boxes (which you couldn't buy
from Alfa) well into the eighties. Many a Giulietta in the boondocks ran with
rings, bearings, gaskets, water-pumps, clutches, brakes, tops, and everything
else from Whitney. Did the same for many other makes, of course; parts and
service support for the import market was pretty chaotic in the forties and
fifties.

John H.

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