Main Menu

Any former friends of Ron Adair (Great Lakes Mopar) on this Board?

Started by RSI700VIPER, June 23, 2021, 06:34:12 AM

Previous topic Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

RSI700VIPER

I purchased this 1971 Hemi Roadrunner that was formerly owned by Ron Adair of Great Lakes Mopars. Sadly, Ron passed away in 2007. Ron was a huge collector of rare mopars and owned my Hemi RR in the early 90s before trading it for a '70 Hemi Cuda to Mike Dozier in 1995. I have the complete history back to Ron, but nothing before that. Is there anyone here that remembers this car from Ron's collection and may possibly know where he got it from?

anlauto

You should try just calling them up...I know Ron left the business to one of his close friends and employees at the time....forget his name, he was the tall Dude with the long pony tail  :thinking: Pretty sure he's still running the business to this day..
I've taught you everything you know....but I haven't taught you everything I know....
Check out my web site ....  Alan Gallant Automotive Restoration

JH27N0B

That's Greg, also his daughter also still sells his stuff at highly inflated prices.


anlauto

That's right Greg, thank you :worship:  I was thinking Garry, but it didn't sound right :headbang:
I've taught you everything you know....but I haven't taught you everything I know....
Check out my web site ....  Alan Gallant Automotive Restoration

RSI700VIPER

Quote from: JH27N0B on June 23, 2021, 09:46:24 AM
That's Greg, also his daughter also still sells his stuff at highly inflated prices.

Excellent suggestion  :bradsthumb:

Ebody Edgar

Greg of GLNOS does not have a daughter.

The rude comment about the parts prices is not warranted and shows a lack of abundantly clear knowledge about the mopar parts business, children should be seen and not head.

Call the orig business number 616-754-7295

JH27N0B

Ron's daughter and Greg both continue to sell Ron's parts.  No one said Greg had a daughter.
And the GLNOS prices have always been very high. If that's ok with you go ahead and buy them.  But many others find them greedy. Postings of GLNOS eBay listings with jaw dropping prices have been commonplace on various forums for several decades so I am not the only one who feels that way, the majority do.
I remember when I first started seeking parts for my T/A restoration in the 90s, I was at a swap meet with my wish list and everyone kept telling me to go to GLNOSs table and see Ron.  I did, and met Greg, who was a real nice guy.  He told me to wait for Ron to return, and when he did he said he had the parts, and I cringed as he gave me prices. I really felt he enjoyed seeing me cringe as he gave me prices.  I walked away feeling discouraged, I'd never be able to afford to do a concours resto on my meager budget.
Between persistence and eBay, over the years I found everything I needed at 1/2 to 1/3rd GLNOS prices, never bought one thing from them. When the car was finished it got 984 points at MCACN.
I did some selling and trading to help finance my project and I never understood how sellers with such high prices find buyers.  For example I had an NOS 2229191 hemi disc master advertised several places for $1000 and it took over a year to sell.  GLNOS had one asking $2500.  Dave Walden paid BAP $900 for an NOS A body disc master cylinder for that Valient he restored. I've sold a number of those and my price was $250.  I had an NOS assembly line one with a '69 date code complete with push rod I would have sold him for $350 and would have felt guilty for asking more, I don't think the one Dave paid $900 for even had a good date code.
How do these sellers who ask 2-3X market prices find buyers? :notsure:


Cuda_mark

@JH27N0B Do you still have that assembly line one with the 69 date code??

I agree, their prices are way too high but if people are willing to pay it, more power to them. If you want to find things cheaper, you have to do exactly what you did...keep searching and making connections.

JH27N0B

Again, Ron rubbed me the wrong way seeming to enjoy seeing the pained look on my face as he told me his prices for the things I had on my list.  Left me feeling discouraged with my budding project of a car I'd owned since my teens.  In the end I was proud of being able to find all my parts through hard work and putting in the time.  It was actually sort of fun searching the world for stuff!  I even found an NOS locking gas cap for the car in Mexico, and sold extra parts to buyers all around North America and overseas like Sweden and Australia.
I bought a couple items from Tony and his prices are certainly at the top of the range, but at least talking to him he is friendly and you feel like he is supportive of enthusiasts trying to help you out, so I felt OK about paying his ask. And his prices are at the top of the range, so if a part is worth $1000-1200, he will ask $1200.  If GLNOS had one, they'd ask $2000 or even $2500 for it!
Interestingly, I just went on eBay to entertain myself looking at GLNOS's prices, and their store seems to have gone away recently?
https://www.ebay.com/str/glnos
But here is a thread typical of conversations about them over the years online,
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/great-lakes-mopar.36435/
I don't have that 69 date coded A body one I mentioned for sale now, but I do have another about the same.  NOS preassembled with push rod.  It has the very early cap callout about SAE 70 R6 which is a spec that was replaced by J1703 sometime in 69 from what I have been able to determine. No date code stamped in it, but early Mopar disc master cylinders I've seen a few of had a tag on the bale wire with the date code, not stamped.  I don't know when the change to stamped date codes took place but seems to be sometime in the '69 model year production.

1 Wild R/T

Quote from: Ebody Edgar on June 24, 2021, 02:56:32 AM
Greg of GLNOS does not have a daughter.

The rude comment about the parts prices is not warranted and shows a lack of abundantly clear knowledge about the mopar parts business, children should be seen and not head.

Call the orig business number 616-754-7295


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:  We now know who shouldn't be heard...

GLNOS prices are beyond crazy... 

Cuda_mark

I noticed their ebay store was empty too. I wonder if it has to do with getting ready for Carlisle.

I'll spend about 30 minutes in their tent looking at amazing parts but I guarantee I won't buy anything.

I've bought parts from @TONY like a set of rear convertible interior panels. His prices always seem to be fair. He knows what he has so it is to be expected that he would ask the right prices for them. I've never seen him go the GLNOS route of gouging prices.


anlauto

I think Darren said it best in the thread about The Mopar Nationals...."if you don't like the show....don't go"  and the same thing applies here...

If you don't like their prices, then shop elsewhere. :alan2cents:  My friend I vend with at Carlisle used to sell Ron just about every rare NOS part he had, we would spend hours with him and his wife and Greg, in their tent chatting it up...I thought they were great people, but I wasn't looking to buy anything from them...We all used to joke about their set-up at Carlisle...We used to call it "Ron's Tent of Terror"  :haha:
I've taught you everything you know....but I haven't taught you everything I know....
Check out my web site ....  Alan Gallant Automotive Restoration

RSI700VIPER

Quote from: Ebody Edgar on June 24, 2021, 02:56:32 AM
Greg of GLNOS does not have a daughter.

The rude comment about the parts prices is not warranted and shows a lack of abundantly clear knowledge about the mopar parts business, children should be seen and not head.

Call the orig business number 616-754-7295

That phone number has been disconnected.  Does anyone have another contact number for Greg?

JH27N0B

Quote from: RSI700VIPER on June 24, 2021, 07:51:50 AM
Quote from: Ebody Edgar on June 24, 2021, 02:56:32 AM
Greg of GLNOS does not have a daughter.

The rude comment about the parts prices is not warranted and shows a lack of abundantly clear knowledge about the mopar parts business, children should be seen and not head.

Call the orig business number 616-754-7295

That phone number has been disconnected.  Does anyone have another contact number for Greg?
There used to be 2 eBay sellers of Ron's parts.  One being GLNOS and I don't recall the other.  But the word on the street was that one was Greg and the other was Ron's daughter.  Does anyone remember the other name?  If you could track down Ron's daughter maybe she'd remember or have records of the cars, or give you names of people he was friends of back then? Just a thought...
Another story of him.  There was a numbers guru type who posted a lot on Moparts years ago who had a hemi cuda he was restoring. He's disappeared.  But I was talking to him not long after my article on Muscle era Mopar brake master cylinders was published in 2005, and he said he'd talked to Ron Adair recently and Ron was very angry about the article and at me.  Seems like Ron made good money buying up OEM Mopar master cylinders cheap at swap meets and from parts stashes, and flipping them for big profits to restorers.
Anyway, with the information published on how to ID the parts for everyone to see, he no longer could find any to flip so I cost him a lot of money.  :crying:
Sorry man!

DeathProofCuda

Off topic, but thanks for the reference to the 2005 master cylinder article JH27N0B. I hadn't seen that before. :cheers: