<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br></div><div>First: thanks Farmer! It was a pretty nice birthday</div><div><br></div><div>Second: I don’t have anything to add, but have a question: Whatever happened to local/regional auto parts rebuilders? In every place I’ve lived there was a company, usually within 30 minutes, that aggregated automotive parts for rebuilding and resale. These companies would always take walk-in parts from local customers as well. Here, the rebuilder was Hastings(King NC). They were not affiliated with the larger national Hastings brand.</div><div><br></div><div>Anyways I never learned how to do linings and several other typical shop skills such as turning drums, etc because I always had a business locally that did it better, faster, and cheaper than I ever could. <span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Anyways, I miss those companies. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div>Unfortunately Hastings went out of business about 15 years ago. The Pacer brake bands were the last things I had done there. I don’t know - it might’ve been clutch lining out of another tractor shortly after that.</div><div><br></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">We’re down to our last few, local starter/alternator/generator repair shops. I suspect they will be gone soon too.</span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><font color="#000000"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Spencer</span></font></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div></body></html>