The Jim Carter Truck Parts Company has been providing Chevy and GMC truck parts and helpful information for many years. Although many of our customers are miles away and even in other parts of the world, we still maintain a modest showroom where people can come in and visit when they are in town.
Jim Carter Truck Parts is a company that grew from a lifelong interest in older American vehicles. The roots were set in the mid-1960s with a strong appreciation of the Ford Model A. To supply parts for a total restoration of a 1930 Ford Coupe and to help with college expenses, a small in home used parts business began.
Jim Carter Truck Parts is a company that grew from a lifelong interest in older American vehicles. The roots were set in the mid-1960s with a strong appreciation of the Ford Model A. To supply parts for a total restoration of a 1930 Ford Coupe and to help with college expenses, a small in home used parts business began.
After my college years, I obtained employment with a national corporation where I worked for 15 years. I finally dropped the Model A business. However, I kept my original Model A, but began a hobby collecting and selling related special interest vehicles. I was in love with Chevrolet cars of the '40s, Studebaker Avantis, and early Ford Thunderbirds. One day in 1978 IT happened! I had a 1957 American Motors Metropolitan for sale. A potential buyer wanted it, but lacked adequate cash. We finally negotiated the sale. I took partial payment and his 1950 Chevrolet 1/2 ton truck.
While having a new home built the next year, the '50 became my "trash truck". I hauled construction scrap daily for the contractors to a local dump. It was a great little truck. It was always ready for work and never failed its duties. A year later the house was finally completed. Now, I needed to find something I really wanted to do. That little truck had been growing on me. How about a complete restoration like I did on the Model A during my school days?
While restoring the truck I found many other truck owners with the same needs. They required rubber parts, bed wood, tailgates and straight sheet metal. While on parts hunts I purchased additional Chevy truck parts for other truck owners "Parts Wanted" lists. This made the restoration much less expensive and I now found myself in a very small, but growing truck parts business. This was almost like the old days with the Model; A parts operation.
Then, I got daring. After a few well placed ads selling bed parts in national magazines, I knew something was starting to happen. Items sold and people requested other parts. I found myself back in salvage yards on Saturdays and attending local swap meets. Next, I needed to hire a part time employee and then made the BIG decision. I refused my company's request to transfer to a growing city 1,500 miles away. This made me look as if I did not want to grow with them, and maybe I didn't. I quit!
Now, I had to either get other employment or try harder in the General Motors truck parts business. Yes, you guessed it - I was totally committed to the new business - sink or swim!
Since jumping out of the "security nest" in 1981, I never looked back. I spent my time learning, researching and providing the personal touch that our customers love. Growth soon required two additions to the barn behind my house and buying some local rental houses for storage. I even had to hire a local body shop do the final touches on the original little '50 1/2 ton. It is now in our showroom.
Here we are many years later. Our 30 year old large two story building has had a major addition. There is a separate structure just for bed wood production. We have 18 employees five days a week, eight phone lines plus several fax order lines, and UPS / Fedex trucks and U.S. mail pickups each day. Oh yes, we still do the used parts thing! A portion of our large basement is still used for our large selection of older used GM truck parts.
Jim Carter has found a niche selling parts for old pickup trucks, a business that grew out of his longtime hobby.
A 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck bought to haul trash ended up as Jim Carter's vehicle on the road to success.
Carter took the half-ton pickup 16 years ago as partial payment for a 1957 American Motors Metropolitan he had restored.
"I was building a house the next year, and it became my trash truck," said Carter, a lifelong Independence resident. "I hauled construction scrap daily to a local dump. It was a great little truck. It was always ready for work and never failed its duties."
That little truck still doesn't fail its duties.
In fact, it has helped turn a hobby into a business, one of five mail order companies in the country that supplies parts for 1934 to 1972 Chevrolet/GMC pickups.
Restored with all original parts and polished to a shine, the 1950 pickup sits in the showroom of Jim Carter's Classic Truck Parts, 1508 East 23rd St., as a reminder that where there's a will to fix a truck, there's a part.
The roots of the business were set in the Mid-1960s with Carter's appreciation of the Ford Model A. To supply parts for a total restoration of a 1930 Sport Coupe and to help with college expenses, a small in-home used parts business began, supplied by materials from Midwest salvage yards.
After college, Carter worked as a safety engineer for a national corporation for 15 years. While working there, and after building his house, he began looking at that 1950 truck in a different way.
"It really grew on me," he said..."I decided I'd like to make that truck look a little cleaner and a little neater."
While in the process of restoration, Carter had some extra bed wood so he advertised in a couple of national magazines.
"Before you know it, I'm selling bed wood," he said. Carter bought more Chevy truck parts for other owners while looking for his own.
"This made the restoration much less expensive, and now found myself in a very small, but growing truck parts business."
Soon after that, he refused to transfer with his company to another state and jumped full time into the parts business.
"I just decided I needed to do something different in life, and I've never looked back." he said.
Why should he? Thirteen years later, Carter employs 15 workers, stocks 7,400 parts, mails several hundred catalogs every 10 days and increases his business. His customers are located throughout the United States, Germany, England, Australia and Canada.
Growth required two additions to the barn behind Carters' house and buying some rental houses for storage. He later built a two-story building on 23rd Street, where he added a second major addition.
"I'm not rich, but I'm stirring up smoke," he said. "Trucks are really in. There is something going on in this country that is making old trucks hot."
When a purchasing agent began to work for Carter, she remembered thinking "there couldn't possibly be that many old trucks out there."
"There are," she later said. "We have six incoming lines, and they all ring every day of every week of every year. People are finding trucks in ads and buying them from farmers back fields."
When people call, she said, and find out the company has a part they're like "You're kidding, I've looked all over."
"He kind of has the corner on the market for some used parts," she said. "Very few deal in used parts. This is 10% of our truck parts sales! You just can't find some items for '30 and '40s anymore except here.
"Everything you see here on this (1950) pickup, you can get here.... We have old radios restored, we have the old speedometer... ever thing down to a knob."
Howard explains people's attraction to old pickups as this: "It's the macho man thing. It's the guy in the old Chevy. It's the big fat crown fenders. Old vehicles have always been neat, whether you're young or old."
"Parts for 1947 to 1954 trucks are the most requested, but 1939 to 1946 is a close second,” Carter said.
"People tend to get more excited about the type of vehicle they had when they first started to drive," he said.
We are registered with General Motors to reproduce their trademarks and logos on all parts that require it. (GM gets a nice quarterly check!) We hold the hundreds of other parts we reproduce to the high standards as when the GM factory produced them.
When you need restoration items for your 1934-1972 Chevrolet or GMC, please give us a try. The solid growth of our company relates to the trusted reputation we have earned, and the quantity of new and used merchandise we stock. We are here when you are ready for us. Call Today! 1.800.842.1913
