Me and Arnie Cunningham
I've been dedicating a lot of time, money and knuckle skin to my project/childhood dream car, a cherry red 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible. I bought it with the intention of doing all the work on it myself, so that I'd really appreciate the time I spent cruising in it. And as far as I can remember from last summer, cruising was a lot of fun. I think.
These days I'm mostly to be found underneath or bent over it, cursing, banging, swallowing the odd bit of fluid, and generally taking two steps back for every step forward. The other day, it tried to kill me by having the brakes fail as I eased it into the driveway. (OK, it would have hit the side of my house about about 3 mph. More of a cry for help than actual Christine-worthy behavior.) But hey, it's old enough to be my mother; this is to be expected. (Not that I expect my mother to kill me. Moving on...)
I'll not bore you with the details (unless you ask) but I will pass on one key thing I've learned. It can be worth it to buy parts online, but unless you're buying a simple commodity product or some crazy performance thing, it will save you time and heartache to buy from a dealer that has a store near you. That way, when they ship you the complete wrong master cylinder or don't include the gasket with the water pump (to pick two examples out of, oh, you know, the blue) you can drop by the store and deal directly with them, rather than having to ship it back, wait a few more days, and hope.
That means I mostly buy from Kragen (which you may know as Checker or Schucks, depending on where you live--it's all partsamerica.com, as it turns out.) They've had their share of hiccups (see above), but they've had their act together more than other online-only stores I've dealt with.
Happy wrenching,
P.S. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Brian at HotAutoWeb who hooked me up with the car to begin with. Friendly, honest guy, sweet rides--Go Spudman!