Most original (or NOS) vintage Porsche parts are expensive. Some are practically priceless. You’ll be shocked to learn that, at one point, Volkswagen of America used to toss them in the dumpster. Our guest on the podcast this week, presented by our friends at Marble, is Rod Emory and he explains why this was allowed to happen before his family stepped in to stop it. Rod has so much to say it’s actually part one of a two-parter.
Rod Emory is the car customizer famous for his work with Outlaw Porsches. You know, one of these:
So good.
Rod comes from a family famous in both the SoCal hot rod scene and the Porsche scene. He talks about the work his grandfather did on the infamous Alex Xydias So-Cal Belly Tanker. Let’s stare at that for a minute:
In addition to working on hot rods at Valley Custom Shop, his family additionally ended up at one of the most legendary Porsche dealerships, Chick Iverson Porsche in Orange County. One day, Rod’s dad realized that all the old parts from Volkswagen of America were being tossed in the trash because it was too expensive for VoA to hold onto them. I’ll let Rod explain the rest:
You can see where this is going.
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What’s In The Podcast:
In this week’s podcast we’ve got:
- A dad joke from David
- Speaking of dads, we learn how Rod’s grandfather got drafted into working on cars
- The origins of Valley Custom Shops
- Where the Porsche Obsolete Parts came from
- The difference between sectioning and channeling
Listen to more podcasts:
- Here’s The Weird Thing You Have To Do To Supercharge A New Car In California – The Autopian Podcast
- Bruce Meyer — The Ultimate Car Guy — Tells Some Incredible Stories On This Week’s Autopian Podcast
- “I Have A Flat Brim Hat And A Subaru. I Got This” – Zack Klapman Explains How He Stuffed A Subaru Into A Wall Of Snow
- Listen To Us Chat With Bring-A-Trailer Co-Founder Randy Nonnenberg About How He Built His Empire, How He Used To Be A BMW Engineer, And About This Amazing Ex-McLaren RV
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
I hear some Porsche owners even remove and throw out real parts intended to improve handling
Well, shoot…this is good parsh.
(Except throwing away extra parts. That was bad parsh. VERY BAD PARSH, VWoA!!!)
We have the same issue at the vehicle assembly plant I work at. It’s cheaper to scrap obsolete parts and pay someone to make new ones 10+ years from now than to inventory and warehouse thousands of parts hoping someone needs them in the future.
Same at a factory I worked at. It was something accounting related. They would rather toss parts we had already bought rather than just leaving them on the shelf for when we would need them. It wasn’t a space issue. We convinced our manager to allow us to sell some of them on eBay and use the money for a team lunch.
Honestly, this applies to almost all of us in our personal lives too. Am I ever going to use that racquetball equipment again? Maybe, but paying for the space to keep all of the stuff I might use again someday is more expensive than just tossing it all out (or selling/donating it) and buying again when I actually need it.
I try to keep that in mind when cleaning up my house, but alas those rollerblades continue to gather dust in my garage. 😉