haha i wish we had a carquest or napa or checker. i live in a small city of 10 000 in canada. we have a couple of shops that have supplies for cars and can get a hold of things. and i have noticed its definitely hard to find any internal parts, or any parts for that matter for my pontiac. but i have made friends with a few people at the one shop. one of them being an old guy like you said. he helped me the most and never stopped helping until he did get what i needed. i also would be able to get a hold of alot of of v8 engines out here that would definitely need rebuilding. all of thoe 400+ cubic inches. and they would be cheap too. so i would be able to do that. and in our school next semester i can bring an engine into rebuild and work on in my mechanics class so i will probably do that.