Sourcing parts for old Japanese cars

One question we get a lot at Auto Off Topic; Is how do we get parts for our 70s/ 80s/ 90s Japanese cars?

Well, where DO we get parts?

For some of the best selling cars on the road, Japanese cars just don’t seem to have dedicated parts resellers. If you own a Euro car, there’s multiple parts houses ready to provide you with OEM and aftermarket parts and of course for an American car you can get almost anything at the local parts store. If you’ve got a modern Japanese car, most parts stores have you covered too. However, we deal in classic and retro cars here at Auto Off Topic. Which for us is that sweet spot of cars that are 15 - 40 years old now. Cars in this time frame become challenging to find parts for. There aren't that many on the road, so parts suppliers it’s not smart to waste shelf space on parts they might not sell. For this reason dealers and parts stores rarely stock the parts and some parts are No Longer Availible (NLA). We haven’t come to the point yet of reproduction parts like you can get for a 50s-70s American car.

I’ll share some tips on how we find parts.

First off, this isn’t a paid endorsement of any of these companies. I use whatever company can get me the parts I want at a reasonable price. Typically, I try to avoid local stores for all but consumables and even for that I’m moving more online. That’s mostly out of annoyance, because the stores so rarely have what I want, and I’d just rather not waste my time driving to the store. You’re welcome to try, but often the brand choices are limited and they might not have what you want.

Here’s the hierarchy of how I search for new parts:

1. Rockauto

Yes shipping can get pricey if there are multiple warehouses, but shipping is darn expensive everywhere currently. But I have a solid reason why I like Rockauto. OEM auto makers often don’t make their own service parts. Think, air filters, fuel filters, oil filters, and spark plugs. For the Japanese cars that we like to deal with, Denso and NGK/NTK are often the big companies that make the tune up parts that then get put in an OEM parts box. This makes Rockauto my go to for tune up parts. I can get OEM parts without a trip to the dealer and paying dealer mark up, works for me. This is why I like being able to choose what parts I get and not be tied to whatever the local store has. For brake parts, I’ve been digging the Centric brake parts that come with painted edges and rotor hats to prevent rust and I can also usually get reman calipers from Rockauto easily, which is another plus. Cores are painful, but you can return them pretty easily.

Honestly, I also just like the website, it’s not set up like a normal e-commerce site. They make it easy to drill down to what I want, then pick out the brand, so for a person that likes to micromanage their car repairs, it’s perfect.

Denso filter (right) vs whatever was in the G20 (left) when I got the car.

2. Ebay

If RockAuto doesn’t have what I want or it seems very expensive, I go to ebay for a sanity check. For example I couldn’t find rear calipers for the Galant and the local place I had to rebuild calipers had closed. My only option was to go to eBay for the calipers. (now they’ve become even harder to find). Sometimes I’m looking for oddball parts like a cheap snorkel for the Montero (not recommended) and often ebay has them.

Ok, what if eBay doesn’t have the part, well if it's a specific repair part that doesn’t exist in the aftermarket? I’ll start to search dealer websites. Now I really try to avoid buying from dealers because they over charge for parts, sometimes it can be 20% over the true list.

3. International Parts sites

In comes the international parts sites. Megazip, Amayama, Parts Sourqu are all overseas parts suppliers. From what I can tell by looking at the sites and shipping options. Megazip is from Japan, UAE and Russia. Parts Sourqu is Japan and UAE. Amayama is Japan only. If you own an imported JDM car that was never sold here, get familiar with these sites, they might prove to be a great resource.

You do have to cross shop the three of the websites. Amayama has the best VIN decoder, that makes my first stop Amayama to toss the VIN in. You don’t need to use the VIN, but it helps. Find the part number using the diagrams. Check the availability and price. Next, open up Parts Sorqu and Megazip in two other browser tabs and compare availbilty and prices. Then just pick the site you want to buy from. These websites tend to accept the order and then confirm with their warehouses that they can fullfill it. A few hours later you’ll get a request for payment. I’ve had excellent luck getting OEM parts for several of my vehicles at a significant savings over buying from a dealership, even with shipping.

RHDJapan, this is a fun one. JDM tuning parts are next level in quality but the distance and language barrier makes it difficult to find them. I’ve had decent luck getting stuff off Yahoo Japan Auctions with Buyee, but shipping can be expensive (when is it not?) and communications tricky. I needed (wanted) a fancy header for the G20 after some bad luck with old used parts. I couldn’t really order a Fujisubo header directly, but by using RHD Japan, you can submit a part number or search their site for what they offer. Again, like the other parts sites they will confirm your parts are available and then complete the order for you. If there’s an issue they have account reps and will message you. A good way to spend some money.

4. Amazon

I’ll give an honerable mention to Amazon. To be honest, personally I’ve had mixed luck with Amazon. I’ve gotten correct parts, incorrect parts, shipping can vary from super fast to weeks. It’s definitely the last place I look.

5. What about used parts?

If there’s an active forum for the car, join and seach the classifieds, at least with Galant VR4s there is still an active forum and sever folks doing part outs. We have a love/hate relationship here at Auto Off Topic with part outs, it’s tought to see rare cars parted out, but also the parts help our cars continue on. Same with finding a nice car in a salvage yard…

6. Salvage yards.

If you’ve got good Pick and Pulls yards near you with older cars in the inventory that’s an amazing resource. Most of the better yards have online inventory searches, and one of the best ways is to just search the make of the car you want and sort by year, oldest to newest. This way you don’t miss any postings.