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Donna Crumb Interview
(Ron's Classic Car Parts and Antiques)
Ron and Donna Crumb have carved out a market for themselves, specializing in Chevy II (two) and Nova parts.
It’s a growing business as we discovered.
Donna Crumb talked with us about Ron’s Classic Car Parts and Antiques.
Q - Donna, the name of your business is Ron’s Classic Car Parts and Antiques. Ron tells me you own the business. That must mean you started the business?
A - No. He started it about six years ago on his own as far as new parts go. Up until then he did used parts. Before that he was into 55, 56, and 57 Chevy’s instead of Nova’s, which is what we base most of what we get, Nova parts. But, we’ve expanded a little bit into Chevelle, Camaro and some truck parts.
Q - So you started the business in 2009?
A - Yes.
Q - How did Ron get into the car parts business?
A - He’s always been interested, ever since he was in high school. He took auto body at Boces and learned to do part and bodywork. From then on he was into older cars always. He’s had Camaros and Nova’s. Finally some of the people that he had sold used parts to; they drove drag cars and they would crash them of course and they need something to replace what they ruined. He thought they would want used parts and they would say, no we want the car to look really nice. We need new stuff. So, they encouraged him to get into the new stuff so they could buy parts for their drag cars. That’s how we got started.
Q - Are you a former mechanic? What is your background?
A - My son is in with us now. He does the repair of things. He’s kind of been into that since he was a boy. I’m more into the ordering of advertisements, getting us booked for our swap meets and that kind of thing. We travel a lot up and down the East Coast in order to be at those swap meets and get our name out.
Q - You were just at the Syracuse Nationals. Are you doing one of those shows every week?
A - No were choosy about where we go. It depends on what kind of a swap meet it is, what the sponsors are behind it is because some of some are basically like car shows and we don’t go to those basically because the car show people are pretty much finished with their cars so they rarely buy parts. The swap meet is where you can have people with some used things they set out, but you also have major vendors that rent a booth, bring a trailer, set out the tables and showed their new stuff. That’s what we go to the most. Were choosy about that. We try to go at least once a month sometimes more. There’s a couple of months a year where we go to two or three.
Q - Was this the first time you were at the Syracuse Nationals?
A - No. We were there about three years ago and then because of the trending of it in the summer, a couple of times our family visits interfered with our ability to go. This was our first time back since 2012.
Q - Why specialize in Chevy Nova parts? Was that your first car? And how much of the demand is there for Nova parts?
A - Actually, it’s getting to be bigger and bigger business all the time. My husband has had Nova’s throughout his life. The way that Camaros and some of the other versions have gone up in price. It’s kind of priced out some of the people that would want a classic car. So then they kind of fell back on the Nova’s. But, Nova’s have really gained popularity too. So now they’re almost equal to what a Camaro would sell for.
Q - That’s interesting. I used to have a neighbor who would more or less, and probably a little bit more, put Nova’s down. He said they were a cheap car. And now they’re popular.
A - Right. See, it was a working man’s version of a classic car and now there are so many things available to put on them to really spruce them up, put big motors in em . The Nova’s have been winners as far as racing because of their light weight. They’ve developed things to keep em on the ground. People did kind of look down at them to begin with but, that’s kind of gone away.
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