AM Blog:
March 2010 (Archived)

ARCHIVE:

- Current Blog

2010:
- 02/2010
- 01/2010

2009:
- 12/2009
- 11/2009
- 10/2009
- 09/2009

Sunday, March 28, 2010 2:05:12 PM

Classic Car Parts Auctions pages are mostly complete at this point. We will still be adding images to pages without them, and colorizing those that aren't colorized. This process has taken some time, as the pages themselves are done by hand. The auction listings are database driven so they are always up to date, but we take the time to make sure each page is tailored to the specific year, make, and model that is the subject of that particular page.

It is this tailor-made page that takes time, but we feel it's worth it as anyone can create a boring, database-driven site with pages that all look alike. We appreciate your patience, and hope you enjoy the new look and greater usability of the pages. As mentioned earlier, we will be adding new links to make navigation easier between the pages, as well as new auction searches to help you dig down and find exactly what you're looking for. Look for these continuing changes over the next few weeks and months.

Post 2: Sunday, March 28, 2010 6:50:30 PM

New auction pages: 1975 Cadillac Seville, 1976 Cadillac Seville, 1977 Cadillac Seville, 1978 Cadillac Seville, and 1979 Cadillac Seville. This particular series has been one of our most-requested to add to the site. The cars are part of Phase Three, but the auction pages are online now!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 6:38:49 AM

The 1971-1978 Toronado auction pages have been completed.

Monday, March 22, 2010 7:42:51 AM

Good Monday morning to all! More parts auctions pages have been rolled out. The 1977-1979 Continental Mark V pages as well as the 1966-1970 Oldsmobile Toronado pages are completed. Formatting of the 1971-1978 Toronado pages is underway. Have a great day!

Post 2: Sunday, March 21, 2010 6:48:02 PM

We hope everyone has enjoyed their Sunday. The 1969-1971 Continental Mark III and 1972-1976 Continental Mark IV auction pages are done. We've changed the formatting of the 1977-1979 Continental Mark V pages, but still need to make them look pretty. Enjoy your evening!

Sunday, March 21, 2010 8:48:06 AM

AM starts off a new week with the completion of the 1955-1975 and 1981-1983 Imperial Parts Auctions pages. Some have new images, expanded information, and are more colorful, which is something that was asked for by our test group. Today we'll be updating the Continental Mark III, Mark IV, and Mark V pages, and we'll let you know how that's going later on. Have a restful Sunday, everyone!

Saturday, March 20, 2010 8:33:20 AM

We are making progress on the auction pages. All of the Thunderbirds, 1955-1979 are complete. (We still have a few final touches to a couple of pages, but they are essentially done.) Everyone enjoy your weekend, we'll be working on the Imperial pages for the next day or so.

Friday, March 19, 2010 7:39:15 AM

Another update on the auction pages. The 1972-1979 Thunderbird pages are now completed, and some of them were also updated to add images and a little more information about the cars.

Thursday, March 18, 2010 8:17:29 AM

We're continuing to update you on the status of the update to the auction pages. The 1967-1978 Cadillac Eldorado pages are completed, and the 1956-1957 Continental Mark II pages are done as well. For you Cadillac enthusiasts, this means everything Cadillac-related has been completed. Work continues, thanks again for your patience during this update.

Post 2: Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:33:00 AM

The updated 1953-1954 Buick Skylark pages have also been published as of this morning.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 8:33:23 AM

Another update on the new auction pages. The following have been completed as of this morning, and can be added to the previous list:

1953-1960 Cadillac Eldorado/Eldorado Biarritz/Eldorado Seville
1957-1960 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham

Monday, March 15, 2010 3:07:38 PM

We wanted to provide everyone with a quick update to the status of the auctions pages roll out. The following classic cars are complete:

1948-1976 Cadillac* (excluding Fleetwood Eldorado, Eldorado Brougham, Eldorado Seville)
1967-1979 Mercury Cougar
1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta
1961-1966 Oldsmobile Starfire
1955-1957 Ford Thunderbird
1977-1980 Lincoln Versailles
1948 Tucker

*1961-1966 Eldorado is included with the 1961-1966 Cadillacs, but other Eldorados have separate pages.

We will continue to move forward on this in the days ahead, and we'll update you from time to time so you'll know where we are on ithis project.

Sunday, March 14, 2010 9:41:56 AM

Multi-tasking can be a good thing, until you start making mistakes. We discovered this morning that a link to our Classic Car Parts Auctions' About the New Look page was configured incorrectly and sent visitors to an error page. We didn't post that link on this blog, but it did appear on most of the parts auctions pages. It has now been corrected, and we encourage you to visit the linked page to see what's new. We should add that more search options will be appearing on those pages in the coming months, making it easier to locate what you need for your classic car. Have a great Sunday everyone, and sorry about that link to nowhere!

Post 2: Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:58:51 PM

New article: 1959 Ford Design Award | AUTO BREVITY

The Auto Brevity Editors have been working overtime lately, it would seem. You may or may not have heard about the design award given to Ford for its 1959 cars at the Brussels World's Fair. There's more to this story than just the award. In fact, the story IS the award, but you'll need to click the link to understand.

At any rate, we thought we'd honor the beautifully proportioned 1959 Ford cars with our own award...we're just about five decades late in doing it! At a time when so many makes and models went crazy with huge tail fins, gobs of chrome slathered everywhere, and more than just a few styling traits of questionable taste, the 1959 Fords jumped on the popularity wave of the new Thunderbirds and hung on! It's an interesting story, we hope you enjoy! (This will be announced to everyone else tomorrow.)

Saturday, March 13, 2010 7:11:31 AM

New article: Rust | AUTO BREVITY

RUST! The mere sight of the word sends classic car enthusiasts and collectors shaking in fear in a dark corner. The appearance of rust on a classic car, however, normally makes owners angry, especially if the car has been restored or sheltered over the years. Manufacturers built cars to last about 7-10 years, and to travel around 100,000 miles. At that point, they'd hoped the customer would have been happy enough with it that a new one of the same make would be purchased to replace it. In recent years, cars have been made to last longer and travel further because people drive more miles today than they used to, and they no longer purchase a new car every few years. They keep them longer, and they expect them to last longer.

In this latest article, AUTO BREVITY discusses what rust is, the process that takes place that allows it to form, and what can be done to fix it. Obviously, the best fix is to completely cut out any rusted metal and replace it with new metal. But that's not always possible in hard to get to or hidden areas, where disassembly to access the area would require the services of a welder, and be too expensive.

This article doesn't get too technical, yet explains the process of corrosion and the fixes available for it well enough that collectors can make a better determination of what steps to take and when to take those steps on their current project vehicle. As usual, AM Blog readers are getting this announcement first. Have a great Saturday!

Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:40:31 AM

AM Magazine pages updated and back online again. Years ago, we had a section of the site where visitors could subscribe to their favorite magazines. The merchant we were partnered with at the time wasn't the easiest to work with for us, so we ended our affiliation with them and removed the links from the pages. And that's how they've been for the last few years.

We have just completed updating these pages and they're now back online, ready to go. To make magazines easier to find, we've divided them up into categories:

Automotive Magazines | Classic Car Magazines | Truck/SUV Magazines | Motorcycle/ATV Magazines

Check them out, and if you subscribe to any magazines, or decide to start subscribing in the future, please remember our magazine pages and use our links to click through when you're ready to order. We are compensated when you support the advertisers on this site by doing business with them, and we appreciate your thoughtfulness and support very much.

Our new merchant partner for magazines is Amazon, as they are easy to work with for both of us, and many people have accounts at Amazon already, so it's convenient. If you don't have an account with Amazon, sign up as they offer almost everything you can imagine, and they offer lots of different shipping options, from next day to free delivery (if you're willing to wait a little longer).

We'll continue to work on these pages over the next few days, so you might notice some changes if you visit them now, then return later. If you don't see a magazine you want, you can click through on any of them to Amazon, then search for the one you want there. We will still get credit for your sale, and please let us know if you think other site visitors might like it so we can add it to our pages.

Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:52:54 PM

We wanted to let you know that we've been shuffling some things around in the navigation menu as well as on the Main Contents and Home pages. Additionally, we are cleaning up some of the fonts we use in these same areas as they were pretty big compared to most other sites. We will be working on this tomorrow as well. Have a good evening!

Thursday, March 11, 2010 7:11:09 PM

Yes, we changed the menu and link colors on this page, too. Links now have a highlight feature and match the text on the page better than the blue we were using. We'll do the archived blog pages as well.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010 6:28:32 AM

We have updated our information page on Powder Coating. It explains the differences between powder coating and painting, discusses how powder coating works and why it's a superior finish to paint for so many automotive items. We've also included a video that shows how powder coating is done, what you need to do it, etc. We know that many people are powder coating at home now, and saving a lot of money over sending small parts out and paying to have it done.

Sunday, March 07, 2010 7:17:01 PM

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the 1955-1971 Chrysler 300 Classic Car Auctions pages are done. So are the pages for the 1955-1957 Ford Thunderbird, plus the ones we mentioned in our post yesterday. Wanted to let you know what was going on in case you were viewing something and it suddenly changed on you! Have a good Sunday night!

Saturday, March 06, 2010 1:21:23 PM

Classic Car and Parts Auctions at Automotive Mileposts is undergoing some changes we'd like to let you know about. Many of you use our live auction feeds that allow you to search for classic cars by year, make, model, body style, etc., as well as our classic car parts auction listings. Those of you familiar with this know that eBay changed its format at one point, and we had to rather hurriedly change our pages to work with their new format. When we did this, one of the changes we made required side scrolling to the right to see everything on the page.

We didn't care for this, and we know most of you don't either, so we decided to update everything when we went back in to "fix" the side scrolling issue. We came up with a very nice fluid css page design that was quite fancy, then asked a small group of visitors to be our test group for the new design.

We made changes as suggested by the test group, and after many months of testing and review, it came down to the fact that the vast majority preferred the old style pages, they just didn't like the side scrolling. Some felt the many various options offered with the new design were just confusing, and the simpler (old) design was easier to use.

So, we have begun to update the old pages, keeping the original format as much as possible, eliminating the side scrolling, and making changes so they load faster. We've just started to roll them out, and will continue to do so over the next few months. We'll do it in groups, so you won't likely be switching back and forth between old and new pages. For instance, when we do the 1958 Thunderbird page, we'll also do the 1959 and 1960 T-bird pages at the same time. The 1961-1963 T-birds might still be the old design, and 1964-1966 could be the new design, but they'll be done in groups matching comparable years. The way most of you search, this will keep a more consistent look for you during the changes. We'll also be adding new search options to each page later, to help you find more things quicker and easier.

You can view the new pages online now using the links below. We hope you like the new look.

Buick Riviera For Sale
Cadillac Eldorado For Sale
Ford Thunderbird For Sale
Imperial For Sale
Lincoln Mark Series For Sale
Oldsmobile Toronado For Sale
1948 Tucker Classic Car Parts
1961 Oldsmobile Starfire Car Parts (1961-1966 pages are all new)
1977 Lincoln Versailles Car Parts (1977-1980 pages are new)

Friday, March 05, 2010 11:16:47 AM

The Oldsmobile Starfire was introduced in 1961 as GM's first personal luxury car. Available only as a convertible model, the Starfire included a more powerful Rocket V-8 engine with a dual exhaust system, a high performance rear axle, front bucket seats with top grain leather upholstery, a center console with Turbo Hydra-Matic stick shift, tachometer, power windows, power seat, white sidewall tires, and unique interior and exterior trim. It was Oldsmobile's most expensive model in 1961, and was intended to compete with the Ford Thunderbird and Chrysler 300.

A Holiday Hardtop model would join the line for 1962, and the Starfire would remain at the top of Oldsmobile's line up until 1966. That year, the Starfire would be bumped down the ranks to make room for the new Toronado. Strangely, the Toronado didn't feature all of Starfire's standard equipment, so the Starfire was stripped of several standard items such as power windows and seat, and leather upholstery.

The Starfire was quietly discontinued after the 1966 model year, although the name would be resurrected for a mid-70s hatchback that had little resemblance to the original cars. The Oldsmobile Starfire section is scheduled to be published as part of Phase Four, and this contents page will serve as a place holder until that tiime.

Thursday, March 04, 2010 12:48:12 PM

Not long ago, we read a rather unflattering article about the Lincoln Versailles. The article sparked a discussion here about the car, and we asked around to see what others had to say about it. Most recalled it as a fancy Ford Granada, which was the platform Lincoln used as the foundation for the Versailles. It was this, they said, that made the car a failure.

The Versailles was built to compete with the Cadillac Seville, introduced mid-year 1975. The Seville was intended to compete with the luxury imports which were beginning to make headway into the American market at the time, and the first generation Seville was a highly regarded automobile, with accolades given for its size, styling, performance, and appointments. We learned that the Seville also had rather modest underpinnings as it was based on the Chevrolet Nova platform. How could this be acceptable for Cadillac but not for Lincoln?

Upon pressing people further, we learned that the Versailles styling from the front and rear wasn't the problem. The issue was with its profile, which wasn't different enough from a Granada to hide its lineage. So, since we had all this information available to us, and since the Versailles is scheduled for Phase Three of the site, we decided to go ahead and publish the Contents page for the car using the information we had dug up.

We're actively working on the 1966 Lincoln Continental right now, and we thought the contrasts between the two cars was rather significant. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, and hope you enjoy this brief diversion into the post-gas crisis 1970s.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:26:26 AM

We've made some changes to our Main Contents Classic Car Menu. The cars are now listed alphabetically by make, then by year and model. Makes sense, huh? We had tried to balance out both sides of the menu listings so they were even in length, because we thought it looked better. We also had everything grouped by manufacturer, which put Chrysler at the bottom of the listings in the right column, below Packard and Lincoln. We had good intentions originally, but we think for now it's better this way. Hopefully, you'll agree and will be able to find the cars you want to view easier.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010 7:04:03 AM

1974 Lincoln Continental advanced viewing is now available. Our latest classic car section is now online for AM Blog readers to view in advance of the official announcement. This section completes our early seventies Lincolns, but we'll be back soon with the 1975-1979 Lincoln Continentals and the 1977-1980 Lincoln Versailles models in Phase Three.

1974 was the year of the Seat Belt/Starter Interlock System, which required the driver and front passenger to buckle up before you could start the car. As you can imagine, it wasn't a popular feature and didn't last for very long (thankfully). A button in the engine compartment would over ride the system if there were a problem, but it was intentionally not easy to access on a regular basis.

All Lincoln Continentals received the Cartier timepiece as part of the standard equipment provided, and a 6-Way Power Seat replaced the formerly standard 2-Way version. Twin Comfort Lounge Seats were available in the Town models as well, and more interior colors were also offered.

1974 should have been a good sales year for Lincoln, but the gas crisis of 1973-74 hit just 23 days after introduction, and put a damper on sales. This event was a preview of things to come, of course, and did ultimately usher in smaller luxury cars by the end of the decade, but for 1974 they were all big, comfortable, roomy, luxurious motorcars, as they always had been. Did people realize how lucky they were back then? Gas was cheap, and they got to drive a work of art that really made a statement about its owner. People knew at a glance that you were driving one of those. These cars commanded respect, and they got it. We hope you enjoy the 1974 Lincoln Continental section, we had fun doing it. We really do feel these cars are under-appreciated today. Perhaps someday that will change. Enjoy your Tuesday! (We'll announce this tomorrow for everyone else.)

Monday, March 01, 2010 1:24:37 PM

What is it they say about March? In like a Lion, out like a Lamb? With all the severe weather we've had in parts of the country this winter, we're ready to move on to spring! We're working on the 1974 Lincolns right now, and they should be ready to go pretty soon. Have a good afternoon, everyone.