AM Blog
December, 2010 (Archived)

ARCHIVE:

- Current Blog

2010:

- 11/2010
- 10/2010
- 09/2010
- 08/2010
- 07/2010
- 06/2010
- 05/2010
- 04/2010
- 03/2010
- 02/2010
- 01/2010

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

Thursday, December 30, 2010 11:49 PM

Everyone at Automotive Mileposts would like to wish our readers a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011.

To celebrate the new year, we present a scene from a new year past, a gathering of luxury car owners assembled to herald in New Year's 1955 in style. Their new cars at the time are our beloved classics of today. See our 2011 New Year's Greeting for details.

And just as a new year gives us reason to look back at where we have been, and make plans for the future, our classic cars remind us how things have changed over the years. Despite all the new years' celebrations in between then and now, these classics have stood the test of time.

Play it safe during your new year's celebrations this year, and live to drive and enjoy your classic in the coming years.

Happy New Year!

Saturday, December 25, 2010 7:56 AM

Feliz Navidad
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Mele Kalikimaka
Joyeux Noel
Kala Christouyenna!
Buone Feste Natalizie
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Everyone at Automotive Mileposts!
We hope you have a safe and restful day, doing something you enjoy. No matter what langauge you say it in, the meaning is the same...Merry Christmas!

AUTOMOTIVE MILEPOSTS HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE (see updates below)

Gift Guide
Our popular Holiday Gift Guide returns for the 2010 shopping season. We're still in the process of updating the guide, so don't be surprised if you see changes from time to time during the month. If you're looking for gift ideas, please start here and know that purchases made from the merchants on this page also help to support this site.

When you're ready to buy, please think of our Holiday Gift Guide first! We'll let you know when we've completed our page updates, but the links on the page now do work and there are great gift ideas already there. Happy shopping!

Friday, December 24, 2010 8:04 AM

Holidays of the Decade 2000-2010
So, here we are...Christmas Eve 2010. Another year is almost behind us. And this year has had special meaning to those of us at Automotive Mileposts. We write about history, things that were, and a time that was as we document the data we publish on this site. What seemed a bit strange to us when we first realized it was that in doing so over the last 10 years, we've created our own history. A decade of work, all now a part of the World Wide Web. Anyone who has an interest in the classic cars covered on our site can take a step back in time, marvel at the colors that were once offered, consider a time when interior trim choices were more than just three or four shades of beige, gray, and black, and celebrate the new innovations and features that were announced each year.

The new car introductions were once a family affair, when everyone would get dressed to go out for the night to revel at the new models. Those days are long gone now, and with them we believe one of the better parts of Americana slipped away.

On this Christmas Eve in 2010, we offer you a look back at our history. A decade of holiday graphics and greetings, issued with respect and thanks to you, or readers, each year. And as you begin to turn your focus to family and friends and the holiday that's upon us, please know that your allowing Automotive Mileposts to be a part of your life means a lot to us. Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Thursday, December 23, 2010 9:00 AM

1965 Lincoln Continental Executive Limousine
As promised on Tuesday, a bonus page for the 1965 Lincoln Continental section has been prepared. This page is now online, and covers information specific to the 1965 Executive Limousine built by Lehmann-Peterson for Lincoln. We've included information on exterior paint color availability, as well as statistics on the most popular interior trim choices, and interior and exterior dimensions.

We've also provided information on promotion of the Executive Limousine by Lincoln, as well as a few details on the competition at the time, which included the Cadillac Fleetwood Seventy-Five Sedan and Limousine, which were actually built by Fisher Body for Cadillac, and the Crown Imperial Limousine built by Ghia and the Imperial LeBaron Limousine built later by Armbruster/Stageway for Chrysler. It's interesting that the limousine business is now completely done by coach builders, and that no manufacturers build limousines any longer. Perhaps another sign of the times?

Post 2: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 5:10 PM

1965 Lincoln Continental—online now!

Enjoy: 1965 Lincoln Continental

AM Blog readers are getting an advanced screening of the new section, it will be announced to everyone else tomorrow. We are continuing to add some final touches to it, so expect to see some changes over the next day or so. Thanks for being so patient, we hope the wait was worth it! (We did a lot of graphic work for this section.)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:37 AM

The 1965
Lincoln Continental
section is coming!

The long awaited, highly anticipated, incredibly stylish 1965 Lincoln Continentals are almost here. They're nearly ready for publication, and yes, you may open before Christmas!

We have completed 5 of the 6 pages in this section, and the finished pages are being proofread now. You might be surprised to know that there were more changes between '64 and '65 than meet the eye.

The last page is being worked on right now, and should be ready to go later today. We will also have a bonus page for this section, but that will have to be a surprise. Check back later!

Monday, December 20, 2010 6:06 PM

Just a quick update. Over the weekend, we performed a lot of "behind the scenes" work, updating the HTML code of over 200 pages. On most, you won't see any difference by viewing them in your browser, but they are more efficient than they were, and closer to being "code compliant" as well. (Some of them do have a different appearance, if you happen to visit the pages that had visible changes made.)

We're still progressing on the 1965 Lincoln Continental. We have two of six pages completed, one is almost finished, and the other three are usually fairly fast to complete. We hope to have the '65 Lincolns online in the next day or two, we'll update you here of course. Have a great evening!

Post 2: Thursday, December 16, 2010 11:56 AM

More music from 1969! Motown's David Ruffin made it to #5 on March 19th with My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me), and A Group Called Smith hit #4 with Baby It's You on October 22, 1969. [Go to 1969 Music Video page.]

Thursday, December 16, 2010 11:29 AM

Another 1969 Music Video!
The Sir Douglas Quintet started off 1969 on a good note with their #1 hit Mendocino, which peaked during the week of February 5, 1969. More great music and videos coming soon!

Saturday, December 11, 2010 9:35 AM

1969 Music Videos
Have you ever wondered what it was like when your classic car was new? What are now classics were then late model cars in daily use. If you could go back in time, no doubt there are a few you'd like to buy and tuck away in storage! No doubt some of you experienced this period of time, and most likely have good memories of it. But we're learning that today's younger generation has discovered the sixties and is embracing the era. From its cars and music to its television shows and movies, a whole new group of people are groovin' to the decade.

To celebrate this classic car era, we've assembled a dozen videos of hit songs from 1969, the last year of a very exciting decade known as the sixties. Some of them you've likely heard before, but there are a few you may have forgotten about. We're adding new videos throughout the holiday season this year, and the latest is Tracy by The Cuff Links. If you haven't checked them out yet, please do as there's something for almost everyone—from The Beatles, to The Turtles, to The Monkees...hey, sounds like a trip to the zoo, doesn't it? Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Friday, December 10, 2010 9:23 AM

Classic Car Parts Auctions Keyword Search
We've already had an enthusiastic response to the return of our Keyword Search page! We have had a few questions, however, so we thought we'd address them.

The first pages are just now beginning to appear online. There will be many, many more with a wide variety of searches designed to help you dig down deep and find the classic car parts you need. As the index page for this section grows, we will break down the searches into groups, possibly even on separate pages, to keep the index page size small for faster loading. Some of you have indicated you like the search links all on one page, as you have multiple makes of cars and it's more convenient to have everything grouped together when you search for parts. We will keep that in mind as we move forward.

As of now, we have part number searches online for 1955-1979 Thunderbirds, and NOS searches for Autolite, Motorcraft, Rotunda, Delco, Delco Radio, Delco Switch, and Delco Switch Cadillac only. Also, NOS parts for Cadillac Seville are online. There will be more to come.

(We are also working on the 1965 Lincoln Continental section, and we hope to have it online soon.)

Thursday, December 9, 2010 11:38 AM

Announcing the return of our Classic Car Parts Auctions Keyword Index! Years ago, this was one of our more popular features on the site. We had to discontinue it when eBay changed the search feed because everything on the page had to be reworked to accommodate eBay's new code. We've had to test our search terms and reconfigure our links, and this has taken some time to make sure we return the best results.

We think we've got it close enough now to let you take a look at it. We've improved and expanded it to include part number searches in addition to keywords and key phrases. This section is configured to resemble our other auction pages, but we are going to give them a slightly different look. To minimize confusion, the layout will be similar, but the color of the header at the top of the pages will differ.

The current Classic Car Parts Auctions pages will still be sorted by year, make, and model, and retain the golden background color in the header. Each page will continue to have a unique color scheme.

The new Keyword Index pages will have a black background color in the header, and a gold/black theme that is consistent on each page. Multiple searches will appear on some pages as well. For instance, a part number search for 1968 Thunderbird parts will include the 1967, 1969, 1970, and 1971 part numbers as well, since there is some degree of interchangeability between those years. Each year will appear in a separate section, to keep the items organized, but they will all appear on the same page, which should make it easier to compare availability.

Right now, searches for 1967-1971 Thunderbird Part Numbers, 1972-1976 Thunderbird Part Numbers, Autolite NOS, FoMoCo NOS, and Rotunda NOS are online and ready for you to try out. We hope this will help you locate all the parts that everyone wants, but others aren't finding because they aren't using the best search terms to find them! And where will you find the best search terms? Right here, of course!

New searches will be added frequently, so check back often if you don't see a search of interest to you.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010 9:12 AM

AUTO BREVITY
LOOK Magazine's 1969 Automotive Preview

LOOK Magazine had published an Annual Automotive Preview for 13 years when the time came to feature the new 1969 models in the Fall of 1968. Since this was the last new car preview of the decade, LOOK editors wanted something different for the section this time.

In addition to writing about the new models, styling changes, and new features being introduced on the 1969 models, a retrospective of the decade, as well as predictions on the automotive industry during the coming decade were included. Special photographic techniques were planned to accompany the article, and the goal was to prevent the photographs in the feature from looking like shots out of a brochure or advertisement.

What the photographers had to do before they could photograph some of the cars may surprise you!

Sunday, December 5, 2010 8:33 AM

Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury Part Numbers, Casting Numbers, and Date Codes breaks down what each digit in a Ford part number defines. Once you learn the basics, it becomes easy to understand what the numbers signify on that part you have, or whether a part you're looking at will work on your car.

You'll be able to tell if the part is a service part or not, and which department was originally responsible for the design. Ford often used parts from Mercury, and vice versa, so you may not always be looking for a Ford part code for your classic Ford car, it could have used a Mercury part originally.

We will be adding more information in the future, to help you define which Major Group the basic part numbers belong to, as well as which components are included in the various Groups.

Additionally, information on identifying casting date codes is also provided.

Saturday, December 4, 2010 6:50 PM

Do you remember the song Listen to the Band by The Monkees? No? It topped out at #8 on July 9, 1969 and we just added it to the 1969 Music Videos page. The Monkees were at the end of their popularity as a group at this time, but were still able to score top ten hits anyway. This one doesn't sound like The Monkees, it's less pop sounding than their earlier hits. Give it a listen, you might be surprised that you remember it once you hear it!

Thursday, December 2, 2010 4:30 PM

Classic Car Parts Auctions
In response to additional input from you, we've made additional changes to the search function on our parts auctions pages. We've left the number of results returned at 50, but have changed the sort order back to items ENDING first, and increased the auction types included in the search so more listings are returned.

We're attempting to minimize the generic stainless steel interior screw kits, generic rubber grommet kits, after market carpeted floor mats, car covers, and other similar things. We're doing this because we believe if you want those things, that's what you'll search for. So, it's not necessary to see carpeted floor mats listed for a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado, unless they are the factory mats. If we're wrong, let us know, we've provided a contact link on every parts auction page on the right hand side so you can provide feedback directly to us. And we will do what we can to ensure you get the results you want.

Hopefully, the changes made today will help you find the classic car parts you're really looking for. (We will also be rolling out a new type of search on a trial basis in the next few days.)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 8:29 AM

We officially kick off the 2010 holiday season with our 2010 Holiday Greeting. It's a virtual greeting card from us to you! As the year comes to a close, we'd like to thank all of you for your support of AutomotiveMileposts.com this year. Our achievements are minor considering everything that's going on in the world today, but we are thankful just the same.

On November 4th, Automotive Mileposts surpassed our record setting 2009 annual traffic figures. For the month of August, we set a new one month record for traffic to the site. Also in August, we closed out Phase Two and began Phase Three of site development. We've added 34 years worth of classic cars to the site year to date, plus hundreds of updates to existing pages as well as many new pages on show cars, limited edition models, special trim options, etc.

Most importantly, none of these things would have been possible without you. Our deepest thanks to you for spending a part of your time at AutomotiveMileposts.com.