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RockAuto October Newsletter :: Early Edition

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Another Happy Customer!

I'm very pleased to have found RockAuto! I've been a car tinkerer all my life and at 70 years of age, that's a lot.

But I just found RockAuto and am very pleased with the excellent website, the fast shipping, and the unexpectedly low prices.

Jack in Arkansas

 

Upcoming Events
If you would like your event featured here, email us with details.

Arklatex Motor Massacre Halloween Car Show
10/31/2009
Texarkana, TX
e-mail

Elite Corvettes 1st Annual Platinum Series Car Show
11/1/2009
Pasadena, CA
website

Louisiana Custom Cruisers Benefit Car Show
11/7/2009
Boutte, LA
e-mail

Moreland 3rd Annual Autumn Car & Motorcycle Show
11/7/2009
Moreland, GA
e-mail

Flabob Veteran Fly n Drive Show
11/7/2009
Riverside, CA
website

1st Annual Orland Chamber Of Commerce Rod & Custom Car Show
11/7-11/8/2009
Orland, CA
website

Veterans Appreciation Car Show
11/8/2009
Baltimore, MD
e-mail

Grass Roots Jeep Club 1st Annual Jeeps in the Vineyard
11/14/2009
Atco, NJ
website

2nd Annual Texas Road House Car Show
11/14/2009
Sierra Vista, AZ
e-mail

Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals
11/21-11/22/2009
Rosemont, IL
website

 

RockAuto on TV

RockAuto on TV

Keep an eye out for the new RockAuto TV commercial!

Contrary to popular belief, our IT guy Dave, was not the inspiration for the customer in the commercial. But the resemblance is uncanny.

 

 

Forum of the Month

MarkIIForum.com

MarkIIForum.com was started on July 4, 2009. MarkIIForum.com exists to be a registry, source of restoration information, and a place of comradery amongst owners and enthusiasts of the car. All Continental Mark II owners and enthusiasts are welcome to join. The forum contains special areas of interest including general discussion, technical discussions, a library of documents, and much more. Members have unlimited uploading privileges which allow them to show off pictures of their cars and provide detailed visuals for repair projects. Valuable information is at hand for tips on repairing and servicing this unique automobile.

The Mark II is a very rare car. Only 3000 were made in 1956-57 by Ford to introduce the Continental Division as a competitor to GM's Cadillac in the luxury market. Approximately 1500-1800 have survived in varying degrees of condition. The car sold for $10,000 which made it the most expensive US car on the market at that time. In 1956 that would buy two Cadillacs. Original owners of the car included Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Nelson Rockefeller, and Marilyn Monroe. Examples of the car are on permanent display at various museums of modern art.

 

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact jessa@rockauto.com.

 

 

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

Ouch!

 

While attending college in Omaha, Nebraska, my son had a very rusty (especially around the trunk) 1985 Olds Cutlass Calais. My son called one day to say he hit a pothole which caused a tear in the right rear wheel well which went from the trunk floor to the upper shock absorber mount. This left a useless free floating shock.

Being a bit of a cobbler, I purchased some metal plates and a box of stove bolts, then made the four hundred mile journey to Omaha to repair the Calais. We went to a friends house to use his garage as it was to cold to work outside. After we successfully completed the repair I proceeded to back the car out of the garage...but left the driver's door open.

Next project...repair a damaged car door!

Alan in Wisconsin

 

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for awhile!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and shirt size (large or extra large) and we will mail you a RockAuto "Do it yourself?" t-shirt if we publish your story (see the t-shirts under Extras in the catalog). The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

 

 

RockAuto’s Ten Year Anniversary

RockAuto

 

It is RockAuto.com’s ten year anniversary. A huge thank you to RockAuto customers, staff, and suppliers!

Some things have not changed much. Ten years ago I was driving a ’79 Chrysler 300 and that car still has the pole position in my garage. Whether it is the car or the kitchen faucet, fixing it myself still makes me feel more in control and in tune with my environment.

A lot has also changed. Auto parts industry veterans fondly remember the ‘60s when stocking a handful of parts would repair nearly every model of car on the road. Chrysler, Ford, and GM cars came with relatively few engine, transmission, brake, and other mechanical system choices, but there were lots of great body and interior styling options. Cars of different size with radically different styling often shared many parts. Need front shocks and a starter for a ’68 Dodge 426 Hemi Charger? Shocks and starter off a V8 powered ’68 Dodge Dart will fit just fine.

Now in 2009 we are nostalgically looking back at the relatively paltry number of parts we had to inventory ten years ago. The number of new parts introduced each year has steadily increased. In ’99 there were two Kia models and engines sold in North America. This year there are ten Kia models and seven engines. Scion and new Mini Coopers did not exist ten years ago. US manufacturers may be cutting models now, but over the last decade they were going strong. Chevy offered nineteen engines plus a hybrid this year, four more than in ‘99.

To keep up coverage of new cars and expand our offerings for older cars, we added new parts from our original suppliers and also steadily sought parts from new manufacturers. Visit our manufacturer page http://www.rockauto.com/lang/en/lines.html to see our well more than one hundred manufacturers. A1 Cardone is still first and WIX is still last on the alphabetical list, but over the last ten years lots of new manufacturers have been added in-between like Akebono brakes, Kee convertible tops, Marshall crate engines, ReTech transfer cases and more.

The convenience and value of having the RockAuto catalog online and the parts shipped directly from the warehouse has grown along with the increase in part numbers. Ten years ago it would have taken a good-sized tree to print the RockAuto catalog on paper and now it would take a grove of trees. There are currently 97,236,859 auto and body part applications listed in the RockAuto online catalog. We even list which Europe-only models, rare old cars, and motorcycles our parts fit. Thank goodness we do not have to try and guess which of those parts to stock in individual store fronts.

Everyone at RockAuto looks forward to helping our customers keep their cars maintained and on the road for the next ten years. I know I plan to still be tooling around in my old Chrysler in 2019!

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

 

 

Keith's 1965 AMC Rambler Marlin
Keith's 1965 AMC Rambler Marlin

I traded my 1969 Ford F250 4x4 for this 1965 AMC Rambler Marlin about nine years ago. We drove/hauled the car from Colorado to San Diego, California. I got her looking pretty nice about two years ago and now drive it on the weekends. From the paperwork I found in the glove box, I found out that the car was originally sold in Reno Nevada, and then spent the majority of its life around Los Angeles. It appears it was in Colorado for about one year before I brought her back to California.

The car drives like a dream. It is all stock except for the tinted windows, Torque Thrust wheels, and the carburetor. It used to be very hard to find old Rambler parts, but RockAuto is the first place I look now. Thanks for not forgetting the long lost independents! They are part of America's automotive history. I also own two International Scouts and RockAuto has many parts for those old binders also!

Keith in California

 

Share Your Hard Work
Do you purchase parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto would like to feature you and your car or truck in our monthly newsletter. Please email flamur@rockauto.com with details.

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