Autopartstomorrow.com: 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery

Autopartstomorrow.com: 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery: "As someone who has always loved the old Chevrolet Suburban Bread Truck design I cannot believe I have never seen this particular configurat..."

One Leaf Will Power a House for a Day!

I just ran across an article that talks about an MIT professors project that has developed an artificial leaf which uses photosynthesis to break down water into Oxygen and Hydrogen and loads them into a fuel cell for energy production. All this time I have been waiting for the next battery technology breakthrough and it turns out I should have been looking at the leaf!

Autopartstomorrow.com: Pinto for Sale... Cheap!!

Autopartstomorrow.com: Pinto for Sale... Cheap!!: "The Ford Pinto was one of those cars that many of my friends drove 'back in the day'. To be honest, it was much like the GM small car offer..."

Amelia Island Concours Delegance

This years display of historic and elegant Classic vehicles was on display recently at Amelia Island, Florida. It looks to be a place where old world charm is honored as well as the tradition of spectacular vehicles. Much like the pre and post events at the Kentucky Derby, it is a place to be seen. This article from Octane Magazine highlights the event and includes many beautiful photos of the breathtaking cars.

This is a trailer for a new movie...

See if you can guess which one?

Peter Lik - Photographer

Cars 2, The Countdown Continues!

Office Pranks

One of the guys doing this prank looks like me, except that he knows how to use hand tools. However the principle behind the prank is exactly like me. I found it on bnet.com ...

Hey! Where'd my fingers go?

This is a must see video about table saw safety... It reminds me of one beautiful Saturday morning when I was in high school and working at a service station (the beginning of my automotive career).

A regular customer came in after lunch with his arm in a huge padded cast. I asked him what happened, and he said he started the morning off working on some cabinets on his table saw in the garage. As he was making a cut he felt a sharp pain in his leg and looked down just in time to see a water moccasin hanging from his jeans... and then he heard the sickening noise of three of his fingers being sliced off.

He said he reached down, killed the snake and then put it and his fingers in a cooler with ice and headed to the hospital. To this day that is the best answer I have ever received from the question "How Ya Doin'?"

Italian Motorcycles on Display

The newly opened Museum of Design Atlanta is currently exhibiting a collection of Italian motorcycles. Follow this link for dates and information about this great display of the artwork which is motorcycle design.

1970 Dodge Charger RT

Beautiful Car... Great engine... drove like a super-charged Pontoon boat on plane.

Not about a car, but I liked the picture...

jjjj

End of the week slowdown ...

When my wife and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'it's open!' His reply: 'I know. I already got that side . '

This was at the FORD dealership in Canton ,MS

Do It Anyway...

More and more these days we are all being called to do more with less, for less and in spite of rising tensions in all areas of our life. I believe it breaks across all industries and walks of life. We all just got ahead of ourselves and sometimes adjustment is needed. I was thinking of this allegory last weekend as I was trimming bushes and cutting back the Crepe Myrtles in our front yard. It seems counter-intuitive to cut back almost all of last years growth during the last throes of Winter, just before Spring begins. But if you know anything about plants, if you don't continually prune, the growth will not be nearly as robust in the coming growing season.

All that being said, it brings me back around to one of the major tenets of my life. I found these "rules" several years ago when on a plane trip back from my mother's funeral in Pennsylvania. I was obviously at a low point and came across the following long quote...

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith


People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

I hope you are able to make the same leap of understanding about life that I was. It is not about the forces from without. True happiness and fulfillment comes from working towards what you know to be "right", despite what others may try to burden you with. Persevere, continue on and thrive into what you are called to be. You will be happier for it.

Selling Auto Parts is Complicated...

Read this article from Aftermarket Business for a good description on some of the complexities involved with getting the right part to the right customer in a timely manner.

Hire for Humility...

I read this article with a skeptical frame of mind. What it says seems so obvious I am wondering why anyone would find it a new idea? Just the tone and general surprise in the findings highlight what has happened to our society (and continues...). What do you think?

Hire for Humility...

Japan Tsunami Before and After Photos

Obviously They Have Good Taste?

At rightnowautoparts.com we sell parts for tons of vehicles. With over 100,000 SKU's available (unique part numbers), you can find most things you might need for late model vehicles on our site. There is however a limit to what makes sense for us to stock. Once a vehicle reaches the limited status of classics like this AMC Pacer and the Toyota van behind it you will probably need to find another source for your auto parts.

Now the real fun begins... Which one is uglier? Follow this link to thetruthaboutcars.com for a more thorough listing of out of favor vehicles that they have compiled. I am a big fan of unique, but obviously sometimes the eye is in the beholder.

Japanese Tsunami Cars

Here is a very small segment of the damage in Japan, new cars ready for shipment. Read this article at autoblog.com for more pictures and details.

A New Day at GM

Here's to a successful GM! The more cars they sell the better for all of us. We are an ACDelco wholesale distributor, so more vehicles on the road equals more opportunity for maintenance parts in the future...

1964 Dodge Dart GT Convertible

2011 Mardi Gras Car by Hot Wheels

I have mentioned before my affinity for combining seemingly non related words to get ideas from Google and Bing. Who knew that there was such a thing as a Mardi Gras Car? I will need to get with some of my New Orleans friends and get some "learnin".

Shelby Ford Focus GT500

Now that I have your attention... just think about what that might be like. Scary isn't it? Car and Driver seems to think it may actually come to pass. What do you think? Good... or Bad?

Ralph Lauren's Auto Collection

If you are a car lover who tends towards the "Autos as Works of Art" side of things there will be a collection shown soon that cannot be missed. Ralph Lauren's personal collection will be shown in Paris soon and believe me... it is a beautiful grouping of exquisite vehicles. Click through to the article on Autoblog.com to read more and browse the included photos. Beautiful !!

Article on the Car Industry circa 2025

This interesting article from the Oakland press paints an interesting picture of possible scenarios from the not to distant future. What are your ideas of the auto industry in the year 2025? I believe it is not to much of a stretch to see the emerging technologies of computer driven vehicles, cloud computing and an overall smart grid combined to create a kind of restricted highway system that will only be available (and highly regulated/taxed) to those willing to pay dearly. That may be a pessimistic view of a day some 14 years in the future but certainly regulatory, economic and technological trends are pointing in that direction. Maybe I am wrong and we will all be spending huge money to customize our new self contained fuel cell vehicles that ride above land and sea for a one time purchase price (read no fuel cost). Either way, I think we can all agree that the next 10-20 years will bring about an extremely "changed" world, especially in the personal transportation realm...

Go Ahead, You Drive... I'll Watch

I have to admit, I am a little worried about totally giving over control of driving my car to a remote computer network. On the other hand, I can see some real benefit to letting the car drive while I do something else (like take a nap). I am just wondering if this might be a counter productive invention in an era where we really need to be thinking about driving less. Making it so that you can be productive while burning gas going from point A to point B will probably add to the actual miles traveled each year.

Let's hurry up with that self contained fuel cell technology that uses the Nitrogen in the air and releases pure water as a result... then we can drive all we want.

Give me the last 8 of your VIN...

If you aren't a parts professional or mechanic, these words may sound like a foreign language to you. A VIN number is the unique "serial number" of each vehicle. The digits letters and numbers and the actual location in the series each mean something to the cataloging process used to find the right auto parts. You can get pretty close using the traditional year, make, model and engine size questions, but it should be exact with the critical "last 8".

What most people don't always realize is that even though you may have an 1988 Chevrolet Caprice Classic, it may have been built with different configurations than others of the same year, make and model. This has continued to become more and more important in recent years as even the electrical modules can be programmed differently according to different options.

So, when the parts expert says "Give me the last 8" he is looking for the VIN number for your car so that he can get you exactly the right part... the first time.

P.S. If the car isn't convenient, most of the time your VIN number will also be on the insurance card you have in your wallet. Just pull it out, count backwards 8 digits and get the right part.

50th Anniversary Mustang Design

This article from autoweek.com suggests that there will be international input for the "new" Mustang Sports Coupe design due out in 2014-2015. While they are at it I am sure the thinking is towards a 50th anniversary edition, so it will be something special. My bet, and there is some consternation from the boys here at rightnowautoparts.com, is that it will be a streamlined and modernized version of the 64 1/2 Mustang Coupe. It may be that the shape is not windtunnel friendly, but with the new engine designs and electronics available they will still be able to post some impressive numbers. Can anyone say Variable Valve Adjusted 289?