The Cal-look Lounge

Does any one have outside shots of "all" the Auto Haus locations with inside shots as well...?

Here is the Orange store with my Ghia and Schwimmers "Pepto"

Now that's What I'm talking about !..That's a store I never got around to see..!

Is that Eric Estrada in the Bosch ad in the window?  Great shot.

Now.....was not there a Auto Haus in Downey, on Firestone & Paramount ?....I swear there was one ..?.... ???

Looks like Mario Andretti to me.

I like their slogan that's over the front door.

yes

Great...So I'm not losing my mind...... yet ....!.... ;D

here're the adress from the auto haus stores  ;)

some stores in pictures
the 6315 beach blvd at buena park

and the 6450 dale st in buena park too ,it's the ware house

1953 newport blvd , costa mesa store where doug mische worked  ;)

1211 NO tustin ave ,orange store

5660 pacific coast hgwy ,long beach store with a certain mark k. behind the counter

rick M 67 in front the costa mesa store

Awsome Fab's....I'm loving it !...thanks..... 8)

Mark who ?? ???






 ;D ;D ;D

Hey Speedwell...thanks for the post. I think I have a shot of me in front of the Orange store in Tustin too.

Rick M

File this under "If only"...

my short sighted in laws had said yes to Lynn's offer, my late wife and I would have owned Sports Car Specialties, DBA as " Autohaus Orange".

Instead they invested in a main stream, reliable company...blah  blah  blah,....and quickly lost every single penny  :D :D

 :D :D  See, I told you so!!  ;D ;D

This is a cool post. I never worked at any of the Auto-Haus stores, but sure bought alot of parts there. Mainly the Buena Park and La Habra stores, cool place, cool people. Mark I remember at La Habra and John (forget his last name) at the Buena Park store. And just a hop skip and a jump away...Johnny's Speed and Chrome. Man I miss these stores!

Ted

I bought my first Formula France ( I think thats right or is it Formuling...?... ??? ) steering wheel and my Hurst Shifter...in Buena park and my Kadrons at La Habra ,I think I paid about $150.00 0r $ $160.00 for them... ;D

Formuling yep  ;)

Yup, that was one of my stores, the Downey store, along with the LaHabra one.

Marc

1974...I bought my first set of Porsche style "Mangles" wheels and S&S header from the LB store... came back a few weeks later for some fiberglass "Buggy" seats.
Seems like Dave G was behind the counter... I miss AH.

Marc did you work there ..?

Dave owned the Long Beach store for a while then purchased the Orange store. I worked at the Orange store for a few years (for Dave....he will have to tell you some stories as I don't want to let all of the cats out of the bag), Schwimmer lived around the corner from there and Greg B. came to work there with and after me.

I ran the LaHabra store and Rich Fersch worked for me and ran the Downey store.

bought my oval from Rich in 1979,

Like the time I came in a little late and I couldn't find you! You were sleeping IN the glass display case on a set of CoCo mats!

Marc,
don't know if you remember Bob Pabst, we were talking about the La Habra store just last weekend trying to remember who ran it.  Your store is where we bought all of our parts back in the late 70's.
jim smith

While on the subject of Auto Haus people, is Mike Ahlstrom or Steve Hostetler still around?

Marc...Do you remember someone at the La habra store that sold I believe a"61" ragtop grey primered Baja Bug..?

Thats 1 of MANY...............did you ever know about the water balloons?

Thanks John. I lost touch with Mike some thirty plus years ago when he moved to Palm Springs, and went to work for UPS! Talk about
"putting down roots", he should'nt be to hard to find then.[attachment=1]DVB Drag Day 1 @ Carlsbad 76'.

Look at them shoes! :o That's one part of the 70's we can do without! ;D

and special turn signal on phil's car  :o

 ;D I knew I'd be in trouble if I posted that pic  :D :D  The 70's disco shoes are indefensible, so Mike will have beg the mercy of the court on that charge  ;D ;D

As to the turn signals, once again they have attracted attention away from the stealthy Porsche Carrera front wheels  :D

Here is another shot of my 1700cc powered 67 in front of the Orange Auto Haus store in 1977. Those were the days.

Rick Mortensen

I know the name but ...........

Marc

It might have been me. I had one that was primer and blue, I think. I've had several Bajas but, except for one I hauled up to Washington, I can't remember what happened to them.

Oh, here is a picture of the one you may be thinking of..............
[attachment=1]
yup, that was my Baja. Did a lot of off-roading with it.


Marc

Yeah...! thats the one I'm talking about !...My friend bought that one !!...I don't remember what he did with it !..but that is the one !....Wow....what a flashback !!

I ended up with the lights you had mounted on the front quarter panels !...they were  marchal's ...?( I'm not sure on the spelling) ..He took them off and mounted some KC's insted ...I loved those Headlights !...they were on my "66" till another friend totalled it !

I would have to do some deep searching for photos of the Downey store.  I believe most of which would be the remodeling of it. It was a real dump with wooden doors falling off the hinges, broken windows, etc when we leased the building. Bob Edmonds, the Auto Haus franchise owner picked it out and I actually cried when I first saw it. When I went to the Downey city hall to get the business license, I noticed a map on the wall with that part of Firestone Blvd in red. I asked what that meant and was told it was the area deemed to be revitalized. That meant unless you were tearing a building down and rebuilding, permits were not being issued and any and all modifications were to be approved by the city council.........good going Bob.
So we had no choice but to work in the middle of night and fix the ceiling, replace the floor, broken windows and install modern glass doors. We even had the Auto Haus sign put up after hours. It worked!......I'm sure if we had done the work during the day, someone would have stopped us but when all of a sudden Auto Haus appeared, the improvement was sufficient enough that the city looked the other way.
Eventually, Rich Fersch bought the business, but not the Auto Haus franchise and renamed the store Race Haus. The city would not allow the Auto Haus sign to be removed or even covered up so with Race Haus painted on the building and the big Auto Haus sign out front, Rich enjoyed the best of two worlds. People saw the logo and thought it was Auto Haus which it was once and Rich did not have to pay franchise fees.

[attachment=1]
This is the La Habra sign but the Downey sign was identical except for the location, of course.






Marc DRA
[attachment=2]
the La Habra store
[attachment=3]
inside the La Habra store
[attachment=4]
and some dork who worked the counter

 Great Info & Pics Marc.

  I'd love to see more pics of the shop interiors if any exist? I just like seeing what was displayed and how.

    Thanks.

Marc , I think I bought my first set of Kadrons from you in "78"

sold a bunch of those...................can you still buy them?

Those Marchal Amplilux headlights you got from my old car were very trick...but they had a habit of melting the plastic connector....I assume you had no problems.

Marc

Marc, I remember buying my first set of carbs from you at the La Habra store, 42DCNF's when I worked at Auto-Craft, man that was what, late 70's early 80's?

Ted

I'm not sure if you can still get them or not ..?  I think I paid $171.00 and change for them !.......As far as the Marchal's I never had a problem on my "66" Would love to find another set someday...!!!!

Great photos Marc. That's exactly the way I remember you and the La Habra store looking! (I'm still waiting to see your photos of that girl in the tube top and bikini bottoms....or less)

Yes , I second what Dean and Fred are saying....! That's "EXACTLY" what I was looking for when I started this thread...!

Thanks for sharing the pic's Marc...... ;D

X3  ;)

I'm looking for the pics of the girl in (or out) of the bikini…

I think my first wife tore them up but she couldn't erase my memory. <grin>