Celebrating 20 Years
Randy designed and built the first 6-volt alternator in 1987. Up to that point there was no such thing as a 6-volt alternator, only modern 12-volt alternators were available.
Today Randy's 6-volt alternators are well known throughout the world for their bullet -proof reliability. With well over 5000 of his alternators still in daily service his remains the only true “built from scratch” 6-volt alternator on the market.
It has been 20 years since Randy introduced his 6-volt alternator, so he thought it would be fun to take a look back and share with you some of the early 6-volt alternator advertising. More 20-year history will appear when it is found.
Our marketing ideas over the years.
Click each link to view the associated image.
- First Business Envelope from 1987
- Fifth Avenue's first 6-Volt Alternator Brochure from 1987. It was quite a challenge to establish a market for a product that did not exist before its introduction.
- This publication is also from 1987 and was designed for dealers to use with a counter display.
- After much refinement over the years, Volume 7 of The Alternator Gazette won a first place design award at the 1987 International Automotive Media Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Order blanks were pretty simple back then. There were only four choices of alternator mounting brackets along with the alternators themselves - nothing like the 35 different products offered in 2007.
- Test Your Knowledge … this ad ran in a local farming newspaper entitled the “Grass and Grain” starting about 1987 and ran every month for the next three years until the national advertising campaign was started with the publicity help of the Great Race..
- In 1990 Great Race cars started appearing in Fifth Avenue advertising, such as this ad for the gear driven electric fuel pumps, which we still sell today.
Where have all of the alternators gone?
Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts has been building and selling their own design of alternators since 1987. We are often asked how many we have sold over the years and have we ever sold any to customers living out of the United States.
To answer the first question first, we have sold (as of January 2007) approx 7,500 alternators since their introduction in 1987 and they continue to be one of our best sellers. We have sold alternators to customers in all of the 50 states including a few notable ones such as all four of the major movie studios and the Queen of England.
Fifth Avenue has also sent their alternator to customers around the world. Here is a partial list of those countries:
Canadian Provinces:
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
Canadian Territories:
- Northwest Territories
- Yukon
And Some of The Rest…
- Aruba
- Australia
- Brazil
- Belgium
- Belize
- Chile
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- England
- Japan
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Puerto Rico
- Sweden
- Switzerland
Fifth Avenue Facts
Randy designed and built the first 6-volt alternator in 1987. Up to that point there was no such thing as a 6-volt alternator, only modern 12-volt alternators were available.