February, 2009

Regular Weekly Events

Don't forget . . . Meet and greet every Saturday night
-  Albertson's Parking Lot at The ' Y' in OakHill, 7:00pm
-  North Cruise.  last I heard they were meeting at IH35 and Hwy 79.

So, get your rod out and have some fun!

Scheduled Events

• March 27
  • Vintage Air Annual Customer Appreciation Day, Selma, TX
    
• March 28th
  • Hill Country WINE TOUR, Chevy Club invite, leave by 10.30am meet at the "Y" Poker run
    
• April 17
  • Breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Buda next to Cabella's 9:00 am
    
• April 17th-18th
  • Lone Star Round up, Expo Center then So. Congress Ave.
• April 18
  • Smithville, Car Show, $5. 9 - 11am, awards at 11:30am Dennis, 512-784-1669
• May 15-17
  • Fredericksburg, Texas LSSRA State Run (Recommended)

Special Notices

DUES for 2009 are Due.
Send them in now or pay at the next meeting.  If you have not paid your 2009 Dues please send them in or pay at the next meeting.  This might be your last newsletter if not received by April 1, 2009.

The officer and Show-N-Go committee met with Hutch from Little River Dragway on Friday Jan. 16, 2009.  After spending a considerable amount of time drawing up a contract, Hutch declined our offer and told the group that his portion of the event was $3000 firm.  The group would not accept his final answer and the meeting adjourned.

Discussion of this and proposed idea for our event will be discussed at the next meeting.

The Austin Car Show was a pretty good one.

The amount of cars was smaller then in the past but the cars were better.  Our Club member Tom Kiker finally got his car back and on the road.  He entered it in the show and won 1st in his class. Congratulations Tom..

Featured Article

"My First Car and Second car"
By Don Sevall

First of all, is this limited to 1000 words or less?  My Dad used to say, "the soul to wit, is brevity", but he never had cars for a hobby.  My Dad also told me that when I graduated from high school I could buy my first car . . . and liability insurance.  Little did I know that the insurance was going to cost me twice the price of the car, $150.  So, you ask what kind of car can you get for $75 and what year was that?  It was a 1930 model "A" Ford coupe, and it was in 1959, and yes, it was a running vehicle.  Everything worked, but it was missing the rumble seat lid, commonly known as the trunk lid.

Even then trunk lids were scarce, and J.C. Whitney hadn't started making model "A" replacement parts.  I had been helping my Grandfather in carpentry, so I decided to make one out of wood.  I shaped the supports for the curvature out of 2x12s and 2x4s, and covered it with ¼" masonite, put a coat of Waterl-lox on it, to seal it, and brushed coated a coat of black enamel on it, and it looked like it just came out of the factory.  It didn't have a trunk handle, so I guess you could call it the, the first shaved deck.

Top speed was 45mph, and with its 411 rear end, would literally jump like a jack rabbit off the line at a stop light.  I could beat anyone for the first 5 feet.  I went to Junior College in my home town, and one day I looked out the second story window from Art class and saw two of my friends lifting up the rear of my car, and turning it perpendicular in its parking space as a prank.  I had fun with the gas station attendants, because they didn't know where to put the gas, I had one guy try to put it in the radiator, because the radiator had a cap just like the gas cap.

It was kinda like Happy Days, we would pile in as many as four guys, and remember it only had one seat.  One of the guys in the middle would have to shift for me because they hadn't invented column shifts yet.  I soon got tired of how slow it was, and located an upgrade engine, a V-8 60.  A 60 hp V8 engine was made only one year by Ford.  I bought it, and sold my old four banger on E-BAY.  Just kidding!  The next problem was that I was only 19 years old and had no experience swapping engines.  I located our local equivalent to "BIG DADDY ROTH", who customized a 55 Ford pick up, chopped the top, installed a Buick "nailhead" engine, painted flames on the hood, and called it his "BU-FORD", anyway he charged me $150 to remove the old four banger, and install the V8 60.  What I didn't know was, that's all the $150 covered was mounting the V8, not the wiring and getting it running.  So, still feeling inadequate about my mechanizing skills, I hired my Dads mechanic to complete the job, he said that he would work on it on his spare time.  Well that never happened.  Six months later, still without my car, I was getting quite discouraged, until I was told about an "early thirties Ford coupe" for sale, sitting out on a farm in Maple Park.  Well like any other red blooded, hot rod minded young man would do, I immediately asked for directions.  I got my brother to take me out there, to "POUNCE" on this early 30s Ford coupe, before some other lucky guy would beat me to it.  We located the farm, and asked the farmer if he still had the "old car" for sale.  We didn't want to appear to anxious, and he replied that he still did, and if we wanted to see it, that it was located behind the barn.  He led us out behind the barn, and what a sight for sore eyes that was.  I found out real quick that the person that had told me that it was an "EARLY 30s FORD COUPE", didn't know what he was talking about.  Guys, what do you automatically think of when someone says "EARLY 30s FORD COUPE"?  Of course, a 32, 33. or 34.  RIGHT?  Well this wasn't one of those.  What a disappointment, number one it was NOT a coupe, it was a FOUR door, and number two, it was so full of pigeon crap that you could'nt tell what color it was.

So, trying to be polite about my disbelief of what I was viewing, I decided to throw him a curve, and a deal breaker, by asking him if it ran.  Certainly NOT I thought.  He didn't reply, but instead opened the drivers door and turned on the key, and proceeded to the rear of the car, removed the gas cap, put his foot on the rear bumper, rocking the car, and titled his head, and nearly put his ear in the gas filler, he then proceeded back to the front door, reached in and pressed the floor starter and, amazingly, within two to three turns of the motor, it started right up, and purred like a kitten.  And my startled response, was, "And how much did you say you were asking", . . . $150 . . . . SOLD!!

Well, I could go on, but that's the story of my first and second cars, and yes, that is the 35 Ford For-Dor that I'm still driving, forty seven years later.

PS. I was offered $300 the day after I brought it home, and I never did wire the Model "A".  I sold it to my girl friends Dad for $300, and he sold it to a prearranged buyer, a friend of mine, for $500, nice guy, huh?  Some day I'll tell you about the 34 Packard Opera coupe, for $40, and that one was for real.

Happy motoring,

Don Sevall