April, 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.

Featured Article

Presented by Don Sevall

MY FIRST CAR and SECOND . . . . (part two).

The reason the old farmer had decided to sell the 35 Ford four door, was, that they had bought the car new, and the brakes were worn out.  Back then few cars had hydraulic brakes, they were, what's known, as mechanical brakes, which were adjustable rods, no fluids involved.  The car, at that time was, twenty five years old, let's face it , how many people keep their everyday driver twenty five years?  I tightened, and re-adjusted the brake rods as best as I could to make it a little more safe, and started driving it everyday, getting more used to the initial response time that I would have to allow for, to stop.

It was the summer of 1960, and my Dad was instrumental in getting me a job on road construction, and of course I drove my new found pride and joy to the job site.  Of course it was unusual, and got rave revues, its beautiful black soy bean enamel paint, was stunning.  I was now becoming proud of my rare find, as I witnessed the acceptance of my "Diamond in the rough", I was even offered twice what I paid for it, within a week of my purchase, wow, I thought, it sure made me feel better about my, spur of the moment purchase.

I recall an eye opening experience regarding the porosity of my "new" car, that until then I had not yet discovered.  I was at work and it began to rain, really hard, and my car was parked about 300 feet away, so I offered my fellow worker a place of refuge doing the downpour, and we ran over to my recently acquired car, and both jumped in.  We were sitting there watching it pour, and it felt like we were getting wet, . . . .and we were!  The water was dripping like rain inside the car, off the headliner.  We discovered that the roof was not solid like today's cars.  It wasn't until 1936 that some, not all, car manufactures, installed solid roofs.  Well, we were getting just as soaked inside the car as we would have outside of it.  So at my first opportunity, I took it to the local upholstery shop and had the soft insert replaced, of course it ruined the headliner, actually, just made it more colorful than it already was.

I continued to defy the laws of Newton, namely the one about, if an object goes in motion it tends to remain in motion, that's precisely why they invented hydraulic brakes.  Curbs, lawns, bar ditches and even other peoples rear bumpers, became my allies and friends, in helping me stop..   I recall what is known as a near miss, while driving home from downtown, I was driving on a very busy four lane local main artery, divided only by a double yellow stripe.  I was approaching a red light, and hadn't fully anticipated my stopping distance, in the inside lane, quickly approaching the back end of a State Trooper, with both feet on the brake pedal, desperately wanting to avoid rear ending a State Trooper, I, at the last second, when it seemed inevitable, that we were going to become one, I swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic, and wound up coming to a complete stop right along side of the officer.  Whew!  I looked over at him, and he looked over at me as though to say, "Nice driving son, you just avoided a lot of messy paperwork", he turned back, and the light changed, and he drove off without even looking back.  What a lucky break, an I even gave more serious thought to changing to hydraulic brakes, but at that point in time I was going to college and they could wait.

Speaking of college, I talked my parents into allowing me to take my car to college that next fall, with a strict set of rules regarding same.  Can you believe that they could not see any "worthwhile" reason to have a car on a college campus?  Partial parental restrictions were, connected to my grades, and another was regarding any disciplinary actions and a host of other Unwritten ones.  Consequently, I was skating on thin ice, and speaking of thin ice I'll tell you how I had my first accident with the 35.

I was on my way to a first date, to a nearby town, in December, and before I arrived at her house, it began to drizzle, actually it was a freezing rain, and I was descending the street to her house, which was on a hill, and I didn't realize that the street was, essentially, black ice.  As soon as I realized it, I immediately put on the brakes, and my car turned into a giant ice skate, out of control ice skate, I was lucky to stay between the curbs, and I soon began to see what I was approaching, the end of the street, it was a tee, when you got to the bottom , you had to turn left or right, and I was very quickly going to have to make a decision as to turning right or left, but as I was descending the hill, I was also picking up speed, which was making it impossible to negotiate the corner no matter which way I WANTED to turn.

Fortunately, or, unfortunately, the car was positioning itself to "broadside", the curb, on the driver's side.  I was hoping that the curb would stop my momentum, but, if we can use Newton's Law again, it became the overpowering force, and it didn't help that the curb was iced over, leaving no deterrent to even slow it down.  And then the inevitable happened, the car jumped the curb and came to a SMASHING rest against a two foot diameter tree.  Well, of course, it startled the living snot out of me, but the good news was, that it hit dead center on the drivers side, which includes the support post between the two doors, and I was not hurt.  Of course, it rendered itself impossible for me to remove myself from the car on the drivers side, because the tree had CRUSHED the two doors, the running board, and the roof, and left me a permanent reminder of the girth and exact shape of the tree.

But the good news was that the car continued to run while I was in this confused and disoriented stupor, so I finally gave up trying to get out the drivers side and disembarked thru the passenger side to survey the damage.  Fortunately the owner of the tree didn't come out and call the police for damaging his tree.  I got back in the car and, carefully, proceeded to my date's home and told her what had happened, obviously I was not in the mood to go bowling that night, you might say I had already, STRUCK out.

Incidentally, I drove the car, with the shape of the tree in it for, probably, at least a year before I located another whole 35 Ford at a salvage yard for the parts that it would take to restore it.

I told you I would tell you about the 34 Packard opera coupe, well, while driving my tree impaired 35 Ford around college campus, people would come up to me, probably out of sympathy, and tell me about other old cars that were available.  One such vehicle was a 1934 Packard Opera Coupe.  My curiosity got the best of me on that one, and I had to go check it out.  The fella took me out to a barn, it was on an in town lot, where they used to keep their horses and carriage, and showed me this beautiful car, like I had never seen before.  I asked what was wrong with it, and was told that the transmission was missing. So, I had to ask the asking price, and as you already know, it was a whopping $40.00.  Well, even with a missing transmission, it was well worth $40.00, because it was a complete car.

Remember the qualifications that my parents had put on me to take my car on campus?  Well, I think by this time I had violated all of them.  I was on probation with the campus police, my grades were in the tank, partially because I sold a couple of my texts books to pay for my, second campus, parking violation, and the third was automatic removal of my car from campus.  I sold my texts books because I couldn't go to my parents for the $50.00 fine.  Consequently, I was in no position to purchase, possibly . . . . the buy of a lifetime.  Now you know the rest of the story.  

Sometime I'll tell you about the body man, in that college town, that drove a restored, 33 Ford, three window coupe, for his body shop advertisement.

Happy motoring,

By Don Sevall