Jim Bollman

Thunder Road

I bought my first car in 1963 when I was 14 years old. A 1949 Crosley Station Wagon. Rebuilt it mechanically from the bare frame up. My Dad needed to help with just enough parts that he controled progress and I didn't have it ready for the body to go back on till I was almost 17. As soon as I got the body on I did a quick patch and spray can restoration to the body and put it on the road. I redid the mechanics again in the late 70s and did the same thing to the body (Western Auto still had the same paint colors). It is now sitting in the shop for the 3rd mechanical restoration and I can't decide if I should do the body right and not be the car I have owned all these years or do another quickie on the body and have a driver that is like it was when I was in High School. Any recommendations?

I go ever year as a good way to start out the flea market season. It has declined as most have in content and total size but I think it has declined less than Spring Carlisle as far as non automotive stuff. But it is a lot smaller than Carlisle. I travel about 2.5 hours. I would probably skip it if I had to travel more than about 4 hours. I'm not looking for early stuff so not watching that close but I have seen a few interesting early items the last few years. Like an engine out of an early steamer a couple of years ago. You can cover it easily in 3-4 hours, less if you are a fast walker.

Not sure if it was the same one, but a Muschero was listed on eBay back maybe a year ago same vintage and color as your picture. I was tempted because I was looking for a 66 Ranchero at the time and always liked the 65-66 Mustang. I figured it would be a great match. I resisted and bought a 66 Ranchero instead.

Put me on the side of inclusive not exclusive. As a collector of Crosleys since they were just used cars I have taken my share of abuse over the years from "TRUE" collectors. If to many want to be exclusive AACA will die when they do. Jim...

You may want to read this tread from a few years ago. It is a long thread but it covers a lot of the problems with haulers. Search around on the forums and you will probably find recommendation and negatives on haulers. http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=5896&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1 Hope this long link works. If not search for Yuck in the Subject in the search engine. It starts at message #5896 on 04/11/01 in the General forum.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My computer must not like your file cause all I get is a bunch of computer talk and no video or sound. ¨* pó7z¢[ÅûÉÓÆs³?ú«?G%Iìÿþ­UQU·?Â¥<ïU@3íê?)?¬¦^?4¯T}jWà-ÚÚ5?j???QàÙðûÌk)¿c*Û Aj,Ì_»åûUOÛå,½v??°äg¿$m'½ÜOl¶µ·ÿb´[%¨}ñÇ>ºÞ?tÙÎ=%ìm± Wish it would load for me. Bob </div></div> Try right clicking and selecting "save link target" or something like that. Looks like it downloaded as encode binary into the browser window. Worked for me even on a Mac I use an open source program called VLC that can play most video formats including wmv.

Second Photo, Camcover races.

We do some of the standard ones at our Crosley Nationals. The meet starts on Thursday afternoon/evening and runs through Saturday. Friday is an informal day of conversation, sharing and events that the Regions put on. Two regions put on a series of games in the afternoon. I attached a picture of one of the more exciting games. A pie tin is attached to an handle, a cup of water is placed on the tin. The passenger has to balance this out the window while the driver tries to have the fastest time from a standing start to the finish line about 50 feet away. Then we have the standard slow race over a measured distance with a rolling start, feet are off the brakes and clutch once you cross the starting line. Time measured between start and finish. You can adjust idle etc before the race. Precision coasting, again accelerating to the starting line then clutch in and try to come the closest to the finish line. If we are having to much fun we sometimes have run off heats of the best 3 in an event. One year we had members build soap box derby like cars out of Crosley valve covers before the meet and race them down an incline (second attached photo). This was put on after our Friday night gab session. The region that got us started with the gaming tradition has had car games at their regional meet for years. Two non-car games that they play is the flywheel toss and the ring gear toss. The first for distance the second like a regular ring toss at the fair.

I got my copy about a week ago. I split my reading material piles between bed stand and living room chair. I usually put the new magazines on the bottom of the pile, which at times can be a few months behind. I was so impressed by a quick look I put it on top of the bed room pile and it took me 4 nights to get it read. I usually can get through an issue of Antique Automobile in one night. Great job, but I now have the problem with a reworked AA and and reborn Special Interest Auto into Classic Auto, 2 or 3 nights of reading has stretched to a week plus, I'm getting further behind.

Since we are all sharing. I have many stupid stories to, but one I think of often when working on cars. I was 19 and parting out a Metropolitan to put a convert back together to sell and stash some spare parts for my driver. This was back when Mets were either drivers or junk, weren't old enough to collect. I was working by myself in my Dad's shop they were both gone for the day. I jacked up one side using the factories trick jack. Preceded to pull the wheel off yjay side and was sitting with my legs under the car working on pulling the brake drum off the rear axle. Just then in slow motion but not so slow that I could get out from under the jack pushed right through the rusty floor and my legs were trapped under the car. I wasn't hurt I just couldn't move and no chance of anyone finding for many hours. I don't remember now if I pulled on the sheet metal thinking I could lift the car or was just frustrated but the rest of the fender was just as rusty and I proceeded to bend the fender up and out of the way and slide out. I own several sets of jack stands now and a floor jack.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Does anyone know what the median age is for an AACA judge? </div></div> I was the youngest member when we started our region 30 or so years ago and today I am I believe the 4th youngest. I don't think the Judge pool is much different. A computerized training program doesn't have to be expensive and could be a big help to those that only make it to one show most years. Adding schools at Hershey helped, but nothing was covered at the last two schools that couldn't have been covered online.

The Crosley Automobile Club has a "Restoration Tips" booklet that gives some guidelines but does not try to be an all encompassing guide. We also have a series of 8-12 page booklets that cover most models and years, that give historic information and some restoration info as well as factory and period photos to help in identifying and restoring Crosleys. I have started adding pages to our club website giving detail pictures of the different models from good original or restored cars as well as giving some restoration info on the particular models. More needs to be done but it is a start. As is the case with many car companies, Crosley made many running changes, switching as parts ran out and improvements were made, with little or no documentation, so it is impossible to cover it all.

My dad had a 56 Ford with factory belts and he never owned a car after that without them. If it didn't have belts he added them.

Had the, "opportunity?" to watch Smokey and Smokey 2 back to back over the holidays. It really showed how over the top the sequel was, trying to out do the original, and all they managed to do was make a stupid movie. Not exactly a car movie but a driving movie, I thought the driving scenes in Bringing Out the Dead with Nicolas Cage was the stupidest of all time. Cage looked like he was rowing a boat the way he was shifting gears and it was an ambulance with an automatic.

For those that can see their shop from the house I found a low tech solution. The hardware sells a plug block that you can plug a light in and if the temperature falls to 35 degrees it turns on the power. It shuts off at 45 degrees. Cost $18 plus a light to plug into it by a window. It's main use is for turning on a heat light or heat tape.

Content is most important, lots of flash will not keep people coming back. Start adding historical/restoration information. Overtime it will make the website a major resource to the hobby and will bring in new people. Make sure every page has a unique and identifiable name. This is important for bookmarking and for search engines. Also add the proper search terms in the web page to get listed in searches. As content builds most new people will come in through search engines to some inner page. Make sure there is links on every page to get back to the Home page so if they come in through a search hit they can see what else we have. Never put sound on a web site as a default startup. To many people sneak a little surfing in at work or like me, use a laptop in the living room while watching TV with my wife, the music is a distraction. Only use frames where it helps navigation. Forcing the same information on every page through frames just wastes screen space. Pages need to load fast or give a warning on the size if it isn't possible. I would bet many/most of the membership are still on dialup. To load fast you have to have properly created graphics, properly sized images and not a lot of java or flash things going on. Running properly on all browsers and operating systems is a must. It isn't that hard. Just be careful if you use MS software not to use features that only run on Windows platform and stay away from the bleading edge features that are not supported in all browsers yet. That's a start.

Electric heat is 100% efficient, it doesn't matter if it is a big electrical element or heated oil. One type may spread the heat out a little more evenly but they all spin the meter the same amount proportional to the wattage and the heat is proportional to wattage. That said. Heat pumps switch to electric heat elements when it gets below mid 20s because their efficiency crosses regular electric (yes heatpumps are more than 100% efficient if all you measure is electrical usage). I have heated with electricity, LP, wood, oil and kerosene. Wood is the only cheap one and then only if you have a cheap source. When I had a wood stove in the shop I would sort burnable trash and use that in the wood stove, adding a little wood as needed for longer sessions. That shop had LP and electric also depending on how much of an open flame I was willing to have for the project. I have a friend that paints with a wood stove going he claims the fumes are going in and feeding the fire. I don't visit him on those days. My current shop is heated with a 100K BTU oil furnace I bough used from a fellow converting to gas. Oil isn't cheap either and I only fire it up when I'm going to be in the shop for a long time. I use a 28K BTU portable kerosene heater for local heating for most projects. I don't do work that requires significant painting in the Winter. Now here is the best advice when it is really cold find a project inside and don't fight Mother Nature. And I was thinking of moving down your way for the warm Winters when I retire.

There seems to be a lot of expertise here on antifreeze. I have started switching over to the nontoxic type antifreeze just to protect the cats I have hired to do mouse control in my shop. Any thoughts on pros and cons.

I have had trouble with U-Haul following through with a trailer I had reserved. I end up using a tow dolly instead because the local U-Haul dealer couldn't be bothered to go and pick one up for me. An Willys FC-170 is to big for a dolly and it was a very slow trip for about 400 miles. Other I know have had trouble with the condition of U-Haul trailers (and trucks) and had a lot of trouble on much shorter trips. As the others have said I would only consider doing it by trailer. I would go with the purchased trailer, then you know what you have and will even have a few miles towing it before you need to load. You will probable come out cheaper the rental after you sell it. Jim...

One of my neigbors in the Chocolate field either stole your idea or thought of it himself. During one of the muddy years in the early days of the Chocolate field he scooped up a bunch of mud in small metal containers with screw on lids that he was trying to sell. He marked them approriately and sold them for $1/ea for several years after. I bought one as a gift for my Father because he missed a couple of years. He probably still has it somewhere. Since it was not as a historic years I guess it was not worth as much.

Here is another AirStream. This was taken at the 1981 Crosley Automobile Club Nationals. I own the FarmOroad now but my Dad still owned it in 1981 and was showing off by towing his AirStream around the show grounds.

Not an AirStream but vintage. This rig was in the fresh out of the barn class at the Crosley Automobile Club Nationals this Summer. (See Attachment)

The attached photo was taken at the ATCA National show at Macungie PA this past June. I have seen the same rig there the last few years.

I think my favorite experience helping a new to AACA judging car owner/restorer was a few years back when I was judging engines. An MG that was so fresh you could smell the fresh paint. The owner had worked half the night to finish it and then drove the rest of the night to get it to the show in time. He kept trying to tell me the things he didn't get finish in time to install. I finally had to tell him to be quiet because what I didn't know wouldn't hurt him.