Thriller

Congrats Dave...it never quite seems entirely real until it is in your possession.

Paul - I was thinking more along the lines of "you are what you eat". ;)

Joe, I respect what you say, so I must suggest that it is unfortunate you won't weigh in any more - the topic may take a twist to which you may very well have the best idea. Fewer than half of the cars registered for Ames are in 400 point judging. Many of the awards in the 400 point, while they may correlate with the amount spent, are not necessarily cars that have had a bunch of money spent on them. My '41 and my Wildcat both received the same award, yet I had probably 4 times the money into the Wildcat. I think those with a "can you top this" attitude would be in a small minority. Of course, I suspect that someone with such an attitude would probably tick me off too. If I hear you correctly, you want to hang out with Buick friends in the parking lot / show field, and drive your Buick. There are others of like minds. However, there are others who enjoy other facets of the hobby and national meets and they should be allowed to participate as well. Perhaps the answer may be to decrease the importance placed on awards at the banquet. Have the longest driven, literary, and similar awards, but change the 400 point awards to something awarded on the show field, just like the Driven Class. Photographs should either be taken of all participating Buicks, or perhaps none. That way, we won't have participants being shunned with comments like "oh, it's just a Driven class car - we don't need a picture of it" - I'm not sure that is still happening, but I know it was in 2006. The math involved with scoring a car could be dealt with by the judging team captain after the car is judged. Really, it should only be a couple minutes at best. It could also solve some of the issues with judging teams spending an hour or two in administration after the fact. The sheets could go to administration after the team is done, but it would be the recording and such that would occur, rather than triple-checking every item. Even if you want the double-checking, you could lay out the awards with owner's names on them (perhaps in an envelope) and ask them to pick it up some time after judging occurs. If you don't want to triple-check, forget about labels on the awards, and have them out on the show field being awarded as the judging teams add up the sheets on site. If you want to be more careful, implement something like a chain of custody for judging sheets for cars that are believed to score gold / senior status. While that isn't the way it is currently done, perhaps that would take the emphasis off the 400 point judging / awards at the banquet, particularly since fewer than half the cars there are registered in that class. If someone only brings Buicks for display or Driven Class, sitting through the awards may be a disincentive to attending the banquet. I don't pretend to have the answers. I'm just thinking off the cuff. One of the thoughts here is to try to treat all owners the same, regardless of how they have their car registered for the meet. It wasn't that long ago that the Modified and Driven classes were put into place, but some members are still looking down their noses at participants of those classes. That needs to stop. Some of the nicest cars at the meet are driven, but the owners either don't care about another award, or don't want to worry about keeping it clean / prepping it for judging, or possibly are opposed to the judging. Man, that was another long rambling.

Hmm...I'm beginning to think I'm being picked on...I have enough neuroses already please and thank you.

Hilarious.

And the site of free wine....

Well, 10-15 years ago, there was no Driven nor Modified classes, so we can't really make that comparison. That being said, I understand the Driven class has been growing generally since its inception (in 2006?). Barney, I am with Brian in being thankful for your service to the club.

Can / bucket / tin / whatever. When you dig worms for fishing bait, you need to put them somewhere...in the old pictures / paintings, it was always a tin can. Would that qualify for Girls on Buicks?

Perhaps not intended, but noted. Steve Jobs apologized for the iPhone, so you shouldn't need to be too overly cautious around the breadwinner So, is this essentially just abrading away whatever crud is built up, or are you cutting a new pattern?

So you're saying it is a babe magnet JD?

More to the point, you aren't giving me a 4-speed Wildcat?

LOL

Bryan, My question may not have conveyed what I was thinking. If the only difference is whether or not you get the periodical, why not stay a member and continue to get it, just for spreading around. Without going out of your way, there are probably a dozen places a year that you could leave a copy - work, doctor, barber, repair shop, etc. A doctor's office, for instance, can be pretty tough to find something a guy will consider reading. The more folks that flip through one, the greater the chances of additional members joining. I'm not trying to shove this down your throat. I know the feeling about too many periodicals...I have technical magazines going back nearly 20 years. I just can't get off my butt to get rid of them (I'm certain Suzanne is going to take care of it one of these days though....). It just seems to me that you could take a quick flip through to keep up on things like club news, treasurer's reports, etc. and then pass it on. Of course, if my sense of logic doesn't mesh with yours, that's fine too...diversity is the spice of life. Paul - well said.

Um, there's bars in Iowa? Oh right...brewery tour...I'm in my happy place now... Another Boy Named Sue? How do you do?

I know many chapters do this - that is why we have the new members page in the Bugle (isn't that where this all started?). I am curious though. If you are going to make a donation that is somewhere in the range of equivalent to BCA dues, why not continue to be a member? Even if you don't want to read the Bugle as it is now, it gives you some "spreading around" material. Perhaps that would even lead to to some other Buick owners in your part of the world that you aren't currently aware of...the next thing you know, you could be having your regular man cave get togethers and restoration fun. This discussion isn't moot, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Pete doesn't own the Bugle...he's the editor...we, as members, own the Bugle. If you want to see more restoration articles, try writing some. If you have a bent on history, research and write about your car's history, a part (like '29 sidemount covers), or whatever it is you want to see more of. Heck, even write a "letter to the editor" suggesting you would like to see more of X type of article and challenge others to also write in with what they would like to see. Perhaps you'll start a groundswell. As Roberta mentions, participants of these forums are a small minority of BCA members and the forums include non-members as well. What we don't know is whether or not we are a representative group. Perhaps we are the most affluent, or perhaps just the most tech-savvy, or the ones with the most time on our hands (instead of doing something in the garage like some of us probably ought to be). As we have discussed in prior times (some would say ad nauseum), club members ought to be promoters / marketers of the club. We don't all need to sign up 5 or 10 new members, although that would be nice. However, if you say nasty things about the club and the Bugle, that at minimum will turn off most people who hear it. Your mother probably told you not to say anything if you can't say anything nice (at least in public where others can hear you). Within a closed room like the membership meeting at a National, or by contacting BoD members or letters to the Bugle editor, that stays within the club at least. Creation of the modified division and driven class have expanded how things are done at the national meet. If that isn't an attempt to become more inclusive, I don't know what is. If you drive your car to the meet, you can get a nice driven award. If your car doesn't meet the criteria for being stock, there is a modified driven award. If you want to compete in the 400 point judging, you can. If you want to ignore the 400 point judging, you can. I think the cruise to Jewell is fabulous - participants were able to choose to drive their car, or if they didn't want to, could catch a bus / ride. If some of the cars go back into their hermetically sealed trailers, so what? On these forums we are often saying "it's your car, do with it what you want". So let the owners of those cars do what they want with them. If you want to hang out on the show field and talk Buicks until all hours, do it. You could attract a crowd and get your enjoyment of the meet that way. If everyone else is to hot / tired / whatever to stick it out, only then will the party be over. Any bets on how late folks are on the show field or in a hotel parking lot after coming back from Jewell? I don't expect Rick to be among them...he'll be getting a well deserved rest. We do have to recognize that we are a diverse group - we've got everything from brass era to modern, slow cars to race cars, dead spot on stock to wildly modified, focus on a single year model, to having every possible Buick they can get their hands on, teens / young adults to retirees, single, married, divorced, no kids yet, kids in tow, staying home because of the kids, the kids don't want to be seen with me, the kids have finally moved out, hey, look, I brought my grandchild with me...etc. We have all sorts of personalities and, guess what, just like everywhere else in life, not everyone is going to like me or you and some folks are going to be rubbed the wrong way. Deal with it in your way and move on. Stick with the folks you like and hope to meet new people you like. With a diverse group there are diverse interests. With diverse interests come a variety of ideas and everyone won't like all of them. That is part of the reason something like the national meet is a juggling act. The organizers are trying to find something to please everyone and, unfortunately, are not necessarily well-thanked for their efforts...we'd rather belly-ache about the one thing we didn't like. Now that I'm done rambling...getting incoherent again, someone had mentioned "Buick and its Parts". I've been in touch with Jerry Bodden and the program is no more. It had a six year run I'm told. The Junior Judging is still a go. Now, as a parent who brings children to the meets, I'm disappointed. I'm also hopeful that something can / will be arranged to pique the interests of any youngsters there (of course if mine are the only ones, then it definitely falls to me).

That reminds me.... I've seen an old Bakelite (I think) cigarette holder / lighter. It was kind of like an ammo magazine with cigarettes loaded and a spring loaded cradle - pushing on the cradle and letting go would let a cigarette out and there was a filament at the end that would heat up and light the cigarette. I forget if it mounted on the steering wheel or column.

It means you done drank from the worm tin...

Mine has more doors....

I think the issue of joining / retaining membership is quite complex. We have been in an economic downturn - I understand we are in better shape north of the 49th parallel, but folks have lost their jobs or taken cuts in pay / benefits. Two things are certain - death and taxes - and taxes seem to only increase. Depending on one's income source(s), that can be an issue, and luxuries get dropped. Brian - at least this year, membership isn't (initially) required to attend the National correct? If I remember correctly, non-members registering for the National pay a premium, but they wind up with a membership, so either the first year membership, or the National, is discounted depending how you want to look at it. Joe - I can't speak to earlier days of the BCA. The BCA is older than I am. Times have changed and not necessarily for the better. Perhaps the cost of restorations has risen enough that some folks feel a trailer is the best option. For me, it will cost about the same in fuel to drive the '54 or the truck and trailer with the '54. The difference being that I have more confidence in the truck and it has more modern conveniences, such as A/C. Perhaps the BCA members of today just aren't as hardy and adventurous as they were 30 or 20 years ago. Perhaps time constraints are tighter, making the need to travel closer to freeway speeds to cut some time off the trip than taking a more leisurely drive to get to the meet. Perhaps the demographics have changed to the degree that many BCA members don't feel confident in making a cross country trip in that car (which may go to your point about owners not working on their own cars like they used to). I don't know, but I'm not sure the 400 point judging is over-emphasized. Yes, maybe there are more trailer queens in the club than there used to be, but I'm not sure that in and of itself is a bad thing. I don't like cars coming out of the trailer just for the judging. If I am a judge, unless that car is in my group, I don't get to see the car. Heck, even if I'm getting my car judged and have to stay with the car, I won't necessarily be able to see such cars. We do have people in the club for different reasons. We have different tastes and differing priorities. I respect you too much to say you are wrong, and I certainly agree with part of your view of things. There are some groups within the club that do some driving, and some of those tours are tied in with the National. I really don't want to go here, but is the club solvent due to the dues increase, or the patron program (working from memory here on what it is called)? Another thing to chew on...if you think it is hard to recruit in the USA, what do you think it is like outside the country where the dues are higher to get poorer delivery of the Bugle and in many cases, chapters are too far away to get very involved in chapter activities. Well, I know I've typed a missive again...and it's way past my bed time, so I may very well not be making sense....

Correct me if I'm wrong MrEarl, but shouldn't that be "all y'all"? Should be a nice show. I'm looking forward to it and almost counting down the hours at work.

I've been out of sorts since I got the Gopher State e-mail this afternoon. Tom was good people and will definitely be missed. I'm glad they came out to the Spring show in St. Paul where I got to chat a bit one last time. Sally is a very nice lady. Suzanne and the boys had bonded with the Liddy's.

That's cool Stuart. I must admit I find the action photos a bit odd - an open old car like that and wearing a modern full face helmet....

Turbine Drive Buick - 1961 Buick - The Tuned Car - 1966 Valve-in-head Fireball Power Nailhead Power Go fast with class. When better war goods are built Buick will build them "One grade and that the best" - Robert McLaughlin (Col. Sam's father) Compound carburetion I need to get myself organized...I don't seem to have the '41, '76, '54, and '75 stuff in a handy location.

The dash on my '41 was done by the previous owner. It is far from a perfect job, but he used dowel in his drill press and double sided tape to hold on punched out circles of sandpaper. This way, he just replaced the sandpaper and tape as necessary. It is far from a perfect job (not always straight lines), but is fine for a driver, at least until I decide to give Doug Seybold a lot of money.

Buick, the Beautiful Buy I think it is Centurion who has it in his signature - Buicks don't leak, they sweat horsepower - I've always loved that. For the Free Spirit in you - mid-70s I'll look through some of my additional brochures after football practice tonight.