Stan Kulikowski
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Posts posted by Stan Kulikowski
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My first step in the CTC program was at Gettysburg. One down, four to go ... and oh so much to learn!
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Susan,
Thanks for the idea on the field judge handout. Now that I have started my team captain certification, I just might have to steal that idea for times when I'm team captain.
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Tom,
Send me an email at stan.kulikowski@fennerprecision.com if you don't have any luck with any of the other sources. I design drive belts for office products and ATM machines and may be able to get something close.
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I've been on both sides of this issue. I've been bitten by the point spread more times than I care to admit, including for an AGNM award.
As I think about the situation, I think that my problem is more with the over restoration of some vehicles has become the new standard for factory correct. My 73 Ford has runs in the inner fender from the factory. They are only visible when the hood is open so the factory wouldn't consider it a flaw that should be fixed. But I get nailed for paint every time. My decision now is that the car has gone as far as it will go in AACA as a Senior car. I don't know that I will ever take that car to and AGNM again. I refuse to repaint the car because it is an original paint car. In fact, the car is unrestored. I have detailed some items like the exhaust manifolds and I have cleaned some chassis components, but the car has never been apart or restored. It still carries its original belts and hoses.
I'm not saying that the system needs changed, although I haved said that in the past. I think that it is more important to hold the judges accountable for evaluating the cars as they COULD have come from the factory. It's not the evaluation system that's broken. Restoring cars is supposed to be a fun hobby (and it is for me), but just because it's fun doesn't mean that it should be easy. We shouldn't become an organization that just hands out awards. The awards should be earned. It's the evaluation of your efforts in preparing a car that needs to be fair.
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So the cars have to be restored as they were delievered to the dealer, I get that. But where to you draw the line on brand-specific parts?
The GM Power Beam headlights aren't available as reproductions for 1970 two head light systems. I happen to have a few sets so that I have the correct ones and while they're expensive, I have seen them in swap meets. I've never seen the correct lights for my 73 Ford. I can't remember the brand off the top of my head but they have a small TS logo at 6:00 position. If I have to replace one of those, I'm up a creek.
If I follow the logic of the head light brand discussion, this should go to my 73 Ford and Monte Carlo tires as well. The factory documentation for the Monte Carlo states that they are G70-15 Wide Oval tires. These tires are available as reproductions. The 73 Ford is very different. My factory documentation states that it came with G78-15 Firestone Brand Tires. These tires aren't available as reproductions so I but a set of J78-15 BFG Silvertowns on the car to be correct as an optional size. If the logic of the old head light rule is applied, I should have a 15 point deduction because the tires, while an optional size for the year, are not the correct brand.
I know that the tire rule specifically states that there is no specific brand required. I'm just trying to illustrate some inconsistencies in the logic between two parts that need to be replaced often. If you apply brand specific logic to one area, why not apply it to all?
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When I ordered my trailer, I asked for 4' barn style doors for the escape door. This opens the whole area above the wheel wells and accommodates all of my cars very well.
I made the mistake of not specifying the floor height to make sure that the car doors cleared the escape door frame. I fixed the problem the same way that bhigdog did, with 2 2x12 planks laid the length of the floor. I put two for each wheel because the track width of the Fords is much narrower than the Chevys. The trailer manufacturer should be able to raise the floor for you by using an 8" I-beam frame instead of the standard 6" frame. Just be sure to examine the angle of approach to make sure that you don't scrape when you load or unload the car.
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A quick search on Wikipedia yielded that the fisrt halogen headlamp was developed in 1962 in Europe. They were required in US cars starting in 1978 as sealed beam halogen lamps. In 1983, headlamps with replaceable bulbs were introduced in the US.
I'd like to find a more reliable source and I'll post it if I can find one.
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I have to agree with Dynaflash's comment about "used cars." To me, it was very insulting and unbecoming of AACA when a national awards judge and former AACA president said at a judges breakfast that he was insulted to be judging class 27M for national awards. He said "those cars don't belong on a Hershey show field. They belong on a used car lot."
Personally, the reason that I have newer collector cars is that I can identify with them. I'm a young'en at 31 so I don't remember seeing cars of the 30's and 40's driving on the streets near my home. A good friend in high school had a 70 Monte Carlo and my parents had one when they were new and I just liked them. My best friend and his family have 27 cars: mostly Oldsmobiles and some Hudsons from the 50's. I really like them, too.
I will admit that the longer that I'm in the hobby, the more I'm drawn to the pre-war iron ... yes I do mean WWII and not Vietnam! My fiance and I have been talking about doing another car and while I want a 50's car for cruising, she would like to have something older. We looked long and hard at a 39 Ford coupe in the Car Corral at the Charlotte meet this spring.
There are two things that have drawn me to the 30's era. First is simplicity. Finding parts is difficult, but I think that the cars were much simpler. Second is the art-deco styling. The styling would go nicely with my vintage fountain pen collection!
It takes all types to make this hobby. We as restorers are preserving a piece of history, assuming that we restore the cars to the factory standards. The street rodders and muscle car modifiers may introduce more people to the hobby because they drive their cars more often to cruise nights. To me, it really doesn't matter as long as we learn to get along and realize that we all have a place.
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65Newyorker - I'm in Ephrata, PA and would be happy to take a look at your car and make some suggestions. I've been in your shoes a couple of time with the 73 Ford that my grandfather bought new. I've decided not to restore the car but I did do some cleaning in order to get my Senior a few years ago. Drop me an email at iceman5@ptd.net if you are interested.
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Since I started showing in more AACA shows in 2004, I have yet to stop at a weigh station with my trailer. I'm pulling a 24' tag with an F350 dually and I don't have any USDOT numbers on my truck or a CDL. I passed many weigh stations and haven't been pulled over for not stopping.
My understanding is that the CDL is for commercial purposes. The horse trailers and tow vehicles are likely required to have the USDOT numbers and such because the horses are routinely sold, showing that the farm is a business.
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My fiance, Bonnie, is heavily involved in our hobby also. She is helping me with the interior restoration on my 70 Monte SS (that needs to be completed before March!) She is the general detailer especially at the national meets as I am generally busy with judging. She's much better at detailing the car than I am!
I have been trying to get her to judge with me. She has been to at least 4 judging schools with me but she has yet to turn in a card for credit. She knows as much about the judging system and can often point out incorrect items on cars. Her excuse ... she doesn't have an antique show car of her own. I guess that I'll have to break down and sell one of mine to make room for one of "ours!"
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Judging by your location, this may be a little difficult now, but I would take the bike on a ride long enough to get run the tank almost empty. Then fill the tank with fresh gas and add a stabilizer for the ride home. Make sure that the ride home is long enough to get the stabilized gas into the fuel injection system.
Once you get the bike home and it cools, you should change the oil and the filter. This will make sure that any condensation that may accumulate due to the oil cooling down in a confined space.
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I have the advertising frame on my 73 LTD that was on the car since the day it was delivered to my grandfather. The frame is in excellent condition and to my knowledge I have never received a deduction for the frame.
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Try Bill Hirsch in New Jersey. I understand that he carries many harder to find colors.
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I'm 30 and I started in the hobby by building a modified muscle car. After that build process, I realized that there is more of a challenge in doing a correct restoration rather than a hot rod. This led me to purchasing another muscle car to perform that correct restoration.
The longer that I'm in the hobby, the more I'm drawn to earlier vehicles. I have to admit that I don't have the desire to own a brass T or Curved Dash Olds, but I really enjoy watching these vehicles enter the show field and think about how far the automotive industry has come in 100+ years. Unfortunately, I think that I am in the minority in these interests. In fact, I have recently offered the elderly father of a purchasing agent that I work with to help maintain his 1913 Model T and 1917 V8 Chevy just so that I can continue to learn about where the automotive industry started.
I do think that for the hobby to survive the modern cars need to be accepted by all involved in the hobby. I can remember an incident at last year's judges breakfast at Hershey. I registered late because my fiance and I just purchased our first home and, well, Hershey judging wasn't as much of a priority as moving in to our new house was. I sat down to breakfast with the National Awards Judges while waiting for my judging assignment. A couple of the judges were discussing the classes that they were required to evaluate and what I felt was a disturbing comment was made by one of them who I won't name on this forum. The comment was "I have to judge the 79-80 production cars. These are just used cars. The have no place on a Hershey show field."
I can't identify with driving a Model T on the early roads of America, but I can identify sitting in my high school cafeteria with the other gear heads dreaming of Chevelles, Camaros, and even 50's Oldsmobiles and Hudsons. These are the cars that 18-35 demographic is passonate about in general. Making sure that these cars feel welcome on our show fields will be an important part of keeping the hobby alive.
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I remember seeing some 59 and 60 Cadillac cars with what I'd call a bright green carpet. After doing some comparisons with a NOS piece of carpet from a 1963 Ford, it appears that this bright green is the same color that Ford used. Can someone tell me the name of the color and a source for the carpet? I need to buy some to redo the carpet in my 63 Ford.
Thanks
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Bonnie and I are heading out on Thursday. It will be a whirlwind trip because we need to be back in PA by Sunday night. Cody is a Sr. this year and she won't miss his last first day of school.
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Thanks for the reminder, Steve. I'll have mine in this weekend before I leave for Moline!
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Alex,
I have a 1973 Ford LTD that is unrestored, purchased new by my Grandfather. I'm about an hour west of Philadelphia. Feel free to drop me an email at iceman5@ptd.net if you are interested in my car for your story.
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I've watched this thread develop for awhile and see some interesting points on both sides. For quite some time I was very much in favor of eliminating the 10 point rule because I have been on the "losing" end of the spread several times. One thing that I've learned through that process is how to take my restoration techniques to a higher level. I know that I'll step on a few toes with this statement but I think that saying that you can't compete against the high dollar restorations is a cop-out. None of the cars in our toybox are the recipients of a high dollar restoration. The only part of the restoration that my father and I have farmed out ist the body and paint work. Admitedly this is the most expensive part but we just don't have the facilities to complete that part of the restoration to our satisfaction. My Monte Carlo now competes in class 36G with the very high dollar Chevelle restorations and I received my first Grand National. It took 2 tries but I did get it after making some improvements to the car.
I would be more in favor of continued education of the judges to evaluate the cars as they were manufactured originally. The best thing in that regard was this year at New Bern when judges were asked to judge a brand new Lincoln. I didn't hear anyone judge that car at 400 points when it really should have been as it was perfect according to the AACA standards. When our cars were built, the manufacturers were churning out thousands and thousands of cars. It's only now that us anal retentive restorers are building works of art. I'm not saying that we as restorers should lower our standards of restoration, just put more attention to how the cars were built rather than building works of art.
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I'm a product development manager for a small-pitched timing belt company. Those of you that print with ink jet printers or use ATM's and self-checkout machines see products that I've developed everyday.
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Steve, I'm planning on just coming up to Macungie on Saturday to look around. I wanted to get to the Soda Jerk but we were taking Cody on a college visit to Lehigh University and just didn't get back in time to make it.
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Just take 1250/12 to convert from lb-in to lb-ft ... ie 104.167. I'm sure that 104 will be just fine.
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I don't think that West could have chosen a better cover shot for the magazine. Boy if I could afford that car it would have a place of honor in my garage!
New Corvettes at car shows
in General Discussion
Posted
This is an interesting debate. I have both old cars and "future collectibles". I don't yet own an old convertible, so when Bonnie and I want to go to a cruise at the local ice cream joint in a convertible, we take her 2003 10th Anniversary SVT Cobra Convertible. We have gone to Ford and Mustang shows with the car and had it judged, but most of the car shows that we attend have the 25 year rule. Ultimately, it is up to the event organizers to determine how much space they have and what kind of event they want to have.