points off for Tire Dressing

[Shop Rat]

He said he is not an AACA judge. But let's not jump on a band wagon and discourage him if he would like to go through the training to become one. We are trained to go by the rules not our individual feelings about any year, make, model, etc.

[Guest GaWajn]

I just finished reading through this thread, and I am amazed! I know that people have different opinions about different subjects, but the question, I believe, should have been answered by a YES or NO answer from someone in the judging field. In other words ... answered by someone who knows the facts concerning this judging question.

I am very new to this, and I find that people answering questions with opinions instead of facts, tend to confuse a lot of issues. Don't get me wrong ... I find the opinions of others on different matters very helpful and sometimes ... opinions are what the questioner is seeking, but some questions should be responded to with just plain old facts.

After reading through all this ... I think the answer to the original question is no. But I will probably have to read all this again ... just to make certain I didn't miss anything.

To someone like myself (new to the judging/restoring of cars), I need to gather a ton of information, and I will be asking a lot of questions, but sometimes, it is difficult to see what is information and what is noise.

As far as the Highjacking of the thread by someone else ... well that seems to happen all the time on forums in general, not only on this one. It is the moderators job to handle these situations.

I apologize to the original poster for my post ... but it seemed that there was just room enough for just one more opinion ...

[Shop Rat]

I would encourage you to go to some AACA judging schools and CJEs (Continuing Judges Education) classes, if you have not done so already, and get to know our system of judging. The rules of other clubs do no apply in the AACA system.

It is good to have a way to take notes in class for review later.

The judging guidelines are available on-line. The 2011 edition is still posted. This will be updated sometime after the annual meeting at Philly.

Judges Manual

If you go to a class you get a hard copy of them for free. Or you can buy one for $5.00 if you choose not to attend a class.

[Ed Nieves]

I get mine from my local Napa store.

[Ed Nieves]

I usally just wipe down the thread of my tire with a wet rag just to get the dirt off and that helps plenty. I use a small amount of dressing, enough to give it a pop. I have never receive a deduction for this and the car is a Senior Award Winner. I think it's all about balance and what the norm (AACA) would consider good taste.

[Durant Mike]

Like Susan, McHinson and others I've judged several shows including at Hershey. I was responcible for the chassis on the class I judged at the Melbourne show and I would never take points off for shinny tires unless they were obviously painted or something ridiculous. The problem as I see it between the car owners and the Judges is that your dealing with ego's. The owner on one hand spends a lot of time and money on his car and is very proud of his vehicle and rightfully so. They might have paid a restoration shop tons of money to restore a car or spent hours and hours of their time making the car what they think is right and looking good. My experience as a Judge has showed me that we only have about 5 or 10 minutes to look over the many aspects of a car and come to a decision as to what is correct, the quality of the restoration, and the appearance and come up with a deduction or not. I understand that there is only about 1,000 or so active judges, maybe a little over that, that participate in judging many many types of cars. You also add to that that some people are perfectionists or very rententive and some are not and you can see how it is easy for one to have a bad experience at having their car judged from time to time. I tend to be a bit more lenient in favor of the car owner, but some I've judged with I even have to shake my head at like "are you serious?". But with a judging team of 5 usually, it usually works out with about as fair as it can get. I was raised in the 60's, rode in cars with my parents in the 50's and now restore cars in the 20's. I subscribe to 3 car magazines, watch the auctions and other shows on Velocity and other channels about cars and consider myself fairly car smart, but I and most Judges admit that they can't know everything about every car. The one show the owner took his car to and someone didn't like his car tires being to shinny, he could take the car to the next and they not even care. That's just the nature of the beast. I still think that the AACA judging is about the best you could have for a car club that services so many makes and models from over 100 years of automobile manufacturing.