Should I speak up or be quiet?

[Bill Clark]

Thanks to the judges for donating their time and to the people that spent small fortunes on museum pieces for the Dover show. Grand Nationals are always grand and this one was no exception. For the first time in a long time, the team captain asked about the correctness of a feature on my car, in this case the bumper bolts. It was a fair question and I'm glad he asked, but I could not come up with the documentation. AACA judges are trained to look for things that match, but in this case the bolts do not and they should not be the same. Since the show, I have found original parts book documentation that shows the correct bolt configuration. All the front bolts and the rear outside bolts should be round chrome plated carriage bolts. The rear inside bolts should be chrome hex head bolts with a fat chrome washer. In the case of a Met with a trunk, you can see how the bolt screws into a captured nut in the trunk, but on an older car with no trunk lid, you can not see whats going on.

When I reviewed old judging sheets that have been returned to me indicating areas I've lost points on, I expect that I've lost points and that every Met shown is at risk for losing points for mismatched rear bumper bolts.

My question is on the advice that I should give to Met owners that are showing their car in an AACA show. Certainly they should take showroom lit, an original service manual and an original parts book, to the show with them. My mom told me to be quiet until I'm asked to speak, but should the owner, with documentation in hand, risk being quite and losing points or point this feature out to the judge before they judge the car, or should they wait until the team captain asks about it.

Bill Clark

60 Met Grand Nat Sr Dover 2006 !

57 Met First Grand National

51 Fiat, anything but grand

[novaman]

If I were you, I'd see about doing three things. Make sure other Met owners know this has come up so they can have documention and/or keep a extra copy incase you met them a a meet. Secondly, when the team captain introduces himself, you can mention the bolts were an issue at one time and you have documention for them or put the documention near them. Thirdly,let Fred Young, VP of judged training know and possibly send a copy of the documention and he might get it into the judging school program. I'm not saying the he will definitely do that, but at least it will have been brought to his attention.

[Steve Moskowitz]

Great reply Dave. Perfect, I have always found it best to be pro-active when I would have an unusual car or feature. I would always go up to the team captain and ask for the courtesy of being questioned on any concern they may have about the correctness of any feature of the car. Saved me and the team some stress.

[ex98thdrill]

Bill,

With your knowledge on Metropolitans, have you ever thought about getting with the Judging Committee to prepare a CJE on this subject??

I for one have never judged a Met, but in most cases, if you see mismatched bolts, most people (including me) would tend to deduct as well because they wouldn't know any different. Sometimes this is the result of occassionally finding ourselves having to judge something that we don't know.

In all fairness to yourself, and the other MET owners, please consider sharing your knowledge. My father and I own several orphan cars as well and I can fully relate to what you're talking about. We were down in Dover and took two Senior AGNM awards with our two orphan cars, so I can relate to the pain that you go through every time you bring out your car. Unless someone has actually owned and/or restored an orphan car such as yours, they are very difficult to judge, and to be judged fairly. If I were to judge your car, I for one wouldn't want to do it unless it was done fairly, and I think many of us (judges) out there would feel the same way.