Craftsman awards?

[rgshafto]

Japan recognizes its superb artisans/craftsman as National Treasures and The MacArthur Foundation has its Genius Awards. Does AACA have some way of recognizing the outstanding artisans/craftsman who contribute so much to our old car hobby?

I bring this up because of recent dealings I have had with one such person. I was really up the creek without a paddle trying to find original running boards for my ?36 Pontiac cabriolet. There just weren?t any NOS pairs to be found and the one outfit who said they could make them ended up scamming me out of $1K before going bankrupt (fortunately I was able to get the cores back). I was really worried that I'd never be able to finish this car the way it ought to be done.

Then I met Hundley Acuff at Hershey last year. As many of you probably know, Hundley is a retired pattern maker who is a genius at reproducing original running boards, first creating a mold then bonding the rubber to the metal core just as they were made originally. He agreed to make a mold for my car and they turned out to be absolutely perfect. He's just a one-man shop in north Georgia, but he's made thousands of running boards over the years that couldn't be found anywhere else.

There are many other such people out there that are the keepers of vital skills, knowledge and information about old cars and their many parts and processes. Without them our cars would not be in the condition they are. The cars get all sorts of awards, but I haven?t heard of any recognition programs for the people who made major contributions to getting them to that level.

It might be difficult to set objective criteria for such an award, but it seems to me like something worth doing. Perhaps nominations from members, with X number of testimonials verifying their unique contributions?

What do you think?

[ex98thdrill]

Good idea.

Hunley has done four sets of running boards for us, and you're right, he's the best in the business.

[Dynaflash8]

How about the ONLY one in the business? Great guy. He's made two and a half pairs for me too! That 1/2 pair is a long story worth telling short. He had a display running board at Hershey last year, and it happened to be for a '39 Buick, as well as the opposite of a NOS board I had at home. We made a deal where I got the display at a fair price along with sending my old pair of cores to him so somebody else could use them. Next we need somebody to apprentice under Hundley just like we need somebody to apprentice under all of the dwindling numbers of true genius artisans who we rely upon in this hobby.

[R W Burgess]

Exactly what I was speaking of Earl.

I was speaking to the "casting" gentleman (large Petty type hat) in Philly about his talent and possible loss. He only has companies coming to him that want to "steal" his process and not really wanting to protect the hobby, our antique car hobby. The usual greedy, ugly part of our society today. Sad!

Wayne