Confession of a Drugstore Car Guy

Back in the day bad behavior was often chalked-up to “peer pressure.” It was the influence of those around us that was responsible for the fool-hardy, idiotic things we did. You remember your parents asking “ . . . would you jump off the roof just because Billy Bob did?” Damn right you would have, any of us would; peer pressure was what drove our semi-psychotic, hormone-soaked teen-age lives!

Theoretically we stopped our self-destructive cave-in to peer pressure as we attained adultness. That’s not to say we stopped caving-in to peer pressure, just began applying some (hopefully) good sense to the process. It is still the engine that drives a lot of the stuff we do; mowing the lawn, raking leaves, washing the car (well, maybe not washing the car – for some car guys that seems to be religious or sexual or something). Although we call it different things; ambition, competitiveness, keeping-up-with-the –Joneses, peer pressure is still a factor in our lives.

It is obvious the pressure our peers exert on us is always right there. Whether we forgo the urge to take on another “project” because we need to keep the money in the IRA or say phooey to the kids’ College Fund and buy Billy Bob’s old Willys gasser; ultimately it will be peer pressure to blame for the decision. That’s what adults do; they find ways to rationalize their behavior vis a vis peer pressure. I, for one, never made a stupid decision without first convincing myself it wasn’t (stupid). It’s easy to claim it is only the young who fall for this stuff but we all know that’s not true.

Peer pressure has lots of disguises; it can masquerade as fashion, fad, style or trend. Sometimes it hides behind political correctness or some “ism” or another but it is the primary way in which society polices itself. Without it we’d all act like Jerry Springer’s next guest or have our own reality show. It may seem like no one pays any attention to you but, actually, your neighbor is always watching to see what you’re doing next! If you don’t want to feel like you’re simply being swept along on a current of peer pressure be the first in the ‘hood to mow, or rake, or put up the Christmas lights. You can be the one they all hate!

Things have recently gotten a lot easier to keep track of the pressure your peers are putting on you. What better way to keep track of the pressure than to take advantage of the latest in social media? Check your Smart Phone or your Facebook page, I guarantee someone is applying some pressure about something. Don’t have a Smart Phone or Facebook? See, you’re just caving to the pressure your Old Fart, Luddite peers are applying! You know you want to Tweet but you are afraid your buddies will laugh.

Confessions of a Drugstore Car Guy

Jan/Feb, 2012

Last month HMCCC voted to authorize the Raffle Rod Project. This makes our efforts to build and raffle-off a Deuce Hi-boy Roadster to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association a little less of a pipe dream. In addition, a number of our friends have invested some pretty big bucks in the project and others have been extremely generous with parts and offers of parts and services. I have to say, we’re off to a pretty good start.
Among the stuff we’ve recently scored: “Burnt orange pearl” paint donated by McHenry Paint in Frederick; machine work, parts and assembly of a SBC engine by Rockville Rod and Bearing; and SBC cylinder heads and dress-up parts from Chewey’s Performance Automotive. We’ve garnered a set of King Bee headlights, a chrome Edelbrock intake manifold and block-hugger headers, a SBC Chevy engine and a TH350 automatic transmission with a new torque convertor. We’ve also had friends offer a radiator, a new Edelbrock carburetor and other parts.
We have yet to park the biggest part of the project in our garage, so to speak. That part, we’ve come to realize, is the frame or chassis, and it’s literally the foundation on which everything else is built. The Committee discussed frame issues at length and agreed we need to acquire a “rolling chassis” as soon and as cheaply as possible. A rolling chassis would give us a big head-start in getting the Raffle Rod up-and-running.
A rolling chassis typically consists of a frame with front and rear suspension, rear axle housing and axles, brakes, and steering installed. It also includes the necessary cross-members and bracketry, with motor and transmission mounts, ready to set the body and running gear in place. It’s a huge piece of the project and having one professionally built is major.
We’ve done a lot of research and found rolling chassis to be expensive but with a huge range in price; from what seems fair and reasonable at one end of the spectrum to something you’d think came from Nieman-Marcus and bring you breakfast in bed on the other. We found a builder on the “fair and reasonable” end of the chart and decided to give them a shot.
A couple of weeks ago Paul and I drove to Georgia to check-out Supreme Hot Rods and talk to owner Jeremy Van Dusen about building our rolling chassis. SHR advertises a chassis for a very attractive price and their ads show a very professional looking product. But, seeing is believing, so we decided a road trip was in order.
SHR is a very well-equipped shop in Hoschton, GA, not too far from Atlanta (which made a side trip to my brother’s a no-brainer). They are set up to build just about any kind of a frame you’d want with specific jigs dedicated to the most common. The frames they had in progress attested to the high quality and attention to detail we wanted to see. We also saw the metal magic that can be achieved with computer-aided design (CAD) and laser cutting. Some of the frame components Jeremy had produced by these techniques looked like the parts inside a clock.
Paul and I spent a couple of hours with Jeremy, discussing our project and generally sizing one another up. I’ve got kids older than Jeremy and I have to say his approach to business and his imagination impressed both of us. Not only was he ready to build us a frame and save us a bunch of money doing it, he was ready to teach us how to market our project in the 21st Century. He convinced us “Social Media” can provide just the tools we need make the Raffle Rod Project a huge success!
For the rest of you Troglodytes, Social Media means Facebook, Twitter, and all those other gimmicks the younger generations are using to keep us dazed and con-fused. How does that help us, you ask? Good question, but I think it does. Social Me-dia tools apparently can spread the word, whatever it is, very quickly.
Think of Facebook as working like a huge pyramid scheme; you tell your friends, they tell their friends, etc., etc. and pretty soon everybody knows. Apparently the word spreads like wildfire. I thought Facebook was just for finding the folks you didn’t like in High School and for teenagers to keep track of stuff they didn’t want their parents to know about. And I was just now getting my head around e-mail and blogs! We will do Facebook; once I figure out how.
Right now Jeremy is contacting his suppliers to see what kind of discounts they’d be willing to give him on the various components that go into a rolling chassis. The more they give him, the more he can pass along to us. Upgrading the components, both in terms of bling and technology, will make the Raffle rod a lot more attractive to ticket buyers and, naturally, we want as much as we can get for has little as we have to spend.
With the Raffle Rod Project, as big an issue as securing a rolling chassis is selling raffle tickets. Duh! We’ve given a lot of thought as just how to do this and the best so-lution seems to be to take the show on the road; take the Project to the many events we all attend each year and set-up our ticket booth. The plan is to start selling tickets at the Frederick Flea Market in March and hit as many events as we can after that. Eventually we’d like to take the Raffle Rod with us so ticket-buyers can see what a great hot rod they’re taking a chance on winning.
In addition to selling tickets at our event-going ticket booth, we can help sell our sponsors’ products and thank everyone for their contributions. We can also market HMCCC and the Alzheimer’s Association and publicize up-coming events. I’m thinking there are lots of you out there just waiting for an invite to take a turn in the booth! Well, consider yourselves invited.
If you’d like to learn more about Supreme Hot Rods, check our their website at: supremehotrods.com. We will also be adding Raffle Rod info to the HMCCC website and setting up a project Facebook site.

Confessions of a Drugstore Car Guy

My neighbor shares community car magazines with me, specifically Automobile and Motor Trend. I appreciate this arrangement because it allows me to keep up on the latest car stuff without having to spend whatever car mag money I might in find the couch. I can save that for Street Rodder, Rod & Custom or other titles that I find both more interesting and more useful.

The November 2011 edition of Automobile features an article about Chevrolet’s 100th anniversary. As an owner of a “classic Chevy” and member of a Classic Chevy Club this probably should be of interest to me. As a matter of fact there were some bits of trivia that did tickle my fancy. One of the most interesting bits was the fact that Louis Chevrolet, the guy who gave his name to the marque (that’s pretentious car guy speak for brand name), quit his job rather than giving up cigarettes!

I was fascinated by the nearly century-long rivalry between Chevrolet and Ford, an epic struggle for market domination that, in recent years, has been overlooked because of a similar fight between Toyota and Honda. Chevy v. Ford began in earnest in 1915 when Chevrolet introduced a model that directly challenged the Model T by selling for the same $490. Chevrolet took the lead for the first time in 1927 (because Ford shut down for seven months to re-tool for the Model A) and again in 1928.

Chevy guys are justifiably proud of their small-block V8 which has pretty much owned it’s market (and engineering) niche for over sixty years. Not surprising considering its older brother, the “Stovebolt” Six, was the class of its class from 1929 until it was finally phased out in 1990. That makes it a little easier to swallow some of Chevrolet’s spectacular failures like the air-cooled engine installed in 1923 cars or the aluminum four-banger they put in Vegas.

Although the Vega will never be considered one of Chevrolet’s success stories, drag racer Bill “Grumpy” Jenkin’s Vega-based Pro-Stock Toy XI is considered a pioneer in its class due to innovations like a tube frame and MacPherson strut suspension. About the same time Grumpy was campaigning his Toys Chevrolet had its best sales year ever. In 1978 sales peaked at over 4.55 million. Funniest thing, is there a 1978 Chevrolet anyone today would walk across the street to look at, let alone buy?

By mid-century Chevrolet was in the driver’s seat sales-wise although Ford was riding shotgun. One market segment Chevy did not own, however, was the Hot Rod demographic. Ford’s dominated the pages of emerging car magazines like Hot Rod and Chevies were few and far between. That all changed with the introduction of the ’55 Chevy and it’s small block V8. Although Fords continued to supply the cars that became Hot Rods, the engines quickly became Chevy V8s.

During the car war years of the Sixties, Chevy and Ford battled toe-to-toe in the muscle car arena; Camaro v. Mustang pretty much defined that battle ground. It’s interesting that today, 50 years down the road, the skirmishing continues. In the first quarter of 2011 Camaro outsold Mustang for the first time in years. While Camaro spent a number of years in automotive limbo following its demise in 2002, Mustang soldiered on and even enjoyed a renaissance with a retro-redesign for the 2005 model-year. While Camaro fans cried in their beer Mustangs enjoyed record sales. Now, it seems, the tables have turned; according to USAToday,

“ . . . Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang, it's no contest. Camaro is the winner. It's just one of the more interesting rivalries that are showing up in the sales numbers with the first quarter having just finished. Chevrolet sold 8,964 Camaros in March compared with Ford moving 8,557 Mustangs. For the first three months of the year, the score is 19,972 Camaros to 15,419 Mustangs. Last year, the two were neck-and-neck some months and Ford is justifiably proud of Mustang, so it's interesting that Camaro is pulling so far ahead.”

Most car folks agree the 1955 Chevrolet was the most important car of its generation. They say it dragged Chevrolet kicking and screaming into lead among American cars. Prior to the ‘55 Chevys were good, dependable family cars; kinda the Toyota Camry of their day. With the small block V8 and cutting-edge styling the ‘55 was apparently exactly what the mid-century American car buyer was looking for.

According to Robert Cumberford in the November, 2011 Automobile, the ‘55 grille was “ . . . the best grille in the entire history of Chevrolet,” even if they did steal it from Ferrari and only used it one year. It really is iconic; there’s no mistaking it for anything other than what it is.

One particular fun fact that grabbed my attention relates to the engine Chevy put in the 1990 Corvette ZR-1. Designated the LT5, it was a 5.7 liter all aluminum DOHC V8 built by Mercury Marine. I think the early versions were built to hang off the back of the car!

I’m glad Chevrolet has been rolling along for 100 years and now looks like it may make it for 100 more. Of course, now they have to find a reliable source for batteries or resist the urge to lower the price by selling them “batteries not included!”

Confessions of a Drugstore Car Guy

Now that the 19th Annual Alzheimer’s Show is in the books it’s time to look toward the Big Two-O. It’s a landmark, right, and we need to do something appropriately awe-some, right? Each of the last few years have been more successful than the one be-fore; more cars, more money, more kudos each year. That track record has raised the bar pretty high and an escalation worthy of such a win streak could be hard to pull off. Not to worry, I’ve got just the gimmick! So how about we (HMCCC members) build and raffle off a hot rod? A Raffle Rod! Great idea, huh?

Over the last 20 years HMCCC has raised nearly a quarter-of-a-million-dollars for the Alzheimer’s Association and it would be very neat to kick things up a notch. I don’t know how much money we could raise with a raffle featuring a car as a prize but I’ll bet it would be a lot. I have done some research on using raffles as fundraisers and fund raising gurus all say you get more bang for your buck from a raffle than from other fundraising activities.

I think with a project like a Raffle Rod a few basic principles are important, the main one being K.I.S.S. (keep it sensibly simple). Also, keep it Classic or Old School and remember Occam’s Razor: Most of the time the simplest solution is the best one.

These concepts work well with the idea of building a ’32 Ford roadster. Not only is the ’32 roadster hi-boy a hot rod icon, it really is a pretty basic vehicle; fewer parts mean fewer things to go wrong. Also, like the small block Chevy engine (which, of course, we’ll use) parts and services are abundant and less expensive.

At our recent get-together to present HMCCC’s 2011 check to the Alzheimer’s Association there was a discussion about how much money we (HMCCC) raises for them (A.A.) with so little effort on their part. They (A.A.)told us (HMCCC) we had been giving them more money for longer than any other organization in this region. In 2012, considering how much more money we could raise with the Raffle Rod project, I think the Alzheimer’s Association will gladly pitch-in. As a matter of fact, we need their help to make the project a success.

A visit to the Alzheimer’s Association’s website (www.alz.org) makes it clear how a Raffle Rod campaign would benefit from their help. They have a national organization with a fund-raising apparatus in place. They have the ability to collect and process donations on-line, they have media contacts and various tools for publicizing their fund-raising projects. We can reach-out to friends and neighbors, pound the pavement, to sell raffle tickets. The Alzheimer’s Association can reach a national audience on the web, in the media and with their newsletters.

Those fund-raising gurus I’ve been consulting (via Google) say that a good raffle limits the number of tickets offered to entice buyers with better odds of winning. It also prices tickets high enough to discourage buyers from “buying” a win. I figure the Raffle Rod project should offer 5000 tickets at $25/ticket. The only deal offered would be five tickets for $100. This scenario would produce between $100,000 (all tickets sold @ 5/$100) and $125,000 (all tickets sold @ $25).

There are legal and regulatory issues that need to be addressed, including state and county permits, interim insurance, and provisions to meet tax requirements. There are administrative issues like how to manage accounting and reporting requirements. And there are emotional issues like who can and who can’t participate in the raffle. There is also the immediate issue of funding the project. Where will the money to buy the parts come from?

The biggest expense in the Raffle Rod project; the entire basis for it, in fact, is acquisition of a chassis. They are available and from vendors in the region but they’re not cheap. It’s easy to say the success and the quality of the entire project rests on this chassis. A Stage III, “rolling” chassis includes front and rear suspension, steering, brakes, the differential and all the bracketry to attach everything else to. Add a body, engine, transmission, etc., etc. and you’ve got a hot rod!

Although the 20th annual Alzheimer’s Show is 11 months away that is very little time in terms of a project like the Raffle Rod. Lots of issues need to be addressed in a very short amount of time. The Raffle Rod needs to be ready to roll-out not in September, in time for the drawing, but in the Spring. The car needs to hit the Cruise-in and Show circuit as soon as possible; the more it is seen, the more people will want to win it!

Anybody who’s ever put a car together knows that the list of what you need is see-mingly endless. To build the Raffle Rod were going to need all that stuff and maybe more. Many of us have parts laying around; things that didn’t get used on the last project, or that didn’t work when the project changed direction in mid-stream. Maybe we’ll be able to use some of that stuff. For sure we’ll be able to use your help.

At the October meeting we discussed the possibility of the Raffle Rod project and I was sent forth to learn and report back everything we need to know, do, and be pre-pared for. But they gave me until the November meeting to get that done. No problem; I’ll get what I can and make up the rest—the essence of hot rodding is improvisation!

I think every car guy has (or has had) the itch to build a real Classic, Old School Hot Rod and I think building the Raffle Rod and raising money for Alzheimer’s research is a great way scratch that itch. Think how good it’ll feel to see someone win the car we helped become a reality and how proud we’ll all be to make a pile of money for the Alz-heimer’s Association.

Let’s make the 20th Annual Alzheimer’s Show the one no one ever forgets!

Real Time Reporting from HMCCC's 19th Annual Alzheimer's Show

Man, I love the sound of a lopey cam in the morning! We are opening the gates at the MVA at 8:00 the morning of the Alzheimer’s Show. They’re already backed-up damn near to the Interstate. Our annual third-Sunday-in-September Show is a great way to kick-off Fall so you gotta understand their eagerness.

Five ’til 9 o’clock and EZ just made his first announcement over the PA system. An hour and five minutes until the show starts and the main lot is already more than three-quarters full. They’ve already registered nearly 200 cars!

It’s a perfect early Fall morning, brisk and clear as a bell, a slight breeze to push the sounds of the cacklefest toward downtown Frederick—a little free advertising. Maybe we’ll get the attention of some of the early Fair-goers. By 9:30 the main lot is full and they’re parking cars in the overflow lot, well over 200 cars registered by now!

I appreciate the variety—the mix of vehicles this show attracts—plenty of antiques, classics, hot rods and muscle cars to be sure. A lot of interesting late model cars and trucks, too. One of the categories I like (although there’s no actual category) is the truly unique vehicles: EZ’s 100% hand-built Heinz 57 roadster, Bob Clubb’s Model T Paddy Wagon, a Jeep CJ disguised as an Urban Assault Vehicle, the three-wheeled, motorcycle-powered Lomax. The essence of hot rodding is expressing your individuality and showing to the world!

After so many years of ho-hum cars it is good to see late models that spark some interest. One in particular, a Cadillac CTS-V, is probably a future icon the way the high performance muscle cars are today. Another late model I picked for my own OCD Award was the White with Orange stripes Camaro that carried the color scheme under the hood and to the monster 24 inch wheels—lots and lots of white and orange.

One of the highlights of the Alzheimer’s Show each year is the Auction; I’m sure a bunch of the folks that come out don’t care much at all for the cars, they want to BID! This year we added a big tent just for the Auction and, by 10 0’clock the hard-core bidders were setting-up their chairs. Listening to John Roop’s spiel wears me out, though.

Another highlight, at least for me, was the Rick De Bow show over by the Moon Bounce. The rapport he seems to have with the kids warms the cockles of my Loman and Barkley heart, we’re lucky to have him over there! Thank you for sparing those kids having to be tended by a curmudgeon like me.

I thought this might be the year I finally get a trophy but darned if Paul didn’t outbid me. He got to take home the trophy and neither one of us had a car in the show. This year’s Alzheimer’s Show is going to be hard to beat but we’ve got the 20th coming up!