E X E C U T I V E B O A R D Thunderbird Flyer Newsletter of the Northwest Vintage Thunderbird Club V O L U M E 3 8, I S S U E 1 1 N O V E M B E R, 2 0 1 8 S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R E S T : Club Christmas party will be held at Langdon Farms Golf Course in mid December. RSVP s will be mailed mid November I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : Meet-A-Member 2 Fogging an Engine NWVTC Fall Cruise 2018 4 5 Meeting Minutes 6 Calendar of Events 7 Passing Lane 8 Is There a Doctor In the House? D on t tell Diane but I think I am sick. And I spouse or partner although this has not been scientifically proven. Yes, autocinetum incremen- think it is terminal. I noticed it a month or so ago and the symptoms keep coming tulum * is a horrible disease. back. Increased heart rate, cloudy and It is finally apparent that my garage at home has jumbled thoughts, moments of deep breathing and just been a stopgap measure. It has kept the disease at bay for well over a decade but it will no feelings of concern. Another T-bird that I like is for sale. longer do. Stronger measures need to be taken and I think you all know what that means; a shop. If you don t drop in to our club meetings much, you may not know that three Thunderbirds have found residence in my garage. Make that two, since there is no way to fit three T-birds in my garage and leave space to work on anything. TA 1963 Special Landau, otherwise known as the Principality of Monaco T-bird, is currently housed in the garage of club VP Eric Johansson s neighbor until I have room (and time!) to start working on it. The car that would become my fourth Thunderbird is a 1995 Thunderbird, 40th Anniversary edition. It is a fully optioned, V-8 model right down to the special exterior graphics. Price; $2000, negotiable. It is not a perfect example. It has front bumper damage, a broken headlight cover and it is in need of a repaint. Oh, and the current owner has been smoking in it. It also appears that a dog travels in the car. But my illness makes it impossible to distinguish what I see right in front of me and the vision in my mind of how the car looked when it was brand new in all its grandeur! To some degree, we all have this illness. Most people I know have it under control. They keep it in check with one Thunderbird or some other classic car. The occasional flare-up is diminished because lack of time or space prevents the disease from spreading. It does appear to me that the most effective way to keep this malady at bay is a glare from a I must say that she was the one to broach the subject that a lift may cure some of my problems. And for a while it did. But with the addition of the 63 (I haven't even brought up the 95 yet. It is just too painful!) the only relief I can see now is building a shop. I have seen other club members cure their problems with a shop. I think it will help me also. So the search starts for specialists that are trained in this field (field being appropriate since we don t have space to put a shop on our lot). The investigation into different therapies has begun (I hear that a 20 x40 steel building has great potential!). And the taking of overtime is in ongoing because you know that treatment is going to be expensive. The prognosis is good. I am not too worried about my current state. With luck, a space will be found, a shop constructed and all the Thunderbirds will be able to find a nest to call home. Then, after I have gone through all that, perhaps, I can be of help to others with their problems. You know who you are! Tom I know some of you reading this are going through some personal medical problems that are very serious. This was written tongue-in-cheek and is not meant to belittle what you are going through. If you have asked that your information not be shared with the group, it has not. But know that your fellow club member is concerned for your well being and supports you! * Latin for increase of automobiles. I just made that up so don t bother looking for it in any medical book!
P A G E 2 T H U N D E R B I R D F L Y E R Meet-A-Member Long time club member Dennis Tokstad sent me this article that he wrote for another club magazine on the event of his retirement. Since many of you may not have met Dennis, his story is a great piece to get to know him better. Editor O n June 30, 2018, I retired from Hyster-Yale Group after 43 years. I retired as the engineering manager of engine systems for the company, which designs and builds Hyster and Yale forklift trucks. It was a great career for a car guy like myself. I had always been interested in how things worked when I went to Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon and then to Portland State University graduating in 1975 with a mechanical engineering degree. My wife Kim and I have several old cars including 4 Thunderbirds, 1955, 1960, 1964 and 2003, but my car collecting activities started much earlier in 1968. I bought a 56 Ford Sunliner convertible that I rebuilt with the help of my Dad and brother. I drove it throughout high school. At the end of my senior year (1971), I found a 55 Ford Sunliner convertible and bought it, as it was a more solid car (less rust) than my 56. I sold the 56 Sunliner at that point, of course regretting it immediately. I have owned the 55 Sunliner now for 47 years. My wish had always been to someday have a Crown Victoria and I wanted a Skyliner, though I didn t think that it would be possible to find one that I could afford. On April Fool s Day, 1978, I saw a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria Skyliner for sale in the local Oregonian newspaper in a wrecking yard in Sherwood, Oregon a small town outside of Portland. Even though it was in rough shape with lots of rust, I bought it, telling my wife, Kim, that we could part it out to recoup our investment if we had to. I knew that I did not want to part it out, but it would need everything and I had never done such a complete restoration of a car before. It needed to have the body removed from the frame and stripped. In the first 3 years of ownership of the Crown, I worked pretty hard on the car, removing the body with the help of 8 friends, lifting it off and putting it on another friend s trailer for the trip to Redi-Strip. I sandblasted the frame and suspension components in the driveway of our house and found a used 272 engine to rebuild to replace the engine in the car that had a cracked block. The project proceeded well, completing the chassis Dennis Tokstad rebuild and drivetrain installation and even showing the completed chassis in the Fall Expo Center car show in October of 1980. With a couple of friends, I started 5 and 6 Products Company which reproduced the 1955-1956 Crown Victoria Door Trim Tabs and sold them to Crown Victoria owners for several years through word of mouth and ads in Hemmings Motor News. The creation of these die cast parts was quite a project in itself. I created the drawings and we had a local tool and die maker create the tooling and a local Portland company, Con-Met, cast the zinc-aluminum alloy die castings and another local company, East Side Plating, do the chrome plating for us. We sold hundreds of sets of these parts before disbanding the company in the mid-80 s when life and real jobs didn t provide us the time for this hobby business. After all these years, the car that I created the reproduction Door Trim Tabs for, is nearly ready to mount them on!! Over the next 30 years progress slowed with family and other car projects taking priority. I did track down the original owner of the car, Bud Nees, and the second owner of the car Gerald Holtz, where it was originally sold during the Summer of 1955 in Eureka, California. Both gentlemen still live in Eureka. Gerald had purchased the car from his high school friend, Bud, in January, 1956, trading him as partial payment, a 1952 Chevrolet. Gerald and his wife were married in 1959 and used the car as their wedding get-away car. I also contacted Harper Ford in Eureka, the dealership where the car was sold to Bud. The great-grandson of the founder of Harper Ford, Trevor Harper now owns the dealership. He has been interested in the progress of the restoration of the Crown. The car had been sold to the original owner, off the showroom floor. The original dealership building where the car had been on display in 1955 still exists and is used as a family museum now and has the Harper family car collection on display now. This includes another 1955 Ford Crown Victoria, but not one that Harper Ford had sold in 1955. In 2010, a friend and co-worker, Chuck Johnson, offered to start working on the body of the Crown. He was an expert at body and paint and had rebuilt several cars of his own and for friends. At that point the Crown was still in bare metal with the phosphate coating that Redi-strip had put on it 31 years earlier stopping further oxidation. I had red oxide primed the bottom and reinstalled the body on the chassis. I had replaced a few sections of the body, but not tackled the lower quarter panels, rocker panels and right side of the roof which had extensive rust damage. Chuck came over to my house most Saturday mornings to work on the body. He wanted the drivetrain to be removed again to give him better Continued on next page
V O L U M E 3 8, I S S U E 1 1 P A G E 3 access to the cowl, so out it came again. I ended up pulling off the heads from the engine which had not yet been started after its 1980 rebuild and had the valves inserted for unleaded fuel. I also rechecked the engine bearings for any attention they might need. They were still coated with assembly lube and the engine was still in pristine shape. I took the Fordomatic transmission to a local transmission shop to check out the rebuild that I had done myself in 1980. The shop said it was still fine and needed nothing, other than the job that I did cleaning the torque converter had not gotten all of the dirt and contaminate out of it, so they cleaned it better, resealed it and put it back together. Over the next 8 years the car has been making slow, steady progress. The body is complete, painted and mostly reassembled with the exception of the front fenders, which Chuck is still working on. The car has some extraordinary features. It has a New Old Stock (not reproduction) interior! I found a complete NOS interior advertised in Hemmings Motor News in 1983 and purchased it. A guy had bought up some left over 1955 Ford interiors at the end of the production model year and stored them. I was able to purchase red and white seats, door panels, headliner, armrests and rear center armrest. It was an incredible find. The complete upholstered pieces had never been installed on seat frames or panels, so I stored them in boxes until I had a friend who is a retired upholstery guy, Les Diggs, install all the pieces on my restored seat frames and body in 2014. The complete interior is a sight to behold. Looking at and sitting in an original 1955 Ford interior is a real nostalgia trip. The car also has its original Plexiglas roof panel. It is in remarkably good condition after 63 years. The car has its original power seat mechanism also. I added a continental kit, wire wheel covers and rear deck antenna to match my 55 Sunliner. I have had the engine started and running, but I have not yet driven the car, even after owning it for over 40 years. After retiring, I should be able to dedicate more time to completing the Crown Victoria and look forward to driving it and showing it at CVA meets. The attached caricature was commissioned by the Hyster -Yale Group as a retirement gift. It shows my wife and I along with our 55 Sunliner and 55 Crown Victoria Skyliner in front of our shop. It was created by FunFaces.com. I was given both a retirement book with the image and a framed large print of the incredible drawing. It is something that we will cherish always. A slightly modified version of this article is being published as the feature cover story in the December, 2018 issue of the Fomoco Times, the Crown Victoria Association monthly magazine. Kim and I are also members of that club. The club has international membership and has over 2,100 members worldwide. Words and pictures by Dennis Tokstad Last year a team of researchers at Stanford University trained an artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize the make, model and year of every car seen in 50 million Google Street View images taken from 200 US cities. The deep-learning, machinevision framework (called a convolutional neural network), was reported by them to be as good as people at spotting the subtle differences between car models or years. For example, the AI could tell the difference between the small difference between the 2007 and 2008 versions of the Honda Accord. The researchers said their system could categorize vehicles into one of 2,657 categories at a rate of 0.2 seconds each. "While it classified the automobiles in 50 million images in two weeks, a human expert, assuming ten seconds per image, would take more than 15 years to do the same task," their research notes. Eventually, the AI was able to identify 95 per cent of the vehicles it was shown. This data was in then compared to the voting data in a demographic database called the American Community Survey. The comparison showed a "strong association between vehicle distribution and disparate socioeconomic factors," the researchers write. Asian-American neighborhoods were more likely to drive Hondas and Toyotas; African-American areas were associated with Chrysler, Buick and Oldsmobile, Caucasian neighborhoods had pickup trucks, Volkswagens and Aston Martins. And apparently this informed election picks. "For instance, if the number of sedans encountered during a drive through a city is higher than the number of pickup trucks, the city is likely to vote for a Democrat during the next presidential election (88 per cent chance); otherwise, it is likely to vote Republican (82 per cent)," the researchers explain. That data was compared with the American Community Survey and electoral results to test its accuracy. Researchers claimed a strong correlation "for every demographic statistic we examined." The actual accuracy did vary, though: for example, the system correctly classified 264 of 311 Wisconsin precincts' votes, and 58 out 60 in Gilbert, Arizona. The researchers say such work isn't intended to replace more labor-intensive, door-to-door surveys, but could help supplement it and speed up initial results. The American Community Survey costs $250 million a year and takes two and a half years to complete. He stresses the paper's predictions are only applicable at a group level and that there may be more accurate techniques. "The authors are looking at an aggregate rather than an individual level, [such as] what is the voting behaviour of a zip code or precinct rather than an individual. I'm dubious that this would work at an individual level," he says. "In terms of raw accuracy, the results are not that high. Probably just looking at a precinct's vote proportion last time there was a vote would also be a good predictor of their next vote."
P A G E 4 Fogging An Engine H ere in the Pacific Northwest, many classic car owners store their rides for the winter. Most of them take care to prep the inside and outside of the vehicles for a few months on non-use. Although many of these topics have been covered before, the process of fogging an engine has not been coverer here. Let s take a look at another step to take when putting your car to bed for the season. When an engine sits inactive during the cold season, the parts inside cool and condensation will form from the moisture is in the air. Corrosion can occur on cylinder walls, pistons, rings, and valves. Once the engine is started again this corrosion can score cylinder walls, increase wear on the rings and even cause a stuck valve. The use of fogging oil coats the internal parts of the engine with a thin blanket of oily goodness as a preventative measure. Although major wear and broken parts are unlikely to occur over just one winter, the use of a fogging oil is cheap insurance. Courtesy of YouTube I could not find a picture of someone using fogging oil with a classic car engine but this is the type of fog you should see when using this product. This product is not recommended for fuel injected or diesel engines. Most fogging oil comes in a spray can and application is straight forward. Remove the air cleaner to access the carburetor. Then spray the contents in the carburetor intake with the engine running. Very quickly, oily smoke (that would be the fog) should start flowing from the exhaust. Shut the engine down. That is all it takes. There are many brands of engine fogging oil like these from Amsoil and Sta -Bil. A can will typically run from $5 to $10. For added protection, you can pull each spark plug and spray another dose of oil into each cylinder after the fogging part. Words by Tom Przedwojewski Why wait until you get to grandmother's house to start cooking when you can make the whole dinner from the heat of your car engine on the way? That's basically the idea behind Manifold Destiny (Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, $14), the guide to cooking on your car engine. The book explains how to prepare, foil wrap and tuck an uncooked dinner into various places under your car's hood so that your casserole or roast is sizzling hot and waiting when you arrive. Here's the recipe for "To Grandmother's House Road Turkey:" 1. At home, combine the turkey, potatoes and carrots into a bowl with the wine and cover. Marinate two hours in the refrigerator, then drain well (and don't drink the wine). Setting the vegetables aside, dredge the turkey pieces in flour, then heavily butter five large squares of foil. Arrange equal amounts of turkey and vegetables in each square, and season with sale and pepper as desired. Cup the foil around the turkey and vegetables, and pour over each serving as much heavy cream as you can without making a soupy mess, then seal carefully. 2. Cook on the engine about four hours, turning once. We're assuming grandmother doesn't live in the next town. TO GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE ROAD TURKEY 1 Boneless turkey breast, about five pounds, sliced into thin strips against the grain 3 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced 3 carrots, finely diced Dry white wine Flour for dredging Butter for greasing foil Salt and pepper to taste Three-quarters cup heavy cream There. Easy. And when you arrive, let's hope that grandma has already made the stuffing, peas and pecan pie. Cooking on an engine isn't all that complicated, but does include a few do's and don'ts to keep from losing fingers or setting the car on fire, which can ruin your dinner party. So you might want to consult the book. T H U N D E R B I R D F L Y E R
V O L U M E 3 8, I S S U E 1 1 P A G E 5 NWVTC Fall Cruise 2018 P lanning a cruise takes about 2 months and a lot of input from others to try and make it fun, practical and well attended. So was the task Debbie and I took on in early August hoping for the following: What date will be the best for everyone? What length of drive will most want to endure? What location will be new and interesting? Where do you meet and end that is convenient? AND most important what the heck will the weather be like in October?! Well with amazing luck at least the weather cooperated big time. As for the rest of the cruise I can only comment that we heard from many that this was just right and very fun, soooo planning a cruise is worth it! Sunday morning October 14th arrived with full sun and our Retro Bird cleaned and full of fuel. We left the house and made it one quarter mile when Booom! Rear tire blow out, really!! Later found a ¼ drive socket 2 extension punctured my brand new tire. Well we limped home parked and took the family wagon to meet the group. What a nice surprise as we counted upwards of 17 Thunderbirds, 2 classics, Mike Hinch s 56 Ford Sedan and a 65 Mustang. Two others brought their family car, head count approximately 38 people. I called ahead to the Fargher Lakehouse Café and doubled the number attending lunch. We took off at 11 AM and headed towards Battleground, WA. As soon as we turned onto Hwy 503 the traffic slowed down and all twenty of us started to feel the sun and falling leaves. After another turn onto Rock Creek Rd. and the drive got really fun. Twists and turns at 40 mph, just a great cruise. Sunlight coming and going all the way to Lucia Falls rest stop. The short walk thru the forest was easy and the view very nice, everyone took pics and wondered how they did not know this place existed. Lucia Falls Starting again on to Amboy and Yacolt thru farms and lots of falling leaves, brilliant turning colors and our T-Bird snake wound thru the countryside. We arrived at the café about 12:50 and they had a great setting for us! Reserved tables took care of all of us and the parking lot was large enough for comfortable viewing. Lots of conversations, lots of laughs and since most all had their name tags we were comfortable with the event. Not sure anyone would complain about the selections and quality of the lunch so again good luck for us. Shortly after 2:15 several including Deb and I had to get back on the road home which was a snap as just about 10 miles further we were back to Battleground where we started. So we traveled abut 65-70 miles, gone for about 4 hours and had some nice cruise time with our fellow T-Birders. Above: T-birds from three decades outside the Fargher Lakehouse Café. Below: Some of the NWVTC members from similar decades! As this cruise is now behind us I am encouraged to do this again and perhaps more often. We always encourage anyone who feels the urge to take us to someplace they like or interesting for others, go for it! Keep informed with the club newsletter, learn about out future plans for the club and in particular next years Sizzlin Summer Car Show and the 2020 International that we will be hosting. Thanks to everyone who came and supported the Fall Cruise. Words by Mark Haworth Pictures from Vicky Wimsatt
P A G E 6 Meeting Minutes Attendance: Thomas Przedwojewski, Eric Johansson, Vicky Wimsatt, Mark Haworth, Matt Truax, Steve Wimsatt, Dave Coles, Griff Truax, Jim Brewster, Ana Johansson, Mel Meyers Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM at the Bird Nest. We had 11 members present and one new (soon to join) member Mel Myers; Welcome Mel and we hope you will enjoy your Thunderbird with us! Tom noted the following: That we have approximately 52 families and 60 cars as part of the club. May 19, is to be next year s Thunderbird Appreciation Day! Some dialogue about individual membership to the ITC and the VTCI, each association has benefits and currently some members belong to one or the other as well as our club the NWVTC. THE FALL CRUISE was mentioned as Mark reported the event was well attended and had an exceptionally beautiful day. The Fall Cruise recap is reported in this newsletter. A report concerning the VTCI International event was presented by Ana Johansson. The show committee met on October 13th and discussed a great deal of plans and activities. Ana submitted a four page report with ideas, possible itineraries for the week and emphasized that right now there is a request from all members to help create the theme or tag line for our convention. A prize will be offered for idea that is selected. The committee will meet again on November 10th at 9 am at the Village Inn in Tigard. Tom passed out business cards for the club. They are simply indicating our contact information so that as members come across other T Birders, they can offer a card and encourage them to check out the club. The Annual Christmas Party will be held December 16th (Sunday) in the afternoon at Langdon Farms Golf course in Wilsonville. More details to follow. Hopefully you can place this on your calendar and join the annual get together. Vicki Wimsatt offered the Treasurers report, the club continues to be in the black and is well managed. Meeting was adjourned at 8:35 pm Minutes recorded by NWVTC Secretary Mark Haworth No meeting scheduled for November! There are club members that ordered a name tag and still have not picked them up. We would rather not mail them since postage almost doubles the cost of the tag. If you ordered a name tag and have not received it yet, please contact Mark Haworth 503-805-4816 to make arrangements to get it to you! T H U N D E R B I R D F L Y E R
V O L U M E 3 8, I S S U E 1 1 P A G E 7 Calendar of Events Club Meetings Nov No scheduled meeting Happy Thanksgiving! Dec 16th (Sun) NWVTC Christmas Party and End of Year meeting at Langdon Farms Golf Course. Details on back page No scheduled events through 2018 No scheduled events through 2018 VTCI Events http://vintagethunderbirdclub.net/events.htm ITC Events http://www.intl-thunderbirdclub.com/index.html Car Shows and Events Every Saturday throughout the year, Portland Cars & Coffee, Wilsonville, OR Further information at portlandcarsandcoffee.com Dec 1st (Sat) Toys for Joy Santa Cruise& Fireman Breakfast, Stayton, OR Further information at www.stros.biz Dec 2nd (Sun) Movie at the Museum, Brooks, OR Further information at www.carandcylcle.com These are not all the events in the area. If I have missed any that you think the club members would like to know about send in the information and I ll put it in the list! If you attend an event snap a picture or two and write up something for the newsletter. Each event has a certain flavor and we all like to find a fun and interesting event.
2018 Executive Board President Tom Przedwojewski 64skibird@gmail.com VP Eric Johansson ericlj66@gmail.com Secretary Mark Haworth madhaworth@comcast.net Treasurer Vicky Wimsatt In November, 1969, radio station KHJ "The Big 93" FM in Los Angeles gave away a brand new 1970 Thunderbird! The 4,545 lb. Thanksgiving Thunderbird" contest was announced by the station during the week of November 12, 1969. Listeners were encouraged to listen for the surprise "fowl" gobble sound effect, and call in when they heard it. Winners were given free holiday dinners, and a chance to win the Thanksgiving Thunderbird! KHJ's Scotty Brink presented the keys to the new Thunderbird to the winner, Mr. Don Amick. From 93KHJ.blogspot.com Web site/ Newsletter Tom Przedwojewski Find us on the web at www.nwtbirds.org For your entire club apparel needs; hats, shirts, jackets or even backpacks, go to Stitch-n-Embroidery. Order on-line, over the phone or in person. Delivery to the next club meeting is available. Tell them you want the NW Vintage Thunderbird Club logo! stitchnembroidery.com/index.html Club Meeting Times No meeting scheduled for November. NWVTC Christmas Party Sunday, December 16th! Invitations will be mailed to you before Thanksgiving. Please RSVP by December 5th! Passing Lane fun and funny stuff from the road Early 20th Century Thanksgiving postcards