2006 ACTIVITIES
As you can see by the picture above, there was
plenty to do for everyone. While the guys were sitting around
dreaming
about the additional things we could do to our cars and helping others spend
their money, the wives were enjoying doing the same thing, but not necessarily
regarding cars.
The long distance travel award is awarded to
John Sonnefeldt, who came from Rockford. It is always great to
have
John as he works for Eaton, he always has great "inside" stuff on industry news.
Also about the Hot Rod Power Tour.
GARY PLACE AND HIS
1969 CHEVELLE SS396-375HP
ARE ON THE DECEMBER COVER
OF MUSCLECAR ENTHUSIAST
Some pics from Gary Place's experience at the Muscle Car Drags. Some are in the newsletter, but here, you get them in their full, glorious color.
To some, doing running an original, low mile L-78 Chevelle is not what they would do, but Gary has decided that what Chevrolet built to run, will run. He is a confident Chevy owner.
Over the hood of the ’69, you’ll see Gary leaning on the bed of his 2004 Duramax dually truck. He is talking with Steve Slotham, Editor of Musclecar Enthusiast. Gary says they were talking about the price of corn, which makes Gary smile. We still affectionately call Gary “The Poor Farmer”.
These are some of the friends Gary has met while racing his '69. From left to right: John Miller, owns a '65 442 Olds. Ken, in the middle, is the photographer and takes pics of the entire event. Finally, Tom Payne of Philo, IL. who races his 1964 Impala SS.
This is the Beautiful Beast at rest. It is truly a beautiful car.
There
15 NICC member cars a the Sept. 16th cruise hosted by Wes & Barb Frisch.
It
was a PERFECT day; sunny, not hot and not cool. We met at Frisch's house
and then cruised over to downtown Oswego, which took about 3 minutes. Now
the show was supposed to have started at 5pm, but there were 275 cars already
parked when we got there.
A
friend of Wes who also lives in Oswego, had a great spot but he got there at 4pm
and
he mentioned there were cars in the gas station across the street at 2:30pm.
There were cars and dragsters there that were probably at Oswego Drag Strip when
it was running. The only problem was that being this late in the year it
got dark so quick it was hard to see all the cars.
While this is the first show they have hosted, I would say it was a a booming success.
This is the engine compartment of the Jerry LeMire's 1972 Chevelle. As you can see has been working on it to get it to this condition. New are power steering and A/C. Next? Power Windows. Looks like retirement is good for Jerry and Marilyn !!
John & Marcia Shipkowski couldn't make it to the cruise, but they let Vince Gallagher drive his1966 Impala that is equipped with a 396, AT, optional gauge package, and working Multiplex radio. I wasn't quite sure what a multiplex was but that is when you can control the volume of each individual speaker. This original system works. Mike Hogan mentioned that a non-working system is over $1,000. Nice car John.
It was a beautiful day as
shown by the this picture. Yes, there were clouds in the sky, but
they were beautiful. 77 degrees, a light westerly breeze, over 60 people
and 21 cars (both Chevelles & Montes and family vehicles). I was there
around 10am setting-up and had placed some "Chevelle Club" signs at strategic
intersections. Before the first NICC member arrived a couple of
guys stopped by to ask if they could come because one of their brothers had a
1966 Chevelle. I said "yep". Those signs were a good thing to have
for directions and NICC advertising.
Then the members started to arrive in a steady stream. The first to arrive was Bob Reichenbach from Fox River Grove in his 1966 Chevelle SS convertible. I saw the car but didn't see Bob for a bit; seems he was enjoying the scenery of Greene Valley Forest Preserve.
Scott
Olisar came with his family and brought some games for the kids (and grandkids);
a
bean-bag game and bacchi set. There was also a baseball and bat.
They played all afternoon. and that was a great source of entertainment for
those who participated. We have to thank Olisar's for putting the game
equipment in their beautiful Pontiac. We had a great time.
For
the food, we had black angus burgers, Johnsonville brats and Ballpark beef
hotdogs. Potato salad, pickles, chips, watermelon, fruit salad, brownies,
chocolate chip cookies, lemon squares, banana nut bread, chocolate cookies,
Pepsi, Coke, Lemonade, water, Rootbeer, Sprite and diet Coke. We got what
we wanted and then enjoyed an afternoon of relaxing and mostly bee-free dining.
We enjoyed the picnic until around 3:30pm when we thought it was the perfect time to go home and enjoy the rest of the beautiful day.
For
those who didn't make it, we're sorry that you didn't make it. The turnout
was more
than I expected, in both cars and people. During the picnic several
members started lining-up meetings for this Fall and winter. In September we're
going on a cruise to Oswego hosted by Wes & Barb Frisch for an Oswego Dragstrip
celebration. In October we're going to John and Marcia Shipkowski's home
in Wheaton. With the entire Power Cruise for 2007 being within a 1 day's
drive of Chicago, we're already making arrangements. John Sonnefeldt
always has the inside scoop as he's with Eaton, and they are a sponsor of the
Tour.
I think we're on a roll. As a note, this year's renewal percentage was the best in many, many years. Almost 88% of the members renewed, and believe it or not, we're still getting renewals. I think 2007 is going to be another great year.
Oh yes, this is Andy & Lisa Marchiando's granddaughter, Abbie. As you can see, she's adorable, but we remember when their kids were this size. Take one look and you'll know why Andy doesn't stand a chance.
Oh well. Let's just grin and keep having fun together!!
This is Luke Opaka, who attended the picnic with his dad Jim. While I was taking pics of all the cars, he wanted to make sure I got a picture of him standing by his dream car, and future ride to high school. Oh yea, the tradition continues!!
It's been about one year since Jim Holbach's red, 1966 Malibu convertible was hit by a lady. Well, Jim hasn't found the exact replacement yet, but he did drive one is 3 Mazada Miata's. He had a ball telling us about taking it to the road course and saying it never once broke the tires on the turns at 90. Mike Hogan took it for a spin and guess what? He went looking for one for himself.
On Saturday,
June 24th the NICC turned out with 25 cars for a 4-hour show
at Bob Jass Chevrolet in Elburn. 
The weather was PERFECT, not too hot and with a great breeze. The dealership
also had som
e
mature trees that we put our chairs under. There were plenty of new and used
cars to see. We tried the HHR, the Impala, Equinox. It was nice to just relax
and talk with our friends. There were many people who were driving by who
stopped to see the cars. One fella was test driving a pick-up.
Rick Montalto made the arrangements for this year. During the show he mentioned that the people at the dealership were pleased with the turnout and the people who came in to visit the dealership. They mentioned that if we come back next year they’ll have a bar-b-q set-up. This year the NICC provided the drinks, including soda, ice tea and water.
This show was
also made better by the new members that showed up. I think they liked what
they saw. They
pulled-up
their chairs and started getting in on the conversations. Mike Colbert, who is
a
new member and lives in Elburn, invited his neighbors who have a beautiful ’66
butternut yellow convertible and a 1968 green Camaro SS. When it was time for
lunch we went to Papa G’s, which is your typical Chicago “everything”
restaurant. Next to that was a Dairy Queen for the final dessert.
Jim Wersching liked the day so much, he sent the following email:
“Hi George,
Had a great time Saturday. We should have brought a grill for hotdogs and burgers. Could have made a picnic out of it. Still was a great time. Keep in touch. Best regards.Jim”
This is the color that Jim Wersching thinks he may paint his 1966 El Camino. it is currently white and this color blue does catch your eye.
It was a perfect day; 80 degrees and sunny. It got a little stormy around 7:30pm, but that is okay. We had a turnout of 12 cars and 21 people. We met at Holbach's house at 5pm and around 6pm or so we loaded up the cars are were off to Buffalo Grove and Chicago Indoor Racing. We never know what to expect for the cruises and the turnout was okay. I think we have had a best of 23 cars for the May meeting. We'll have that in the future.
Now, a summary of Chicago Indoor Racing. We are going to go back for a winter meeting for sure. The racing costs isn't bad: $25 for each of the first two races and then $10 each race thereafter. The thing is, this is intense and demanding driving. A instructional course is required, then you are fitted for driving suits and helmets, then on to the track. While no members of the club raced this nite, we will in the future. There are two tracks, a long one and a short track. It is intense racing. For your convenience, there are some pics below of the activity.
Mark Wink came out with his bronze Chevelle along with his friend and neighbor John, who brought his '66 Chevelle SS with a 454. Of course, we enjoyed meeting John, but we also enjoyed seeing his car and 454. The pic on the left shows John leaning on Mark's Chevelle while he answers questions on the engine (pic on the right).
This is Jim Holbach's fathers motor coach. Jim was kind enough to fire-up the Ford V-10 and have it "auto-level" so we could sit in there and listen to the AZ. gang (see activities page and the AZ. trip recap) dream about having this for the annual "junkyard trip" to AZ. Wouldn't have to stop and would be very comfortable. The boys even decided that Vince Gallagher could ride on top or in the storage compartments underneath. NICE.
When we arrived at Chicago Indoor Racing in Buffalo Grove it was overcast. It rained while we were inside but by the time we left the roads were dry. Walking in the doors gives you no idea what you are about to get into.
Here we are in the lobby of the after we enjoyed the restaurant and watching the racing.
This is the pit area of the operation. We arrived as they were about to start a race on the long track. It was interesting to watch the line the fast carts took. The tires really stick on these cars as they go around; you can hear them squeal on a very tight turn when the drivers are fighting for the inside position.
After the instructional class, this is one of two rooms filled with racing helmets. Chances are you'll find the perfect fit.
It was an outstanding meeting; for several reasons. First,
there were 30 members, including our two newest members, Mario and Denise
Pettiti from Elmhurst with their 1970 Chevelle SS convertible
and Ed Peters of Lake in the Hills who drove his 1969 Chevelle SS.
The meeting was to begin at 7 pm, but when I pulled up to Wilkin's home at
6:40pm there were already 7 cars there and many people were already talking and
having fun. The members were glad that Pettit's and Ed came out so quickly
and looked over both of the cars and talked with them. It was great to see
and I hope they weren't overwhelmed.
Then, as we were standing around talking and catching up on the
winter's activities up came a f
amous
70's TV 
character from
Starsky & Hutch; Huggy Bear. Yep, we couldn't believe that we could be so
blessed by his taking out the time to see us. Also, he took the time to
shine-up his ride and drove that for us to enjoy. He said he found our
website and had to stop by with his ride. At first we couldn't tell who it
was because the last 30 years has been rough on Huggy, as it is with all of us.
But believe me, it was the car that tipped us off, particularly the plush
interior that showed it was a true PimpMobile. Only then did we realize
who was there and then it was mass bedlam, led by Jim Holbach as we wanted to
see Huggy. We searched all over and while not disappointed, we soon found
out that Huggy
has
spent too much time in AZ, from which the car was purchased and shipped.
He
seemed to have faded somewhat (similar to Michael Jackson) and he consented to
wearing a NICC jacket and having his picture taken with some of the guys.
For your information, Huggy is shown in the picture on the right taking some
time to talk with some NICC members as he closes his trunk. He
liked us so much he said he is going to attend future NICC meetings and
wants to meet more members. So when you see Huggy, please make him feel
welcome, greet him and make him feel at home. He's got a cool ride, and if
you are lucky, you might go Pimpin' with him.
In addition to our celebrity visitor, we had 30 members enjoy
the hospitality of the Wilkin's home. We had
elections
and discussed the activities of the summer. The next activity is this
Saturday at Union Grove, then the Byron on Saturday, May 13th. On
Saturday, May 27th
we'll be going to Holbach's home for the cruise and going to an indoor go-kart
place that has 2 indoor tracks and a restaurant on the second floor so we can
watch the festivities. Watch the site for more info on that coming soon.
The elections resulted in the following:
President - George Primm
Vice President - Ralph Weidenbach
Treasurer - Jim Karg
Board Member - Andy Marchiando
Board Member - Bob Reichenbach
We missed you, but the turnout was great. Be sure to come to the next meeting and let's see if Huggy Bear shows up again. We can only hope that the next time he brings his 'brim with him.
Huggy Bear in the blue
NICC jacket feelin' at
home.
The Olisar's get the slot
car track ready for some
runs.
It w
as
a nice day; sunny yet chilly and the day before Spring's official debut.
We had 20 members of the NICC come for the first family activity of the year.
Technically all of our meetings are family based, but this one had "no excuses"
in that there was something to do. It had been a long time since we had
gone bowling; I think the last time was in Wheaton at the Fox Bowl.
The bowling was pretty good for just stepping up and rolling them. There were no warm-ups. They wanted to charge $.30 per ball prior to keeping score; egads. So we just walked up and let'em rip. Everything went well.
The youngest member was Kayla Shipkowski and with the help of
John and Marcia (and the bumpers), h
er
best score was 104. Not bad. Took a while to get used to it but she
did. The best form that I observed, had to be Marissa Aguayo, Fred's
daughter. She is a student at Northern Illinois University on the
traveling team. She bowled for Conant High School and she has a 190
average. Nice. Jim Wersching beat her by 7 pins for a 3-game series.
They were going at it.
The high scores by bowler, is as follows:
Marissa Aguayo - 192
Jim Wersching - 190
Fred Aguayo - 145
Andy Marchiando - 159
Lisa Marchiando - 168
Joe Wirth - 149
Carol Wirth - 159
Sandy Primm - 159
George Primm - 290 (155 really)
Joel Primm - 130
Niki Primm - 123
Danielle Primm - 88
John Shipkowski - 123
Marcia Shipkowski - 125
Kayla Shipskowski - 104
I was unable to get the scores of Jerry Williams and Mark Hojnacki before they left, but I know they did well.
It was fun catching up on a few things. Jim Holbach is
looking to replace his '66 Chevelle Convertible that was totaled last Fall.
He's got $$$ in the bank so if you know of a nice convertible Chevelle, giv
e
him a call 847-934-7556. Hey, we gotta get him back into a Chevelle.
Jerry Williams has his Chevelle almost done. Over the winter he had new
quarters and doors put on it and it is now painted red. He'll have it
ready to go soon.
Mark Witczak emailed me to let me know that the Witczak's were coming, but he was a little premature; was there on Saturday. Now that is looking forward to something, eh?
Doesn't Joe Wirth's look remind you of that perfect
kid in class who did everything right? Maybe so,
but I think it just shows he is always a nice guy. We have alot of those in the club,
so come on out and meet and greet the great members of the NICC.
FIVE MEN & A SUBURBAN - WHAT COULD BE BETTER? OR NICC MEMBERS EXCELLENT ADVENTURE TO ARIZONA
By: Jim Wersching, member #240
The idea of a trip to Phoenix, Arizona to pick up rust-free cars and parts first came to my attention during the November, 2005 club meeting at my house. A handful of guys were going sometime in January. I was invited to come along and was very honored. I did not have any project vehicles and knew it would be a great opportunity. I accepted and told them to let me know what dates they decided on. The dates were decided upon, Saturday Jan. 21 through Sunday Jan .29, but unfortunately, since they included my wife Judy’s birthday (Jan. 23rd), I didn’t know if I would be able to accompany them. Being a very understanding wife, of 38 years, she said, “Go and have fun. We’ll celebrate my birthday when you get back.” Well I did, and this is our story.
We met a few weeks before the trip at my house to discuss our objectives, the arrangements and responsibilities. There would be 5 of us going; Mike Hogan, Vince Gallagher, John Shipkowski, Mike Moeller (Big Mike) and myself. Oddly enough, we all had different objectives. Mike was looking for a nice classic convertible to cruise the summer and sell later for a profit. Vince was looking for parts for his ’66 Chevelle and his current project, a ’73 Nova for his son. John is hoping to buy a ’67 Biscayne locally and needed some parts for it, and anyone who knows John knows he is always looking for rust free doors, fenders, and whatever to stockpile or sell on EBAY. Big Mike was looking for an old Chevy truck or Suburban to fix up. And myself, I just wanted to go for the enjoyment and if I find a good project vehicle that would just be the icing on the cake. Mike Hogan has a 1999 Suburban and trailer so we were ready for anything. We had a list of Auto Transport companies so if we found something that we couldn’t haul on the trailer, we could have it shipped back.
Finally, the day came. Big Mike was supposed to pick me up at 5:00 AM, then we would pick up John and go to Mike’s house, load up and pick up Vince at 6:00 and be on our way. Well Mother Nature played a trick on us and dumped 8-12” of white stuff on us late the night before. I got a call at 4:45 from Big Mike who said that there was 12-18” of snow on his driveway and he couldn’t get out and that we shouldn’t wait for him, to just go without him. I told him that we planned this trip for the 5 of us and we would wait and just leave whenever he got here. God must have been watching because within 15 min. he was out of his driveway and on the road. He picked me up and we got to John’s house at about 6:00. We patiently waited for John to finish his breakfast (that smelled wonderful I might add) that his wife Marsha had made for him (John’s wife has got him on a pretty strict diet – we won’t say what he ate later on during the trip). We got to Mike’s house at about 6:15 only to find Mike struggling with the snow covered trailer. We finally got everything loaded up and picked up Vince at 7:00AM. We are on our way. Only 1800 miles to go!
The trip down was an experience in itself. We got to know each other very well over the next 31 hours. A few highlights of the trip down are as follows: My wife Judy made us some chocolate chip cookies for the trip. They were awesome. Just after St. Louis, Big Mikes cell phone rang, but we couldn’t find it! After tearing the inside of the truck apart, at 70 mph we finally found it. We stopped at a Flying “J” for lunch. The waiter asked how many and we said 5 but Vince said that Big Mike counted for three! Big Mike asked if he could have a booster seat for Vince. The fun begins! Once we got back on the road, Big Mike asked “Are we there yet?” Vince periodically kept reminding us he was here. He blamed it on the peanuts! We had dinner along the way at a Bennigan’s around 8PM. We got into Texas at about 11:45PM. Big Mike asked “Are we there yet?”
John’s comment about Texas was that it was a big state. Vince’s comment was that it was a “Dark State.” We got into New Mexico at around 2:45AM, and arrived at Albuquerque NM at the 24-hour mark (7AM). The temperature was 0 degrees. Big Mike asked “Are we there yet?”
Mike showed his electrician capabilities by burning his fingers changing a light bulb on the trailer. The tall guy (John) was no help; he’s not very handy! Vince again reminded us he was here. It gave us a chance to recycle the air in the truck! Big Mike asked “Are we there yet?”.
We arrived in the Phoenix area around 3:00 PM on Sunday. It was 74 degrees and sunny. We visited Mike’s property, the old Bee Line Drag Strip, and got to the condo we rented at 4:30. Average gas mileage was about 13MPG, with prices about $2.22/gal.
John was the main organizer. He did an excellent job finding the condo in Chandler for us to rent: 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, kitchen, living room and all the furnishings. Mike brought a cot, I brought a blow up bed, we did some grocery shopping and we were all set. As we were moving in, the next door neighbor came out and introduced himself – Ronald from Indiana. Seems he’s a golfer and said he was going on the Pro-Golf tour. He invited us over for grilled chicken and beans, but we declined since we already ate and really didn’t want to feed 5 guys in a condo beans! We rested the rest of the day planning our days. John and Mike had been researching cars for the past few weeks so we had a long list of prospects. I called my friend Bob who lives in Phoenix to see if he wanted to join us in any of our quests. This would turn out to be great fun for all of us. Mike criticized me for bringing a “night light’, but after introducing his head to the bathroom door later that night, he thought it might be a good idea!
First day in Phoenix, Monday:
Bob came over and we all went to see Cecil who had a ’72 Chevelle big block wagon that John was interested in. I think he was originally from Minnesota. This guy had a very nice house but his garage and back yard were fabulous! He also had a 1938 Caddy he was restoring for a friend and a really nice ’69 big block El Camino that he used for a “parts hauler.” He liked ’69 Chevelles and once I told him that I had one back in IL that I just finished, he mentioned a trade for his ’69 Elky. It got my interest, and he might have even added an extra big block 427 in to sweeten the pot. Something to think about. At some point in time, I don’t know when, Vince and Big Mike got related. Vince kept introducing Big Mike as his Twin! Also the Bob Stories were great! We then went to see a guy with a ’73 Buick Centurion convertible that Mike was interested in, which he would later buy.We then went to see
Scott who had a variety of vehicles advertised. He was a nice guy but all his
cars were rust buckets! Not what you’d expect to see in Arizona. He must be
getting them from up north. Then w
e
visited Steve (Mr. 409). What a house! And in his backyard, which was fenced
in by a 6 ft. block fence, he had a lot of
nice
cars. He was heavy into ’62 Chevys and 409’s. He graciously showed us his
garage, which had a frame-off restoration in progress of a ’62 Belair that he
was going to put a 409 into. We mentioned that we saw a 348 engine in the paper
for sale and he said “Yes I know. I bought it!” He then had us follow him to
his “ot
her
property” which he must have had 20+ more cars. A few were a ’64 2dr post
Belair, ’72 Lemans, ’62 4dr Impala, and my favorite, a ’58 Chevy 2dr Wagon that
he bought from the military. Only a few of the cars were for sale, and the ’58
was not one of them. He seemed like a nice guy but his values were a little
mixed up. He commented that he didn’t make the two most common mistakes in
life: getting married and having kids. Sorry to say that he doesn’t know what
real wealth is.
I called Judy and
we
all wished her a Happy Birthday. We then went to Mark’s house who John had
dealt with before. He also had quite a collection of cars in his backyard.
Especially interesting was a ’65 Chevelle 2dr. post rolling chassis. Mike and
John were somewhat interested and I told them if they didn’t want it that I
would be interested. That must have put the wheels in motion since we then
thought of buying it as a group and building it together. John bought some
fenders, and Mike some doors from Mark and we said we would get back to him
about the ’65.
Day 2 in Phoenix, Tuesday:
Bob had some commitments later in the day so he came over and followed us. First, we went to B
lack
Canyon City Salvage yard. This y
ard
is being sold and all the parts are going to be scrapped. Ray, who runs the
yard, is a character. He could be a stand-up comic in Vegas, but he needs to
work on his hygiene. He reminded me of a Grizzly Adams without teeth! He had
an early 50’s Chevy truck, which looked great. There was also a very nice ’54
Chevy sedan delivery that was for sale for $8,000, and a ’78 Chevy Scottsdale
truck 350/350 for $1,500. He had a lot of large cars, Caddys especially. John
picked up some great parts for his ’67 Belair and Mike got to check out an
antique version of lavatory design – when finished fill bucket with water.
Bob had to leave us and we went to look at a ’72 Cutlass convertible in Cottonwood at D&D Auto. It was supposed to have a recent paint job and just needed some assembly. After meeting “Double D”, we saw the car. It was advertised for $7,900, but was really misrepresented and only worth about $1,500, on a good day.
Day 3 in Phoenix, Wednesday:
We decided to go to Alley Towing Salvage yard in Maricopa. John, the proprietor is a great guy and gave us some great deals. His co-worker, Leather Lips Lucy, was very fast with the wrench if you needed anything taken apart. This yard is going to move and Hidden Valley Salvage is buying the property to move to. They had already moved some of their parts in. It was nice stuff but more on the expensive side. Alley Towing is moving just down the road from its current location.We then went to look
at an 80’s Caddy convertible, which Mike was interested in. It was a nice car,
but after all was said and done, Mike chose the ’73 Buick. We also called Mark
and came to an agreement on the ’65 post. We had been talking about this ever
since we saw it and were excited about doing a project together. We all
have
different areas of expertise and I think it will be a lot of fun. We went there
later in the day to pick it up, but after reviewing the title, we reluctantly d
ecided
to pass on it for now based upon the title was a salvage title and not in his
name! He is going to transfer the title into his name and call us. We will
then decide if we still want the project. What a letdown. We then did a lot of
talking. Mike decided to make an offer to Pat for the ’73 Buick. If accepted,
he would have it shipped home since it was such a heavy and big car. We would
go to a few more salvage yards and buy as much stuff as we could put on the
trailer as a group, since we didn’t score a car to bring back on it.
When we returned to
the condo and our neighbor Ronnie, kept saying that he had a friend down the
street that restores high en
d
cars and he wanted us to meet him. After we told him about the ’65 Chevelle
that didn’t pan out, he suggested that we take his car back to restore it, a mid
80’s 4dr.Volvo that didn’t run. It was tempting but we decided to pass on it.
Day 4 in Phoenix, Thursday:
We got up early to go to Alley Towing Salvage yard again in Maricopa, where Bob met us later. We picked up some parts for Mikes
’73
Buick, a bumper for Vince’s ’73 Nova. After a Chinese lunch, where Bob ended up
with a 80 mile-an-hour egg roll, we went back up to Black Canyon City Salvage to
see Ray and load up on more doors and fenders. After returning to the condo,
Ronnie told us about the woman’s hand bags he made out of cigar boxes and old
license plates. Ronnie was an interesting guy. He always wore golf knickers
and walked over to the local golf course, with clubs in hand. He planned on
playing in the Pro-golf tour, but we didn’t quite figure out how he was going to
do this without a running car. He also said that he was living there with his
fiancée, but all we saw was a cat. Interesting.
Day 5 in Phoenix, Friday:
At about 8:15, Mike, John and myself left to purchase the ’73 Buick and drop it off at Bob’s until the auto transport trucker would pick it up next Thursday. Vince wasn’t feeling so good so he slept in. When he did get up, he and Big Mike were going to tidy up the condo before we left. After dropping off the car at Bob’s, we decided to go back to the Maricopa yard to pick up “one last bumper” for John. We got back late, about 3:30 to the condo and luckily, both Big John and Vince were still alive. After eating dinner, we finally left Phoenix at about 5:30. Only 1800 miles to go!Here are some highlights
of the trip home: We left Phoenix at around 5:30PM. Big Mike asked “Are we
home yet?” Vince reminded us he was here. We encountered snow at about 11:30PM,
and decided to stay the night in
Grants,
AZ for the night. Next morning Vince had a fever and was no
t
doing too well. We decided to let him rest awhile and go have breakfast. After
breakfast we picked up Vince who felt much better, and hit the road again. Big
Mike asked “Are we home yet?” We stopped at Subway for lunch – we’ll miss you
Billy! We needed a “Bob Story” so we called Bob. Vince reminded us he was still
here. While on the trip, I had a call from someone in St. Louis that saw my ad
on the website and had a ’65 Chevelle for sale. We called and made arrangements
to stop and see it. It turned out to be very rough, and he was stuck at a price
of $3,000. I passed on it and we left St. Louis around 9:00. We finally got to
Vince’s house at around 2:00 and Big Mike dropped me off at 3:00PM.
Best junk food of the trip – Judy’s cookies, Bob’s trail mix (awesome), Cheetos. In closing, this was a great trip! I’d do it again in a heart beat. We all meshed really well and had a great time. It was non-stop excitement and laughter. We’d leave the condo at around 8:30 in the morning and not get back until 9:00 that night. It was great seeing my friend Bob again and he fit right in with the rest of us. He cracked us up with his stories. Bob owns a nut business – he sells nuts, candy and whatever else he can turn a profit on at the local Flee Markets. He usually only sells on the weekends in the fall/winter/spring months but during the week he buys and packages his products. He definitely got behind because of spending time with us but he said he had a great time and would definitely do it again. Luckily, I took Monday off work and after sleeping for 13 hours, I was ready to go again! My thanks to everyone for a great time.
For the first time in a longtime, it actually acted like winter
when the NICC met at Tim Oros' Mr. Wonderful Motorsports in
Aurora. There were 24 NICC members in attendance, which is
outstanding for a day when it was 6
degrees
and windy. We had a great time. It started at 11am and we left
around 2pm.
We started arriving around 10:30am for the meeting. While Mr. Wonderful is right near the Fox River on Illinois Ave., it is somewhat tucked in the back and it is easy to pass by. When Jim Karg arrived with his El Camino and John Sonnefeldt with his TruTrac custom painted Explorer, they parked in front and there were no problems knowing where the meeting was. After that parking lot filled up. I am sure the people driving by were wondering why there was a car show when the temps were 6 degrees. Oh well, Chevy guys are tough, baby!! It was not crowded around 10:45am, but by 11:15am we had a full house and the meeting began.
We started around 11:30am, as Tim Oros was expecting some
friends and the NICC members were still arriving. We started
with some opening comments from George Primm. We discussed
the need for feature
cars
(we have March, but would like to have one for April). Discussed the March
bowling meeting, the April Spring meeting at Tom Wilkin's house in Bensenville
and the need to do some car shows as a group. With the new ownership of
ChevyVetteFest it might become the show it once was with a larger and more
diverse Chevrolet show presence it might generate some excitement and the club
would show as a group. Finally, we need volunteers for cruises this year.
April will be at Wilkin's, May is usually at Holbach's and June will be hosted
by Rick Montalto of Sugar Grove. He's going to see if we can go to Bob
Jass Chevrolet in Elburn and show as a group like we did a few years ago.
We'll have a picnic, hopefully in Woodridge but earlier than September so there
are no bee problems. last year we took the overnight trip to Rockford and
we might do something to Cordova Drag Strip in Western IL.
After I talked then John Sonnefeldt had some info on SEMA Action
Network. This is where the NICC gets info. about pending
issues in IL. that relate to the car hobby. When I get those I post them
on this website so that
you
as members can contact your legislator and give them your opinion. Very
important in this day of activists trying to limit the use and storage of our
vehicles. Finally, the NICC has been asked to help with a
first time event at Route 66 Raceway. On July 27-30th, the Hot Rod &
Muscle Car Nationals will be at Route 66 and they need help with the incoming
cars, parking, etc. It is similar to what we did in 1998 or 1999 with the
Hot Rod Power Tour where they asked us to help them. With this though,
they are going to give us a free pass for the show and showing our car, plus
there will be some money for the club. That'll be nice. More on this
later. The immediate response from those in attendance was "YES".
Tim then took the floor for the next hour and explained his
intense process to get a car just right. Tim is not a production shop; he
is changing from insurance work to restoration work. That is good news.
Tim
will fix your car's body issues, such as rust and holes, complete paint,
sheetmetal installation, color-matching, etc. He uses PPG products and the
product he produces is outstanding. There were cars in various stages of
work, including a Z28 whose paint looked to be a mile deep. He explained
the stripping of the part through media-blasting, the straightening, the epoxy
primer for ultimate grip, primer/filler and sealer. Then it was off to the
painting process and then the amount of time he spends colorsanding and buffing.
On one of his show award winning paint jobs, he'll spend up to 40-60 hours
wetsanding and then buffing the paint. The work is very good and a
question asked was how long should a paint job last. As long as it is
maintained, it should last decades.
After Tim's excellent talk, he was kind enough to provide Italian Beef, chips, mostacolli and pop & water for those in attendance. It was a great way to spend a very cold (finally) Saturday in the middle of day. Tim was a great host, we learned some interesting things, we made preparation for the upcoming year, we saw some great paint work and we had fun talking and getting ready for the summer of 2006.
We hope to see you sometime this year. I think the attendance at the January meeting and this meeting is a good indication that we'll have another fun summer. Plan on being part of that. WE sure have fun and don't want you to miss any of it.
What a difference a year makes; this time last year it was a blizzard with sub-zero temps and today it was in the 40's and sunny. Last year we had 4 members in attendance because of the weather and this year we had 14. The start time was 4pm at Mr. Beef in Mt. Prospect, but we had pizza (?) and it was good.
We welco
med
a new member, Mark Storjohann, or Sinbad, as he is also known. Mark moved
up from Georgia and lives in Sycamore. He has a 1965 Chevelle that you can
see under the "Car Photos" page and I hope he was impressed with the
friendliness of the members. He has his front end apart and is rebuilding
it. We introduced him to Mark Witzcak, who is finishing up his 11 year
project on his 1965 Chevelle.
Anyhow, here's a summary of the 3 hours we spent there:
Ralph Weidenbach now has a 1966 El Camino that will be his drag car. I think I overheard that it weighs 2800 pounds. Wes Frisch's 1966 frame change isn't quite done yet, but considering it was started 5 weeks ago, it is almost done. The frame, radiator core support and inner fender wells were powder-coated. The body is being dropped on soon. Not much left to do on his car.
Jim Karg is getting an even bigger big screen TV. 57 inches isn't enough for either he or Jill.
We are going bowling in February and having a meeting (not on a NASCAR weekend).
Summer activities. Last year we took an overnite trip to Rockford courtesy of hard work of John Sonnefeldt. We are talking about taking an overnite to Cordova Dragway. We'd like to go to some car shows together as a club. Drag racing at Byron also as they have started to put more money into the track and there are new bleachers on the tower side and they are running later at nite as they have an agreement with the city.
Cruises. If you want to host one, please get your name in and I'll put you on the list. We'll spread them out into different areas so they are not all in the NW or SW suburbs. April and May are already taken, so if you want June - September let me know.
We thank those who came out for the meeting. It is wonderful to get together after a month and just picking right up from where we left at December's party. Please make it a point to make 2006 the year you get more involved in the club; it's yours and the opportunity to make friends and have fun is right there.
