Bulletin Board

Sept 19, 2012

What do you do when your ride just won't turn over? Well, when you're at a cruise-night, you simply call out, "Anybody got cables?" - and chances are that someone will come running to help. Walter's '50 Lincoln had just returned to our cruise with a new paint job, but a tired battery - so when it was time to leave .... click, click, click. Out went the call and sure enough, Gary drove over with his car and a set of booster cables. In just a few minutes, and with help and encouragement from lots of friends, the "lead sled" was running and headed for home.

"Cruiser of the Week"

For several years now, we've been awarding special tee shirts to "cruisers" who attend our weekly events regularly. These tees have the RRC logo on the back and on the front it reads "Cruiser of the Week" and they're a different color (bluish-gray) than the light gray shirts available for sale. Each week, you can look around the lot and see more and more of these special shirts - and we plan to keep it going! So just keep stopping by on Wednesday nights with your "ride" and sooner or later you'll have one too.

After a chilly and damp start this year, we finally got a warm Wednesday for our cruise nights to get under way. April 17th brought out a number of our "regulars" and a few new cruisers as well. Approximately twenty old cars and several friends gathered to enjoy the weather and to get the 2013 season jump-started. Although there wasn't the usual music, food, etc; it was great to visit and to hear about everyone's winter projects and check out the "new iron" that seems to show up each year.

Dec 2011

Bill Belisle, who created the Red Rock Cruisers logo, recently made a special holiday version. Using the the same drive-in theme (and changing a couple of the cars) we see Santa arriving in new sled - a '59 Chevy with "runners". As always, Bill has included a few details that require a little study to pick out (notice the positions of the cars' occupants, the license plates, etc). Thanks to Bill for sharing his talents with us - fantastic artistic ability with a great sense of humor!

===========

The weather forecast wasn't too favorable for the Orange car show, but quite a few Red Rock Cruiser "regulars" took the chance and enjoyed a beautiful crisp autumn day. This show has a lot to offer with the Fall festival on the common, the car show right next door, and a big parade with marching bands, floats, and of course - old cars. The car show featured a raffle for everyone with a "driver's ticket" which came with their registration and a big 50/50 raffle that was open to everyone who attended. During the awards presentation, several RRC folks won plaques for first, second, and third place - congratulations to the winners! This late season show is bittersweet for many of us, since it's likely to be the last one for a while - the days are getting short and "you know what" will be here all too soon.

They've been a little cool and a little short, but we've held a few cruise nights already this year and things are starting to pick up. The April 18th event included over 25 show cars and lots of "cruisers" who arrived via modern transportation. We even had our food vendor, Deano, on hand serving up his full menu. It was great to have so many friends getting back together and greeting some new folks as well. As we get into May things will only get better!

"Zeke" Zimnowski is seen here pulling the winning ticket in our Wagon Raffle during the July 28th cruise night. He built this oak wagon (as well as a few others) by hand, including the wooden spoke wheels. Zeke had the wagon professionally lettered just for us and then donated it for the raffle. Tickets went on sale back in May and were sold at each of our weekly cruise nights. The lucky winner was not present for the drawing, but was notified shortly afterward and was surprised and excited about winning.

Our thanks to Zeke for his generosity, along with a pat on the back for a job well done! We very much appreciate all his fine work and hope the new owner will enjoy their new "ride" for years to come.

* * * * * *

Steering Committee

The committee meets each month to discuss and organize the weekly cruise nights as well as the special events held by the group. These include Fall tour and annual winter party.

Meetings are open to anyone who would like to attend and participation is encouraged. The current committee members are listed below:

Tom Quinlan

Art Cooper

Judy Cooper

Richard "Zeke" Zimnowski

Dolores Zimnowski

Christine Grynkiewicz

Gerry Daris

***********************************

Red Rock Cruisers

Good Deeds & Donations

Southampton Youth Athletic Association

Easthampton Toy Fund

Sidney Smith Toy Fund (Gazette)

Easthampton Youth Program

Southampton Fire Dept

Easthampton H.S. - Scholarship

Smiths Vocational H.S. - Scholarship

Multiple Sclerosis Society

Southampton Lions Club

Southampton Youth Soccer

Melha Shriners - Car Show

Make-A-Wish Foundation

Brightside - Christmas Gifts

Northeast Chevy-GMC Club

Westfield Cruisers

Kosovo Immigrants

Chicopee H.S. - Car Show

Soldier On (Veteran's Org)

Norris School - S'ton

Jaime Rivera Benefit Car Show - Agawam

(Shriners Hospital / Racing Against Cancer)

BATTERY EXPLOSIONS - In a recent issue of Old Cars Weekly there was a short article about a fellow who had a battery explode after it had been hooked up to a well-known battery maintenance device for some time. Apparently, the unit had not switched from "charging" to "standby" mode and the battery became overcharged. As soon as the car was started the entire top of the battery blew off and sprayed acid everywhere. This is a grim reminder of the dangers involved in our hobby and the need to be extra careful with things like batteries, fuel, oil, paint, and all those other things we use.

ZINC IN YOUR OIL?? - If you've been paying attention, you know that manufacturers of motor oil have been required to reduce the amount of anti-wear additives in their product in order to meet the demands of modern cars (catalytic converters). This has become a real concern to folks with older cars and there's been a real scramble to find alternate lubricants to protect "flat tappet" engines. Diesel oil and racing oil have been suggested, but there's a better way. There are zinc-based additives (ZDDP) available that can be used with modern oils to provide the same level of protection that the older oils did. One such product is "Cam Shield", which is packaged in a number of different ways and costs about $7.00 each time you add it to an oil change. Check out their web-site to learn more - (www.cam-shield.com).

April 18, 2012

*** Update (June 1, 2012) - May wasn't a whole lot better !! Let's hope this crazy weather pattern changes soon.

July 25, 2012

*** Update (July 2012) - Now this is more like it!! We've had some real nice summer evenings for our recent cruises and we're seeing new cars and meeting new friends each week. The lot is filling up and everyone is enjoying their old cars as the season gets into full swing. Come on down!

Test your old car knowledge

Here's a quick challenge of your knowledge of cars from the fifties. Just click on the site listed below:

http://www.americantorque.com/game/car-show-50s/

====================

It's A QuadraCycle

August 2011

A few winters ago, Bob Mimitz decided to build a little car in his basement and put together a "quadracyle", mostly to use in parades. It is made of many "off the shelf" parts and uses a tiller for steering. He also built a small cart to pull behind in order to carry passengers. In late August, Bob brought his homemade car to our Wednesday cruise night and offered rides ar0und the lot, which many people enjoyed. While it won't keep up with his M0del A or Model T, the quadracycle looks like a lot of fun (especially for the driver).

If it's raining - it must be Wednesday!!

June 2011

CRUISIN' IN THE RAIN - Everything started out just great on Wednesday June 15th - the sun was shining and it looked like we might get in an entire cruise night without rain. We have been plagued by wet weather all year, so we were really looking forward to a "normal" evening. No sooner had we set things up and started moving along when a dark cloud moved over us and the sprinkles began. Most of us simply closed the hoods, put up the soft tops, and got under cover for what we thought would be a brief shower.

The rain became a bit more steady, but we held our ground and decided to wait it out - what the heck, the cars won't get any wetter by leaving. Sure enough, the rain tapered off and a rainbow appeared in the sky. However, by then it was getting darker and our sound system needed to be picked up and brought somewhere to dry out, Deano was cleaning up for the evening, and the cruise was pretty much over.

Congratulations to those of you who braved the sudden change in weather and hung around. You are the heart and soul of the old car hobby and have proven that we won't be discouraged by Mother Nature - good for you! Let's hope this cycle of rainy Wednesdays ends soon and that we'll have a sunny summer.

RRC TEE-SHIRTS - RRC BASEBALL CAPS

Red Rock Cruiser tee shirts (gray) and hats (black) will be available at each cruise-night during the year. We're selling them pretty much at cost, so it won't cost a lot to have your very own "colors".

* * * * * * * * * * *

New gas strips old paint!!

There have been a number of reports lately about the paint on older cars being damaged by gas that spilled or overflowed onto the finish. Apparently, the alcohol that's mixed with the gas we put in our cars these days turns it into "paint stripper". This often happens if the gas tank is overfilled and the car is then parked in a very warm location, causing an overflow. In many cases the paint job was ruined and the cars' owners weren't able to get their claims settled with the insurance companies.

So, a word to the wise . . . don't top off the tank when getting gas and clean up any spills right away. It's bad enough the new gas is ruining the rubber parts in old engines - now it's doing a number on the outside too!

* * * * * * * * * * *

DID YOU KNOW ???

In 1963 all U.S. cars were equipped with amber colored front turn signals. It was felt that colored lights showed up much better than the white turn signals that were used previously. The following year the automatic transmission shift pattern was standardized to P-R-N-D-L.

*****************