Great weekend!

Looks like all the little details I added over the last couple weeks paid some dividends. Sat, Jul 23 was the Hudsonville Car Show. The early morning rain kept many cars away but those that were there had a great time. Our club had 6 cars in attendance including new members, Mike & Rose. Judging was done on a class basis with Class A for 1900-1950 cars. The 41 sparkled after the rain drops were removed and the judges liked the old girl enough to award her a first place trophy! Plus I picked up a door prize and a free T-shirt. The awards were presented in one of the Hudsonville Fair buildings. We all drove our cars thru the building and picked up the trophy from one of the children who was a cancer patient. Here's some pics of the trophy presentation.

Saturdays good fortunes were followed up with a fantastic Sunday at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Mi.  The Full Size Chevies Car Club of Kalamazoo sponsored a show to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet.  The weather cooperated and they had an excellent show.  Nearly 400 cars were in attendance with 22 states and a couple of foreign countries represented.  30 awards were presented on behalf of the many sponsors contributing to the show.  And, for the 2nd day in a row, the 41 garnered another trophy!  I was pleasantly surprised to be selected by an old drag racing and car club friend from the 1970's as his pick for an award.  Herb Persons owns and operates Persons Auto Service in Kalamazoo, Mi.  Thanks Herb!
     Not only were the car show vehicles some of the nicest Chevies one could find, we also had free access to the entire Gilmore complex of old cars.  Here's some pics from the days activities.

Club Cars

Show Cars

Dan the Fire Fighter with his new ride.

Museum Cars

Trophy presentation

The 41 at the Gilmore Shell station

Had a little issue with the 41 on the drive back to Grand Rapids.  One of the nuts that clamped the exhaust pipe flange to the Fenton header fell off.  That allowed the donut/gasket to open up and create a noisy exhaust leak.  Some quick diagnosing and a wrench from Road Rodz member Ken and the flange was tightened enough with the one remaining nut to allow us to make it home without any further issues.  Looks like I have some repair work to do this week.  All in all, a very successfull weekend.  Guess I'm going to have to add another trophy shelf to the garage.  lol

Making it look original

We plan to attend two shows this coming weekend, July 23 & 24, and both shows will have dedicated judges, as I understand it.  Saturday's show is in Hudsonville, Mi. and Sunday's show is a celebration of Chevrolet's 100th anniversary and is being held at the Gilmore Museum in Hickory Corners, Mi.  Now that the radio is back in and adds a look of orirginality to the interior, I figured adding the heater/defroster would be a good addition too.  The fan motor for the heater was unrepairable and I haven't found a replacement yet but I decided to at least make it look complete.  Running hot water thru the heater core in the passenger compartment is less than desireable right now with the hot spell of weather we've been having so I devised a way to block the water flow and still make it look like the heater is fully functional.  Dick at More Power tapped inside the new water outlets that screw into the block and thermostat housing.  1/4" pipe plugs were then screwed into place with a little pipe thread sealant applied to the threads.  The new, black, heater hoses were clamped to the blocked outlets and attached to the heater core at the other end.  The vent tubing is reinstalled on the heater too.  The only missing part is the motor and fan blades.  I reinstalled the heater control rheostat back under the dash also.  One wire is simply looped around and connected to the two contacts.  It gives the appearance of functionality but the wire goes nowhere!  Here's some pics:

                                                          Heater unit under the dash.

                                                   New hoses in the engine compartment.

                                                           Heater control under the dash.

My plan is to restore functionality to all non-working items over the coming winter.  The radio will be sent out.  I'll need to find a fan motor for the heater. and the parking brake will need to be redesigned to make it work.  Currently the parking brake lever, seen above just to the left of the heater control, is not connected to anything under the car.  I didn't reinstall the stock parking brake cables since the rear end is no longer the stock unit.
     Here's hoping the weather cools off a bit this weekend and the rain holds off until the shows are completed.

Car updates

Took the 41 to Maksim's Safety Service on Mon, July 11 and had a new upper control arm adjuster installed on the left side.  Then Tom was able to align the front end.  Also had the brakes adjusted and the car handles better and stops better than it did previously.  The car still has quite a bit of play in the steering and that seems to be a combination of steering box wear and bushings that are worn on the front end.  I'm thinking the entire steering assembly needs to come out of the car and be reconditioned over the coming winter.
     Had some detail work done over the past couple weeks that adds to the original look of the car.  Scott's Signs added color to the Chevy emblem and the speaker grill on the dashboard:

 Notice the radio has been reinstalled.  A former co-worker, Matt, had made an attempt to repair the radio but, unforunately, he was unable to get it working.  I'll pull it out again later in the year and ship it to one of the repair shops in California or Oregon that specialize in these old, 6v radios.
     I made a return trip to Scott's Signs yesterday so Scott could paint the Chevy emblem on the grill.  The only paint on the emblem when I got the car was the blue bow tie.  Scott repainted the bow tie a more correct blue and did all the red areas of the shield.   That really completes the restored look from the front.

 

Car show pics

The local car shows seem to be available every weekend this summer and the Road Rodz car club has been in attendance at many of these shows.  July 9 we attended the Zeeland car show held on the downtown main street of Zeeland, Mi.  Here's a few of the nicer cars in attendance.

You can check out the Road Rodz cars at the Zeeland show and others at: http://www.roadrodz.blogspot.com/

July 16 was the Todd Wenzel Show in Hudsonville, Mi.  Here's 10 of the 11 Road Rodz cars in attendance.

James Dean's car is hidden this side of Rick's yellow 57 truck.  Another club member, Dave, arrived late with his 69 big block Chevelle and didn't get in this pic.  Here's some of the finer cars in attendance:

After the Wenzel show, the club members gathered for a party at Claude and Mary Janes.