AVCMC Fanmail
July 2016

From The Driver's Seat

By Joe Janssens

The club’s AGM is due to take place on Thursday 21st July @ 18h00 at our club house.

Our Constitution requires up to 3 members to retire each year. Those retiring this year are Dave Hawkins, Bill Martin and Rob Wallis. Rob is willing to be re-elected but Dave & Bill will not be available for nomination for 2016/2017.

These two vacancies will have to be filled at the AGM.

All nominations/consent/proxy forms, duly signed by both parties, must be lodged with the Committee not later than 48 hours prior to the AGM.

These forms are available at the club house and from our club secretary Shirley Martin. Click on her name to send her an email.

Only paid up members will be allowed to vote.

Des Hill and George Armstrong have agreed to lay out the route and compile the Route Schedule for the 2017 O.D. Inggs. Many thanks to Des and George for stepping up.

This month’s supper night was well attended with all 30 of Rob’s super burgers sold out, thanks to the Rob Wallis, Dave Hawkins and Bill Martin team.

On this note, I would like to encourage more of our members to attend our club’s outings, as a lot of organisation and work goes into arranging these events.

The greater the support, the higher will be the motivation for the organisers. We also need members' suggestions.

I have also taken on myself to send an SMS reminder 2 or 3 days before an event, hoping this will increase the attendance.

An outing to Derek Bowker’s farm is planned towards the end of July. Lets do it !!!

Joe

Through The Windscreen

This is what lies ahead

Thursday 14 July - 5 to 8pm - Motoring DVD at the Noggin
Joe Janssens presents a motoring DVD

Thursday 21 July - 18h00 - AGM
Snacks, wine and fruit juice will be offered
You must be a paid up member to vote
See the Chairman's Report for additional notes

Sunday 24 July - Visit to Derek Bowker at Alstonfield
About 25km short of Bedford, turn off to the left. A small signpost reads "Alstonfield". The dirt road is ok for old cars. Go slowly. Meet at our museum at 08h00 to leave at 08h30.
Bring your own kit and food for a lunch braai.

Saturday 30 July - 9 to 12noon - AVCMC Museum
Bring your friends and old cars

Wednesday 3 August - Local Govt Elections
Vote. Make sure that you are on the voters roll in the area where you live. Some people have found that their address has been changed on the voters roll.

Birthday Congratulations - July

6 Roger Darkes
7 Alistair Kennedy
7 Jimmy Kamffer
12 Cliff Reynolds
25 Alan Pike
30 Frank Bowker

Kowie Brake & Clutch

Kowie Brake and Clutch still caters for all your braking, hydraulic and clutch requirements.
We now also have an engineering workshop in which we can manufacture a range of to spec items. We also build trailers, bowling green polishers and cricket pitch rollers.
For these latest products visit www.facebook.com/protearollers
Contact us on: 046 636 1156 kowiebrake@telkomsa.net

The Dashboard

(This is going on right now)

Social Concerns

Remember Des Hill and pay him a visit. You will enjoy the visit

New Member

We welcome Charles John Castle to the club. He lives in Rivers Bend, Bushmansrivermouth with his wife Cheryl. Charles owns 4 old cars and 4 BMW motorcycles, mostly in excellent condition. He is a member of the Benoni Heritage Old Car, Tractor and Engine Club and is past chairman of the Natal Midlands Old Car Club. And we suspect, with a notable name like that, that he enjoys the occasional beer!

Lost

Rob Wallis has lent his car polishing machine / kit to a member but regrets that he can't remember who it was. He would like it back, please. 3/3
Contact Rob on 082 334 0354

Thoughts For The Day

Why does a chicken coop have two doors?
Because if it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan.

Paddy was looking for parking and prayed to God: "Lord if you'll open up a space for me I swear I'll give up Guinness and go to mass every Sunday." Suddenly the clouds parted and a ray of light shone down on an empty parking spot. Gunning for the empty bay, the Irishman muttered, "Never mind, I just found one myself."

The Rear View Mirror

(Past Events)

Outing To Billy Nel Museum and Cintsa

by Dave Hawkins

At our last AGM I unwittingly volunteered to be the events organiser for our vintage club and one would think that with more than 65 members, we would have a good number of people at the monthly outings. Hence my disappointment when only Des, George, Bill and Shirley plus the McNeill's managed to see Billy Nels' extraordinary museum near Kei Mouth.

This museum is only open by appointment and is truly amazing. With more than 650 motorbikes, trikes, scooters and everything else on wheels, there is still a lot more to see. Type-witers, pianos, cameras, numerous signs, all displayed in sheds, that are now very well set out like a veritable rabbit warren.

Billy went out of his way to entertain us and explained the full circumstances of him purchasing the Corvair 88 aeroplane that dominates the site. This plane was used by the rich and famous, including such stars as Barbara Streisand, the Rolling Stones and other celebrities.

Fortunately I had also invited Rotarians from both Port Alfred and Kenton to come along as our guests. This meant that 14 of us went on to enjoy the special offer, negotiated with management of Crawfords Cabins. We were able to watch rugby on the big screen, feast on a buffet, sea -food supper, before retiring to luxury rooms and king size beds. The breakfast was just as spectacular, whereafter we needed to walk along the beach and through the quaint village, to work off our over indulgence at the food tables. Lunch was included in the price allowing us time to relax, chat and make our way home well before dark.

The museum is always worth a visit, as one can never see everything at one time, with Billy constantly changing the exhibits. The weather was perfect, Crawfords is always one of the best places to stay along this beautiful coast, and for Delene and me it was lovely to mix with a different group of friends.

The fellowship throughout the weekend was a highlight and we feel sure that Mike White from the Kenton Rotary club and our fellow Rotarians from Port Alfred, Gunther, Nola, Elaine and Mervin, all had an enjoyable time.

Through our newsletter every member knows well in advance when the next event is scheduled and where we are planning to go. A weekend away was requested. Long day trips are discouraged. Saturdays suit some people, while others prefer Sundays. Organising interesting outings and or weekends away takes time and commitment and without the support of fellow members becomes almost a waste of time.
What is the point of our club if we do not enjoy using our cars, sharing our enthusiasm and expanding our web with other like minded people?

I wish the the next event co-ordinator well in the forth coming year and pledge my support, whenever possible.

Editors Note: Many thanks to Dave for organising this amazing event. Dave has done an excellent job of Event Co-ordinator over the past year and he certainly deserved more support. Regrettably he is standing down and we need to learn something here. Members are urged to make suggestions to any committee member as to how to make events / outings more attractive or accessible. Ron

In The Boot

(Useful Baggage and Tools that we need for the trip)

Paint and Chrome

sent in by Joe Janssens

Repainting a car to the highest standard is a technical, time consuming and expensive process.

The secret of a concours level paint job is in the surface preparation work, and the smoothness and straightness of that surface. Time is money, which is why an excellent paint job will be expensive. Most of this time is spent resurfacing the body in preparation for paint. So never accept a ‘ﬁxed’ cost for resurfacing and paint. A paint shop will trade off quality for time spent, and the paint ﬁnish will reﬂect this.

The process begins with the removal of all previous paint and ﬁller. We recommend sand blasting the metal to remove all the rust. On the exterior sheet metal, and the aluminium panels, and doors, sandblast the surface using sodium (baking soda) or media (pieces of material).

The hobbyist should out-source these steps, as sandblasting requires professional knowledge and the correct tools. If done badly, irreversible damage can be done to the metal. You can also strip by using an orbital disc sander, using 80-grit paper, or a chemical stripper.

Never paint over previous paint, is our strict advice.

Immediately after blasting, the surface must be epoxy primed to prevent surface rust developing.

We use Sikkens’ paint products throughout the job, and recommend never mixing systems.

Resurfacing is the process of flattening the panels in preparation for paint, and the life and appearance of ﬁnish depends considerably upon the condition of the surface before it is painted. Getting a smooth, level surface involves all the steps necessary to acquire good adhesion, and also the subsequent ﬁlling and sanding operations.

This is time consuming, ranging from 200 to 300 hours, the colour coat does little ﬁlling of rough areas, and the ﬁnished job is no smoother than the surface being painted.

The single biggest restoration observation I make while evaluating classics at concours events is in the quality of the ﬁnal assembly, speciﬁcally the chrome-to-paint ﬁt. To ensure high quality ﬁt of chrome to paint, pre-assemble your chrome in copper to the body in primer at the resurfacing stage (180-grit) of restoration.

Since the largest change in dimensions occurs with copper plating, test ﬁtting of the parts should always occur at this point.

As with the ﬁnal paint ﬁnish, what you are looking for in chrome is depth of ﬁnish and a ﬂat result, and again the secret is in the preparation work at the copper stage. The copper provides the metal with it's ductility, as ﬁller does in the paint process. This stage is where the time is spent to create the base for the ﬂatness. The nickel provides the colour and depth to give the chrome richness.

For solid colours, spray 5 to 6 coats; you are trying to achieve 2-3μm of colour. For a metallic ﬁnish, spray 2 to 3 coats of colour, followed by 4 coats of clear coat.

You want 1μm of colour and 2μm of clear coat, and after that wait two weeks until you wet sand it. Wet sand the entire car three times, ﬁrst with 1200-grit, then l500-grit, and ﬁnally with 2000-grit. Some areas can even require 2500-grit.

Machine buff the car with with bufﬁng compound three times. Then machine glaze and ﬁnally hand-wax, using at least 30 % Carnauba wax.

Your aim should be to achieve a paintjob that has depth and is also flat. The secret is in the preparatory work — creating the base for the colour is all important.

A solid colour looks the same regardless of the direction from which you see it, whereas a metallic changes in shade from different angles.

As you can gather from the foregoing, an abbreviated explanation of the full process, successfully repainting a classic Mercedes or indeed any older car is an exact science.

“REPAINTING IS AN EXACT SCIENCE, THE MORE EXPERTLY IT IS DONE, THE BETTER THE CAR WILL LOOK - AND THE MORE IT WILL BE WORTH”

The Irish Car That Never Was

sent in by Shirley Martin

Shirley sent in this cutting from the AutoDealer. I summarise rather than scan the print - which often results in a fuzzy difficult mess to read. Many thanks Shirley. Editor.

The Shamrock saw brief production in the late 50's in a factory in Castleblaney. The idea was to build a large luxury car for the local market and export to USA. It was spectacularly unsuccessful.

It had a 1500cc Austin A55 engine which was incapable of lugging the large body further than the nearest pub.
In the event of a flat tyre, the rear axle had to be dropped to remove the wheel from the hub.
It had a very narrow wheel base which made it look a bit like a boat.

Only 10 cars left the factory and the remaining parts were dumped in Lough Muckno.
Eight examples remain today and are extremely valuable