Pic-of-the-Week for July 22, 2014 Part 2

Pic-of-the-Week for July 22, 2014 Part 2

MAFCA meet continued ………………

The “Grand Tour” was held on Thursday and was a 50 mile tour, which took a circular route of 40 miles to get there, and only 10 miles to get back.  This tour took us to “The LeMay Family Collection at Marymount” which is in Tacoma as well.   

Here is a picture of a very few of the cars lining up to leave on the tour.  

This place is unbelievable!  See their web site at: http://www.lemaymarymount.org/   Marymount was originally about 100 acres and started by the Sisters of St. Dominic in Tacoma, WA in 1919.  It soon became known as Marymount Military Academy and was run as a school until 1975.  Harold LeMay bought the buildings and grounds in the late 1980’s when the Catholic nuns could no longer maintain it.  Harold LeMay died in 2000 but his wife and family carry on maintaining, and enlarging, the museum.

By 1998, the LeMay family collection was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Largest Antique & Vintage Vehicle Collection” with more than 1,900 vehicles.  It has continued to grow since then! 

We arrived there and started with the closest building.  This photo gives you an idea of the size of this place.  This is only 1 of 3 huge buildings! 

We walked our legs off and only saw the cars in 2 of the 3 buildings!  We then ate a box lunch.  While we were eating Mrs. Le May was strolling around the eating area and visiting with many people, including us.  She is a very nice person that takes the time to just visit with everyone she can.  She had also spoken opening evening at our MAFCA "ice cream social" where she told us about the 3 museums and invited us all to come see them.

A sampling of vehicles in the first building.  Some very old ........

And, some not so old ....................

Some on the ground floor .........................

And, some stacked on upper levels where you could not get to ...........

Then there was the 2nd building .........  Did you ever want a snarling dragster?

 

Maybe you need something a little newer.  I am sure you will find it in the second "garage!"  Just look at the size of this building (only a part of it can be seen).  These cars and parked bumper to bumper, and very little room side to side.  I would guess close to 800 cars in this one building.

A few pictures in a blog can not do this place justice!  This building is overwhelming!

Here is a picture of the Model A's that attended this tour.  A fellow cam with a bucket truck and would take cameras up and take pictures for you with your camera.  He was kept busy for a long time that day.

After 2 "garages" we were ready for a break for lunch!

After lunch we caught a bus for a 10 minute ride to the location of the LeMay family home.  This location is generally not open to the public.  It is said that Harold bought this home because it had room for 300 more cars in "garages."

We were told that after Harold died, the family would start receiving property tax bills that they knew nothing about.  They would go inspect the property, and would find a large building/barn, etc. on the property.  When they inspected the building they would find more cars!  He was buying the properties just to store his cars.

We walked our legs off at the family home location where he had collections of other items as well as cars.  Those collections included meat grinders, salt and pepper shakers, dolls (I think those must have been collected by his wife), typewriters, hand crank calculators, and etc.

Then there was also the "garages" which included the Ford garage, the T-Bird garage, the Buick garage, the Cadillac garage, etc.

Here is the soda fountain.

Did I mention meat grinders?

Maybe a Mustang Cobra is what you really want..............

And, a special one for me............  A 1936 Oldsmobile that was very similar to one my father had for many years.  I believe he had it when we moved to Bend, OR in 1949.  I do not ever remember him driving it as it did not run by the time that I can remember.

After being tired out at the family home, we caught a bus back to the Marymount Museum where we viewed the cars in the final building.  In this building were many more cars that were restored to perfection!  I will include one more picture for my friends Jimmy Carmickle and Tony Kronemeyer.

Then it was a 10 mile drive back to the hotel where we started out that morning.  We decided that being tourists is HARD WORK!!!

Friday morning it was get up and catch a bus to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field, in South Seattle.  That took most of the day.  I will not bore you with the airplane photos, but they are available in our Picasa album as well.

Arriving back at our hotel that evening we had to hurry and get ready for the awards banquet.  There were probably about 600 people at the banquet, and the surprising part is that the food was good!  Our table was very successful, prize wise.  One lady won a prize for her late 20's/ early 30's fashions, one couple won a prize for "car games" (playing various games with the Model A), one couple won a bronze prize for their car in "Restorer's Class", and....

Oh, I was given a certificate and medal from the judges for winning a silver medal on my Model A Ford woody restoration in Restorer's class, scoring between 400 - 429 points out of 500 (they didn't say how many points exactly). There were about 5 cars in this prize range, about the same number in the bronze range, and one in the gold range.

All in all, it was a very fun and rewarding week!  You can see our photos at our 2014-07 MAFCA Meet album.  Harriet is still working on the captions, have patience!  (Or you can guess what things are!)  Enjoy!!

Your friends,
Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

 

Pic-of-the-Week for July 22, 2014

Harriet is making me write Pic-of-the-Week this week because she says that I should have something to write about this past week.  I just checked and she has been sloughing off on the job!!  She has not written a Pic-of-the-Week for a month!

We just arrived in Salem Sunday afternoon, and it will be a busy week.  In our last report we were in Bend where we went to the Sisters’ Rodeo, and had our Model A Ford engine rebuilt.  After the engine was done we drove it around Bend quite a bit testing it out and making sure that everything was working OK.  We even took it to the small community of Culver (by trailer) to a small car show there.

Also at this car show was an antique Pierce-Arrow trailer.  This pickup and trailer are owned by the fellow that also worked on my Model A adjusting the brakes and fixing the rear axle.

The primary event controlling our schedule this summer was to take the Model A Ford to the national Model A Ford Club of America (MAFCA) meet being held in Puyallup, Washington this past week.  There were about 450 families signed up for the meet which meant about 400 cars!  We arrived there Monday evening and got registered.  This was the view out our hotel window.  (Do you see our woody in the middle row to the left?)

Tuesday was hurry up and get the car cleaned up and enter it in the Restorer’s Class judging.  They did not reveal the judging score until the last evening (Friday) at the awards banquet.

Later that day we went to the “LeMay - America’s Car Museum” in Tacoma.  Wow, what a place to visit for anyone that likes cars of all kinds.  This is a new museum that opened in 2012, and can hold up to about 350 cars.  For their web site go to:  http://www.lemaymuseum.org/

Maybe you would like the Duesenberg...

Or, a 1926 Rolls Royce

How do you do justice to a museum that holds 350 cars?  I guess it is impossible, so you will just have to go see it for yourself.  Right now, they have a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Mustang, and especially the Mustang Shelby.   It is located very near the Tacoma Dome.

Wednesday was a tour to “Fred’s Garage” which I thought would be about a 15 mile drive.  Well, when we received our driving instructions we learned that this would be a 50 mile tour each direction!!  The most I had driven the car prior to this was just short trips around Bend.  The route was on slower speed roads except that we had to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is part of a freeway.

We survived the freeway travel and the 50 mile drive to Fred’s Garage without incident. 

Here are some of the vehicles that made the trip.  Notice how one stands head and shoulders above the others even when it is parked near the back of the row.

 

Fred’s Garage has a number of antique cars and tractors, (maybe 30 cars, and about that many tractors) and it is a working farm as well.

Here is a photo of a 1951 Ford for my brother Ken, who had a 1951 Ford at one time also, but his was not a convertible.

And a 1937 Cadillac.

This was our view of Mt. Rainier from our picnic table where we had a catered lunch.

Then it was another 40 mile drive back to our hotel because we skipped part of the scenic route that we took on the way there.

Ok, that is enough for one Pic-of-the-Week!  I will try to get the rest of the MAFCA meet in the next Pic-of-the-Week.

Pictures from July are posted in our 2014 July Picasa album, except for the MAFCA meet... those photos are in 2014 July MAFCA Meet.   At least some of them are!  Harriet is working on uploading and doing some captions so you know what is what!  Keep checking back on that album for updates.

Your friends, currently in Salem for doctor visits and catching up with folks...

Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for June 20, 2014

Hi Friends,

This week's edition is being written by both Ben and Harriet!  Ben is reporting on his 28 Ford Model A and Harriet is reporting on everything else (the good stuff)!

OK...here's Ben's portion:

This will be the "technical" portion of this blog.  In case you don't know, the "technical" portion is the "important" part!

As Harriet has said earlier, the day we arrived in Bend, we dropped off the Model A at the mechanic's place where he (Mike) has been working on the motor since that day.  The very next day Mike removed the motor and checked it out thoroughly.  What he found was that is was a "sick puppy"!  It needed a LOT of work to make it like new again.  The work needed included new bearings for the crankshaft and connecting rods.

The engines in Model A Fords are different from more modern engines in one major way.  When Model A engines have worn out bearings you just don't go down to the bearing store and buy new bearings!  Model A bearings need to be poured.  That means that a specialist in pouring bearings needs to be hired to do the job.  In the simplest terms what he does is heats the bearing material (Babbitt) to a temperature where the Babbitt become liquid, and then "pours" the liquid bearing material into the engine.  A few pictures following will maybe help to explain this process.

First, the crankshaft is ground and polished to perfect dimensions.

Then the Babbitt material is heated until it is liquid and to the correct temperature.

Then the engine "block" is heated to the correct temperature so the Babbitt will flow into the the bearing area correctly.

Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the actual pouring of the Babbitt material being poured into the bearing areas.

Then the freshly poured Babbitt is machined until it is the correct size and shape to fit the crankshaft shown in the first picture.  This is what it looks like when it is near completion.  

This is a very simplified description of what was done.  The connecting rods are done in a similar way.  The two guys doing this whole process did it in about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is very fast!

While Mike was working on the engine, he suggested that I take the rest of the Model A to Culver, about 1 hour north of Bend, where there was an 80 year old guy who is another expert Model A mechanic who could check, and adjust, the brakes as needed.  What he found was that the rear axle was not rebuilt correctly 2 years ago in California, so we spend a couple days fixing that.  Here it is on the lift.  Much easier to work on and clean the underside when it's up in the air!

Then the brakes were checked and adjusted as needed.  Once the engine was all put back together we took it to Culver and installed it into the Model A. Then all the miscellaneous parts were attached to the engine, and the vehicle was tested for running correctly, and the brakes were tested and adjusted correctly.  Wow, what a process, and accomplished in a very short time by very qualified mechanics!

Then the Model A was taken back to Bend and the rest of the parts were reinstalled, like the hood, windshield wiper, head lights, horn, etc.


Here is the Model A all put back together, and running really nice.  We have been using it for a number of short trips around Bend.

As a reminder, this is a 1928 Ford Model A with a Martin-Parry body.  There are only 2 of these known to exist in the world at this time.  We will be working on trying to track down a lead to a 3rd one in Northern California during this summer.  Maybe it will turn up another, and maybe not.

Today, Friday, we will be taking A. J. Parry, grandson of the "Parry" of Martin-Parry, and president of the Martin-Parry Corporation, to lunch.  We met him and his wife last year here in Bend, and have enjoyed visiting with them.  In addition, we will be showing our Model A to others in the Bend area as time permits.

That was the "technical" part of the blog, And here is the not so interesting stuff by Harriet:  (So he says!)

I told you last week that I had caught a bad cold, and I'm much better this week.  Those meds I got from the doctor at the Urgent Care helped a lot, I'm sure!  Dried me right up and the coughing ceased.  

I felt good enough that we went to the Sisters Rodeo on Sunday after attending church in Sisters with Ken and Bea, Ben's brother and sister-in-law.  It was a lot of fun, even though it was cold and windy and not much sunshine.  We were pleasantly surprised when the rodeo clown turned out to be JJ Harrison, a fellow we've seen several times at the Pendleton Roundup.  He is so funny!  He doesn't wear the outfit below all the time, but when he does, the crowd is practically rolling on the ground with his antics!  You should see him dance in that thing!!!

There were the usual events, lots of brave cowboys getting tossed around on horses and bulls, calf roping and calf wrestling, barrel racing... all very fun.  I'm always glad it's them and not ME out there trying to ride something for 8 seconds.  That's got to be the longest time in the world when you're on a one ton bull who is trying his hardest to get you off his back!  

Then there was this man and his horse, which is a Mustang, bred and born in the wild, and caught by BLM in May 2013 and bought and  trained by this man.  This horse can do amazing things, including sit like this!  Notice he's only got a very small rope around the horses neck just to hang on, basically.  The horse is doing all his maneuvers by voice command.  Then they both sat in the car and the horse stayed still (seated) while he drove it out of the arena!  Very entertaining!  

We've had a pretty busy social schedule.  We're trying to get together with people in this area, and I've gotta tell you....we've been eating very well at Bend's fine restaurants!  Oh, and of course it's great to visit with all our old friends, too!  We're making new friends, too.  We've gone the the local Model A club's Wednesday morning breakfasts twice now.  We'll probably go again next week and drive our pretty red car so everyone there can admire it!  We've even got people scheduled to come here to visit us (it is a beautiful spot), and now that Ben's car is drivable, very fun to go around town and see the sights!  We've bought a Bocce Ball set, and hope to use it soon on this lovely grass that's all around our trailer. 

The forest fire I mentioned in our last letter has been contained so the mountains are sticking up there bright and shining with their snowy coats.  We have had some very, very cold weather (at least for us thin blooded Bajaians); hail storms, rain, freezing nights, highs in the 50's!  BRRRRR!!!  Thankfully, it has warmed up again, and I am sitting outdoors as I type this.  I was even able to get my nice warm sweatshirt washed today (I didn't need to wear it outside on the way to and from the laundry room!)  

Sam and Zoey, our dogs, are adjusting pretty well.  They haven't caught a squirrel yet, but then, I have them on leashes all the time so that restricts their movement a bit!!  They tear out of the trailer every morning first thing sure they'll catch one unawares by that pine tree just out the door!  Hasn't worked so far, but they're not giving up!  In this photo they are enjoying the morning sunshine and chewing on some rawhide bones (leashed to the trailer steps).  Squirrel harboring pine tree is there by Zoey in the grass.

I'm in the process of adding photos to our June Picasa album, so check it out! Some of Ben's "technical" pics don't have captions yet.  I'm waiting for him to do it....and that may take some time!!!  

Until the next time, as we transition into Ben doing all of this .... (I hope!)

Your friends in Bend, Oregon,
Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for June 8, 2014

Hi Friends,

FYI, this is the first POTW that I've sent from my laptop for about a month.  If you haven't been getting it, that's because we were using an old address list.  If you just want to check our blog site to see what's happened in the past (and where these are written originally) see this link: http://purkeybhpics.blogspot.com/ 

Nothing too noteworthy to report yet from Central Oregon.  Ben has been working with several fellows on his '28 Ford.  The engine is out and being re-worked by Mike.  The car was then hauled to Culver (near Madras, a one way trip of about 45 minutes)  where Ron and Ben re-did the rear end and repaired the brakes.  The engine has been hauled over to Bill's where he will pour the babbits.  And that's all I know!  Ben has been quite involved in helping these guys, and is pretty sure it will be in tip-top shape when it's time to take it to the Model A Ford Restorer's of America meet in Puyallup in mid-July.  We'll have more pictures of Model A's than you can imagine!  

We spotted this guy in a big field east of Sisters last Sunday.  He sat there quite a while, and Ben actually pulled over and stopped to get some pictures of him!  Ben says he doesn't remember seeing Eagles when he lived in Bend in the 50's.  I reminded him that was the time of high DDT use, which did a number on Eagles' eggs, among other birds.   

So, while Ben has been working away on his Model A, the dogs and I have been relaxing here at our home away from home.  Sam and Zoey are thrilled that there are a number of large gray squirrels here, and when they're not sniffing out squirrel tracks, they're relaxing (as best they can when they have to be on a leash all the time).   We have taken a lot of walks around the area and they are always happy to see the shade of the big old Ponderosa Pines that fill this area.  The grass is pretty nice, too! 
 

Do you think our trailer pad is big enough?!?  This is the widest and longest one we've ever stayed on, but I think they're finally designing RV parks for the bus-sized RV's and huge 5th wheels, all with pop-outs,  that are so common now.  

I've also discovered that this park has entered the computer age as far as the laundry room is concerned.  You don't have to carry a bunch of quarters with you and stuff them into the machines.  How do you pay?  With a credit card, of course!  There is a little machine mounted on the wall where you swipe your credit card, choose your machine and the cycle you want to use and it starts up!  THEN...(even better) you can watch your wash from the comfort of your RV; just check on the web page that shows the laundry room, the machines (it shows them vacant or in use), and how many minutes are left in your wash or dry cycle.  Pretty cool!  You can also get a text message to let you know when your wash is done!! 
 
We made a quick trip to Salem  about 10 days ago, and George was able to resurrect my computer.  He did his magic on it and it is now working pretty nicely.  The little card slot still doesn't work, so got a card reader to plug into a USB port to download pictures.  I trust George so much more than the "technicians" in La Paz and Los Barriles!!  (He is a certified Dell technician).  

Ben's brother Dan and his wife Laura spent last weekend at Ben's brother Ken's place, so we had a nice picture opportunity for the three brothers.  That's half of their family!  Sister Carol and brothers John and Greg are missing.  

Unfortunately, I caught a nasty cold this last week; bad enough I went in to Bend Urgent Care on Friday.  The doc said it was "just a virus", and gave me a prescription for a decongestant and some cough medicine.  I am feeling better, and Ben has been letting me rest.  I might just survive! (Sniff, sniff, cough, cough!) 

It is pretty smokey here today; two fires started yesterday west of Bend near Tumalo.  It's already pretty big, so I hope they are able to control it soon.  Before that, the air was crystal clear, and the mountains beautiful! 

I have started a June 2014 Picasa album, for a few more pictures of mountains, people, flowers, and other fun things!    

OK, I promise.... Ben WILL do the next one, whenever that is!  I'm gonna hold out.  

Your friends in beautiful Bend, Oregon, where we'll be for another month and a few days,  (come visit sometime!)
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey