Roberta Sommerville sent me this picture of the 1986 VW Westfalia that Jeff has been working on for his partner, Carol. The exterior has been completely restored, as well as interior upholstery with new carpeting. It may not be an AMC but we both thought you'd enjoy seeing Jeff's talents expressed on another "canvass".
BETHANY – 26TH ANNUAL SHOW & SHINE – Sun, May 22, 2016 – by Jodee Scott
I packed up Lessa and I in Ruth and headed out to the show early – got there about 7:45 and was 6th in line at the gates! It was such a beautiful day and as I waited for the folks running the show to open the gates, I enjoyed the greenery around me and the sound of the birds singing – until they got drowned out by the rumbling motors of dozens of vehicles coming in behind me!
I managed to get a nice shady spot and set us up. Lessa had a nice grassy spot near the fence and under some trees – where we were well shaded even into the noon hours. After I got Ruth all freshened up, I went over and registered.
John Vander Meullen arrived around 10ish with his AMX and unfortunately, we were the sole reps for our car club – it being a very busy weekend for many.
However, we enjoyed ourselves, wandered around and admired the over 200 cars on the show field.
I was so impressed with the emblems on the front of this car – not only an airplane but a picture of North and South America on the hood
Then, there was this Studebaker Avanti, I forgot the year – but I believe this particular car was number 53 of 100 built that year!
The paint job on this convertible was amazing – the owner called it the Wizard of Oz! It sparkled in the sun – beautiful!
There was a good turnout of spectators and kids play area got lots of business as well! I got a bite to eat at lunch and headed out about 1ish. I think John was going to stay to the end but I still had ‘chores’ ahead of me and wanted to get them out of the way and enjoy the rest of the weekend. It was a great car show and a wonderful way to start the season!
Sidebar – there were some folks walking around with pamphlets to upcoming car shows. The two that I was interested it were – Wings and Wheels 2 Classic Car Show, July 24th, 10am to 4pm, at the National Air Force Museum of Canada Air Park, CFB Trenton. I was told that a registrant could park their vehicles beside or under the wind of a vintage aircraft. 100{9bf56cdcf86fd5e484f7a6c7dd7f10c086072f0abab75d8e87856dbab1800b0f} of the proceeds go to benefit Quinte Humane Society and National Air Force Museum Foundation. I am definitely going to try to make this one!
The other is Blackstock and District Lions Club Car Show, Sat, May 28 at the Nestleton Park, Nestleton, On, 9am to 4pm.
Mike and Gail Putz were our hosts for this year's planning meeting on Saturday, April 23rd. It turned out to be a sunny, dry day so Harm brought Mike's 1969 Javelin back home after its winter slumber in our garage. Jodee and I followed in my 1971 Hornet SC360 which was the Javelin's sleep buddy for six months. When we drove up their laneway, the cars were greeted by Ken's 1970 orange AMX (as well as a few miscellaneous other vehicles who shall remain nameless). Beeping of horns and flashing of lights abounded as the AMCs got re-acquainted with each other. That gave the rest of us the chance to slip inside and enjoy human company and great food! The one thing you can certainly say for our members - they sure can put on a fantastic pot luck spread! Gary Freelen (sans Sonia - she was ill) made his famous taco dip; Roberta and Ken brought a shrimp dip (yummy); Joanne, Mark and Jake arrived with devilled eggs (which didn't make it out alive); delicious muffins made by Jodee; etc., etc.
The meeting went flawlessly with Jodee, as President, at the helm. Decisions were made about upcoming events; club flags and buttons; assistance for Northern Ramblers' annual car show, as well as updates from our AMO Chairman of the Board, Harm. Actually, the percentage of official AMO involvement is very high in our club - Harm (COB), Ken Edwards (Board member), Jodee Scott (Chapter Director) and Gary Freelen (Concours Chairman). And with Robin Carruthers from the Manitoba club now on the Board, that makes 5 Canadians! Cool eh?
More great food was served after the meeting (burgers and sausages courtesy of Mike and Gail), salads brought by Angelo Fedele and the van der Veens; and desserts! Our AMCs were able to handle the extra weight after we gorged ourselves but did groan a bit as we got in! That's okay - they're resting now until the next time we have a car show to go to. That will be in Bethany on the May long weekend (Sunday, May 22nd). Hope to see as many of you there as possible!
Barb van der Veen, Website Editor/Social Convenor
By Barb van der Veen
As some of you may know, Harm (and others - me, Ken Edwards, Jodee Scott, our son Hendrik) has been working hard on Barbara Hillick's 1970 Trans Am Javelin lately. Many of the parts required sandblasting (my job) and then repainting (Harm's area of expertise). Unfortunately, some of the paints that existed in 1970 are no longer available and the dilemma has been - what could be substituted in order to match the original colours?
Case in point were the rims. The Javelin's rims were painted in two tones - underlying semi-gloss black (easy to find at places like Canadian Tire) and the other being the Charcoal Glitter Magnum 500 Wheel Paint (see the original information in the picture below) which is sprayed onto the "spokes" of each rim. We went to our local Napa dealer who tried (and failed) to match the charcoal. There was just too much glitter for Harm's liking. Then, as we were strolling down the aisles (again) of Canadian Tire looking for more paints for her car, we came across this can that was a match!
This picture shows the unrestored rim and the finished product.
And this picture takes you through the entire process - unfinished rim, sandblasted rim, rim with semi-gloss black paint only, and finally the end result.
Written by Barb van der Veen
Harm and I had been friends with Babs and Brad Hillick for a long time (early 1980s), reconnecting each year at the annual AMO conventions and strengthening our friendship. Some of the long-term members might remember them as the owners of The Source. This was a business they started in order to supply AMC owners with NOS and reproduction parts that were, even then, becoming scarce. I remember our visit with them at the North Carolina meet. We even spent an extra day touring Charlotte Motor Speedway and Hendrick Racing. Being a Sunday (race day), Hendrick’s shop was closed but that didn’t stop us from hamming it up in front of their windows.
The following spring, we contacted them to make sure they were still able to come to the next meet. They had adopted an 18-month old boy, Marc, six months’ before). We were shocked to learn that Brad had died suddenly in March, leaving Babs to raise Marc alone and deal with the massive inventory of cars and parts. Brad had restored a number of cars in his day, but his last restoration was the 1970 Trans Am Javelin. (Note: this was one of only 100 TAs ever built so AMC could compete in the Trans Am series racing circuit – 100 was the minimum production amount required). Unfortunately, the TA was sitting outside when Brad passed away, under very sappy Georgia pines and his once pristine TA really suffered.
Harm and I drove down to Atlanta later that year and bought their 1971 Hornet SC 360 which we continue to treasure to this day. It was at that time that Harm started to hatch the idea of bringing the TA up to Canada to restore it. No strings attached – we just couldn’t bear to see it sitting outside in that condition. We are both very sentimental when it comes to cars as they are conduits between people about whom we care deeply.
I hesitate to say how long this labour of love has been in progress but, during the early times, the car was disassembled, stripped and then re-painted. During this period, we moved three times but now we have arrived at the fun part – re-construction! Harm had painted it red-white-blue in his previous garage so once we got his new shop set up on our farm, it was moved in and work resumed. I have been assigned the tasks of sandblasting the smaller parts (those that can fit into the sandblasting cabinet) and detailing the car. We started installing some of the vital organs in the engine compartment, repairing and re-wrapping the wiring harness (with our youngest son, Hendrik’s, help). Ken Edwards came over and rebuilt/installed the front suspension components (new bushings and ball joints), and restored/installed the headlight bevels.
This rebuild has been made significantly easier and more enjoyable due to the NOS parts that Babs had in her inventory. Nothing is more satisfying than opening up an AMC replacement part in its original wrapper! As well, working in the shop on our 100-acre farm has meant that neighbours are not disturbed by any noise or outside sandblasting.
Stay tuned for Trans Am Javelin Rebuild – A Labour of Love, Part 2, coming in about two months’ time!
Article and Pictures by Mike Putz
Having retired mid-2014 from a long “office” oriented career, I realized that I would need to keep myself busy and it might as well be something different and something I enjoy. So when my nephew Randy was moving and needed to unload a 1974 AMC Javelin AMX project car, I said I would try to help him find a buyer since I was in the local AMO+ car club. Little did I know that I was going to end up being the buyer. Over the years, I had a 1972 442 restored and did a partial restore on a 1969 Javelin, and once I finished the 69 Javelin to the extent of my capabilities, I decided that it would be the last car I would tackle on my own.
This new project car was my brother’s who passed it along to my nephew, Jason, as a daily driver who then decided to completely disassemble and restore it. Well, as many car project plans go, the aspirations exceeded the time, budget and enthusiasm. As the years went by, parts were traded, sold and just plain walked away so that all I was getting with my purchase was the body and maybe 80{9bf56cdcf86fd5e484f7a6c7dd7f10c086072f0abab75d8e87856dbab1800b0f} or less of the parts. The picture below shows the state in was in when I brought it home to my workshop.
Keeping in mind that I was an office worker all my working life, and not a mechanic or body guy, I was smart enough to seek help from good friends who actually know their way around AMC vehicles. Two in particular that live nearby me are Harm van der Veen and Ken Edwards. Together, Harm and I worked out a plan of attack which began with building a rotissorie from two engine hoists and getting the body onto it so that I could spend the next 8 months scraping the undercoating from underneath the car.
The next area to tackle was repairing metal areas that had rusted away. Thankfully, Harm is an excellent fabricator making partial floor pans and other assorted fabricated pieces. Together, we managed to repair all the holes, replace the pieces we had to cut out and added frame rail connectors built by Harm for additional support for the upgraded horsepower to come.
Knowing that I didn’t have all the parts and because I was going to all this trouble to restore this car, it only made sense to me to add some upgrades. The first of which was a full front and rear suspension system from Control Freaks. So I placed my order and arranged to pick it up at the Atlanta International AMC annual car show.
Of course, to make sure everything fit and to position the necessary brackets, Harm, Ken and I assembled the suspension system and did a preliminary alignment. Then we took it all apart and completed the welding required to finish the bracket installation. As with most of the work, Harm would spend a day or two professionally welding the parts and then I’d spend the next few weeks grinding the welds and smoothing things out so that everything blended in and looked original.
Getting this far was a lot of work but also a great learning opportunity, not to mention that sense of accomplishment that comes with persistence and hard work, and enjoying the friendship and camaraderie of fellow car lovers.
Recently, we installed all the body parts, doors, fenders, hood and trunk lid and spent a fair bit of time fitting and aligning these parts. Getting this far has taken about 2 years. Currently, we have primed the body and are in the process of block sanding and prepping for painting. Meanwhile, I’m having an AMC 360 Stroker built to provide the horsepower this build deserves. Once painted, all we’ll have left to do is the final assembly, (no small feat), build and install a custom interior and trunk (even a larger feat) and then bring it all to life…….. Stay tuned…….
I realize this article has been out for a while, but it dawned on me that I hadn't placed it on our own website. We received permission from the Toronto Star to post this article on our website so I would like to send a big "thank you" to Jodee for writing the article for them and to the Star for providing the exposure for AMCs. This is the scanned article from the actual newspaper of that day so I apologize for a couple of duplicate pictures.
And don't forget - if you have a special car story, the Star is always looking for contributions so don't be shy!
Roberta Sommerville saw this article and thought our members might be interested in seeing it too:
Soybeans were discovered by the people of the Orient and were considered a poor man’s meat long before their nutritive value was quantified. Soybeans were not used for food in America until 1892, when they were used as substitute for coffee. At the beginning of the 20th century its cultivation spread rapidly in the USA. In 1924 production reached 135,000 tons. At the start of World War II, American soybean production topped 5 million tons, and its use as food for both humans and animals was widespread. However, the most remarkable achievements were in the industrial use of soya. Soya-based plastics were used in the construction of cars and aircrafts – both the steering wheel and the distributor head of the Jeep were cast in a plastic extract from soya.
As many of you know, Harm and I have been busy building our horse/hay barn. We finally completed the structure on December 9th, a year to the day we brought home the last pieces of the barn. It was a great accomplishment but without the help of friends and family, would have been very difficult to achieve! A few of our AMO+ family helped - Ken Edwards, Mike and Gail Putz, and Jodee Scott. Although we still need to build stalls, etc. inside, we have decided to start that part of the project when the weather gets warmer and our energy levels have returned to normal.
Because of all this activity (as well as preparing Harm's shop for the winter and normal farm work), I have not been posting as much as I should have. For that, I apologize. I will try to do a better job this year and encourage each of you to provide me with an article in which others will be interested. I know Ken Edwards is busy building Angelo's 1974 Javelin; Harm and I will be putting Babs' 1970 Trans Am Javelin together after too many years in process; Mike and Harm have been working on his 1974 Javelin. There must be many others who are working on their cars, if in no other capacity but to clean/buff/tweak! Send me your stories and pictures, and I will post them.
We'll also be choosing a date for our next meeting which we traditionally use to plan for the coming year. I appreciate that, despite numerous events scheduled for 2015, many of us were unable to attend many of them. It seems to be a sign of our times - family commitments, work, health, lack of funds, etc. There should be no guilt for the events that you cannot attend - just good times in getting your AMC out there for others to enjoy.
On a sad note, after many years of struggling physically, Sandy Davis' Mom, Mary Seymour, passed away on December 22nd. On behalf of the club, flowers were sent to Sandy and Marty. A loss at any time of year is hard, but it was especially tough before Christmas. We hope they will be comforted by the many lovely memories and the friendship of their AMO+ family.
As in past years, resolutions are made and often discarded fairly quickly. Whatever you decide to do to improve yourself, take baby steps so you don't overwhelm yourself. Hang in there!
On behalf of Harm and I, we would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing more of you this year!
Barb van der Veen, Website Editor/Social Convenor
Recently, Ken and Roberta visited Italy with Roberta's granddaughters (lucky girls!) and reported the following:
On a recent trip to Italy, somewhere in the Tuscan landscape, I see from my seat on the left side of the coach a car roof on the right side which didn’t belong to a Fiat, Renault or Smart car. The roof line was familiar to a 1949 Mercury. A glance down the aisle and we were coming up on a 1970 Challenger! At our next stop for lunch, the parking lot had many more examples of American iron. I cruised the lot and snapped these pictures of classic iron.
