ling with a group. If you are interested in Long Beach Wa ...clubs.hemmings.com/lccc//PDF/2020 NEWSLETTERS/MARCH... · Yep, time to change the oil, tune it up, check the air pressure

LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 1

3/12/2020

PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT DARRYL NIEMI 503-861-0484 /

TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY LINDA UPHOFF 360-777-3737 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL

503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3896 [email protected]

March already, clear blue skies and

the sound of lawn mowers, the smell

of freshly cut grass ….. mother na-

ture’s way of fooling us into thinking

winter is past. With longer days and

warmer rain, a man’s thoughts turn to

other things like ...“Is the car ready to

come out of the garage?” Yep, time to

change the oil, tune it up, check the

air pressure in the tires and spare, a

good clean up and roll it out into the

sun. I am not sure if it’s driving the

car or the smell of exhaust that gets

me to thinking of what shows to at-

tend, but something makes it time to

get out the calendar and start pencil-

ing in shows. Along with the local fa-

vorites, a group of club members are

planning a return to Joseph Oregon in

mid-June. The downside of the small

town shows is getting a place to stay.

The upside is a great time and travel-

ling with a group. If you are interested

in joining in, ask club members about

details.

The February social was organized by

Judy Jordan and we found ourselves

in Long Beach Wa. for a movie and

lunch. The theatre was very comforta-

ble and a great place to relax and en-

joy a movie. Since Judy rented the

theatre, she was able to pick the mov-

ie, “August Rush”. It was an enter-

taining story and everyone enjoyed

the show. Nice choice and thank you

to Judy for something different. The

Lost Roo was our lunch spot and the

turnout was good. The day was relax-

ing for all but Steve. His Buick’s new

wiring decided to act up and no

amount of Fred’s or Steve’s magic hot

wire tricks could get it going. It came

home on a flat bed. One word of wis-

dom was learned from this event,

“Don’t overlook the simple things

when a glitch happens.” Anyway,

mailto:[email protected]


3/12/2020




Steve tells the story very well. Once

again Judy, well done. It was a fun

day.

The Swap Meet is right on top of up-

coming events - March 14 at the

Clatsop County Fairgrounds. Set-up

starts at 7am Friday, March 13, and

will stay open for Vendor set-up until

8pm. Saturday the committee will

open the doors at 6am for Vendors.

The public enter at 8am and the show

closes at 2pm. Any and all help is

greatly appreciated, especially in set-

ting up and taking down the club

booth. Call Fred or Dorothy to sign up

to help, or come by Saturday and we

will put you to work.

The 50’s Cruise, co-chaired by Burt

and Doug is getting into high gear.

Our site at Camp Rilea is secured, the

artwork is progressing, and we are

starting to secure sponsors and print-

ing forms. This year the committee is

offering club members that volunteer

to work the day of the show, the op-

portunity to purchase a T-shirt for $5

($20 regular price). A volunteer sig-

nup sheet will be at the March and

April club meetings. So you can wear

them when you come to volunteer on

June 6, shirts can be picked up at the

May meeting. We anticipate a larger

show and will need more help in all

areas, more about this later. The

committee has quite a few new mem-

bers and that has really helped

spreading the work load, “Thank You”

to all of you! I would also like to thank

Polk and Patricia Riley for their sup-

port and professional help in all of the

club printing.

I hope your projects are progressing

well and can’t wait to see what new

ideas and cars come out of our mem-

bers minds. See you at the swap

meet and around town. Doug



3/12/2020




The regular meeting of Lower Columbia Classic’s car club was held on February 20th 2020 at Steve Jordan’s shop,35232 Helligso Ln,

Astoria Oregon, the president Doug Gillies being in the chair, Vice president Darryl Niemi, treasurer Burt Young and Secretary pro tem

Judy Jordan present. Linda Uphoff was absent.

It was moved and seconded to accept the minutes as printed in the Backfire. The motion carried.

Financial report –Burt Young, distributed the reconciliation and profit and loss statements for review.

Sunshine committees reported cards were sent to Dave Getchell, Mark Welch, Bill Cook and Darlene Langlo.

Membership committee- Diane reported Melanie Haase as a new member and new member-Gary Nelson was in attendance (welcome

Gary and Melanie).

Swap meet report was given by Dorothy and Fred and sign up sheets were passed around. Most of the vender spaces have been rented out.

There will be an add in the Coast Weekend. Darryl is trying to get students to haul out parts for buyers. All advertising is done with the

exception of the Oregonian, Fred will get that done. Bill Cook will advertise on face book for us. Can always use more items for the club

booth!

Web site—Robbie is putting swap meet and 50’s cruise on the web site, can always use members car pictures.

No historical committee report and no Backfire report.

Out reach committee-Darryl said they will be buying a scanner for the Merts program. He is hoping to get a photo when the donation is

presented to the Merts program. Mike Matthews volunteered to do that. Students are interested in helping with the swap meet and 50’s

cruise.

50’s cruise – Dorothy said everything is coming together with all the paper work done and venue is locked in. Lots of members have

stepped up to put the show together. Next 50’s cruise meeting will be at Steve’s shop on Tuesday the 25th of February.

Correspondence – Flyers from Test of Time Car Club, for their car shows and flyers from the Midnight Cruisers on their show. Both will

go on our web site.

Old business- Steve and Patty are working on the by-laws and constitution, they are combining the two. When that is done it will go to the

board for approval.

Report was given on the Warrenton open house for their shop classes. Good turn out from Lower Columbia Classics, we all were very

impressed. Many donations from the community!

Good of the order--Jim Wood told about Polk Riley getting a new old car. Burt reported on his trip to Dayton Florida. And Jim reported

on his trip to Scottsdale Arizona.

Clatskanie car show will be held on June 27th

Meeting adjourned with Darryl winning the attendance drawing.

Judy Jordan standing in for Linda Uphoff



3/12/2020




Ramblin `Round With Steve



3/12/2020




By Jim Wood

This month's excursion took me back out to Sven-son and Simonsen Road to Jim and Valerie Purdy's place. I heard a rumor that Jim was up to his usual approach of -if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing- with a 1923 Ford Turtle-back Road-

ster. Almost every part of this build is repurposed parts. One exception is the dropped front axle and associated parts from Speedway. The rest has all been accumulated at swap meets and used parts from the internet. And of course when Jim needs a piece he can't find, he makes it. If you guys will remember, this is how all hot rods were made, junk yards and imaginations. Jim

wants to make this hot rod period correct for late '50's and early '60's. I think he's hit the nail on the head with this rod. The only thing different is the 19" wide Hoosier tires. These big meats almost give it a cartoonish (think Ed Roth and the Rat Fink) over the top look Jim seems to like. Re-member his dune buggy with the blown V6? This is kind of along the same lines of being outra-geous looking. I love this stuff that's a bit different from the usual. Jim has done a lot of work re-building the body's inside wooden structures and added a passenger side door for easy access. I'll

give you a little tour of the car here starting with the dropped front straight axle. Attached to the ends are a pair of Hallcraft motorcycle spoked wheels and 3.50 x 16 motorcycle tires. You know, bigs and littles. He's not sure about the radiator shell yet, but is toying with the idea of an old gas pump face. He's afraid that people might confuse this with a rat rod look and that's not the idea at all. The headlights and buckets are off a '67 Pe-terbilt. Perfect. The engine is not a 350 or a 427, because remember we did not have those choices in the time period he is aiming for. This motor is a freshly built 283 that he got from Lonnie Acord. Sitting on top is an over the top pair of double pump Holley carbs. Bolted to the back side of the small block is exactly what should be there, a Borg-Warner 4spd. Probably the most



3/12/2020




By Jim Wood

exotic thing on this car is the rear-end assembly. At last years swap meet Jim scored a Corvette inde-pendent rear axle complete with all the fixins. I'm really excited about this project and hope we can all see it on the road before too long. It's going to be a great addition to this clubs roster, another real hot rod that's not a trailer queen. I don't know about you guys, but I wonder if he's gonna be able to spin those things!

SPECIAL NOTICE!!

MARCH 12TH 2020 THERE WAS ANNOUCEMENT FROM CLATSOP CO.

FAIRGROUNDS THAT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ALL EVENTS AT THE

FAIRGROUNDS HAS BEEN CANCELED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE BE-

CAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS.

THEREF0RE, THE 14TH OF MARCH SWAP MEET IS CANCELED.



3/12/2020




FROM THE BACK SEAT “THE GAL’S PAGE”

The Harvester Hillbillies by Linda Uphoff My story is about a camping bus that my parents bought in 1966 for us to go camping in. I was the oldest of my parents five chil-dren together and was 15 that summer. My four siblings were 11, 10, 7 and 6. My parents had begun camping (really the only vacation that they could afford!) about the time I turned 5 years old. The first trip that I can remember, we slept in a tent that belonged to my uncle's friend. In 1959, we got our own tent and my baby brother, who was 8 months old, slept in a chaise lounge chair next to me (on an army cot) and my job was to keep him from fall-ing out of the chair! It was a real step up for my family to obtain something other than a tent to camp in. We were all excited when my Dad heard about an older International bus that had been con-verted to a camper. It was a full size 60 pas-senger and probably 2/3 of the seats had been removed. Two sets of them had been turned around facing each other with a ped-estal table in between or a board with a thin mattress on top. There were 3 sets of beds and a place in the back of the bus for a dou-ble mattress on the floor for my parents. There were no electrical items or hookups in the bus (like fancy campers had) so our cook stove and refrigerator were both propane fueled. We five kids liked it because we could move around while traveling down the road and get something to eat or drink out of the cooler. We could play board or card games or read or even

take a nap. There were curtains on some of the windows and matching-color oilcloth ta-blecloths which my mom made. My Dad had some experience from CCC camp driving heavy equipment but had nev-er driven a bus. It is probably a good thing we didn't know that at the time! On our first trip out, something went wrong with the en-gine but my Dad called his best friend who drove 60 miles to rescue us and the next day, we were back on the road. The most embarrassing thing to a 15 year old (me) was that my Mom painted over the school name in black along the side of the bus and re-lettered it with “HARVESTER HILLBILLIES!” Obviously, the “Beverly Hillbillies” was a TV show that my entire family enjoyed. We lived in a rural area of our county in Missouri in a small incorpo-rated village called Harvester. I was happy about camping, having lots of room inside the bus, and even the work it took to set up camp when we ar-rived.......everything EXCEPT the Harvester Hillbillies sign on the sides! I have searched in vain for a photo of the bus. Of course, years later, we all laughed about the name my Mom gave the bus...but I sure didn't think it was funny at the time!



3/12/2020




FOR SALE LOT & ANNOUCEMENTS

BACKSEAT ARTICLES 2020

January –Carol Webster, February-Diane Matthews, March-Linda Uphoff, April-Judy Jordan,

May-Sara Meyer, June-Jul Grandbois, July-Patty Getchell, August-Dorothy Harmon, Septem-

ber-Marion Ralston, October-Gail Penuel, November- Dorothy Harmon,

FOR SALE!!

700R4 TRANSMISSION 650.00

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

BURT YOUNG @ 503-338-8719

Wanted: Clean, undamaged "Feed Bags" the 35-50 lb. bags usually used for Chicken and large animal grains. These bags make great recycled "multi-purpose bags" and hold up well. My plan is to make as many over-size bags as I can to sell at the Swap Meet. Profits will go to the Warrenton High/Clatsop CC programs. If you have clean empty feed bags, give me a call and we can arrange a pick-up. Thanks for your help with this pro-ject! Dorothy Gillies, 503-468-0006.

FOR SALE 1955 FORD PICK UP AND A FORD VAN WITH A 302 ENGINE AND AOD TRAN.

BUY THE PACKAGE FOR 2,000.00 CALL JON 503-728-3562

Cards were sent to—-MARGARET LAU.

For all of you who I don’t know about, we are sending good thoughts your way!!!



3/12/2020




GAIL MAYER 3/23

BRYAN CORKILL 3/26

MARK GITTINS 3/27

KATHY HYNEN 3/27

MIKI JOHNSON 3/25

FRANK KOSSAK 3/20

FRED MESTRICH 3/27

KATIE SCARBOROUGH 3/20

RICH ADAMS 3/24

ENGLAND 3/28

PERRY 3/11



3/12/2020




LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC’S CAR CLUB

P.O. BOX 1259

ASTORIA, OREGON 97103

BACKFIRE

LOWER

COLUMBIA

CLASSIC’S


Documents

ling with a group. If you are interested in Long Beach Wa ...clubs.hemmings.com/lccc//PDF/2020 NEWSLETTERS/MARCH... · Yep, time to change the oil, tune it up, check the air pressure