HCCA Forums

I just read on the Model T Ford Club of America that Ann Bothwell has died. There is an obituary from Autoweek on that site.

Gil Fitzhugh the Elder

Interesting grammatical glitch in those original factory instructions. Instead of making the spring "as light as possible without failing to miss at high speed", i suspect what was meant was "without missing at high speed." You'd WANT the critter to fail to miss at high speed, or any other speed!

Jeff, thank you for the additional suggestions. I agree others will want to hear about them. I e-mailed Steve Hammett, who runs the Early Cadillac Yahoo group, suggesting he repost what I had written, or at least link to it, but I haven't heard back from Steve. I got into some kind of computer glitc...

Action shots, a video, and a great description of what must have been a fun weekend. Super write-up!

Gil Fitzhugh the Elder

Folks who follow northeastern HCCA activities know that the Southern Ontario and North Jersey Regional Groups have a longstanding affinity. Every year, one group or the other puts on a week-long, family-friendly event and invites the other club to join the fun. The Canadians, having fewer members an...

My wife, Joan, and I had a material failure with our single-cylinder Cadillac on a tour last week. The right front spindle broke, the wheel came off, the spindle dug into the unpaved shoulder, the car slued abruptly to the left, and Joan was thrown out onto the pavement and landed on the back of her...

The Susquehanna Valley RG had its rain-delayed kickoff run last Saturday. No rain and no delay this time – just an astoundingly clear day with superb visibility for enjoying the 70 miles of scenic Pennsylvania roads that Tracy and Jeff Lesher had prepared for us. We had two Buicks, two Overlands, an...

Every year, the North Jersey Regional Group has its one-day Run Around the Mountain. The reason for the name of the tour is lost in the mists of time; New Jersey isn’t noted for its mountains. But we have plenty of beautiful, rolling, meandering back roads, 65 miles of which Joe and Brenda Henshaw s...

This tour had it all. Long, rolling runs with great scenery. Covered bridges. Friendly Amish. Steep, twisting hills. Dirt roads. A stretch of potholes. Creek fordings. Great destinations. The most convivial people in the hobby. And superb touring weather. Note that I said touring weather. The Sunday...

For 24 years, New Jersey’s touring season has opened with a 3-day event at the seashore for primitive cars: 1-and 2-cylinder cars, very early fours, and steamers. The usual venue has been either Ocean Grove, an old Methodist revival-meeting town on the northern part of the coast, or Cape May, at the...

Stutzman built new wheels for my '13 Ford and my '07 Cadillac. Top notch work.

Gil Fitzhugh the Elder

I just saw on the AACA website that Gary Hoonsbeen has died of a massive heart attack. Gary was one of the pillars of the hobby. He wrote excellent and clear technical articles for the Gazette, and a definitive book on the myriad details of the Curved Dash Oldsmobile. He will be sorely missed. Gil F...

I have no idea how to get the overspill out of the fabric. But, for the future: Are these zillions of fasteners reasonably equally spaced? If so, you could make a template that would slip over a few fasteners at a time to protect the surrounding fabric. Then a little buffing wheel in a Dremel tool w...

I've been preparing routes for next October's Hershey Hangover. 1-1/2 days (Sunday through Monday afternoon) of touring after the Hershey show. This year we'll have two tours each day, to the same principal destinations. One will be a shorter, simpler route for really slow cars, like singles and hig...

The new HCCA roster lists 5 RCH cars. If you don't have access to the roster, PM me and I'll tell you who the owners are. Maybe they can help.

Gil Fitzhugh the Elder

Somehow I missed this thread when it was first posted. This tour had a beautiful mix of brass-and nickel-era cars. In several pictures, cars are touring together. Is that just momentary bunching up, or do you try to stay together for the whole tour? If you try to stay together, how do you keep the s...

No picture this time. The Great Swamp Watershed Association had a fund raiser this month. It included a silent auction for goods and services donated. I offered a Model T driving lesson. Four people together put in a high bid of $290 to buy the lesson for their husband/stepfather/stepfather-in-law's...

Sometimes I miss out on some good stuff because my car breaks down. Recently I missed out on some good stuff because my car DIDN’T break down. Last month, Tricia and Andy Wallace hosted Brighton USA Day, an informal run for one-and two-cylinder cars. On a glorious Saturday, five couples arrived in B...

A Cars and Croissants day, this time at a local nunnery, the Sisters of Christian Charity. The usual collection of exotic, expensive vroommobiles in which you can lose your license in under 5 seconds on pretty nearly any road in North America. But Ed Rowan brought a beautiful '30s Bentley, and I fir...

I would have posted this story of my first Mainely T tour on the Model T Ford Club of America website, but after many hours of frustration I gave up trying to post pictures. So here it is, and I'll post a link on the other site. Several HCCA members participated. The Mainely T tour is the MTFCA Down...