SIDE CURTAINS
SIDE CURTAINS The magazine of the
ROTORUA VINTAGE AND VETERAN CAR CLUB
OCTOBER 2020
WE’RE NOW ON FACEBOOK ! www.rvvcc.org.nz
SEPTEMBER CLUB NIGHT 1929 Graham-Paige
SIDE CURTAINS - October 2020 The magazine of the ROTORUA VINTAGE AND VETERAN CAR CLUB
Clubrooms: Neil Hunt Park, Tarawera Rd, Rotorua Postal: PO Box 2014, Rotorua Email: rotorua@vcc.org.nz Website: www.rotoruavintagecarclub.org.nz Vero Insurance: Phone 0800 658 411 and quote your VCC membership number Club Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of month (except January), 7.15pm for 7.30pm start OFFICERS
Chairperson - David Tomlinson
CONTENTS
Secretary - Dennis Whimp 021 731 678
Chairman’s Report
2
From The Secretary
4
Treasurer - Terry Fitzpatrick
September Car In The Room
5
Club Captain Terry Wadsworth
Art Deco 2021 - Veterans
6
September Club Run
7
September Midweekers
8
Asst. Club Captain Fleur Tomlinson Committee Bob Mackay Ronald Mayes Kevin Scott Lois Thompson Neville Harper
Xmas Social
10
Coming Events
12
Mid Weekers - Bob Mackay Side Curtains Editor - David Tomlinson rvvcc.editor@gmail.com Beaded Wheels - Ronald Mayes Librarian - Dennis Kenny Asst Librarian - Ronald Mayes Asst Librarian - Roger Couchman Cards/Flowers - Doreen Green
Cover Photos Front - 1929 Essex at Blue Baths Back - September branch events
CLUB CAR PHOTOS
If you want your club car photo on the clubroom wall then get in touch with Doug Green, and he will organise a time and place for a photo shoot. It would be good if we could have all member’s car photos on display. Side Curtains October 2020
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Chairman’s Report
- September 2020 by David Tomlinson
It’s said all good things come to those who wait... Well, we now have a Club Captain, and an Assistant Club Captain! Committee member Terry Wadsworth has offered to take on the Club Captain’s role, and my good lady Fleur will take on the Assistant Club Captain role. The committee, and I hope the whole membership, will help Terry settle in to the role. Terry has also recently joined the “Triumph Brigade” in our branch, with a Toledo. What can I say about our cancelled Swap Meet? The morning dawned cold, wet and windy, and it rained heavily and non-stop until the afternoon. Even if it had proceeded, I think we may have put in a lot of effort and possibly not even covered our costs. Perhaps a blessing in disguise that the Alert Level timing led to its cancellation. Lets move on and hope 2021 lets us have a full calendar of events. This year’s Sulphur City Rally is also a permanent casualty of the pandemic. As I write this column, the WoF extension scheme has ended, so if your car doesn’t have a warrant you risk a ticket and no insurance while out on the road. If you have been delaying obtaining a current WoF during the “amnesty” period, time is up, so get the car safe and tested as soon as possible. I believe the ability to register unwarranted cars is over too. Third time lucky, after a breakdown in July and the cancelled club night in August, Doug Green finally managed to bring his 1929 GrahamPaige along on club night and give us an excellent talk. Doug also passed around the mould he made for making the car’s rear light lenses and a lens he had made. A very skilled effort, the end result looked excellent. The car itself also looked immaculate. Our September club run was a modified version of the run planned for August which had to change due to wet weather. The day dawned bright and sunny and a good number of members took part. It was a combined question and scavenger hunt run, with all the questions taking place 2
Side Curtains October 2020
outside of the car at 5 venues. I had not planned on so many people doing so well with both, and we ended up with an outright winner on the day, and a 7 way tie for second. Very few people knew the name of our expensive new artwork in the middle of the Hemo Rd roundabout, which was ultimately important with a tie break needed to win overall. I believe there was also a good turnout for the mid-weekers run which visited a private collection in Ngongotaha followed by a lakeside picnic lunch. October will see a full program with a club night, club run and midweekers. November will also have a full program, with an early Xmas Social in the middle too. December will likely just feature a club night and our annual “High Tea” club run, with the Lakefront Car Show being our only scheduled activity in January. In my last column I mentioned I had a new cylinder head and boxes of other bits and pieces coming from the UK to get my 1933 Rolls-Royce back on the road. They all arrived in good time and order, but now there is a delay getting it all put back together as the specialist company booked to do the work is waylaid by catch-up work from being closed for much of the middle of this year. So it may be a few more months before it goes on another club run. Also in September I let hospital staff use my 1929 Essex as a photo prop for their annual ball at the Blue Baths, which had a “Roaring Twenties” theme. I had let them use one of my other cars a few years back too for a “Casino Royale” themed ball at the same venue. The cover photo of this issue shows the Essex squeezed in tightly by the entrance steps. With daylight saving time now with us, and warmer, dryer weather ahead, lets try and make up for lost time by making the most of the activities planned through to the end of the year and beyond, and hope that there are no more interruptions to our daily lives and our branch’s activities. I hope to see many of you at club night in October and at the many other branch activities between now and Christmas. And get your car(s) ready for the Lakefront Car Show in January! Side Curtains October 2020
Doug Green’s mould and tail light 3
FROM THE SECRETARY by Dennis Whimp
A big welcome to our latest new members Nigel Black who has a very original 1939 Chev. Ken and Judith Thomas who have a 1973 Citroen. We look forward to seeing you at our events and meetings. Neville and Carol Harper have replaced their 1960 Studebaker Hawk with a similar age beautifully restored right hand drive Golden Hawk. Unfortunately, the compliance people damaged the vehicle so it is having minor repairs. Terry Fitzpatrick and I went to the Aroha Cruise In at Te Aroha on 3 Oct. The organisers said there were more vehicles than last year’s 750. Interestingly, there were only a handful of pre-1939 vehicles. Volkswagens, Minis, Imps, Rovers and almost every American and European make was represented. It augers well for our January car show. A reminder to pay your membership national subscription by 20th October if you want to get the discount. 4
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September Club Night - 1929 Graham Paige 615 Sedan September’s car in the room was Doug and Doreen Green’s sedan that still looks as good as it did when it was restored in 1996. The car was sold new into Christchurch in 1929, just before the depression hit. In 1957 the left hand side of the vehicle was extensively damaged in a collision with a truck so the Graham Paige was put in a shed under a tarpaulin and remained there until a Tauranga chap sniffed it out in 1981. He liberated it to the North Island and over the next 10 years replaced the bent chassis and did some other minor work. Doug was at the Waikato swap meet in 1991 when he saw photos of the vehicle. The Tauranga owner was shifting and had neither the room nor the time to restore the vehicle. A deal was done and Doug got not only the car, but two large trailer loads of spares. A three and a half year restoration followed with Doug learning to panel beat and make moulds for much of the jewellery and tail light lenses that were missing. He spent around 100 hours getting the rusty radiator surround ready for chroming and it now is perfection. The only bits not done by Doug and Doreen were the upholstery, the painting and the chroming. The two tone grey colour really suits this car and Doug spent a fair bit of time making sure it was correct. Its first big rally was the 1996 Christchurch International and the car has been extensively rallied since including every Taumaranui Journey through Time. Earlier in the year, the front suspension and steering was overhauled and radial tyres fitted that have just become available. Doug said it now tracks dead straight and corners beautifully. For those who want to see photos of the car before it was restored and an article on the restoration, it was well covered in the December 1996 issue of Beaded Wheels. Side Curtains October 2020
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ART DECO 2021 - THE VETERANS ARE COMING Come to Napier and join the HBVCC for Art Deco 2021 from February 18th -21st. Kindly sponsored again this year by Euro City Ltd. In 2021 the Featured Group will be Veteran Motor Vehicles (all will be over 100 years old). We are expecting 50 plus Veterans this year and already have 25 Veteran entries as at 10 September. Cars, commercials, motorcycles, high-wheelers, steam , electric and petrol. Veterans entered already include an 1895 Velo Benz, 1903/4 Oldsmobiles (3), De Dion, Calcott, Hupmobile, GWK, Dodge (3), Sears, L’etoile, Darracq (2) , Cadillac , Mitchell, Holly, Briscoe, New Pick and 5 Model T Fords. 2021 will be the 90th anniversary of the 1931 Napier Earthquake. We want to get as many EQ survivor cars to attend the 2021 AD Festival as possible. A commemorative banner or similar will be presented to all qualifying vehicles. To qualify your vehicle must have been in Napier or Hastings at the time of the EQ. Please contact me if you have such a vehicle or know someone who has. The same applies if you own or know of any First Response Vehicles that may have been present during the EQ. (eg Ambulance, Fire Engine, Police, Military). For 2021 the main annual rally is again on Friday and we plan to have a touring run plus a picnic lunch at a great lunch venue. On Saturday we will have the morning tea and car show and popular choice at the HBVCC clubrooms, followed by the grand parade. Sunday events include breakfast at the HBVCC clubrooms and the Gatsby picnic in the afternoon. There are many other events offered by Art Deco Trust on the Friday and Saturday nights. Come and join the other 180 plus club eligible vehicles we expect to enter the 2021 Event. If you are entering a Veteran there are special additional events for you on the Wednesday and Thursday of Art Deco Week. If you plan to attend these please plan to arrive in Napier on the Tuesday. Otherwise we suggest you plan to arrive in Napier on Thursday 20th so you can attend the Dinner at the Clubrooms that evening. We have prizes for the best dressed couples again this year. Dinner tickets are limited so be in quick. Go to the HBVCC website for an Entry Form. (www.hbvcc.org.nz). Entry forms for 2021 are available now. Accommodation in Napier is already filling up for Art Deco Weekend so book now to avoid disappointment. Contacts: STEVE TROTT stevetrott@xtra.co.nz STEVE DONOVAN stevedon@xtra.co.nz 6
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September Club Run
by Ronald Mayes
Our chairman set this one, held on Sunday morning, 20 September. I had no navigator (she was otherwise engaged on the golf course) but driving around town to the various scenic spots in the instructions was no problem - finding the answers to all the questions was the hard part. We also had to help keep the town clean by picking up a piece of glass (one new member quickly spotted a bottle on the ground at our first stop but I had to make do with a headlamp bulb from the spares box in the Princess 1100 - don’t know if that qualified), a feather, pumice, and other odds and ends. First stop was at the Murray Linton Rose Gardens in Fenton Park, then on to the Ikeda Peace Gardens on Mokoia Drive, Kuirau Park, Sulphur Point and the Hannah’s Bay Reserve. Some of these places I had never before visited. At all of these stops we were out of our cars and searching for answers to the questions or the objects on the list, which must have made the locals wonder about our sanity - at least no-one was reduced to searching through a rubbish bin outside a shop to find something like a navigator I once had (who shall not be named but was not my wife) on a similar run. All good fun and it finished back at the clubrooms where we were treated to a table full of edible goodies by Fleur, the very culinarilycapable Mrs Chairman.
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September Midweek Run
by Ronald Mayes
Good numbers turned up for this run, on the plan a visit to an eclectic collection in Ngongotaha, followed by a lakeside picnic lunch (if the weather was not favourable a sheltered location would be found..) Host Tony’s property was a back section on a corner of the very busy main road through Ngongotaha. We managed to squeeze all the old cars onto the site, modern ones had to be left on side streets. Much of the section seemed to be given over to buildings housing an amazing variety of items, from the cars (a 1939 Ford V8 Standard interested me as I had learned to drive in Dad’s very similar ‘38 De Luxe back in 1960) to imaginative welded artwork (who would have thought an aircraft model could be created from an old grease gun, 3 garden rake heads and some spark plugs?) not to mention old household and pharmacy dispensary items. The large garage doors were just ordinary steel “Tiltadoors” but they had been painted to look like high-quality varnished timber. The expert who applied that finish would be just the person to restore the woodgrain-effect dashboards and door window frames on pre-war American cars! Off for lunch: we were the first to arrive at the Reeme Street reserve on the shores of Lake Rotorua, but were not quick enough to score one of the good spots sheltered from the wind by a stand of trees, but the Triumph’s powerful heater thawed us out when we hit the road soon after finishing lunch. Thanks to Bob for organising yet another interesting morning.
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CHRISTMAS “HIGH TEA” CLUB RUN SUNDAY 13th December 2020 Be at the club rooms by 11am, first car away at 11.15am Wear your best “bib and tucker” and you may win a prize! Please bring a cup, saucer, plate, chair and a big smile. Price $5 per person Please advise Lois on 345 5767 or Dorothy 348 6270 for catering numbers
FOR SALE
(perhaps a suitable Christmas present!)
Triple AAA badge. Chrome with black enamel. Excellent condition. Royal Automobile Club Associate (Auckland Automobile Association) $350 ono Evan Dorrington 346 0458 Side Curtains October 2020
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XMAS SOCIAL DINNER NIGHT Saturday, November 14th Clubrooms, 5.30pm for 6pm dinner 3 course dinner - BYO drinks Only $25 per person for a night of great food and great company!
Please bring a $5 gift along to exchange and your sense of humour. Wear an item of Christmas clothing or jewellery Please advise Angie on 348 4546 or Dave on 027 412 8227 if you will attend so that catering numbers can be organised. 10
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CLUB NIGHT - October 14th Neil Hunt Park - 7.30pm Car In The Room: 1957 Vauxhall Velox Followed by tea, coffee and biscuits.
October Club Run - Sunday, October 18th - 1.00pm Meet at the clubrooms in Neil Hunt Park from 1pm for a 1.30pm start. The run will be an enjoyable drive of about 56km (35 miles), beginning with a short straight-line navigation section. Most of the run will be on secondary roads and open-road sections are almost all in 80 km/h areas. Not too many questions (they will all be on the left, in quiet suburban streets or on rural roads) and unless there are new roadworks no gravel roads! Afternoon tea at the clubrooms at 3pm!
Midweekers, Wednesday 28 October Meet at the clubrooms at 10am. Following morning tea we will check out some country back roads to a country cafĂŠ for lunch. Unfortunately I am unable to find any unsealed roads so it will be a 90km all tar sealed run. Side Curtains October 2020
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www.rotoruavintagecarclub.org.nz The branch website aims to meet the needs of our members, to promote our branch nationally, and to potential new members. If you have any suggestions please contact David Tomlinson. Please also make sure you “Like” our Facebook page to keep up to date.
Contributions to Side Curtains This is your magazine! Please feel free to share anything you think might be of interest to the membership by sending it to the editor, preferably by email, and a picture says a thousand words, so include photos where possible. Members taking part in club runs or events hosted by other branches are encouraged to pen a short piece about their experience to include in the next issue going to print. All items to the editor by the end of the month. 12
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SEPTEMBER CLUB RUN
SEPTEMBER MIDWEEKERS
SEPTEMBER CLUB RUN
SEPTEMBER MIDWEEKERS