MMMAYAYAY 202020202020 VVVOLOLOL. 41 N. 41 N. 41 NOOO. 4. 4. 4 http://clubs.hemmings.com/chvasunflowerhttp://clubs.hemmings.com/chvasunflowerhttp://clubs.hemmings.com/chvasunflower

All Meetings cancelled until further noticeAll Meetings cancelled until further notice

You know whyYou know why

This Month’s FeaThis Month’s Featurestures “90 & 75 Years ago Along the Action Era High-

ways” by Kelly Flory

“Car Buzz” by Bob Vukas

“My First Car” Article and photos by Michael Kille

Check the Calendar on Page 1 for Complete Listing of Upcoming Events

This is looking like a real long summer with minimal car stuff Check the Sunflower Region website to stay up to date with upcom-ing events.

Dave and Linda Higdon’s 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 ConvertibleDave and Linda Higdon’s 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 ConvertibleDave and Linda Higdon’s 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible Rich Gibbs photo

N

“The Starterator”

1150 NW Sunset Ln Topeka, KS 66618-1148

(785) 286-2846 E-mail us at: sr-chva@cox.net

Information: must be received by the 25th of the month to be put in the next month's newsletter. Newsletters are mailed one week prior to each month's meeting. We are always looking for material for the newsletter, articles, jokes, club gossip, for sales and feature stories. Material will be returned if requested. Dues: Dues are payable yearly and come due on January 1st of each year. National dues are $36.00 and Regional dues are $15.00. National membership is a prerequisite to being a regional member. Meetings: Meetings are held once a month on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 PM. Meeting locations alternate each month between Kansas City and Topeka. See the calendar section of the newsletter for the location of each month's meeting. For Sale Ads: Members may place free For Sale ads in the newsletter. We will run an ad for several months unless notified otherwise. Please send the ad information the way you want it to read in the newsletter. The ad will appear in the printed version only. Hospitalization or Death of members or members families: If you hear of a club member or member's family who has been hospitalized or passed away please notify the contact listed below in your area: Topeka —–open—– Lawrence —–open—– Kansas City Steve Hartwich 816-661-9582

Evenings please

CHVA National Website: http://www.chvanational.org

Check out this website for a very good selec-tion of Etowah-Bartow Region photos and events: http://www.chvaga.com/

Founding members of the Sunflower Region, CHVA. February 25, 1979. Steve Jewett, Rod Waggoner, Bruce Baker, Danny Downs, Ray Taylor, Edna Willits/Jewett, Licia Willits, John Kitos, Steve Hartwich

Editor's Stuff

Rich Gibbs– Editor Calendar page editor—Steve Hartwich

New articles are always needed for “The Starterator”

Region Officers

Director Assistant Director

Malcolm McIntyre Tom Plemons

6915 N Cosby Ave 713 SE Baldwin Rd

Kansas City, MO 64151 Topeka, KS 6607

(816) 509-3016 (785) 213-2445

Secretary Treasurer Sue Anderson Don Beck

20240 W 113th Terr. PO Box 8787 Olathe, KS 66061 Topeka, KS 66608

(913) 219-7943 (785) 640-1808

Back-up Secretary Board Member Kathy Griffith Bob Vukas

601 Dakota 3806 SW Mission Av

Holton, KS 66436-1257 Topeka, KS 66610

(785) 215-1135 (785) 267-1367

“The Starterator” Editors Historian

Rich Gibbs Johnnie Williams

1150 NW Sunset Ln 2916 SE Aries

Topeka, KS 66618-1148 Topeka, KS 66605

(785) 230-6794 (785) 267-3436

Calendar Page Design/Editor CHVA National Office Manager

Steve Hartwich CHVA, Inc

chvacalendar@gmail.com PO Box 341

Newark, CA 94560-0341

Sunflower Region C O N T E M P O R A R Y H I S T O R I C A L V E H I C L E A S S O C I A T I O N

(Recognizing all old cars over 20 years and older) Website: http://clubs.hemmings.com/chvasunflower Printable PDF file of “The Starterator” are in COLOR on the website

Director's Drivel by Malcolm McIntyre

Another month and although things are starting to open up

again there are still too many social restrictions in place to

allow us to meet again in person as a group. I know that Kansas

City's restrictions are a little tighter than some of the surrounding

areas. Looking at the calendar I'm going to cancel the upcoming

June 20th trip to the New Theatre & Restaurant as we won't be

able get folks into venues like that by that amount of time. The

one thing that we will be able to do is to get the cars out and plan

some "Drives". For the near future I don't see that we'll be able to

include the " & Eats" portion but we could plan some cruises as

either an entire club or as regional groups between the Topeka

and Kansas City areas. Let me know what you're comfortable with

and I can work on getting something organized. In the meantime

I hope everyone is doing well and not going too stir crazy.

Malcolm

The photo to the right is of mem-bers of Sunflower Region. Ques-tion is not who they are but how “The Starterator” Editor got his hands on the photo and where did it come from. Send your guess to Funk & Wagnalls front porch! Ed Note: That sure doesn’t look like an Army regulation haircut.

May 2020May 2020

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 3 4

5 6 7

8 9 10 11 112 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

Please verify all events in case of changes, errors, or cancellations. Accuracy of this calen-dar is only as good as what has been provided.

• CHVA sponsored event − Other events

NOTE – ALL MEETINGS AND EVENTS FOR APRIL AND MAY ARE TENTATIVE AS OF PUBLICATION DATE DEPENDING ON CORONAVIRUS

• May 2 – Eagle 99.3 Cruise, Topeka KS, 300-800PM, Downtown Topeka. – POSTPONED -

• May 16 – Dean Weller auction, DeSoto KS. https://www.kansasauctions.net/sebree/05/16/ -- Postponed to a later date TBD --

• May 15-16 – Spring Swap meet, Kansas State Fairgrounds, Hutchinson KS. Info: Troy Batson, tbatson@cox.net

• May 25 – Memorial Day Holiday observed • June – CHVA Sunflower Region Monthly Meeting – TBD • June 6 – 11th Annual Pontiac Tribute Day Car Show – Held at Gateway

Classic Cars, 1202 S Lone Elm Rd, Olathe KS. 1000AM-300PM. Info: Richard Woody, sailor64@embarqmail.com

• July 7-11 – POCI Pontiac-Oakland club National meet. Catoosa OK. https://secure.poci.org/POCI_Annual_Convention_Registration.cfm

• July 10 – National Collector Car Appreciation Day • July 10 -- CHVA Sunflower Region Monthly Meeting –

Topeka KS -- 730PM, Woman’s Club, 5221 West Dr., just off of FairlawnSt, west side of street between 8th and 9th Streets.

• July 19. Kansas City, MO: The Great Car Show @ WWI Museum and Me-morial. 2 Memorial Drive, 64108. Go to https://KansasCityAutoMuseum.com for more information or call 913-322-4227.

• July 25 – CHVA Drive ‘N Eat Tour. Mike Hawkins car collection.

• Rescheduled Aug 22 – Aug 30 Great Race. Lunch stop: Heart of Rt 66 Auto Museum, Sepulpa OK, 1215PM. Overnight, Downtown Main St, Joplin MO, 500PM. Tuesday, June 23, Lunch, Benton Square on East 5th St,

Rolla, MO, Overnight, Main St., Downtown Cape Girardeau MO, 515PM. https://www.greatrace.com/route Actual dates will be added as they are published.

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1

Calendar of Events – Send notice of your events to: chvacalendar@gmail.com, Steve Hartwich.

Calendar event items, if published, should include a 2-3 sentence description including the name of the event, i.e., First An-nual White Wall Tire Car Show, Address, City-State, start-end times, admission and/or entry fees, website and/or flyer address link. Other

car clubs are invited to submit their car show or car event-related information that would appeal to the car club public.

Some CHVA Calendar items are from the Associated Car Clubs of Kansas City website. http://clubs.hemmings.com/acckc/eventfinder.htm

Sunflower Region CHVA Events Calendar 2020

Sunflower Region CHVA Events Calendar 2020—continued

Regularly scheduled 2020 cruise nights – More will be added as dates are confirmed.

1st Saturday

Harrisonville, MO — Car Cruise Nights at Gaslight Plaza, 1921 N. Commercial Street, 5pm, May to October.

2nd Saturday

Topeka, KS – Fairlawn Plaza, 21st and Fairlawn, 5pm to 10pm. April to October.

3rd Friday

Lenexa, KS — Pegah’s Summer Cruise, 12122 W. 87th Parkway, 5:00pm to 9:00pm, Cruiser’s receive 30% discount on food. May to October. Hosted by Dick and Judy Rule.

3rd Saturday

Topeka, KS – The Dug Out, 17th & Fairlawn, April to October.

4th Saturday

Topeka, KS – The Pad, 1730 NW Topeka Blvd., 5pm to 10pm. April to October.

Belton, MO — Cruzin' Main Street in historic downtown Belton hosted by the South 71 Cruisers. 4pm-8pm(?) Info: Mike 816-898-3698 Russ 816-392-0728 or Paul 816-392-1470 Dave 816-898-5174 or Esther 816-322-7005. April through Oc-tober.

Olathe KS – Last Saturday of each month. Caffeine and Chrome, Gateway Classic Cars, 1202 S Lone Elm Rd. Olathe, KS 66061 (913) 815-1340 Classic Cars, Hot Rods, Vintage Automobiles - Free - Open To The Public Join us from 9 A.M. to Noon.

Quarantined: Cars and All

Non Ethanol Gasoline Locations: https://www.pure-gas.org

Hit the link above and it will give you approximately 15,241 sta-tions that have pure gasoline without the ethanol added. Ethanol has been added to fuel mixtures to keep condensation from water from building up and causing gas line freeze or carburetor icing. Old cars are more vulnerable to the ethanol than modern fuel injected cars. Heet, formerly of the can form comes in red plastic bottles, and it contains isopropyl alcohol which is not harmful to any car. The yellow bottle contains methanol, which works like

Drano and cleans out the fuel system to clog your carburetor.

The added alcohol to the fuel formula makes the use of Heet un-necessary. Sta-bil, or Startron, help preserve the gasoline for-mula stable, up to two years in storage. I recommend both for

your cars and outdoor, motorized equipment.

Quarantined: Cars and All

We're both safe at home. I watch TV, pay bills, buy two replace-ment Coker tires, to replace and return the two that are out of

line.

When the new ones go on, the old ones go back for a

refund.

Rachel has two computer screens and her cell phone to keep working. If I stay away from the office, all is well. The kitchen is my office. Hy-Vee delivers the groceries and so do the food de-livery services. We hope to get the Bel-Air back April 28. As neighbors we check on one another by phone. All is well here so

far. How are you?

Ivy's Coupe

Last, but not least, I sent Rich a photo of our great niece's pink

pedal car.

..........Car Buzz.......... by Bob Vukas

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Tentative as of press time due to coronavirus. Updates later. Steve

I t was the Fall of 1965; I was 16 and was tired of

walking to our new high school which was 11

blocks away!! Each day I passed an old 1938

Four Door Deluxe Ford with suicide back doors sit-

ting quietly next to the curb. It was a faded gray in

color, mohair seats, a cool banjo steering wheel, a

tall floor shifter and in relatively good body shape.

Until a friend of mine drove his 1929 Ford Sedan to

school that year I had not really paid any atten-

tion to the ‘38 Ford.

Oh, you might be wondering where this was

happening, well I will tell you, it was in Ottawa,

Kansas on Ash Street. I lived at 504 Ash in a big

two-story house on a corner lot. We had a big yard

which I fondly remember playing nearly every

sport you could imagine in the front part. Baseball

was probably the worst game to play as I broke our

front window two times and my bad habit of throw-

ing the bat backward after hitting the ball wound

up hitting my older brother Charlie in the face-that

only happened once!! In the side yard we played

badminton, volleyball, had a high jump stand

which was also used for pole vault too. Guess I am

digressing from the purpose of this story, huh?

The coolness of Danny’s car gave me the courage

to approach the door of the owner and ask him if

he would sell his car to me. He was an old gentle-

man who had bought the car new, but now only

drove it to go fishing occasionally. He agreed to

sale for $50!! I accepted though I didn’t have $50.

I only had $25 in my savings account.

Who would I turn to but dear ole Dad. Dad was

a very conservative, frugal, miserly republican and

my chances of borrowing $25 was very slim, but to

my surprise he did it.

Since I was not familiar with driving a standard

transmission car yet my brother Charlie went with

me to make the purchase. We waltzed up to the

front door and paid the gentleman for the car. He

gave me the keys and I handed them to my brother.

As the door closed we heard his wife start yelling at

the her husband for selling the car and for only

$50. This encouraged us to get off the porch and

into the car fast. Charlie put the key in the ignition,

turned it, but nothing happened. He scanned the

dash and found a button which he pushed and

whala the powerful 85 horsepower V-8 started and

off we went.

I shamefully was not into to automotive stuff, I

just drove them. My brother on the other hand

wanted to try his limited knowledge out on my car.

My dad had a 5 year contract to manage our public

airport as he was a pilot with two and later three

planes. This provided my brother with the space to

work on My car-the hanger. Why I agreed, if I did,

to let him overhaul the engine in My car I will nev-

er know. At any rate he proceeded to tear it down,

replace the heads with aluminum high compres-

sion ones and add a two-duce manifold with two

single barrel carbs. All the parts, rings, bearings,

gaskets, etc. were charged unkown to dad at a local

automotive store.

His work was not supervised by yours truly

which I regret to this day. He relied on the airport

mechanic and an automotive mechanic we knew.

The advice was not always clear to him so this is

why the main bearings were installed incorrectly

which did not allow the engine to turn over. We

did not know this fact until he pulled me down the

runway and as I popped the clutch the rear tires

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No Meetings - No Minutes

My First Car

By Michael Kille

squealed at me to stop NOW!! This process

scarred the main bearings but after being re-

moved and placed in the correct position the en-

gine started and ran for many years.

I had the seats reupholstered

in a nice green fabric and had it

buttoned and tucked too. Then I

brushed painted it using marine oil-

base paint, evergreen tree green. I

sheared off the rear wheel spindle

key peeling out once to many times

so I had to go to “Brown’s Auto Sal-

vage” yard on the hill near the drive

-in theatre in search of a rear end.

Found one in an old Ford truck,

pulled it, paid for it and brought it

home. Pulled the old one out and was not able to

get the drive shaft into the transmission. The

drive shaft was the enclosed type so when I

pulled the old out a gear dropped down in the

transmission, which of course I didn’t know had

happened. Once I sought the advice from the

mechanic who Charlie sought out, I had to find

someone to hold the gear in place while I pushed

the rear-end with the driveshaft attached down

the tube and through the gear and into the trans-

mission.

The last important fact about this car

was the mechanical brakes. I didn’t

do a very good job of adjusting the

cables so all wheels worked together.

Most of the time only one wheel

slowed me to a stop if I wasn’t going

too fast. I only rear ended one Cadil-

lac, no damage thank goodness.

My happiest memory while owning

this car was meeting my Wife Deb-

bie!!!

I later sold my 1938 Four Door

Deluxe with suicide back doors for a

mere $50!! Father never knew!

The End

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Ed Note: Factory Photo of 1938 Ford Deluxe Fordor Sedan like the one Mike purchased in Ottawa, KS 1965. (Photo “borrowed” from internet images)

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75 years ago Along the Action Era Highways

Ford and

the post-

war effort

The more things change, the more

they stay the same.

The ad shown here by Ford Motor

Company is looking for nurses to help with the wounded soldiers returning

home from the war and needing care upon their return.

This ad would have went to press prior

to the Victory in Europe, VE Day, on May 8th,1945, as this is the May

1945 issue. So the need was still there, but more at home and less overseas.

It is yet another comparison be-tween America’s business and citi-zens response to World War II and

the response to the COVID 19 virus

today.

This ad is from the pages

of “Women’s Home Com-

panion magazine , May

1945 issue. Submitted

by Kelly Flory.

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90 years ago Along the Action Era Highways

CHRYSLER�

“Chrysler proves what it is by what it

does.”

The 1930 year brought new Straight Eight engines to the Chrysler line and as mentioned to the left the larger cars were wired from the facto-

ry for a dealer in-stalled radio. Radio was a popular form of entertainment in the twenties and by the 1929 model year radio’s were devel-oped to work nearly

as well in a car, though at first they were battery pow-

ered like Chrysler’s.

Radio’s were popu-lar in cars too, and not only were most companies wiring

their cars for radio’s, by the 1934 model year, most every

manufacturer was offering one as an accessory, wired to

the car’s 6-volt battery.

This article above is from the January 1930 issue of “MoTor Magazine”, a monthly Hearst publication for automotive dealerships, service centers,

marketers,etc. Submitted by Kelly Flory.