July 2017 Mass Cruisers Auto Club Newsletter

Mass Cruisers Auto Club Crusin’ at the speed of fun

Summer finally arrives at Patriot Place in Foxborough, MA

Finally, summer weather arrives bringing out the show cars out in numbers we like to see after a wet spring lead in. The June 8 Bass Pro Shops cruise experienced approximately 1,000 show cars, trucks and motorcycles while perfect June 22 weather brought out close to 2,000 of the auto enthusiasts. The panorama picture above shows Lot 16. Lots 15 and 20c were also filled with overflow filling in across the road.

June must have been Ford month at the June 8 and June 22 Bass Pro Shops cruises because our Judges selected a 1936 Ford Cabriolet and 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe for the Vintage Motorsports sponsored award plaques.

We’re on the Web

Celebrating 26 Years of Cruisin Volume 27 Issue 7

July 2017

www.masscruisers.com And Facebook

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Contact us by snail mail: P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA 02093 Or by email: HO350@comcast.net

We’re on the Web! www.masscruisers.com

Our clubhouse is located at 124 Main Street, Norfolk, behind the Dunkin Donuts shop and across the street from the police station. For more information please call: 781 551-0520. Visitors, guests and those interested in joining the

Mass Cruisers Auto Club are welcome to attend one of our monthly meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month in Norfolk.

Directory

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Presidential Emissions

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June 8 Cruise Winner: 1936 Ford Cabriolet

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Norfolk Community Day

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Club Officers President– Ed Beatty Vice President—Diane Thornton Secretary—Patrick Touhey Asst. Secretary—Lesley Corda

Westwood Memorial Day Parade & Holliston Father’s Day Breakfast.

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June 22 Cruise Winner 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe

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July Shows & Events

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Newsletter Editor— (Open)

Support our Advertisers

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Facebook – Patrick Touhey

Red, White & Blue for USO & 58th Annual SSAAC Swap Meet

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New Member Liaison—Don Cole

July Cruising

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SSgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo

Newsletter advertising is offered for club member businesses, Car Show and Cruise Night sponsors.

Contact: newseditor@masscruisers.com

Treasurer—Wayne Lestan Asst. Treasurer- Kevin Rushlow Webmaster—Steve Vining

Charity Coord. – Frank Bryant By-Laws – Roy Rossman MAAC Rep — John Buchanan

Special Events Cruise Night—Steve Huntington Car Show—Rich Armando Events Sponsors – John Buchanan Club Events Calendar – (open)

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Presidential Emissions

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Summer has finally arrived and we experienced the best weather so far for our June 22 cruise. And, in anticipation of a huge turnout of show cars, we instituted a tightened parking procedure after 3:00 PM similar to what we’ve done in past years.

And the cars came in large numbers, some estimates as high as 2,000 cars. Safety of our pedestrian traffic is our primary concern when managing the flow of show cars to available parking spaces particularly now when school is on summer vacation and large numbers of families attend the cruise and the Bass Pro Shops amazing displays and activities like the aquarium fish feedings. As a reminder for our newer club members that help at each cruise and for car show participants, we have available at the club tent “RULES of the CRUISE” which we use to be consistent. I’ve included a copy here for your reference.

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June 8 Cruise Winner

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Ford Club Cabriolet was new for 1936 Bob Misho’s 1936 Ford Cabriolet had completed its 2 nd rebuild as a “Resto Rod” three years ago. The car was originally built by California builder Dave Martinez when he bought it and brought it back to Massachusetts. As with many beautiful looking CA customs, the mechanicals and ride were not as great as we typically expect for a highway cruiser so Bob spent the next few years bringing it up to his highway cruising standards, translation: a lot of additional time and money to bring it to its current state which attracted our judges’ attention for the Vintage Motorsports sponsored cruise award plaque. That is no small task from about 1,500 cars in attendance at the June 8 cruise.

Nothing like a perfect PPG black finish protected with as House of Color clear coat to show off the perfect body work. The off-white Carson Top has a 1 ½ inch chop to complete the Cabriolet look. 15 inch x 8:15 wheels in front with 2 ½ inch wide white walls and 15 inch x 10:15 wheels in the rear with 3 ½ wide white walls in the rear all mated to a Total Cost Involved frame give the ’36 the perfect Resto Rod stance.

The 351 Ford Windsor V8 is mated to a Tremec 5 speed tranny and 9 inch Ford rear end. The interior is beautifully finished with tan & cream leather with a Western shirt motif and 2 inch pleats. One the neat details executed with the interior upgrade is the addition of arm rests with hidden ash trays, something that cigarette smokers back in the day really took advantage of. This is not only a show worthy car now but a great driver according to Bob.

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Norfolk Community Day After off and on rain all week long, the June 3 Norfolk Community Day arrived with sunshine! Although a bit windy, the fact that it was not raining (at least for a while) brought quite a few Mass Cruisers to bring their rides to the Holmes property for support of Fred Tierney and his work with Lions Club Norfolk Day festivities. This is an annual event the club has participated in for the past few years, Norfolk Day keeps getting better!

Bouncy houses, ice cream, crafts, birdhouse building, vendors, dancers, food, music, steel drums, jugglers, fire engines, and train rides!

Not all Mass Cruisers could be found when pictures were taken, but those around for the official group photo were: Diane Thornton, Don Cole, Fred Tierney, Bob Hines, Zeke Sawayer, John Nunez, Kevin Rushlow, Johnny Sturniolo, and Paul Worsley. (Rose Sawayer was manning the camera.) Not pictured: Patrick Touhey and his amazing Mopar dog Coco, Hugh and Karen Leahy, Steve Huntington.

Later, a few Cruisers hopped aboard a fun train ride pulled by a real steam engine (in smaller scale)! The ride meandered through the Holmes property woods and fields. Mr. Holmes reported that he operates the train for a Haunted Train Ride in the Fall which sells a couple of thousand tickets in advance! This sunny daytime ride was not scary at all and there were even sighting of antique John Deere tractors and old gas pumps! Shown in the back of the train are Bob and Ann Hines’ granddaughter, Mackenzie, who is sitting beside Steve Huntington’s granddaughter, Bridget. This was Bridget’s first ride on the train!

Later in the afternoon, after our lunch (provided

by Norfolk Day), Zeke was worn out, but others were full of laughter and high spirits…before another rain shower moved in again.

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Westwood’s Memorial Day Parade

By Diane Thornton

Our fellow Mass Cruiser, Bob Wood, who has coordinated the start of Westwood’s Annual Memorial Day parade for years, was honored as Grand Marshall of this year’s 2017 parade. Stepping in for him on parade duty were familiar faces, Lou Valentine and Steve Huntington.

Bob was driven in style at the beginning of the parade this year, which is quite a difference from his usual tail-end position following the end of the parade every other year after finishing up his order. Bob served in Vietnam in the Army.

Mass Cruisers in attendance for the parade and ceremonies honoring our veterans (and the once in a lifetime honor for Bob) were: Lou Valentine, Steve Huntington, Don and Sue Sareault, Patrick Touhey and Coco. Long time Westwood resident, Ed Gendreau, his wife, and several other Westwood residents were also there with their beautiful antique vehicles.

The ceremony at the New Westwood Cemetery was held for the first time at this venue. The singing trooper, Dan Clark, provided inspiring military songs.

The town representatives made a few speeches – twice mentioning the support over the years of the Mass Cruisers Auto Club – both at this yearly parade and at Westwood Day in the Fall.

Thank you, Cruisers, for all your support.

Annual Holliston Father’s Day Breakfast

By Paul Saulnier About 125 cars, trucks and motorcycles graced the lawns of the Holliston Historical Society’s Asa Whiting House & Barn on Father's Day, June 18, 2017, for the 15th annual Father’s Day breakfast. Two hours is just enough time to have the pancake breakfast, look at the cars, see old friends and make new ones before trophies are awarded at 10 AM. As usual the sponsors get to pick whatever car they like for whatever reason. Proceeds from this annual event benefit the Holliston Historical Society’s preservation efforts.

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June 22 Cruise Selection

1940 Ford Deluxe 5 window Coupe

by John Buchan-

It’s always a pleasure to see a high-quality restoration or build done by a nonprofessional car owner be selected for our Vintage Motorsports sponsored the cruiser of the night award. The Bass Pro Shops judging team at Thursday June 22 cruise found several candidates to choose from the more than 1,000 cars that showed up before 5 pm. They finally decided that Tom King’s 1940 Ford Deluxe 5 window coupe was the one just as he was getting ready to leave.

Tom, who is an East Walpole resident, has owned his 1940 Ford for 37 years and his final rebuild, completed in 1999, still looks like it was finished last week. And it is not a show car, but one that he drives to the Adirondack Nationals at Lake George, NY each year.

Some of the rebuild updates done to make this a comfortable road trip cruiser included powering it with a 355 Chevy V8 & two 4bbl Edelbrock carbs mated to a 350 tranny and narrowed Oldsmobile rear end. The suspension up front is a dropped axel with Chassis Engineering components and in the rear has a custom setup using twin elliptical springs with modified Traction Master rods. Four-wheel power disk brakes riding on 14 in. American wheels with 185-75 radials up front and 15 in. rear wheels with 235-75 radials and Saginaw power steering provide great ride and handling on today’s highways. Comfort inside the cabin has the original 1940 Ford seats fitted on a modified 1988 Cadillac power frame and upholstered in red 7 white pleated Naugahyde. Added also are power windows and A/C for these long-distance summer cruises.

The car’s perfect Porsche Red DuPont paint finish seems to be a popular choice for 1940 Fords but, what caught the Judging Team’s attention were the nearly perfect seam fit of the bodywork and added details like 1960’s era pull-out cigarette ashtrays in the door armrests. That along with many other details like the matching upholstered trunk won the judges favor.

NEWS RELEASE:

Following the Sunday July 16 NASCAR Overton’s 301 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the Bass Pro Shops sponsored #78 Toyota (Martin Truex Jr.) & #3 Chevrolet (Austin Dillan) race cars will be on display at our July 20 cruise along with the New Hampshire Motor Speedway track mascot “Milo the Moose” to entertain everyone.

Seekonk Speedway will also be on hand with their pace car, race cars, drivers and giveaways for the children, so bring the whole family.

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Support Our Sponsors

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RED, WHITE & BLUE for the USO

By Diane Thornton Red, White and Blue was the call that the Mass Cruisers received from Ashley Twigg, the Center Operations & Programs Manager of USO New England. She was coordinating the Salute to Heroes event with the New England Revolution Soccer Team, honoring both active duty military and their families, as well as Fire/Police/ and EMS workers. Her goal was to get a few classic cars displayed in the Fan Zone before the NE Revolution Soccer game began on May 21.

Secretary Patrick Touhey put the word out through a club-wide email and sure enough…Mass Cruisers arrived with Red and White vehicles! Frank Bryant and Diane Thornton showed up with their cars all shined up and enjoyed the gorgeous sunny day with the owner of the blue car – Mr. Richard Driscoll, who drove all the way from Pembroke. Richard is the grandfather of Ashley! This was a great idea of Ashley’s. Frank and Diane were honored to participate.

As is frequently the case at this time of year, the request from Ashley came through our web site. More often than not, our group already has many previous commitments, so it was nice to be able to put the word out to see who might be able to help out for this USO event. This particular weekend was also the same weekend as the much anticipated annual South Shore Antique Auto Club’s (SSAAC) Trading Bee and Flea Market parts swap and flea market at the Xfinity Center. There are not enough hours in the cruise season to do everything!

58th Annual SSAAC Flea Market Meanwhile, at the Xfinity Center SSAAC Flea Market, other club members took a quick break for an annual group shot in the club’s six reserved swap meet spaces located in Rows B & C. The slide show video of the Trading Bee can be viewed on YouTube:

SSAAC 58th Annual Trading Bee & Flea Market

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Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Norfolk MA clubhouse.

P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093