CADILLAC & LASALLE REGIONAL UPDATE

Transcription

1 CADILLAC & LASALLE REGIONAL UPDATE The VOICE of the Iowa CrossRoads Region August 2012

2 Officers and Newsletter Contacts Iowa CrossRoads Region Cadillac & LaSalle Club JIM PITTMAN Director DAVID L. TWOMBLEY -Treasurer Regional Representative 2305 Linda Circle National Board of Directors Urbandale, IA Omega Place 8525 Douglas Ave. Urbandale, IA JEFFREY KRAUSMAN Secretary Dickinson Mackaman Tyler & Hagen PC Cell Walnut Street, Suite 1600 Des Moines, IA Activities Assisted By: Steve Fox: Dean & Vicki Stoltenberg 3422 NE Briarwood Drive th Avenue Ankeny, IA Walcott, IA * * * * * * Website Addresses: National Cadillac & LaSalle Club Iowa CrossRoads Club: Willis Cadillac: * * * * * * Renewal of your National Cadillac & LaSalle Club Dues Your copy of The Self-Starter magazine indicates the expiration date of your national Cadillac & LaSalle Club dues. On the outside wrapper, just above your name and address is the date of your dues expiration. * * * * * * Please remember...the success of our newsletter is dependent upon the contributions made by our members Karen and Jim Pittman are the Editors of the monthly newsletter for the Iowa CrossRoads Region. Jim s address is jim@pittmancpa.com

3 DIRECTOR S COLUMN WOW-HOT-HOT-HOT As I am writing this it is 100 with a heat index of 106. On the good side, this is cooler than yesterday. As we all know here in the Midwest we need RAIN. The crops are really stressed and many of our old cars do not have air conditioning. Aren t we spoiled? They are promising relief by Thursday, maybe even some rain. They are predicting only a high of 90 or less on Thursday. How many of us remember the 1950 s? What was it like to buy gas or whatever at a gas station or visit an old train station? Read about these later when you get to the July outing. The August event should be interesting when we view a Frank Lloyd Wright s designed house. The September event at the Salisbury Concours De Elegance will feature Cadillacs and other makes. As co-chairman of recruiting the Cadillacs I know we are near our goal of having a Cadillac convertible from each decade between 1901 and In addition we should be able to view a V8, V12 and V16. I will see you on the highway and by-ways, Jim

4 MEMBERS IN THE NEWS Birthdays Rachel Holst 8-16 Anniversaries Paul & Linda Wold Jim & Elise Galinsky New Members None this month ATTENTION!!!!! HAVE YOU DONE THIS???? Send us the date of your birthday (spouse included) and anniversary so that we may include it in the newsletter. In addition, please send us your . Please send this information to or call Send us your profile (spouse, also). A form is attached with the newsletter. You cannot complete the form online. You must print it out, complete and mail to Jim at Pittman & Company, LLP, 8525 Douglas Ave. Suite 40, Des Moines, IA Tentatively Scheduled Events for 2012 (subject to change) September 9: Stay around town to take part in the 13 th Annual Salisbury Concours Auto Show at Salisbury House in Des Moines. The feature make in this year s event will be, you guessed it Cadillacs! This is an all-day event for exhibitors, and a 2-3 hour event for patrons. October 6: Enjoy the fall colors traveling the White Pole Road (originally known as the Great White Way ) from Adair to Dexter. Lyle and Lori Dahl will be leading the way on this very unique and picturesque trip through beautiful western Iowa. This, combined with lunch, will be an all-day touring event. November: Travel eastbound to tour the museums of Henry County. We have our choice of visiting one, two or three unique museums in this beautiful southeastern Iowa county: The Swedish American Museum in Swedesburg, the Dover Museum in New London, or the Midwest Old Threshers Heritage Museum in Mount Pleasant! This, combined with lunch, will be an all-day touring event. December: Save your appetite for our annual Christmas Dinner get-together at the Chicago Speakeasy Restaurant, located at 1520 Euclid Avenue in Des Moines, Iowa. This will be a 2-3 hour dining event.

5 Iowa CrossRoads August Touring Events August 18 th We will meet in the parking lot of McDonalds at Adventureland and leave at 8:00 AM sharp. We will be meeting at 11:00 AM at Cedar Rock, located in Buchanan County just south of Hwy. 20 on W- 35 two miles northwest of Quasqueton, IA. Their phone is l. There is a DNR Visitors Center where we will meet our tour guide. We will ride down in their vans or hayrack through the woods to the house built on the limestone bluff overlooking the Wapsipinicon River. The Walter House is an example of simplified style house Frank Lloyd Wright developed and called a Usonian home. Building the house started in 1948 and completed in Its roof and floors are concrete. The walls are brick, glass and walnut. The length of the house is 150 feet. The Walters were small people so the furniture as you will see is unique in fitting their style of living. You will also see some of their clothes still in the closet, the cookware, their built in furniture, the upholstery, and curtains. There is a boat house nearby, also. There is so much more to see and learn about this historic place that I didn t mention. Come see for yourself. A personal donation would be nice since the DNR had their budget cut. After our tour we will drive to the Pizza Ranch Restaurant in Independence, for lunch at st Street West. Phone number is We have our own room for lunch and a meeting. I reserved it for 15, so let s try to fill the room and have fun. See you Saturday, the 18 th. Thank you, Vickie Saturday, August 25 Gene and Betty Upstill have graciously invited our club to spend an afternoon with fellow car enthusiast to enjoy viewing their car collection, lunch, and fellowship on Saturday August 25. We will meet in Ankeny at the Earl May parking lot at 10:00 AM and caravan to Upstills. We are to bring a side dish to share and lawn chairs. Everything else will be furnished. If for some reason you are not caravanning with the club, the directions are: Go to Gilbert, IA, go about one mile north of the High School. They are on the left side of the road on 530 th Ave. The Olds Club, Buick Club, and Studebaker Club are also invited so this will be a great day. There will be a lot of collectible and classic cars to see, so mark your calendar and plan to attend. Upstill s phone numbers are: Cell Home , Address: th Ave.

6 IOWA CROSSROADS CLC JULY OUTTING Our July touring event was very interesting and very Hot. Our first stop was to see Bill Jepson s restored 1952 gas station that originally sat at the corner of Mamie Eisenhower Avenue and the Lincoln Highway. Bill had done a wonderful job and he had a lot of memorabilia of that era as well as two very nicely restored Fords. After going back in time we continued on to the air conditioned Colorado Grill for lunch and a chance to cool off. Following lunch we went to the grounds of the newly completed James H. Andrew Railroad Museum and Historical Center where the annual Tom Crooks Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad Car Show was being held. It was a very nice show and everybody looked for a shady spot to park their car and set up their lawn chairs. Touring the museum and admiring the cars concluded a very special day. Perhaps, the stay was cut a little short by some because of the extreme heat but another fun outing was enjoyed by all who attended. Submitted by Karen Pittman

7 Future CLC Member Becomes Eagle Scout Joel Fox, son of CLC member Steve Fox, received his Eagle Scout Badge on Sunday, July 1. Eagle Scout is the highest rank that can be obtained by Scouts. Only 4 percent of youth who join scouting earn this honor. Several members from our region were able to attend the Court of Honor ceremony. Joel has attended many of our club activities with his father throughout the years. We hope someday Joel will be a member of CLC. As of now, Joel plans to join the Navy in October. We wish him the best in his future plans. Proud Father and Grandmother Steve, Joel, and Rose Mary Fox

8 Brian & Ann Sipma s Restoration What I m working on; 1940 LaSalle, series , four door touring sedan, frame number This car was number 6569 to roll off the assembly line of 10,381 produced of the series 5019 s made. Original sticker price was $1320. Pictured is the car the day we had it delivered to our shop. We purchased her as kind of a barn find from a gentleman in southern Iowa who had it in storage for several years. He took it in trade for a bill that was owed to him for some contractor work he had done for another guy that had the car in a shed for many years before

9 that! He claims the car was brought to Iowa from Colorado some 20 to 30 years ago but we may never know for sure. Since that day we have progressed in the restoration of this car, back to original, in a somewhat systematic way. We first removed fenders, truck lid, running boards all chrome and other stainless as well as tires and wheels and put her up on jack stands which gives us easy (er) access to work on different areas. First thing was work to see if we could get the engine to start and after disconnecting the fuel tank and replacing all electrical (plugs, plug wires, points, distributor cap etc), cleaning out carb and rebuilding the starter we were able to determine that the engine ran pretty well. With that determination we tore the engine down to basic block, completely cleaned everything and repainted. The heads were checked and milled, carburetor, and generator rebuilt, and the radiator checked and boiled. We were very fortunate not to have to have it re-cored. We reconditioned the fuel tank ourselves. We disassembled the front suspension, cleaned and painted, replacing worn parts. The entire brake system was redone with new wheel cylinders, rebuild on the master, and new brake lines, hoses, and connectors. With the conclusion of basically finishing all the mechanical, work has begun on body repair which is taking much longer than anticipated as we have discovered this car had been in a pretty bad wreck and the body repair was done very poorly, which has resulted in hours of bumping out wrinkles and dents as well as welding and repairing tears in the steel. Also the extent of the rust damage is a lot worse than initially thought. As a result I have been cutting out rust, refabricating and welding in new steel months on end only now to discover that the floor pans are worse than originally thought and am working on welding new steel on the floors now. Thought I would be ready to paint by now but that will still be weeks away as body repair is taking me forever to complete to my satisfaction. I guess the thing that keeps us going is the knowledge of how beautiful she will be when completed. Our goal was to have the car ready for the Concourse this year but that will have to wait for another year. I would like to thank many of our members for their encouragement and assistance with my many questions during this process. Feel free to contact me with any other ideas or thoughts as we proceed, thanks Brian & Ann

10 Annual membership dues are $10. Due January 1 of each year. Please fill out form below. National Membership Number Required Personal Information Name Address City State Zip Home Phone Cell Phone Work Phone Spouse/Significant Other Birthdays: Vehicle Information Cadillacs LaSalles Year Body Style Anniversary: Please print this form and mail along with a $ check to: David Twombley, Treasure--Iowa CrossRoads C.L.C., 2305 Linda Circle, Urbandale, Iowa If dues are not received by March 15, 2012 you will not longer receive the newsletter and your membership will be dropped. Please take note as to when your national dues are due and pay them at the appropriate time, as these very by member