BEHIND THE WHEEL (from the right hand side)

Well, December has been a surprisingly busy - and fun - month in the British Iron universe. The month started out with the Club Christmas party at the American Legion building in Bella Vista on December 6th. A sparse but enthusiastic crowd of 18 showed up to indulge in club beer and pot luck plus the remaining BBQ from the car show dinner. The large number of you who didn’t come missed a great meal and a good time.
At the party we had the usual “Dirty Santa” gift exchange. Allen McReynolds was sick and unable to attend so that meant that there were fewer puzzled looks when his typically oddball gifts would have been opened. He is all better now (except that his XJS coupe was stolen!!).
Thanks to John Chelstrom for securing the American Legion building for us to hold this event. It had plenty of room and was set up to seat 50 easily. The kitchen was also a great convenience. Thanks John!
Special note has to be made of one of the most popular gifts exchanged at the party. In fact, it was “stolen” the maximum of three times. On her home computer Sherrie Curry made up a calendar with a different picture from our car show for each month of the year. It was pretty cool and a great idea. We might be able to persuade her to make up some more.
There has been a great deal of work performed at the club shop in downtown Rogers. Wil has done an amazing amount of detailed clean up and organizing of the tools that are on site. Tory and Phil Warner have done a great deal of work on the building wiring and lighting. All of the florescent tubes and fixtures now work and it now no longer resembles a cave (well, man-cave, maybe). Tory and Phil even have it set up so that we have the luxury of an actual light switch, rather than just using the main power switch to turn on the lights. That means - ta daaa!!- that the refrigerator works all the time now. David Ferrell has graciously donated the first case of beer. Thanks so much to Tory and Phil Warner.
With the heating situation (or lack thereof) being what it is in the shop the refrigerator is not really necessary for keeping the beer cold this time of year. However, Wil has his genuine, unrestored, original 1964 Sears kerosene heater there at the moment and it does an admirable job of making the place tolerable. Wil has also covered the open window with a homemade storm window (genuine Lowe’s scrap vinyl – Ed.) and Tory and Phil have foamed in most of the various holes and openings.
There will be a “social area” around the presently non-functioning wood stove. There is already one chair and John Chelstrom has volunteered to donate a sofa made from a car bench seat mounted on a wood frame. Larry Roe has offered another similar “sofa” and I have a chair so I think we will have all of the furniture we need. We disposed of the ancient and mildewed, umm, adult magazines found on site but car or racing magazines would be welcomed.

All of this leads up to the big news no doubt reported elsewhere in this August publication: We have moved the Sun diagnostic equipment to the shop, hooked it all up, and it works!! Hooray! Eight of us showed up at Jim Carney’s house - some even apparently without even getting lost, and thanks for driving up from Fayetteville, Larry - to lift and load the various parts of this wonderful dinosaur onto Doug’s trailer. Three more members arrived at the shop to help unload and set up. Thanks to all of you. Part of this package is a second one of these devices in separate components for spare parts. Anybody know what came before the dinosaurs? I ask because as an extra, bonus gift we also have another Sun diagnostic console that pre-dates the engine oscilloscope era. We are going to clean up this device and see if the club can sell it on ebay.

Wil understands what all of the little squiggly lines on the ‘scope mean as well as all of the readouts on the many various dials. At the next club meeting we will talk about setting up a tech session at the shop some Saturday to start learning how to use this stuff. Larry Roe has volunteered to sacrifice his presently poorly running Sprite as the first test / teaching vehicle. Many thanks to Wil for his willingness to spend the time for the club on this project.
There is an ancient cash register on site that we can use as the “kitty” for the $10.00 donation each time you use the equipment. This money will be used solely to pay the electric bill as that is our only financial obligation for the use of this space.
This club project has been a great deal of fun and has gotten us all together much more than usual, especially for this time of year. For this reason alone I think that this has been a great project. Now it will start to payoff in other benefits that will really be a huge resource for the members.
If you get a chance to pick up a copy of either the January edition of Classic & Sportscar or the January edition of Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car you should do so. Classic & Sportscar has a report on our car show in the Clubs section that includes a photo of our esteemed editor and his car. Mike Cook’s regular column in Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car is all about or car show. I’ll have each at the next meeting for you to pass around and see.
Remember to get your dues paid ASAP and to place your PRE-PAID order for club grill badges. These look great and we are selling them at our cost of $25.00 each. Get both your badge orders and your dues to Jim Carney, if you haven’t done so yet.
Keep ‘em running (made easier now with our equipment!!) and keep ‘em warm! See you on the 8^th at Carino’s.
Bill Watkins