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From your Club President
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This August 2014 wraps up another year our successful Rocky Mountain Saab Club. It has been 24 years since we reorganized. Tim Winkler, then the publisher of NINES, no- ticed we were dormant so he came to Den- ver to give us a pep talk to rekindle the en-
The September 9th meeting will be at Breckenridge Brewery (5th & Kalamath) at 7:00PM. Agenda in- cludes business meeting with BOD elections, display of engine by Dave Snider, Review of 2014 SOC and tour Remarkable service pictures and stories
thusiasm. He did a great job. Look where we are today and look what we accomplished.
Not very many clubs across the USA can have bragging rights to what have done. What we have done is not the sole direction of one individual but the enthusiasm of the group as a whole. I want to thank all of our club members and be proud of where we are today.
This September’s meeting we will have election of directors. Our club has seven di- rectors. Four have a term that expires in 2015 and three have a term that expires this month. The three who’s term is up are David Snider, John Clary and Paul Bottone. There will be an opening for any of our club mem- bers to run for this position to direct our club. This appointment for three will have a two year term. We are always looking for new ideas and direction for the upcoming year. At the September 2014 meeting step forward, place your name in the hat to run for this prestigious position.
I want to thank all of our club members for their continuing support to make our club a National success.
Photo by Tom Nelson
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer)
Members Dwayne Clark and Wayne Brewer were recog- nized as being new members. Dwayne has attended be- fore, but this is the first time that Wayne has come up from Cotopaxi, in his 96, to attend a meeting.
Paul passed out fliers on the plans for Saturday’s, July 11, visit to Ray Middleton’s hangar in Fort Collins.
Plans are to meet a Johnson’s Corner at 8:15 for break-
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fast. Paul also brought in some excess Saab literature from his collection for distribution to club members. Tom is going to talk about SOC 14 and his presentation on his grandsons and project Red Bull. Paul will discuss the SOC 14 tour plans, and Greg will discuss the 2014 CP event held at ACC in June.
Tom brought his grandson Ethan along for the presenta- tion on project Red Bull. Tom discussed the convention in Redmond, OR. Tom is a member of NW Saab Owners
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Club, and they are on the same10 year rotation on hold- ing the conventions as RMSC is. They last held the con- vention in 2004, and a great number of our members attended that convention. Jerry Danner is providing funds to the convention through a corporate donation.
The best Saab Fleet competition, started 10 years at the Crystal Mountain convention by RMSC, is open to those who have a minimum of 3 Saabs, but can present no
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more than 5 for the competition. This is a poster board competition that does not require the cars to actually be there. You do have to have proof that you actually own the vehicles. The Saab photo contest will also be held. Tech session presentation on Friday, Dave Snider is pre- senting a talk on B motor water pump replacement, and Tom will be presenting the project Red Bull project that he will be presenting this evening. The tour is 5 days ahead of the convention, and Rich Hruda, has provided our previous tour book to NWSC as an example. Paul was very instrumental in putting together lodging for this year’s tour to facilitate the evening gatherings of the tour participants.
Tom showed a presentation on project Red Bull that he has undertaken with his two grandsons over the last sev- eral years. This is a trial run of the presentation he will be presenting at the SOC 14. His two grandsons, Ethan
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(13) and Myles (9.5), have been working with Tom over the past few summers. Tom has three books that cover the years 2011 thru 2013 that cover work that the kids
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer) (continued)
have done. Tom brought in the steering well that the kids have refurbished. This project is being done to teach the kids basic automotive skills that will help them in their future lives. Plan is to get the project completed in time for Ethan to drive it when he gets his license in 2017.
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Greg gave a recap of the ACC show in June, the RMSC had 16 cars at the show. In the future if problems with registration are encountered, just show up and it will be straightened out on site. Would like to shoot for 20 cars for next year’s show. Greg will try to keep the location we had for this year’s show for future years. Greg wrote a letter for the upcoming newsletter to go along with the pictures that Tom took. Most clubs abandoned ship when the rain started, leaving the Saab, Lotus, and Mustang clubs to show their cars. Tom showed pictures from the ACC show with Bruce and his team’s judging cars.
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The Scandinavian Festival in Estes Park was discussed along with pictures from Tom. There were 15 cars that attended this year’s event. There was lots of interest from the crowd in the cars, and a good time was had by all. Tom met a lady from Sweden who had a picture of her uncle on a beach in Sweden with his new 92 from
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1955. Cars were parked in chronological order to show the progression of the Saab design. Jerry started up his 2- stroke which attracted additional people due to the large amount of smoke.
Paul added some additional information on Saturday’s tour of Middleton’s hangar. Lunch will be held at the restaurant next to Fort Collins Brewery.
Paul indicated that the NWSC will not have as detailed a schedule for the pre-convention tour as RMSC did for our last convention. Paul has scoped out additional sites to see along the way. Every night’s lodging was planned to have a sunset view.
Bruce had a trivia question concerning the date of a Col- orado license plate. If you have a car that is 30 years or older, you can apparently use plates from that time frame on your car, as long as it is registered and paid for. The plate does have to be from the exact year that the car was from.
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Dave discussed an old Saab bulletin concerning the snap rings used in the 1975 to 1980 99’s and 900’s are not necessary to replace when repairing the axles.
Karl Kingery was cleaning out some of his paper- work and came across this. It is an Alcohol Protection Chart (Antifreeze Protection) for cars that were made
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from 1924 to 1929. Take a minute to read the letter (see web site below) and view the itemized list of what cars were made then. I have never heard of many of these cars.
Karl wanted me to have this chart because I am a car guy. It was really nice to have it but Saab’s are not on this chart. As you all know, I am a Saab Guy. Our Club visited the Gateway Museum and the collection owned by the Discovery Channel founder John Hen- dricks September 2013. Those who have visited this remarkable museum know he has some of the cars
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that are listed. Not only does he have cars, he has dis- played many of the time dated artifacts for the era.
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I donated this chart to be displayed and acknowl- edged that our Saab Club offered this valuable chart to the Museum. Next time we visit, we should look for the chart. Visit www.gatewayautomuseum.com Lots more pictures/lots more car models at http:// www.interpex.com/alcoholprotection.htm
I, along with a goodly number of RMSC members went to the SOC14 Saab Convection, put on the Northwestern Saab Club. It was held at the Eagle Crest Resort, and had a good showing of a lot of
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Saabs. I enjoyed the trips to and from and saw a lot of nice scenery. Tom and I drove my 1988 Saab SIS convertible to the show, and I had it judged, however, I gave it a quick wash, and didn't expend much effort in cleaning it up, as I felt that it was OK as is. I firm- ly believe that the judging was fair to all, as far as I know. However I personally would like to see some changes in some of the rules that they had to go by.
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All of the cars were rated only on how "pretty" and cleaned up they were. It seems to me that there are a few other rules that ought to be inserted, and/or delet- ed.
The first rule that I would change, is to bring back the age related points. The rules, previously had a fea-
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ture that gave points on age. the folks who designed the rules for this show deleted that rule. To me it is a lot easier to clean up a newer car than an older car, especially those who still drive their vehicles. I think
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the old rules were just fine. If you wish to lessen the advantages to the older cars, change the formula, but, try to give them a little bit of an edge.
Another rule was that cars that had been awarded a "trophy" within the last two conventions should not be rated. While I understand the philosophy of that, I think that it will prevent some folks from bringing cars that many folks would like to see, especially for those who come a long way.
Potential Saab Show Judging Rule Modifications
by Karl Kingery (some photos by Tom Nelson continued)
To me, One of the most important rules, ought to have some attention given on how functional the car
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is. On some, there maybe some parts that don't work, They should deduct points for that. In this particular show, I discovered that my fog lights didn't work. I should have had points deducted for that. Typically, things like the bun warmer not working, or the Cruise control doesn’t work, or, how about the top doesn't go up or down as it should on a convertible should be
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deducted.
Those seem to me to be more important than the Pret- ty part. Maybe even give credit if someone actually drove their cars to the show, as opposed to bringing a trailer Queen, (perhaps even offer bonus or mileage
points for driving it to the show). or condition.
Changing these rules, may require a little more time for judging, but, there ought to have enough time al- located to judge them.
As an aside, my car was dinged because the front li- cense plate was kind of "shabby." Ok, that probably was fair game because of the faded paint on the num- bers, however those plates were about 41 years old,
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as opposed to the age of the car, at 26 years old. While I have tried to keep those plates in good shape by periodically repainting the numbers and letters, I hadn't done that this year. Quite frankly, I'm not too sure that it is even legal to re-paint them. However, I'll keep on doing that, because I happen to like, and can remember, the numbers and letters, which, in their time, denoted what county they were licensed in. When I renew the plates, all that the County repre- sentative wants to know, is are the plates in good shape, which, even for the front plate, relatively speaking, are quite readable, which, apparently to the authorities is all that matters, at least that is the ques- tion that I am always asked.
Just as an aside, I really enjoyed Jim Beetham's post- er for the Convention. I think that most of us who traveled with him enjoyed it as well!
2014 SOC Tour
by Jerry Danner
SOC14 and the North West Saab Owners Club of- fered a 5 day Pre-Convention tour of Western Oregon and inland to Crater Lake. Nine of us enjoyed the tour. Bill & Joanne Clark from Pennsylvania, John & Cathy Hlvaka from Maine, Steve Goldberger from
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Ohio, David Goldberger from Portland, Paul & Myr- na Bottone and Jerry Danner from Denver participat- ed.
Day 1, Saturday Aug 2, we attended Antique Power Land in Brooks, OR for steam-up, antique car
show with Saabs from NWSOC and large antique tractor and machinery show. BBQ and Saab wrecking yard tour after show in Jefferson at John Collins and Rod's. Overnight in Salem.
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Day 2, Sunday Aug 3, we started in Salem, OR across a Wheatland River Ferry through remarkable agriculture fields of Barley, remarkable wineries, to Evergreen Aviation to tour the museum which hosts the Spruce Goose, onward to Tillamook to visit the Blue Heron & Tillamook Cheese Factory. NWSOC hosted a Beach Cookout and watched the sun set.
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John Collins picked up 5 pounds of ¼ pound clams, steamed them on the fire and sautéed the meat in but- ter and lemon, clam chowder, salads and a whole lot of beer. Yumm!!! Sat around the fire and had a great time. Overnight in Tillamook.
Day 3, Monday Aug 4, From Tillamook we drove north through Garibaldi to Ecola National Park where amazing rock formations at the ocean’s edge protrude from the shore. High and low tide happens every 12 hours. Low tide you can walk to the formations.
Traveled south along the coast to Pacific City to Peli- can’s for lunch and a few brews on the beach. Dinner & a few more brews in Florence.
Day 4, Tuesday Aug 5, drive from Florence to Reed-
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sport to Coos Bay to Coquille to Roseburg.
From Tillamook, drive west & then south to Cape Meares Lighthouse, Cape Kiwanda - Pacific City, Depoe Bay, Newport [Lunch @ Mo’s), Seal Rock, Cape Perpetua, Haystack Rock, Sea Lion Caves see- ing r0emarkable ocean views. Mario Scarpino, a
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member of NWSOC lives on the road to Roseburg. He invited the tour to stop for dinner while passing through. He wanted to cook dogs and chips. Yester- day we drove through Newport, a fishing village. I purchased a 14 pound Tuna, had eight pounds of filled tuna along with three pounds of salmon. We
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gathered in Coquille City Park to eat. He got the charcoals fired up and we ate great fresh fish!! Over- night in Roseburg.
Day 5, Wednesday August 6, Roseburg to La Pine. Tour took us to Crater Lake. Crater Lake is the re- markable result of the collapse of a volcano on Mt Mazama, 4 miles wide at the narrowest to 6 miles
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wide at the widest and the depth of nearly 2,000 feet. Hiking and scenery is remarkable. Our group spent most of the day at Crater Lake. Overnight we spent in La Pine. La Pine was not the most exciting town to spend the night in not having a whole lot of restau- rants so we drove 30 miles north to Bend Oregon and had dinner at Deschutes Brewery and had many more great brews which was a great idea.
Day 6, Thursday August 7 drove to the Convention in Redmond, OR. This area to Redmond had amazing volcanic activity. We pulled off the main highway and toured the Lava Flows. Amazing how molten hot rock can come from this earth. Out tour arrived at SOC14 around 3:00pm.
I want to thank Dan Morley, Quinn Morley, Ray Kopczynski, for hosting our tour and special thanks to John Collins for spending three days with our group to give us a guided tour from someone who knows the area. John really likes Micro Brews!!
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John, You rock!!
Sixteen of our Club members took the opportunity to visit QV Aviation July 12, 2014 in Ft Collins, Colo- rado from 10:00am to Noon. Ray Midleton has creat- ed a business restoring WWII war planes for his cus- tomers. He is currently working on two British Fire-
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fly's. One of the two firefly's he restored and took the Grand Champion Airplane at Oshkosh 2014. http:// pwencycl.kgbudge.com/F/i/Firefly.htm
On the way home, the owner, who was the pilot, in- curred a prop strike and a wing strike on a very hard
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landing. He now has the airplane totally dissembled replacing bent metal and re- building the engine. Ray is also working on a Beach Stagger Wing and owns three airplanes personally.
Ray, in the 1970's worked on and ser- viced Erik Carlsson's Saab model 91 Air- plane while in Swe- den. http:// www.ranker.com/pics/ N1956303/saab-91-
safir-airplanes-photo-1 Ray moved to Colorado in the 80's to make Colorado his home and also got in- volved in Vintage racing and his car of choice was the two stroke Saab. He raced with Scotty Knox through the 90's only to give up racing as there was
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not enjoyment in it and time for it anymore. He cur- rently owns a 1967 96 he has started into making it a racer by painting it, putting Koni shocks and has nev- er put an engine together to finish it. It has been sit- ting in his hangar for 20+ years. He admits he will never finish it.
Ray gave our Club a demonstration how to replace rivets in a airplane outer wing panels and how to make them look factory. I thought Ray made it look easy so I tried to duplicate his style. I am "0" for "4" in getting them crushed correctly on some scrap piec- es of aluminum. It is apparent I need more practice.
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After it was over we adjourned and walked two hang- ers north to Horse & Dragon Brewery. Had a couple of pints and then went to Ft Collins Brewery for lunch and a couple more pints.
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I published an earlier article for "Paint a Junker" ear- lier. Henry Meininger from Meininger's Fine Art Supply in Denver, CO gathered a remarkable group of artists to paint this 1968 Saab 96. He purchased this car off Craig's list. The original painting was Sal- vador Dali's famous eyes and a mixture of other tal- ent on the other side. This year he decided to repaint this car with a different theme. One side is King Kong and the other side Godzilla. Back and front were also painted by other artists.
If you ever get to Denver, look up Meininger's Art Supply at 499 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203
SOC14 Best Saab Fleet & Photo Contest Results
by Jerry Danner
Our Rocky Mountain Saab Club of Colorado, for the last ten years, has sponsored the Best Saab Fleet Competition and the Photo Competition in three cate- gories of Impressionistic, Snapshot and Portrait at the National Saab Owners Conventions. This year’s con- vention was held in Redmond Oregon. This year’s judges were two of the most qualified people in the Saab world to make the proper decision. The two judges were Erik Carlsson and Peter Backstrom. Both came from Europe to attend SOC14.
SOC14 Best Saab Fleet and Photo Contest Results Sponsored by
Rocky Mountain Saab Club of Colorado
Best Fleet:
1st Place Avis and Tom Nelson
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2nd Place Jerry Danner
3rd Place Bruce Billings
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Photo - Snapshot
1st Place David Young
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2nd Place Ken Van Ripper
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SOC14 Best Saab Fleet & Photo Contest Results
by Jerry Danner (continued)
3rd Place Laura Karstens
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Photo - Impressionistic
1st Place Jerry Danner
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2nd Place Ken Van Ripper
Photo - Portrait
1st Place Alan Izzo
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2nd Place Simon Shapiro
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The Judges (photo by Pat Kopczynski)
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