August 2014 - Rocky Mountain Saab Club

RMSC News 2014 Issue 4
July-August 2014
Club Web Sites: http://www.rockymtnsaabclub.com
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/rmsaab
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/128800707288146/
To send email to Group: rmsaab@yahoogroups.com
To send email to Pres: jerry@milehiauto.com
To send email to Editor: cstoyer@interpex.com
The September 9th meeting will be at Breckenridge
Brewery (5th & Kalamath) at 7:00PM. Agenda includes business meeting with BOD elections, display
of engine by Dave Snider, Review of 2014 SOC and
tour Remarkable service pictures and stories
From your Club President
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 directors. 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 members 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
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, noticed we were dormant so he came to Denver to give us a pep talk to rekindle the en1
RMSC Meeting Minutes July 8th 2014
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer)
Members Dwayne Clark and Wayne Brewer were recognized as being new members. Dwayne has attended before, 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-
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
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 presenting 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 several years. This is a trial run of the presentation he will
be presenting at the SOC 14. His two grandsons, Ethan
(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
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 presentation on project Red Bull. Tom discussed the convention
in Redmond, OR. Tom is a member of NW Saab Owners
Club, and they are on the same10 year rotation on holding the conventions as RMSC is. They last held the convention in 2004, and a great number of our members
attended that convention. Jerry Danner is providing
funds to the convention through a corporate donation.
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RMSC Meeting Minutes July 8th 2014
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.
1955. Cars were parked in chronological order to show
the progression of the Saab design. Jerry started up his 2stroke 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 Colorado 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.
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.
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.
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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Alcohol Protection
by Jerry Danner
Karl Kingery was cleaning out some of his paperwork and came across this. It is an Alcohol Protection
Chart (Antifreeze Protection) for cars that were made
that are listed. Not only does he have cars, he has displayed many of the time dated artifacts for the era.
I donated this chart to be displayed and acknowledged 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
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 Hendricks September 2013. Those who have visited this
remarkable museum know he has some of the cars
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Potential Saab Show Judging Rule Modifications
by Karl Kingery (some photos by Tom Nelson)
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
The first rule that I would change, is to bring back the
age related points. The rules, previously had a fea-
ture that gave points on age. the folks who designed
Saabs. I enjoyed the trips to and from and saw a lot of the rules for this show deleted that rule. To me it is a
nice scenery. Tom and I drove my 1988 Saab SIS
lot easier to clean up a newer car than an older car,
convertible to the show, and I had it judged, however, especially those who still drive their vehicles. I think
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 firmly 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.
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
All of the cars were rated only on how "pretty" and
cleaned up they were. It seems to me that there are a cars that many folks would like to see, especially for
few other rules that ought to be inserted, and/or delet- those who come a long way.
ed.
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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
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 allocated to judge them.
As an aside, my car was dinged because the front license plate was kind of "shabby." Ok, that probably
was fair game because of the faded paint on the numbers, however those plates were about 41 years old,
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
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 representative 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 question that I am always asked.
Just as an aside, I really enjoyed Jim Beetham's poster for the Convention. I think that most of us who
Those seem to me to be more important than the Pret- traveled with him enjoyed it as well!
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
deducted.
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2014 SOC Tour
by Jerry Danner
SOC14 and the North West Saab Owners Club offered 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
John Collins picked up 5 pounds of ¼ pound clams,
steamed them on the fire and sautéed the meat in butOhio, David Goldberger from Portland, Paul & Myr- ter and lemon, clam chowder, salads and a whole lot
na Bottone and Jerry Danner from Denver participat- of beer. Yumm!!! Sat around the fire and had a great
time. Overnight in Tillamook.
ed.
Day 1, Saturday Aug 2, we attended Antique Power Day 3, Monday Aug 4, From Tillamook we drove
north through Garibaldi to Ecola National Park where
Land in Brooks, OR for steam-up, antique car
amazing rock formations at the ocean’s edge protrude
show with Saabs from NWSOC and large antique
tractor and machinery show. BBQ and Saab wrecking from the shore. High and low tide happens every 12
yard tour after show in Jefferson at John Collins and hours. Low tide you can walk to the formations.
Traveled south along the coast to Pacific City to PeliRod's. Overnight in Salem.
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-
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.
sport to Coos Bay to Coquille to Roseburg.
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2014 SOC Tour
by Jerry Danner-(continued)
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 seeing r0emarkable ocean views. Mario Scarpino, a
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 restaurants 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!!
John, You rock!!
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. Yesterday 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
gathered in Coquille City Park to eat. He got the
charcoals fired up and we ate great fresh fish!! Overnight in Roseburg.
Day 5, Wednesday August 6, Roseburg to La Pine.
Tour took us to Crater Lake. Crater Lake is the remarkable result of the collapse of a volcano on Mt
Mazama, 4 miles wide at the narrowest to 6 miles
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QV Aviation
by Jerry Danner
Sixteen of our Club members took the opportunity to
visit QV Aviation July 12, 2014 in Ft Collins, Colorado from 10:00am to Noon. Ray Midleton has created a business restoring WWII war planes for his customers. He is currently working on two British Fire-
not enjoyment in it and time for it anymore. He currently owns a 1967 96 he has started into making it a
racer by painting it, putting Koni shocks and has never put an engine together to finish it. It has been sitfly's. One of the two firefly's he restored and took the ting in his hangar for 20+ years. He admits he will
Grand Champion Airplane at Oshkosh 2014. http://
never finish it.
pwencycl.kgbudge.com/F/i/Firefly.htm
Ray gave our Club a demonstration how to replace
On the way home, the owner, who was the pilot, in- rivets in a airplane outer wing panels and how to
curred a prop strike and a wing strike on a very hard make them look factory. I thought Ray made it look
easy so I tried to duplicate his style. I am "0" for "4"
landing. He now has
in getting them crushed correctly on some scrap piecthe airplane totally
dissembled replacing es of aluminum. It is apparent I need more practice.
bent metal and reAfter it was over we adjourned and walked two hangbuilding the engine.
ers north to Horse & Dragon Brewery. Had a couple
Ray is also working
of pints and then went to Ft Collins Brewery for
on a Beach Stagger
lunch and a couple more pints.
Wing and owns three
airplanes personally.
Ray, in the 1970's
worked on and serviced Erik Carlsson's
Saab model 91 Airplane while in Sweden. http://
www.ranker.com/pics/
N1956303/saab-91safir-airplanes-photo-1 Ray moved to Colorado in the
80's to make Colorado his home and also got involved 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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Re-Paint a Junker
by Jerry Danner
I published an earlier article for "Paint a Junker" earlier. 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 Salvador Dali's famous eyes and a mixture of other talent 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
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SOC14 Best Saab Fleet & Photo Contest Results
by Jerry Danner
Our Rocky Mountain Saab Club of Colorado, for the
3rd Place
last ten years, has sponsored the Best Saab Fleet
Competition and the Photo Competition in three categories of Impressionistic, Snapshot and Portrait at the
National Saab Owners Conventions. This year’s convention 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:
Photo - Snapshot
1st Place Avis and Tom Nelson
1st Place
2nd Place
Bruce Billings
David Young
Jerry Danner
2nd Place
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Ken Van Ripper
SOC14 Best Saab Fleet & Photo Contest Results
by Jerry Danner (continued)
3rd
Place
Laura Karstens
Photo - Portrait
1st Place
2nd Place
Photo - Impressionistic
1st Place
Alan Izzo
Simon Shapiro
Jerry Danner
The Judges (photo by Pat Kopczynski)
2nd Place
Ken Van Ripper
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