Galaxy of Cars

This is held each year by the Lions Club as a fund raiser for charity at the airplane section of Motat opposite the zoo, the hangers are open and you can look at the planes stored there. They have displays of stationery engines, a swapmeet, a band plays during the day and lots and lots of cars come from all the various car clubs right from the early 1900’s.

This year there were a large number of cars probably to the brilliant sunny weather with almost no wind the gazebo’s were up in force some years we have not been able to erect ours owing to the stiff breeze blowing. We held the first committee meeting under it later in the day most of the committee were present, also some of the club members.


The steam train was operating during the day taking children and adults back in time with a short ride the stretch of track is not long but I notice that the extension to the tram track is almost open it will go from the main buildings of Motat on Great North Road along almost to the zoo gates before going across Motions road down to the main hanger in the airplane section lights have been installed on Motions Road which I presume will stop traffic as the tram crosses.

Martin brought the swapmeet parts from the Parts Shed and set them up along with his pieces and Bud helped him most of the day, the club selling about $75 of odd parts people had donated along with Ford spares. Thanks to Martin for collecting up and bringing them in and taking unsold parts back.


We had a good range of vehicles there this year, more Prefects than others but different cars than other years which was good, a lot of people looked at them and George a member from Kaitaia took a club application form for a person up there who has just acquired one.

Dennis Owens’s 1946 Ford 10 made it under it’s own stream this year it broke down on the way last year, he has a collection of cars of various types.

We did not win any of the presentations this year John was hoping his 1949 Australian Anglia Tourer might win one. But there were a lot of cars there this year more than usual.

Kumeu Classic Car Day

This took place for the club cars on the Sunday the event covers both Saturday and Sunday but the club cars mainly go on a Sunday. Some of the members go both days to see what they can find in the swapmeet, apparently there were very lean pickings for out type of cars this year. Martin went to the club rooms and picked up our swapmeet things we have collected over a period from various donations and took them there along with his and his flat mates.

Once we had arrived with our cars Bud went across and sorted them out into a group to sell over a period Martin and him managed to sell a small amount for funds. There certainly is a vast number of stalls and parts of all description on offer, old classic cars in varying stages of restoration on trailers etc. being offered for sale.


The band played all day on the stage they were quite good I listened for a while, near them there was a bell on a pole which required very strong people to hit a spring with a large sledge hammer to see if they could move the marker up to hit it, that was entertaining to watch as people thought they were stronger than they were.

There were all manner of food stalls and several bars. I saw in the paper someone rode a motor bike into one and did a wheelie hitting several children the police were not impressed. A helicopter was doing a brisk trade at $50 a ride from the show rink itself it was taking off and landing all day.

There were the usual very flash Hot Rods in the buildings beautifully painted and upholstered, some are really magnificent there did not seem to be so many out side as usual but there were quite a few car clubs there with their vehicles. We had the usual number of people looking at our cars saying a member of their family used to have one at some time I think everyone in NZ owned a Prefect.


I saw a number of past and present members there, Bernie Engleback, Brian Coutts, the Gold Family who were selling their two partly finished Y’s and Brian Bracey. John Gardner also rang later to say that the Chaplin Family apparently arrived at the departure spot late after we left, with their Prefect and two Cortina’s and were placed in another area when they got to Kumeu unfortunately.

Annual Gymkhana

This was held at the usual place at Omana Regional Park commencing time 10am, duly arriving there after a lot of threats by the driver that the navigator was taking too long getting out of the house he found that he was the first car there.

After making our way through the big wooden farm gate we parked near a small tree on the side and waited. Gradually cars from other clubs came along; the clubs that took part this year were the Morris Minor, Morris Register, Chrysler, Chevrolet, and Ford 8 and 10.

The sun shone and a light wind blew with no hint of rain making it very pleasant, tables and chairs came out along with gazebos and the members of the clubs admired each others cars.

There were three events held before an extended lunch and three afterwards your club did the one where eight small blocks of wood had to be thrown from a moving vehicle onto a target if you landed one into the hub cap it was a high score four by the passenger and four by the driver.

Next year we have to do 2 events, as they have decided to scrap the roster scheme and each club attending is to put on two events. The event will be held on the last weekend in November and the Chev club will book the venue etc.

There from the club were John and Janice Gardner in their restored Anglia Tourer, Bud and Thelma in their Prefect, Paul and Delia Stewart (modern) who participated in the mornings events in the Prefect later at lunch time along came Bob and Gwen Cleland (modern) and more of John and Janice's family who had a picnic in the park with their children. Brian Runagall was there for a while also. Paul and Bob did the afternoon events in the Prefect, while Bud and Thelma put on the clubs event.

After all the events were completed and the score sheet handed in to Linda from the Chev Club who compiled the placings, the club members gathered around to hear the results which were aggregated on points scored to number of cars competing. It was found that the Morris Minor Club had won for the second year running and we had come in second, we only had two competing cars and actually had won some events.

Thanks to those members who came to this interclub event and picnic a good time seemed to be had by those attending, including Honey the dog who likes to lay under the parked cars between events.
See you there next year.

Bakelite

We've recently had a query on how to clean up bakelite, so here's some information gleaned and compiled from the net:
Bakelite is a thermoset plastic. This is a plastic which starts molten as a liquid but once solidified, does not revert to its liquid state when heated. In crude terms it consists of a resin (which gives the glossy appearance) plus a bulk filler material, usually wood flour. The shiny surface you see and admire is the top layer of resin but this is often very thin. It is created during manufacture by the pressure the ingredients are under while setting. Once rubbed away through atmospheric action, over-enthusiastic polishing or by scorching in the sun's rays, it is lost and nothing will bring it back. You are then left with a pitted mixture of resin and wood flour (or sometimes asbestos powder), and wood flour, being very fine sawdust is not that glossy.

Provided that the top layer of resin is intact, bakelite is not porous; the recommended method of cleaning is a very dilute mixture of water and dishwashing liquid, with an overnight soak being best to get rid of any grease. After drying, a light buff with Polishing Paste No. 5 which also goes by the name Baykobrite. This product apparently contains a very light scourer and a waxy agent which highlights and protects the gloss finish. It was formulated by British Telecom to refurbish old bakelite phones to new condition.
A description of Polishing Paste No.5 and an ordering link is available here. It's listed here at $USD15 for a 60 gram tube. Baykobrite can be ordered from The Radiophile, Larkhill, Newport Road, Woodseaves, Stafford, ST20 0NP, (phone/fax 01785 284696), at £3.00 a tube plus postage (approx). If anybody knows of a New Zealand distributor or supplier, please let us know.

If your bakelite surface is rough, then there is a good chance the top layer of resin has worn away, and no amount of soapy water will assist. In this case, you need to cut away the discoloured layer. There are two different methods to do this:

1. Use a fine grade of wet sandpaper (180 grit) and progress up to 600 grit.
2. Use an abrasive polish, in particular the car polishes that contain dark brown paint pigment. Rub on, allow to dry and buff away the residue.

After this work, inspect the surface. Shoe polish (dark brown) can be worked into the surface to fill any remaining pits and buffed off a few hours later. Several applications may be needed to achieve a truly smooth finish. Lastly, use a clear liquid wax polish and buff to a high polish finish.
It's likely that this will need to be repeated every 12 to 24 months or so, as without the original resin surface, bakelite is porous. Remember, it's mainly a mixture of wood flour and colouring agent.

There are a number of methods to maintain the finish. Probably the most permanent is to have a good painter to spray the bakelite with a number of very light coats of clear lacquer. Other, less permanent, and perhaps less worrisome methods (after all, you'd need to have a lot of trust in your painter after all that work), are:

• Application of Meguiars Plastic Polish #10 (should be available from Repco or Super Cheap Autos stores, although they may need to order it).
• Application of Mothers Pure Carnauba Wax. This wax is completely non-abrasive, so can be used as often as you want to keep the bakelite protected without removing any of your previous hard work.

There is one report of a person smearing on a very fine layer of petroleum jelly with a clean rag, and then lightly buffing off the excess. If you apply too much, the bakelite will start to exude drips in hot weather which can be simply wiped off. Apparently the jelly gets absorbed slightly and doesn't seem to attract the amount of dust one might think.

Email us if you have any further tips.

Vice President's Rally

It was a sunny day when we met at Westgate car park. Those who arrived before Karen and myself had enough time to have a quick browse through the nearby outlet stores before we all started out down State Highway 16 toward Helensville.

Early on in the rally a few people tried to take the State Highway 18 turnoff toward Riverhead, rather than Riverhead Road – a likely trap for young players. However, there were also other obscurities to capture those of us who've been around a little longer; and I think everyone got caught by travelling up a no exit road to get a specific house number.

Further on, we had to count the number of horseshoes on a couple of gates. From memory, there were about 26, and I think the owners of the property in question probably spoke to each of us on the run, as they were out in their garden at the time.

Finally we came out of the back roads and into the village of Waimauku, where we then had a short journey to Bees Online, a cafe and honey centre where you can view a working honey factory.

We arrived a little before most others, so went and procured a large enough table. When everybody else arrived, we had coffee and some food, and discussed the finer points of the rally and who did what where. It seemed to me that everyone enjoyed themselves and it was good to see some new(er) faces amongst the regulars.

Those who attended were: John and Janice Gardner, Bev and Brian Coutts, Delia and Paul Stewart, Bud and Thelma Semadini, and Karen and family.