Willits Shifters Newsletter
February 2006A message from Lee Bryant the new Shifters President.
Hello; and welcome to a new year with the Shifters.
I'm sure as most of you are surprised to be receiving a newsletter in the mail again. I hope it is a pleasant one.
I feel that a news letter is one of the most important aspects of keeping a group connected and informed. Bill Baxter, Jeanie Campbell, and myself are going to make an effort to keep everyone informed. We are asking for any input or articles you may have. Your new board is comprised of: Lee Bryant President
Bill Barker Vice president
Bill Baxter Secretary
Lois Bettencourt Treasurer
Ron Silva Sergeant at arms
Dave Bouthillier Director
We have many ideas for upcoming events and hope to see the club become active again as a group again.
Our next meeting is February 9th. Since it is still winter we are going to have Creeper Races inside at the meeting. This should be a fun time! So bring your own or use the one provided.
I am looking forward to having a lot of good times with all of you this year!
Lee
The story of a Dodge
By Lee Bryant
About sixteen or seventeen years ago I was doing a portable lumber milling job for Harvey Boynton in Covelo. While on his ranch I saw an old military Dodge sitting in his barn. I asked him about it and was told that it was sitting down at the bottom of his property in a canyon when he bought the place. He asked his new neighbor if it was his and he said; "No; it has been there for a long time though." So Harvey pulled it out got it running and put on new tires and brakes.
A year or so later Harvey died and Tom Rountree was taking care of his ranch for Harvey's wife Irene. Over the years I would ask Tom; "What ever became of the Dodge in the barn?" "Oh it's still sitting there" Was the usual answer. Then last year he said that he now had it and was going to fix it up. He went on to say it wasn't running well and thought it may have a stuck valve. Now we jump to three weeks ago. I asked Tom if he had done anything with the Dodge? He said "No" and if I wanted it to come up and get it. So I made plans to go to Covelo the next weekend. I asked Bill Baxter if he wanted to go along and he said "yes". Well Saturday morning came around and it was pouring down rain. Bill called and asked if I was still planning on going in the bad weather. I told him I was, so he came down the hill and off we went.The drive to Covelo is beautiful on a rainy day as there are several waterfalls along the way. On our way there I told Bill I hope this thing is worth the trip. I hadn't seen the dodge in 16-17 years and couldn't even remember just what it looked like or what it was. All I could remember was that I thought it was cool when I saw it last. As we pull into Toms ranch and see it Bill and I both are pleasantly surprised. (to say the least) It is a thing of beauty!A 1942 Dodge WC-26 Carryall !
One of 1499 WC-26's built, delivered to the military on April 13 1942. Just after the beginning of World War two.
We loaded it on the trailer and brought it home to Willits. After getting home I was still so exited about it I had to cruise through town with it on the trailer. I decided to take it to the car wash and clean it out. After filling the car wash garbage cans with leaves, trash and rat S*** we gave her a good blast with the power wand.
I don't know about the rest of you; but dragging home an old car is as good as it gets. Something akin to a drug addict getting a fix I would guess. Anyway I digress.We get home and decide to leave it on the trailer until a dry day to work on it. The next day is just such a day. I put the battery out of the Chevy and some gas in it and try to start it. Nothing. The starter won't even turn. I new the battery was good so looking at the cables decide it needs new ones. After putting them on it cranks over but still nothing. Bill, Neil Orr, & Richard West came over to give me a hand. After running the battery dead we hooked up my battery charger and tried to start it using the start mode. After catching the charger on fire we had to try other means. We decided to unload it and pull it down the road. This has worked very well in the past for me but not this time. We decided to put new points and a used condenser out of the Chevy in, hoping to get a better spark. This worked; The engine started but had pressure blowing raw gas back out of the carburetor. I had to have it floored just to keep it sputtering. Now we thought "stuck Valve " just like Tom had said; or possibly blown head gasket. We did several other things and decided to call it quits for the day. The next day I ordered a head gasket. On Tuesday after noon I pulled the head looked at the valves and they were fine. The gasket looked like it may have been leaking but not conclusively. I put the head back on and started it again. There was a bit of improvement but not much. As I sat is the truck, very frustrated listening to it run so badly. I mashed down on the gas several times; When all of a sudden there was a load pop and click and she started running perfectly. Vroom Vroom nice throttle response and idle like a Swiss watch. After doing a victory dance jumping, hollering, and probably scaring the neighbors. Confused I walk around to the passenger side to look under the hood. What I see when I round the fender is a large black soot spot on the side of my nice white house. Along with the soot is a pile of acorns and seat padding. I couldn't believe it. In all my years of working on old cars I had never run into this problem. So now it's running. Not registered, no insurance, and no brakes. Now what? Well take it for a spin of course!! I drive her down the street and she runs fantastic. After replacing the broken tail lights and bleeding the brakes and getting her registered everything works, all of the light, gauges, etc... Now here is the hard part. Most of you know about the 1939 Packard hearse that I am working on. Well it is quite expensive to work on, especially when it needed the motor rebuilt along with everything else.
Since Bill and I where already going to the Turlock swap meet I decided to take it down and see what I could get for it. Everybody who knows me knows how hard it is for me to sell anything. I love every car and would keep all of them if I could. Once at the meet we drew quite a crowd. One man came by and said he drove one when he was seventeen during the war. Hauling the brass around. Everybody loved the Dodge but nobody made any offers. I didn't really want it to sell anyway; so I loaded her on the trailer and started for home. Just as we where leaving a man calls and says he wants it. We haggle over price a bit and I decide to sell. Since it was on the trailer already and he only lived three miles away I delivered it to his house.I was told they plan to restore her and take her to there place in Mexico. I hope this story wasn't too long but thought you might find it interesting. I am still having a bit of sellers remorse but now have the funds to work (OK PLAY) with the Packard.
I'm sure all of you have an interesting story like this one that the rest of us would love to hear. So please get it to us and we will print it. If you don't you may have to listen to another of mine. ?
Monthly Meeting Goodie sheet
February Lee Bryant September Jim & Judi Montalvo
March Barkers October ?
April Dan Frankum November ?
May Cathy Bouthillier
Cathy BouthillierJune Jackie Silva
July ?
August ?
Willits Community Festival and Car show
I know it's a ways off yet for the car show; but we had a meeting with the chamber of commerce last night and they want to know if the Shifters still want to be involved. Last year there weren't enough volunteers to man all of the games. We need people to help sell Trophies, gather raffle prizes, park cars, Etc... We will talk about this at our board meeting on Monday night 6pm at Lou Bettencourts shop. Any one is more that welcome to come. We will briefly talk about this at the general meeting on Thursday the 9th. I don't plan on having too many car show discussions during our meetings as I feel it is not the whole focus of the club. I feel the focus should be on enjoying our old car and each others company.
This year will be the Twenty-fifth year!! It doesn't seem that long ago that we were having the show at the Willits park. So think about it and let me or any of the other board members know your thoughts on helping with the car show.This picture is the teaser for next months story.
