Good News - I joined the NW Chapter of the NCRS in June of last year. Very interested in getting my car judged for Flight Judging since it is a little beyond the Bow Tie phase. The issue I had been having was our group is mainly C1, C2 guys that are very used to looking at a nicely restored car, not a crusty 'ol C3 like mine.
I attended several events to show my interest and my willingness to participate in the group, not just get my car judged and move on. I have been also helping a good friend who has a Top Flight '65 and has been a NW member longer than I have. He lobbied with the group and arranged to have a "Judging School" on my car, we would focus on Condition.
NFRC Flight Judging is based on five different areas - Chassis, Exterior, Interior, Mechanical and Operations. The first four of the categories are broken into Originality and Condition. Operation is basically does it work properly or not.
Over the past year plus I have had a pretty good handle on the Originality and Operations of my car, the biggest "what if" was Condition. How would my very original rusty, crusty parts be viewed by the judges. That became the purpose of our gathering last Saturday.
As stated before, most of our group is C1, C2 guys with some pretty high buck cars so when it was announced that we were going to have a Judging School on my '73 I was pretty worried about who and how many would show up. My buddy and I set the car up in his hangar and we were expecting a medium turnout perhaps 10 to 12 people. We were astonished that 35 to 40 members attended !! Don't know if it was the nice weather and a bit of cabin fever but we had many more than expected and they were very enthusiastic about looking at my car.
Good News - after the group spent about four hours on the car they returned the score sheets. This event was considered a school so nothing official would be awarded. I was just looking for reasonable feedback on how the group would score my car on Condition. I had done some preliminary backwards math and based on my estimation of Originality and Operations, I would need to get approx. 66% of the Condition points to achieve a 3rd Flight, the lowest award possible. After tallying up the numbers yesterday, I actually achieved 78% of the condition points so I've got a bit of breathing room for a different group of judges or perhaps I could stretch that to a Second Flight !!
So now its time for the BAD NEWS - while moving cars around for a few weeks and getting ready for this event, my car developed a bit of a knock on the lower end. Started out very small and goes away after warm up, but it's getting louder !! Crap - out comes the motor !! I have been desperately trying not to do the pull and rebuild and it has been running great for approx. 1500 miles over 18 months, but something is letting go on the bottom end. Thought I was in great shape for the Bend, OR. Regional and the C3VR Gathering this summer, now I've got some work to do !!
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John Sigmund
valkman57@sbcglobal.net
NCRS Member 61302
NW NCRS Chapter Member
Duct tape is the new Black !!
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