It started out as a rainy day, but I decided to attend the West Friendship Car Show that was held at the Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum.  I got rained on a bit on the way to the show, but the weather cleared up and more cars started to roll in.  I had cleaning supplies so once the rain stopped I was able to dry off and clean up the car.  Everybody else either did the same or opted to arrive later after the rain had stopped.  On the way in there was a photographer taking pictures of all of the entrant’s cars.  That allowed them to offer items for sale with pictures on them.  So yes, I did get suckered into purchasing a t-shirt with a picture of my car on it.

As part of the entrance fee to the show I got a free tour of the museum.  It had some very interesting displays of farming and daily living from the 1600’s up through the 1900’s. They let us tour a one room schoolhouse, a house with no electrical appliances, and a dairy milking barn.  These display’s included a collection of appliances, tools, and household items from the time period.  The tour took about an hour and I was glad I went.

There were some really nice cars at the show.  Since the show was sponsored by the early Ford V8 club there were a good number of cars from the 30’s and 40’s which I enjoyed seeing on display.  There was a pair of his and her’s 1969 and 1970 mach 1 Mustangs that were in excellent shape.  They both won awards, which were presented to the top 40 vehicles based on the judge’s preferences.  The best bonus of all is that my car brought home a plaque as well.

Next show is in two weeks.  I hope I have as much fun next show.

Since I had such a good time at the Adventure Park show I decided to try my hand at some more shows. Since it was now show season and there were multiple shows on most weekends the problem became choosing which shows to attend.  My fist choice was a show at a fire station in Myersville, which is about 35 miles or so from where I live.  The other show that day was located in Westminster, which is also about 35 miles from where I live.  Just 35 miles in a different direction.

The weather was cloudy the day of the show, but it was starting to clear up so I set out for the Myersville fire station.  When I arrived I only saw 3 late model Mustangs that arrived right behind me.  One was a beautiful new Shelby and another was a California Special.  It turned out that the show had been postponed due to weather.  One of the Mustang drivers called up the Westminster show and found that show was not postponed.  So we decided to caravan to the Westminster show.  That drive was about another 30 or 40 miles.  The route the Shelby driver chose was strictly back roads, so I got a good opportunity to see how my car handled on an extended drive through the twisties following several high performance cars with modern suspensions and brakes.  I’m happy to say that the old mustang kept up at the pace that had been set.  Now don’t get me wrong, all three of those cars could have easily left me in the dust. But I feel like my old car made a respectable showing of itself.

When we arrived at the show it had been going on for some time.  I was car number 92, and they only had 50 dash plaques so I missed out on that.  However I met some really nice Mustang people and saw some nice cars.  Also, my entrance fee included lunch, so I got fed on top of it all.  I didn’t bring home any awards and didn’t win any raffles, but it was still a fun show.

The following week I chose to attend a show at Auto Ronnie’s in Monrovia, Maryland.  This show had several hundred cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and most all of the cars were high quality.  I was starting to recognize some of the cars from the other shows I attended.  I spent a lot of time looking at all of the cars and also talked to a few of the attendees.  I have to admit that by the end of the show I was pretty worn out from being in the hot sun all day.  But it was a good show and I enjoyed myself once again.

After seeing the quality of the cars at these shows I now understand that if I want to make a respectable showing for myself my car needs to have the engine compartment thoroughly cleaned, painted, and detailed.  In order to do this properly the engine would need to come out of the car.  That is a job I had spoken to Val about doing after my interior and exterior were completed.  I contacted Val via email to see if he was still interested in working on my car some more.  He said he would be willing to do the work, but that he is all booked up until next summer.  I asked him to put me on his schedule, and that I would also like to have him look at adding power steering to the car.  I have driven the car without power steering for as long as I have owned the car, and I’m more than ready to add that option.

Now I just need to be patient and wait for next summer to roll around on the calendar.  In the mean time I plan to continue attending the local car shows and just enjoying the car.

Since the car was now pretty much cleaned up and ready to go, I decided to take it to one of the local car shows.  The show was held at the Adventure Park U.S.A, which is a small amusement park targeted at younger kids.  It has facilities for birthday parties, and my kids had several parties there when they were younger.  The car show is held in the parking lot, is open to all years, makes, and models, and is free to the general public.  I entered my car in the 1950 to 1969 stock class.  There were a number of other entries in that class, some of which were not what I would call stock.  The quality of most all the cars was high and the people were really friendly.

When I arrived I was directed to park my car near a really nice looking 1950 Oldsmobile.  I noticed it was parked near a very small island in the parking lot and the owner had set up camp there.  That was really smart thinking and I made a mental note to look for strategic parking locations at the next show I attend.  The owner of the car was an extremely nice gentleman in his 80’s who did all the work on the car by himself except for the body and paint work.  What really caught my attention was that the transmission, which was original to the car, was a 4 speed automatic.  For a modern car that is nothing special, but for a 1950’s vintage car I thought that was exceptional.  I spent quite a bit of time chatting with the owner and really enjoyed our conversation.

Here’s a picture of the 1950 Oldsmobile.

Another gentleman I met owned a 1960 Cadillac El Dorado.  He spent some time explaining the restoration process for that car, and informed me that just the interior alone had cost him $10,000.  I could believe it considering how much leather it must have taken to cover the huge front and back seats, along with the door panels and the rest of the interior trim panels.  That car was huge.  It had been updated with modern running gear, steering, and brakes.  I’m not sure how the car ended up in the stock class, but it was a really well done car.  It won both 1st in class as well as best in show.  Here’s a picture of the car.

The judging was done by the entrants themselves, where each entrant selected and voted for the car they felt was the best in each class.  Much to my surprise, my car won 3rd place in its’ class.  I had no expectations of winning a trophy, and there were at least three cars that I felt were better than mine.  As an added bonus I won a raffle for a bucket full of car care supplies.  That more than reimbursed me for my entrance fee.  All in all it was a really good day, and i can’t wait to attend another show.

The weather has been pretty warm this week and I had some time to work on the car between my honey do assignments.  I finished installing the few remaining pieces of weather strip and the wind lace for the headliner.  I ended up having to remove and reinstall one of the interior quarter trim panels as it wasn’t seated properly and wouldn’t permit the wind lace to be installed.  I’m not crazy about the headliner, but it will be something that I will just have to live with.  I also finished up a couple of easy jobs under the hood by installing the windshield washer and the fan shroud.  The car has never had a fan shroud in all of the time that I’ve owned it.  It hasn’t had an overheating problem, but I’ve been told it is supposed to have one.  So now it has one.  I also replaced the trunk weatherstrip with a new one that is softer and compresses more easily.  It seems to fit much better than the other one I had installed.

At this point the car is pretty much together minus some detailing that it needs.  I decided to reward myself by backing the car out into the driveway and washing it.  I haven’t applied any wax yet but it looks pretty good.  I also took a quick stab at cleaning all of the dust from the body shop out of the engine compartment.  It looks better but it is still very dusty.  I need to dedicate a whole afternoon just to get it cleaned up.  Maybe one day next week I can work on it some more.  I planned to go for a short ride, but before I left I snapped a few pictures.  Here they are.

After taking the pictures I went for a short 20 minute ride.  There were a few squeaks but they most likely came from the polyurethane bushings I put on the car years ago.  The engine ran smooth and had a fair bit of torque but I think it can do better.  I plan to advance the timing a few degrees and see how it likes it.  My biggest complaint was the rear view mirrors.  Both of the mirrors kept loosening up and losing their adjustment.  For the passenger side I could never get it to adjust so that I could actually see behind me.  Once I got back to my driveway I removed the mirrors and found a screw inside that I tightened up.  That kept the mirrors from coming loose.  I plan to work with that adjustment some more and I think I may actually be able to get the passenger side mirror to be useful.

Spring is right around the corner, at which time I plan to finish up my post paint reassembly.  I did find a warm day here and there, so I was able to accomplish a few small tasks.  Within the next few weeks I hope to be able to wrap up most of the remaining items.

I found some time to look at the rear quarter window that wouldn’t move.  I had to take apart some of the interior panels that I had refinished and installed, but it was a pretty small job.  The plastic rollers had crumbled and disintegrated, so I ordered a new pair.  The parts are here for when I get an opportunity to install them.

I managed to get the trunk lid and lower door weatherstripping glued into place.  I’m not happy with the trunk lid fit now.  Before it would shut with one finger.  After installing the weatherstrip I needed to slam it shut.  I’ve been leaving it to see if the weatherstrip will compress some.  But I may need to remove it and try again.  But the door bottom weatherstrip appears to fit fairly well.  I went ahead and installed the sound deadener inside the doors, the window lower stops, watershields, door panels, arm rest pads, door handles, and window cranks.  The doors are now pretty well buttoned up.

Next I went back to work on the trunk.  I installed the rest of the sound deadener and insulation.  I had purchased a carpet kit to install in place of the factory trunk mat.   I spent quiet a bit of time attempting to wrestle all of the pieces into place.  It’s OK for now, but I need to go back and adjust the fit a little bit more after the weather warms up.  I think I may also have a few more pieces of insulation I can install in the trunk as well.

I also decided to purchase a molded headliner to use in place of the original moonskin fabric style.  That took a lot of wrestling and poking of holes to get installed.  I haven’t finished it yet, and I’m not completely happy with the fit.  It is just a tiny bit too short to reach the front and rear windshield weather strip which is used to hold the headliner in place.  I have a plan to hold it up that should work fine and not be very visible.  I’ll post more along woth some pictures once I have completed the installation.

Over the next couple of weeks, weather permitting, I plan to finish up the rear quarter window, interior, and trunk.  That leaves a few items under the hood like the front weatherstripping and windshield washer.  I also have the wheel well moldings to install.  My vintage license plates are back from the restorer and ready to install as well.I most likely have a few other trim parts to install, which I will inventory as soon as I go back through my parts list and parts bin.  But the end is pretty close and I can enjoy the upcoming car cruise and show season.

More to come, hopefully soon.