The convention is really getting underway today, with many tours for the participants, judging of the show cars and maintenance for many of the cars driven to Lexington.
In the car repair department, Mike decided it was time to replace the head gasket on the coupe. With the help of the crew at the repair tent Mike removed the head and scraped everything clean and replaced the gasket. In doing so, he also fixed the fan on the water pump and replaced the distributor body since the shaft seemed to too tight when trying to turn the rotor. The engine fired right up and it sounded very good. Mike will re-torque the head nuts until they finally seat.
Andy was in the next slot at the repair tent, but he was just doing a normal oil change. That is something that I will do tomorrow.
Wayne was scheduled to get his Model A into judging, and also be part of the judging team. I can’t say for sure, but I think Gene Bunce also had his Cabriolet in Touring Class for judging as well.
In the meantime our daughter Jen and son-in-law Rich joined us in Lexington. Rich found all the Model A’s pretty interesting and bought a raffle ticket to win the 1929 Tudor sedan that was being raffled off at the meet. After lunch, Jen and Rich took Jordan home with them for a little side visit.
It was a nice afternoon so Nan and I decided to head out to do a little antiquing. We did, but didn’t see anything that we had to have. Leaving the antique mall we decided to visit the Lexington Air Museum. This was a nice little museum and we had a personal guided tour of the facility. The exhibition was small but interesting. I enjoyed the displays that you could get in to see how it felt in the pilot seat.
After a light dinner we joined Wayne and Sue to attend the Fashion Show and Awards. This show was a little different in that they host club tied in a skit of folks in 1930 getting ready for the Kentucky Derby. That was a nice touch. Seeing all the fashions being modeled still amazes me that people can find these fashions in such good condition. In fact the women who won the top award bought the dress in Maine which was originally made at a shop in Wellesley, MA.
A make your own ice cream sundae followed the fashion show. This event is kind of old school, but they seem to be popular anyway. There was also a display of the fine point show cars, and a display of the largest turnout of A-400 Model A’s ever in attendence at a national convention.
I was happy to see Ben Johnson, of the MARCOM club, had his beautiful A-400 in the fine point judging area. I also saw a Model A with a very interesting history. It was a plain 1928 Tudor sedan. However it was engine # 616. The owner claims that this was the Model A that Henry Ford was driven around in on the day the Model A was introduced. Now, I’m not going to debate that claim, BUT, I happen to know that Henry Ford was staying at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury on weekend the Model A was introduced. So I guess some parts of this story need to be investigated.
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