D on’t tell Diane but I think I am sick. And I

think it is terminal. I noticed it a month or

so ago and the symptoms keep coming

back. Increased heart rate, cloudy and

jumbled thoughts, moments of deep breathing and

feelings of concern.

Another T-bird that I like is for sale.

If you don’t drop in to our club meetings much, you

may not know that three Thunderbirds have found

residence in my garage. Make that two, since there

is no way to fit three T-birds in my garage and leave

space to work on anything. TA 1963 Special Lan-

dau, otherwise known as the Principality of Monaco

T-bird, is currently housed in the garage of club VP

Eric Johansson’s neighbor until I have room (and

time!) to start working on it.

The car that would become my fourth Thunderbird

is a 1995 Thunderbird, 40th Anniversary edition. It

is a fully optioned, V-8 model right down to the spe-

cial exterior graphics. Price; $2000, negotiable. It is

not a perfect example. It has front bumper damage,

a broken headlight cover and it is in need of a re-

paint. Oh, and the current owner has been smoking

in it. It also appears that a dog travels in the car.

But my illness makes it impossible to distinguish

what I see right in front of me and the vision in my

mind of how the car looked when it was brand new

in all its grandeur!

To some degree, we all have this illness. Most peo-

ple I know have it under control. They keep it in

check with one Thunderbird or some other classic

car. The occasional flare-up is diminished because

lack of time or space prevents the disease from

spreading. It does appear to me that the most effec-

tive way to keep this malady at bay is a glare from a

spouse or partner although this has not been sci-

entifically proven. Yes, “autocinetum incremen-

tulum” * is a horrible disease.

It is finally apparent that my garage at home has

just been a stopgap measure. It has kept the dis-

ease at bay for well over a decade but it will no

longer do. Stronger measures need to be taken

and I think you all know what that means; a shop.

I must say that she was the one to broach the sub-

ject that a lift may cure some of my problems. And

for a while it did. But with the addition of the ‘63 (I

haven't even brought up the ‘95 yet. It is just too

painful!) the only relief I can see now is building a

shop. I have seen other club members cure their

problems with a shop. I think it will help me also.

So the search starts for specialists that are trained

in this field (field being appropriate since we don’t

have space to put a shop on our lot). The investi-

gation into different therapies has begun (I hear

that a 20’x40’ steel building has great potential!).

And the taking of overtime is in ongoing because

you know that treatment is going to be expensive.

The prognosis is good. I am not too worried about

my current state. With luck, a space will be found,

a shop constructed and all the Thunderbirds will be

able to find a nest to call home.

Then, after I have gone through all that, perhaps, I

can be of help to others with their problems. You

know who you are! Tom

I know some of you reading this are going

through some personal medical problems

that are very serious. This was written

tongue-in-cheek and is not meant to belittle

what you are going through. If you have

asked that your information not be shared

with the group, it has not. But know that

your fellow club member is concerned for

your well being and supports you!

Is There a Doctor In the House?

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Meet-A-Member 2

Fogging an En-

gine

4

NWVTC Fall

Cruise 2018

5

Meeting Minutes 6

Calendar of

Events

7

Passing Lane 8

E X E C U T I V E B O A R D Thunderbird Flyer N O V E M B E R , 2 0 1 8 V O L U M E 3 8 , I S S U E 1 1

Newsletter of the Northwest Vintage Thunderbird Club

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

Club Christmas

party will be

held at Langdon

Farms Golf

Course in mid

December.

RSVP’s will be

mailed mid No-

vember

* Latin for “increase of automobiles”. I just made that

up so don’t bother looking for it in any medical book!

P A G E 2

T H U N D E R B I R D F L Y E R

Long time club member Dennis Tokstad sent me this article that he wrote for another club maga-zine on the event of his retirement. Since many of you may not have met Dennis, his story is a great piece to get to know him better. Editor

O n June 30, 2018, I retired from Hyster-Yale Group after 43 years. I retired as the engi-

neering manager of engine systems for the company, which designs and builds Hyster

and Yale forklift trucks. It was a great career for a car

guy like myself. I had always been interested in how things worked when I went to Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon and then to Portland State

University graduating in 1975 with a mechanical engi-neering degree.

My wife Kim and I have several old cars including 4 Thunderbirds, 1955, 1960, 1964 and 2003, but my car

collecting activities started much earlier in 1968. I bought a ’56 Ford Sunliner convertible that I rebuilt with the help of my Dad and brother. I drove it throughout

high school. At the end of my senior year (1971), I found a ’55 Ford Sunliner convertible and bought it, as it was a more solid car (less rust) than my ’56. I sold

the ’56 Sunliner at that point, of course regretting it im-mediately. I have owned the ’55 Sunliner now for 47 years. My wish had always been to someday have a

Crown Victoria and I wanted a Skyliner, though I didn’t think that it would be possible to find

one that I could afford. On April Fool’s Day, 1978, I

saw a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria Sky-liner for sale in the

local Oregonian newspaper in a

wrecking yard in Sherwood, Oregon a small town out-

side of Portland. Even though it was in rough shape with lots of rust, I bought it, telling my

wife, Kim, that we could part it out to recoup our invest-ment if we had to. I knew that I did not want to part it out, but it would need everything and I had never done

such a complete restoration of a car before. It needed to have the body removed from the frame and stripped. In the first 3 years of ownership of the Crown, I worked

pretty hard on the car, removing the body with the help of 8 friends, lifting it off and putting it on another friend’s trailer for the trip to Redi-Strip. I sandblasted the frame

and suspension components in the driveway of our house and found a used 272 engine to rebuild to re-place the engine in the car that had a cracked block.

The project proceeded well, completing the chassis

rebuild and drivetrain installation and even showing the completed chassis in the Fall Expo Center car

show in October of 1980. With a couple of friends, I started “5 and 6 Products Company” which repro-duced the 1955-1956 Crown Victoria Door Trim

Tabs and sold them to Crown Victoria owners for several years through word of mouth and ads in Hemmings Motor News. The creation of these die

cast parts was quite a project in itself. I created the drawings and we had a local tool and die maker create the tooling and a local Portland company,

Con-Met, cast the zinc-aluminum alloy die castings and another local company, East Side Plating, do the chrome plating for us. We sold hundreds of

sets of these parts before disbanding the company in the mid-80’s when life and real jobs didn’t provide us the time for this hobby business. After all these

years, the car that I created the reproduction Door Trim Tabs for, is nearly ready to mount them on!!

Over the next 30 years progress slowed with family

and other car projects taking priority. I did track down the original owner of the car, Bud Nees, and the second owner of the car Gerald Holtz, where it

was originally sold during the Summer of 1955 in Eureka, California. Both gentlemen still live in Eure-ka. Gerald had purchased the car from his high

school friend, Bud, in January, 1956, trading him as partial payment, a 1952 Chevrolet. Gerald and his wife were married in 1959 and used the car as their

wedding get-away car. I also contacted Harper Ford in Eureka, the dealership where the car was sold to Bud. The great-grandson of the founder of

Harper Ford, Trevor Harper now owns the dealer-ship. He has been interested in the progress of the restoration of the Crown. The car had been sold to

the original owner, off the showroom floor. The original dealership building where the car had been on display in 1955 still exists and is used as a family

museum now and has the Harper family car collec-tion on display now. This includes another 1955 Ford Crown Victoria, but not one that Harper Ford

had sold in 1955.

In 2010, a friend and co-worker, Chuck Johnson, offered to start working on the body of the Crown. He was an expert at body and paint and had rebuilt

several cars of his own and for friends. At that point the Crown was still in bare metal with the phosphate coating that Redi-strip had put on it 31 years earlier

stopping further oxidation. I had red oxide primed the bottom and reinstalled the body on the chassis. I had replaced a few sections of the body, but not

tackled the lower quarter panels, rocker panels and right side of the roof which had extensive rust dam-

age. Chuck came over to my house most Saturday mornings to work on the body. He wanted the drivetrain to be removed again to give him better

Meet-A-Member Dennis Tokstad

Continued on next page

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 8 , I S S U E 1 1

access to the cowl, so out it came again. I ended up pulling off the heads from the engine which had not yet been started after its 1980

rebuild and had the valves inserted for unleaded fuel. I also re-checked the engine bearings for any attention they might need. They were still coated with assembly lube and the engine was still in pris-

tine shape. I took the Fordomatic transmission to a local transmis-sion shop to check out the rebuild that I had done myself in 1980. The shop said it was still fine and needed nothing, other than the job

that I did cleaning the torque converter had not gotten all of the dirt and contaminate out of it, so they cleaned it better, resealed it and put it back together. Over the next 8 years the car has been making

slow, steady progress. The body is complete, painted and mostly reas-sembled with the exception of the front

fenders, which Chuck is still working on. The car has some extraordinary features. It has a New Old Stock (not

reproduction) interior! I found a com-plete NOS interior advertised in Hem-

mings Motor News in 1983 and pur-chased it. A guy had bought up some left over 1955 Ford interiors at the end

of the production model year and stored them. I was able to pur-chase red and white seats, door panels, headliner, armrests and rear center armrest. It was an incredible find. The complete upholstered

pieces had never been installed on seat frames or panels, so I stored them in boxes until I had a friend who is a retired upholstery guy, Les Diggs, install all the pieces on my restored seat frames and body in

2014. The complete interior is a sight to behold. Looking at and sit-ting in an original 1955 Ford interior is a real nostalgia trip.

The car also has its original Plexiglas roof panel. It is in remarkably good condition after 63 years. The car has its original power seat

mechanism also. I added a continental kit, wire wheel covers and rear deck antenna to match my ’55 Sunliner. I have had the engine started and running, but I have not yet driven the car, even after own-

ing it for over 40 years. After retiring, I should be able to dedicate more time to completing the Crown Victoria and look forward to driv-ing it and showing it at CVA meets.

The attached carica-

ture was commis-sioned by the Hyster-Yale Group as a

retirement gift. It shows my wife and I along with our ’55

Sunliner and ’55 Crown Victoria Sky-liner in front of our

shop. It was creat-ed by FunFac-es.com. I was given

both a retirement book with the image

and a framed large print of the incredible drawing. It is something that we will cherish always.

A slightly modified version of this article is being published as the feature cover story in the December, 2018 issue of the Fomoco

Times, the Crown Victoria Association monthly magazine. Kim and I are also members of that club. The club has international member-ship and has over 2,100 members worldwide.

Words and pictures by Dennis Tokstad

Last year a team of researchers at Stanford University trained

an artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize the make, model and

year of every car seen in 50 million Google Street View imag-

es taken from 200 US cities. The deep-learning, machine-

vision framework (called a convolutional neural network), was

reported by them to be as good as people at spotting the

subtle differences between car models or years. For example,

the AI could tell the difference between the small difference

between the 2007 and 2008 versions of the Honda Accord.

The researchers said their system could categorize vehicles

into one of 2,657 categories at a rate of 0.2 seconds each.

"While it classified the automobiles in 50 million images in

two weeks, a human expert, assuming ten seconds per im-

age, would take more than 15 years to do the same task,"

their research notes.

Eventually, the AI was able to identify 95 per cent of the vehi-

cles it was shown.

This data was in then compared to the voting data in a demo-

graphic database called the American Community Survey.

The comparison showed a "strong association between vehi-

cle distribution and disparate socioeconomic factors," the

researchers write. Asian-American neighborhoods were more

likely to drive Hondas and Toyotas; African-American areas

were associated with Chrysler, Buick and Oldsmobile, Cauca-

sian neighborhoods had pickup trucks, Volkswagens and

Aston Martins. And apparently this informed election picks.

"For instance, if the number of sedans encountered during a

drive through a city is higher than the number of pickup

trucks, the city is likely to vote for a Democrat during the next

presidential election (88 per cent chance); otherwise, it is

likely to vote Republican (82 per cent)," the researchers ex-

plain.

That data was compared with the American Community Sur-

vey and electoral results to test its accuracy. Researchers

claimed a strong correlation "for every demographic statistic

we examined." The actual accuracy did vary, though: for ex-

ample, the system correctly classified 264 of 311 Wisconsin

precincts' votes, and 58 out 60 in Gilbert, Arizona.

The researchers say such work isn't intended to replace more

labor-intensive, door-to-door surveys, but could help supple-

ment it and speed up initial results. The American Community

Survey costs $250 million a year and takes two and a half

years to complete.

He stresses the paper's predictions are only applicable at a

group level – and that there may be more accurate tech-

niques. "The authors are looking at an aggregate rather than

an individual level, [such as] what is the voting behaviour of a

zip code or precinct rather than an individual. I'm dubious

that this would work at an individual level," he says. "In terms

of raw accuracy, the results are not that high. Probably just

looking at a precinct's vote proportion last time there was a

vote would also be a good predictor of their next vote."

P A G E 4

T H U N D E R B I R D F L Y E R

Fogging An Engine

H ere in the Pacific Northwest, many classic car owners store their rides for the winter. Most of them take care to prep the inside and outside of the vehicles for a few months on non-use.

Although many of these topics have been covered before, the process of fogging an engine has not been coverer here. Let’s take a look at another step to take when putting your car to bed for the season.

When an engine sits inactive during the cold season, the parts inside cool and con-

densation will form from the moisture is in the air. Corrosion can occur on cylinder walls, pistons, rings, and valves. Once the engine is started again this corrosion can score cylinder walls, increase wear on the rings and even cause a stuck valve. The

use of fogging oil coats the internal parts of the engine with a thin blanket of oily goodness as a preventative measure. Although major wear and broken parts are unlikely to occur over just one winter, the use of a fogging oil is cheap insurance.

Most fogging oil comes in a spray can and

application is straight forward. Remove the air cleaner to access the carburetor. Then spray the contents in the carburetor intake

with the engine running. Very quickly, oily smoke (that would be the fog) should start

flowing from the exhaust. Shut the engine down. That is all it takes.

For added protection, you can pull each spark plug and spray another dose of oil into each cylinder after the fogging part.

There are many

brands of engine

fogging oil like these

from Amsoil and Sta

-Bil. A can will typi-

cally run from $5 to

$10.

I could not find a picture of someone using

fogging oil with a classic car engine but this is

the type of “fog” you should see when using

this product. This product is not recommend-

ed for fuel injected or diesel engines. Words by Tom Przedwojewski

Courtesy of YouTube

Why wait until you get to grandmother's house to start cooking when you can make the whole dinner from the heat of

your car engine on the way? That's basically the idea behind Manifold Destiny (Simon and Schuster Paperbacks,

$14), the guide to cooking on your car engine.

The book explains how to prepare, foil wrap and tuck an uncooked

dinner into various places under your car's hood so that your casse-

role or roast is sizzling hot and waiting when you arrive. Here's the

recipe for "To Grandmother's House Road Turkey:"

1. At home, combine the turkey, potatoes and carrots into a bowl with

the wine and cover. Marinate two hours in the refrigerator, then drain

well (and don't drink the wine). Setting the vegetables aside, dredge

the turkey pieces in flour, then heavily butter five large squares of foil.

Arrange equal amounts of turkey and vegetables in each square, and

season with sale and pepper as desired. Cup the foil around the tur-

key and vegetables, and pour over each serving as much heavy

cream as you can without making a soupy mess, then seal care-

fully.

2. Cook on the engine about four hours, turning once. We're as-

suming grandmother doesn't live in the next town.

There. Easy. And when you arrive, let's hope that grandma has

already made the stuffing, peas and pecan pie. Cooking on an engine isn't all that complicated, but does include a

few do's and don'ts to keep from losing fingers or setting the car on fire, which can ruin your dinner party. So you

might want to consult the book.

TO GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE ROAD TURKEY

1 Boneless turkey breast, about five

pounds, sliced into thin strips against the

grain

3 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced

3 carrots, finely diced

Dry white wine

Flour for dredging

Butter for greasing foil

Salt and pepper to taste

Three-quarters cup heavy cream

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 3 8 , I S S U E 1 1

P lanning a cruise takes about 2 months and a lot of input from others to try and make it fun, practical and well attended. So

was the task Debbie and I took on in early August hoping for the following: What date will be the best for everyone? What

length of drive will most want to endure? What location will be new and interesting? Where do you meet and end that is

convenient? AND most important what the heck will the weather be like in October?!

Well with amazing luck at least the weather cooperated big time. As for the rest of the cruise I can only comment that we heard from

many that this was just right and very fun, soooo planning a cruise is worth it!

Sunday morning October 14th arrived with full sun and our Retro Bird cleaned and full of fuel. We left the house and made it one

quarter mile when Booom! Rear tire blow out, really!! Later found a ¼’ drive socket 2” extension punctured my brand new tire. Well

we limped home parked and took the family wagon to meet the group. What a nice surprise as we counted upwards of 17 Thunder-

birds, 2 classics, Mike Hinch’s ‘56 Ford Sedan and a ‘65 Mustang. Two others brought their family car, head count approximately 38

people.

I called ahead to the Fargher Lakehouse Café and doubled the number attending lunch.

We took off at 11 AM and headed towards Battleground, WA. As soon as we turned onto

Hwy 503 the traffic slowed down and all twenty of us started to feel the sun and falling

leaves. After another turn onto Rock Creek Rd. and the drive got really fun. Twists and

turns at 40 mph, just a great cruise. Sunlight coming and going all the way to Lucia Falls

rest stop. The short walk thru the forest was easy and the view very nice, everyone took

pics and wondered how they did not know this place existed.

Starting again on to Amboy and Yacolt thru farms and lots of falling leaves, brilliant turning

colors and our T-Bird “snake” wound thru the countryside. We arrived at the café about

12:50 and they had a great setting for us! Reserved tables took care of all of us and the parking lot was large enough for comforta-

ble viewing. Lots of conversations, lots of laughs and since most all had their

“name tags” we were comfortable with the event. Not sure anyone would complain

about the selections and quality of the lunch so again good luck for us.

Shortly

after 2:15

several

including

Deb and I

had to

get back

on the

road

home

which was a snap as just about 10 miles further we were

back to Battleground where we started. So we traveled

abut 65-70 miles, gone for about 4 hours and had some

nice cruise time with our fellow T-Birders.

As this cruise is now behind us I am encouraged to do this

again and perhaps more often. We always encourage any-

one who feels the urge to take us to someplace they like or

interesting for others, go for it!

Keep informed with the club newsletter, learn about out

future plans for the club and in particular next years Sizzlin’

Summer Car Show and the 2020 International that we will

be hosting. Thanks to everyone who came and supported

the Fall Cruise.

NWVTC Fall Cruise 2018

Above: T-birds from three decades outside the Fargher Lakehouse Café.

Below: Some of the NWVTC members from similar decades!

Words by Mark Haworth Pictures from Vicky Wimsatt

Lucia Falls

P A G E 6

T H U N D E R B I R D F L Y E R

Meeting Minutes Attendance: Thomas Przedwojewski, Eric Johansson, Vicky Wimsatt, Mark Haworth, Matt Truax, Steve

Wimsatt, Dave Coles, Griff Truax, Jim Brewster, Ana Johansson, Mel Meyers

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM at the Bird Nest. We had 11 members present and one new (soon to

join) member Mel Myers; Welcome Mel and we hope you will enjoy your Thunderbird with us!

Tom noted the following:

That we have approximately 52 families and 60 cars as part of the club.

May 19, is to be next year’s Thunderbird Appreciation Day!

Some dialogue about individual membership to the ITC and the VTCI, each association has benefits and

currently some members belong to one or the other as well as our club the NWVTC.

THE FALL CRUISE was mentioned as Mark reported the event was well attended and had an exceptionally

beautiful day. The Fall Cruise recap is reported in this newsletter.

A report concerning the VTCI International event was presented by Ana Johansson. The show committee

met on October 13th and discussed a great deal of plans and activities. Ana submitted a four page report

with ideas, possible itineraries for the week and emphasized that right now there is a request from all mem-

bers to help create the “theme” or “tag line” for our convention. A prize will be offered for idea that is select-

ed. The committee will meet again on November 10th at 9 am at the Village Inn in Tigard.

Tom passed out business cards for the club. They are simply indicating our “contact information” so that as

members come across other T Birders, they can offer a card and encourage them to check out the club.

The Annual Christmas Party will be held December 16th (Sunday) in the afternoon at Langdon Farms Golf

course in Wilsonville. More details to follow. Hopefully you can place this on your calendar and join the an-

nual get together.

Vicki Wimsatt offered the Treasurers report, the club continues to be in the black and is well managed.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:35 pm

Minutes recorded by NWVTC Secretary Mark Haworth

No meeting scheduled for November!

There are club members that ordered

a name tag and still have not picked

them up. We would rather not mail

them since postage almost doubles

the cost of the tag.

If you ordered a name tag and have

not received it yet, please contact

Mark Haworth 503-805-4816 to

make arrangements to get it to you!

Calendar of Events

P A G E 7 V O L U M E 3 8 , I S S U E 1 1

Club Meetings

• Nov No scheduled meeting Happy Thanksgiving!

• Dec 16th (Sun) NWVTC Christmas Party and End of Year meeting at Langdon Farms Golf Course. Details on back

page

VTCI Events http://vintagethunderbirdclub.net/events.htm

• No scheduled events through 2018

ITC Events http://www.intl-thunderbirdclub.com/index.html

• No scheduled events through 2018

Car Shows and Events

• Every Saturday throughout the year, Portland Cars & Coffee, Wilsonville, OR

Further information at portlandcarsandcoffee.com

• Dec 1st (Sat) Toys for Joy Santa Cruise& Fireman Breakfast, Stayton, OR

Further information at www.stros.biz

• Dec 2nd (Sun) Movie at the Museum, Brooks, OR

Further information at www.carandcylcle.com

These are not all the events in the area. If I have missed any that you think the club members would like to know about send in the information and I’ll put it in the list! If you attend an event snap a picture or two and write up

something for the newsletter. Each event has a certain flavor and we all like to find a fun and interesting event.

Passing Lane fun and funny stuff from the road

2018 Executive Board

President Tom Przedwojewski

64skibird@gmail.com

VP Eric Johansson

ericlj66@gmail.com

Secretary Mark Haworth

madhaworth@comcast.net

Treasurer Vicky Wimsatt

Web site/ Tom Przedwojewski

Newsletter

Find us on the web at

www.nwtbirds.org

No meeting scheduled for November.

NWVTC Christmas Party Sunday, December 16th!

Invitations will be mailed to you before Thanksgiving. Please

RSVP by December 5th!

Club Meeting Times

For your entire club apparel needs; hats, shirts, jackets or even back-

packs, go to Stitch-n-Embroidery. Order on-line, over the phone or in

person. Delivery to the next club meeting is available. Tell them you

want the NW Vintage Thunderbird Club logo!

stitchnembroidery.com/index.html

Early

20th

Century

Thanks-

giving

post-

cards

In November, 1969, radio station

KHJ "The Big 93" FM in Los An-

geles gave away a brand new

1970 Thunderbird! The 4,545 lb.

“Thanksgiving Thunderbird" con-

test was announced by the sta-

tion during the week of November

12, 1969. Listeners were encour-

aged to listen for the surprise

"fowl" gobble sound effect, and

call in when they heard it. Win-

ners were given free holiday din-

ners, and a chance to win the

Thanksgiving Thunderbird! KHJ's

Scotty Brink presented the keys

to the new Thunderbird to the

winner, Mr. Don Amick.

From 93KHJ.blogspot.com