The Rocket Review Quarterly

Winter Storm Edition 2014

The recent early March snow and frigid tem-

peratures have once again brought the metro

Washington area to its knees. Maybe it’s just

me, but I remember growing up in central

Massachusetts in the 1960s and 70s, when

everyone drove RWD cars with snow tires.

School busses used chains on the rear tires.

I don’t ever remember a time when the local

or state governments closed down, and it

was even relatively rare that schools were

cancelled for less than 6-8 inches of snow

(and never BEFORE the snow started fall-

ing). Today everyone drives SUVs with all

wheel drive and a list of electronic safety

systems with three letter acronyms, yet we’re

absolute wimps when the first flakes start to

fall. I attribute this to the large per-capita

lawyer population in the D.C. area.

CCR President Joe Padavano’s Winter Message

Capitol City Rockets —Oldsmobile Club of America 2009-12 Old Cars Weekly Golden Quill Award winning publication

Nov-Feb 2014

Volume 25 Issue 1

President’s message, Of Carbs and Coils

2-3

White Post Restorations

Tour article and pics

4-5

Event Calendar, Treas-urer’s Report, classifieds

6-7

Membership Info 8

Inside this issue:

Save the Dates!:

Dues are Over-

due! $15 paya-

ble to either club

PO Box by check

or thru PayPal on

CCR website

Sun, Mar 9, 1:30

pm—meeting @

Kilroys

Sat, Apr 12, 3-6

pm—Annual

Spring Dust Off

@ the Nokes-

ville/Manassas

Burger King, Rt.

28 just south of

the 234 Bypass

in VA

Scott Phillips—Editor

CCR made a return visit to White Post Restorations in White Post, VA this

past November, with a lunch prior to it at Mr. B’s BBQ. Member Ronnie

Smith set up the tour for us and it was, again, a terrific time. See Ronnie’s

article and pictures of our tour inside.

It may seem like we’ll never see the end of this

winter, but the annual signs of spring are all

around us. For gardeners, the arrival of seed

catalogs is the first sign of spring. For sports

fans, it’s the start of spring training (or maybe

March Madness). Tractor Supply in Leesburg

just got their first shipment of baby chicks, so

that’s another good sign, and the Washington

Post just published the rules for their annual

Marshmallow Peeps photo contest. Wood-

workers get invitations to the Woodworking

show. And of course, daylight savings starts

March 9 (which is also our next CCR meeting,

so remember to check your clocks).

We motorheads have our own signs

that spring is finally on the way. Of course

there are the Winternationals and the Daytona

500, but since those events are in California and

The Capitol City Rockets is the Suburban Maryland, DC,

Northern Virginia chapter of the Oldsmobile Club of America.

The Capitol City Rockets originated in 1989, and is currently

operating in its 25th year. We split monthly meetings (currently)

between Kilroy’s Bar and Grille off the Braddock Road exit of

495 in Northern VA and Branded 72 BBQ in Rockville, with

one peer judged show co-hosted each year with the Metro Buick

Club. The club currently consists of over 50 members, from Vir-

ginia, Maryland, Florida, and 1each from DC and West Virgin-

ia. A membership form is located in the back of this newsletter.

One need not own an Oldsmobile to join, and dues remain $15

dollars per year, payable by November the 1st, either by check or

using the PayPal button on our Hemmings.com website. Current

membership in the Oldsmobile Club of America is a requirement of

CCR membership, as we are required to submit club rosters to

OCA for yearly insurance coverage for our events.

Vol. 25, Issue 1, page 2

Keeping the Legend Alive—25 Years Strong!

President’s Message (Cont)

The Rocket Review

Quarterly-Winter

it is about painting a car that just makes me feel like it’s a new be-ginning. Even more enticing is the smell of car paint. One whiff sends me off into half a dozen virtual builds. Again, sadly, I have yet to turn one of those into reality – but I’m getting dangerously close this year, as my newly purchased body rotisserie is sitting in the shop taunting me every time I go in there. The problem is that when I look at all the projects I have lined up, I MUST paint at least one car a year if I plan to finish them all when I’m still young enough to enjoy them. Stay tuned for more. Speaking of signs of

spring, there are a few more right

around the corner. Saturday

March 8th is the 41st annual swap

meet at Howard County Fair-

grounds hosted by the Chesapeake

Region of the AACA. This is a

great little swap meet that only

takes a couple of hours to walk

through but always yields some

The Capitol City Rockets—Who We Are

they don’t really say “spring” to me. What does it for me is the arrival of the annual “How to Paint Your Car” issues of the popular car magazines on the newsstands. Every year I have to buy them all and soak up the latest info on welding patch panels, spraying the newest paint systems, and buffing to a mirror shine. Wiseguys in the audience will please refrain from asking why I haven’t put this knowledge to use on my own vehicles… On top of the usual magazines are the auto restoration supply companies who also send out timely catalogs chock full of the latest body and paint equipment and supplies. Within the last week I received catalogs from TP Tools and Eastwood. Both catalogs prominently feature the latest HVLP paint spraying systems as well as reasonably-priced paint, primer, clear coat, and sandpaper. I don’t know what

Recent pic-

ture of the All

GM show

field at MCC.

That’s a lot of

salt out there

from this

heavy winter

we’ve had!

great finds. Over the last few years I’ve scored a Sun distribu-

tor machine, an HVLP turbine sprayer, power window regula-

tors for a Cutlass, and a complete set of factory service manu-

als for my 1985 Delta 88. Later in March, on the 29th and 30th

(and yes, that’s Friday and Saturday), the Sugarload Mountain

Region of the AACA hosts their 44th annual swap meet. For-

merly held in Frederick, MD, this will be the second year that

this swap is held at the Carroll County Agricultural Center in

Westminster, MD. Last year’s meet was on the small side,

possibly due to the new location, but hopefully this year will

be larger. Finally, the most anticipated sign of spring is CCR’s

own Spring Dust Off, scheduled for April 12 at the Burger

King in Manassas. Stay tuned for more info, and get those

Oldsmobiles dusted off for this event. See you there.

Of Carbs and Coils—Scott Phillips

You may or may not have noticed last summer,

but my Rocket was on the lamb, laid up by a se-

ries of maladies that frankly, frustrated the crap

out of me and a few more knowledgeable others.

I can honestly say that since I installed the Jetfire

215 into my ‘62 F-85 Sports Convertible, I have-

n’t had too many issues with it. It is a finicky

engine and I have a lifter that ticks sometimes, but

for the most part, given the tons of vacuum and

other connections, it did pretty well in its first

four years.

The problems started on July 4th week-

end, when I had decided previously to try and

iron out a hesitation it always had on take off. To

combat this, I had “slightly” adjusted the carb rod

and accelerator linkage. My older brother Jim was

up for the holiday from Raleigh, and try as we

might, the car would turn over, but wouldn’t start,

and seemed like it was flooding.

Thus began what was pretty much a 4-5

month odyssey of trial and error. I tried to adjust

the carb rod, as I was sure that was the issue, then

adjusted the linkage, then changed the plugs, and

still no luck. Joe P. came over and he helped di-

agnose a bad cap and rotor, I dried out the plugs

and it started, but wouldn’t enter turbo “boost” at

all, and stumbled at high rpm, and once shut

down, wouldn’t restart and flooded again. Then

took it down to my friends at NVCC, where we

put it on the trusty Sun machine, dialed in the

carb rod and fixed a bind in the linkage. It started

right up, but when I shut it down, it flooded and

just died, flooded, and wouldn’t restart. We had

also checked the “manifold check valve” in the

turbo system and found it was bad, so had my

turbo source, Jim Noel, sent me a better one I

installed. These are becoming very unavailable

and unfixable, though, so we’ll see what the future

brings on that front. I even took the carb apart,

twice, but noticed no issues.

Brought it back down to NVCC a few

weeks later, and it died in traffic on a two lane

road. When we finally limped it in to the garage,

we noticed oil leaking out of the “Flame Throw-

er” coil (my car has a Pertronix ignition). Re-

placed the coil with a stock GM coil and voila! It

fired right up and restarted easily. I was elated.

We also put a small spring on the accelerator

linkage and lubed a sticking throttle pump,

which helped tighten up the extra gas flow that

was responsible for the remaining flooding

condition. But on the way home, it began to

stumble under high rpm and again, I had trou-

ble starting it, and the coil was red hot.

Back to NVCC, checked and it was

getting too much voltage at the coil, causing the

coil to overheat, so checked the wiring, and it

was wired right from the starter to the coil,

with no resistor in between. After messing

with it all evening into the late night, at Joe’s

suggestion read my Petronix literature and,

after replacing the stock coil with a Pertronix

coil (built in resistor and supposed to get that

extra voltage) it ran perfectly and has ever

since. Because we had ironed out the linkage

there’s no more hesitation, and because we had

ironed out the carb rod, mixture is right and

not too rich. Boost is back to 5-6 pounds, and

it runs better than ever, but what a crazy se-

quence to get it there. I’m sure I learned some

things through all of it—some certainly self-

inflicted—and I sure have a new appreciation

for my now running old Rocket...

Top open view of the finicky Rochester “1GC”single barrel

sidedraft carb—exclusive to ‘62 and ‘63 Jetfires—looked pretty

good. Later found a small sticking in the throttle/accel pump

linkage that some good ol’ WD 40 and a small spring cured.

November Visit to White Post Restorations—Ronnie Smith

Page 4 The Rocket Review Volume 25 Issue 1

On November 3rd the club attended our

third annual tour of White Post Restora-

tion. It was a beautiful autumn

day. Around fifteen members and guests

were present. We enjoyed lunch at Mr.

B's barbeque in Berryville, then cruising

to nearby White Post to begin our tour at

1 pm. We had five Oldsmobile's in the

parking lot. White Post Restoration has

been in business since 1940, and currently

in its fourth generation of family owner-

ship.

Our usual tour guide, Billy Ray, was out

of town. Billy's father, W. R., greeted us

as we arrived. W. R. is the president of

WPR, and would be our guide for the

day. He began by reading down the list

of cars currently being worked on. There

were about fifteen in total from ground

up restorations to cosmetic touch ups

and minor repair. W.R. told us the story

of each car, and what it was there for. It

was interesting to get his perspective of

each car and the business itself. We

saw each car that was on the list, as well

as the machine, body , sheet metal, brake

repair, and upholstery shop. He men-

tioned they will be getting a new down

draft spray booth at the end of Decem-

ber. It was something that Billy Ray had

on his wish list.

The variety of cars included Porsche,

Jaguar, Mercedes, Lincoln, Chrysler,

Chevy, Willies, Packard and MG. The

Packard was restored there many years

ago. It was in for some repair work

before being offered for sale by the

current owner. W.R. was a young boy

when it was first restored, and he re-

membered sitting in the back seat on a

test drive, which included a stop for ice

cream.

I heard a lot great comments about

their workmanship. Many of the

guests had never been to the facility

before. They seemed to really enjoy it.

One guest asked me if he could bring

his son next year. When we finished

up in the main building, W.R. took us

next door to one of the storage build-

ings. It was full of cars awaiting res-

toration and some parts cars for cur-

rent projects. Many of us enjoy seeing

the cars in their "barn find" condition

as we are to see them restored. Seeing

the transformation from barn find to

show winner is exciting. If you missed

it this year, our club is already invited

back for next year.

Olds at White Post Restorations—from left: Owen G’s 67 flattop

wagon, Joe P’s 62 deluxe wagon, Ronnie S’s 70 Cutlass SX, Toby

T’s 96 LSS, and Scott P’s 62 sports convertible.

Visit to White Post Restorations, November 2013

As we entered White Post Restora-

tions, the vintage signage and

awards greeted us.

We had a great crew of guys attend

this year, and there was so much

to look at we swarmed every car.

One of two Lincoln Mark V’s at

WPR, this one receiving “an every

nut, bolt, and screw perfect” resto

Front view of the same car. The V12

in front of us was astounding in its

perfection.

A Corvette Stingray convertible

was in the paint shop being

prepped on the rotisserie.

Side view of the same Vette, in

primer as we approached, with

fiberglass repairs already done.

Note the elaborate ash woodwork

inside this Willy’s Whippet, much

further along this year than last.

With each car shelves nearby

house NOS or renewed parts, such

as this incredible chromed trim.

Side view of the front of WPR,

Joe’s wagon, Ronnie’s SX, Toby’s

LSS, and Scott’s convertible.

2014 Capitol City Rockets Calendar/Treasurer’s Report

2014 CCR CALENDAR

Sunday, March 9, 1:30—regular VA meeting at Kilroys

Saturday, April 12, 3-6 pm —Annual Spring Dust Off Cruise at Burger King south of 234 Bypass in Manassas

Sunday, May 18, 1:30—regular MD meeting at Branded 72 (May 11 is Mother’s Day)

Sunday, June 8, 1:30—regular VA meeting at Kilroys

Sunday, July 13, 1:30—regular MD meeting at Branded 72

Saturday, August 9, 9-3 pm—Annual All GM show at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD (Olds Nationals are the previous weekend in Cincinatti, OH)

Sunday, Sept 14, 1:30—regular VA meeting at Kilroys

Sunday, Oct 12, 1:30—regular MD meeting at Branded 72 (Rockville Show is Sat, Oct 18)

Sunday, Nov 9, 1:30—regular VA meeting at Kilroys

Sunday, Dec 14, 1:30—regular MD meeting at Branded 72 (tentative)

Want to know more about local car cruises and

upcoming shows? Check out:

www.capitalcruisin.com

(Click on our logo and it will take you to our

Hemmings.com website.)

Page 6 The Rocket Review Volume 25 Issue 1

2013 All GM Financial Report

Income:

Show Registrations: $1555.00

Profit from T-shirt and Plaque Sales: $188.89

(new and old stock of shirts and plaques)

Total Income: $1743.89

Expenses:

Music Madness (DJ) : $440.00

Awards (plaques): $1065.57

Show Flyers: $325.34

Postage and Envelopes: $328.35

Show Signs: $28.41

Montgomery College Site Fee: $25.00

Total Expenses: $2,212.67

Net Loss on All GM Show: S468.78

Show Shirt Inventory:

Cost of 95 show T-shirts @ 10:30 ea.: $978.69

(includes art preparation and shipping from vendor)

32 Shirts Sold at Show: $329.60 cost value

CCR Treasurer’s Report as of 1-7-14

Balance 12-14-13: $3, 324.27

Income: $45 (dues)

Total Income $45

Expenses:

November Newsletter postage $15.76

Annual VA non-profit registration $25.00

Dec bank charge: $2.00

Total Expenses: $42.76

Balance as of 1-7-14: $3, 336.51

Quincy’s Corner—Treasurer’s Report

CCR Classifieds Classified ads are free to chapter members. We take cars, parts,

services, anything. Submit your typed or printed ad to the Chapter

PO box, marking it ATTN: ROCKET REVIEW, or simply email the

editor at sphillips16@msn.com You may run your ad for up to 3

issues at a time. Ads must be resubmitted for reprinting after that

time, and please let Scott know if you wish to discontinue the classi-

fied ad due to sale of the parts or car.

CARS/PARTS FOR SALE :

1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham odometer: 200K auto-matic transmission—$900 (Alexandria) This can be ei-ther a parts car, you can restore it or turn it into a resto-mod. Black 1977 Oldsmobile Cutluss Broughman w/200000 miles on it. 403 CID, Automatic column shift-er, 10 bolt Posi-unit with highway gears. Hurst T Tops, 60/40 power bench seat, black landau roof, Air Condi-tioning, Power Windows, Power Disc Brakes, Trailer Hitch. All 4 wheels a nd tires are NOT included as they were already sold (it take 15" wheels) but I will leave on the car until we get it towed to your destination at which point they will come off. Clear title includ-ed. Inquires are welcome. Louis (571) 482-6855 call me if you are interested to come to look at it.

(Lead from Steve White) Parts for sale: In Original GM Boxes: 1) GM Part #410424 - right hand inner/inboard head-light bezel/surround trim ring - excellent shape 2) GM Part #410425 - left hand inner/inboard headlight bezel/surround trim ring - excellent shape 3) GM Part #59633467 - clear lens (could be backup or side marker) Not in GM Boxes: 4) Driver's side remote adjustable mirror - very good shape (no part number - can't verify Delta 88 applica-tion) 5) Passenger's side mirror non-adjustable - excellent shape (no part number - can't verify Delta 88 app) 6) AM/FM Delco radio (Service Model #13BFM2) - ex-cellent shape; working condition unknown; band change slide mechanism works beautifully; original tun-ing and volume buttons (faux wood trim on knob edge); excellent chrome paint on selection push buttons. Ap-pears to be correct application given the features and configuration. Make Offer. John Smoot, 571-259-2044, smootja@msn.com

Parts needed: “66 442 400 Flexplate contact Norm Hines at nrhines@msn.com

Oldsmobile memorabilia: Please help me find a new home for over 50 years of former CCR member Paul Anu-ta’s Oldsmobile stuff. Thank you. One can respond to this email ryhka@erols.com or phone me on my cell phone: 301-752-7094.—Diana Darling

1952 Rocket 88 4 door free if hauled away or it gets junked. 3220 Estelle Terr, Silver Spring. Call Harry at 301-825-6077 or Kris at 301-326-3274 (November email).

$15 Club dues were due No-

vember 1. Please renew to

keep receiving the Rocket Re-

view and great club benefits!

THE CAPITOL CITY ROCKETS is a chartered chapter of the

Oldsmobile Club of America, Lansing, MI. Chapter dues are

$15.00 per year. Current OCA membership is required.

Chapter Officials

President .................................................... Joe Padavano

Vice-President ........................................... Cory Correll

Treasurer ...................................................... Ken Quincy

Secretary ...................................................... Jeff Nieschel

Newsletter Editor……….Scott Phillips (703) 858-5752

…………………………………sphillips16@msn.com

Chapter Advisors

Toronado………….Ask Ken Quincy or Cory Correll

1961-63 A-Body…………….Scott Phillips (703) 858-5752

1964-65 A-Body…………... Mike Stilwell (703) 799-2904

1973-77 A-Body……………Gary Sutherlin

1978-80 A-Body....................Michael Coxen (301) 251-8666

PerformanceV8 Tech Dick Miller Racing, (901) 794-2834

dmracing1@aol.com

Bevan Allen Memorial Service Award Recipient

2000: Denney Keys

2001: Michael Coxen

2002: Mike Stilwell

2003: Dick Brown

2004: Cory Correll

2005: Scott Phillips

2006: Mike “Hitch” Stillwell

2010:Joe Padavano

2013: Gary Sutherlin

Membership

Application

Capitol City Rockets

Chapter of the Oldsmobile Club of

America

New Renewal

OCA # OCA Exp. Date

Name

Street

City

State Zip

Home Phone ( )

Work Phone ( )

Email address: ______________________

List Oldsmobiles Currently Owned:

O.C.A. Chapters Affiliated With:

Send New Memberships to:

Capitol City Rockets

Attn: New Members

P.O. Box 230442

Centreville, VA 20120

Send Renewals To:

CCR Renewals

P.O. Box 230442

Centreville, VA 20120

CCR Yearly Dues are $15

Please Make Checks Payable to:

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