Greetings

Hard to believe the summer is almost behind us. Since the last newsletter, seven weeks ago, Annette and I (or I) have been to numerous events, including the Augusta Whatever Week’s Touch a Truck event, Bath Heritage Days’ Front Street Shuffle, the Pine Tree Chapter’s Owls Head Truck Show, the Green Mountain Chapter’s Bellows Fall Show, and the New England Chapter’s Hudson Show. Despite high fuel costs it appears the hobby is holding its’ own with participation at the various shows very strong.

This was the first year of the Whatever Week Touch a Truck event. A small contingent of PTC members brought their vintage trucks to display. Watching the "kids", some well into adulthood, sit behind the steering wheel and grin from ear to ear was a good time. Hopefully we can provide a bit more notice for additional participation next year.

We had several notable characters at this year’s show. The long distance award was shared by Chapter members Ralph Selby, of Englewood, Colorado, who traveled 2160 miles to Owls Head; and Allen and Mary Milbury, of Aurora Utah who traveled 2610 miles to Owls Head. Mr. Milbury may want to appeal the "tie", however he was docked 450 miles (by Show mgt.) for driving too fast to get to the Show. Also present was Tom Amaducci, this year’s ATHS National President.

Paula has provided a summary of income and expenses for the Show. Expenses exceeded income by $300. The bottom line is a lot of people had a lot of fun for a small amount of money.

We are starting to focus on the Fall Tour and late Fall get-together. Fall tour is being scheduled for October 25/26 in the Bangor area with a trip to Leonard’s Mill, a colonial era village, in Bradley as the featured attraction. Director emeritus Don Munsey and his lovely bride, Diane, are working on the late fall get-together plan in the Wiscasset/ Woolwich area on either November 1^st or November 15^th. There will be more information on both of these events in the next edition.

Don’t forget the annual Barrington (Granite State Chapter-ATCA) Show is this Sunday. Although I am unable to attend I will be there in spirit. If interested in something a little closer, depending on where home is, the Annual Friends of Togus Picnic is also this Sunday.

Have a great, hopefully dryer, end of summer. Clayton

Lars rambling about attempting to locate decent fenders for an early 50’s GMC 900? Mr. Allen Mibury’s dissertation on the subject follows……

Your elusive parts message received today. Oh, yes, when the (whatever) item is being described to a prospective buyer (sucker?)…"It is JUST like new, nary a scratch nor dent…" THEN, on the part’s arrival, one gets to answer the really hard to understand question…’whereinell are the parts which were described?’ The comparison between the description and the actual item(s) simply can’t be, CAN’T BE…

A similar example, which ties into the most recent issue of Wheels of Time. There is a short story in the most recent issue, "Riding With Miss Bertha." That short-short was written by Wendell Mason’s wife, Roa. The truck (Bertha), a 1954 IHC RDF 405, has been a longtime member of the Mason Diesel Service rescue/repair fleet. When I got to this location and began to stir the antique truck pot, there was mention that …’someday I’ve got to rebuild Bertha’…this statement from Wendell Mason.

That was all I needed, of course, to begin to check around, about as you do, too, to try and find whatever will be needed to get the job done.

The short-short: Bertha is, right now, undergoing a thorough overhaul, rebuild. Even though Stormy W. stated in the cut lines of the recent magazine article, that Bertha has recently received …suspension, winch, cab, and so on… implied that the old IHC is all done, painted, even; she bent the truth, told us she had.

There is still work to be done, and, yes, the job is now nearly finished, but, back to the story: The fenders now on Bertha, replacing the badly worn/torn/rusted and repaired OE finders…are the second set of fenders which I ‘got into’ in my search.

I met a man (as we all do) at a truck show; knew him; asked, among other things, if he knew of any second generation Emeryville fenders (Bertha). His enthusiastic response made me know my search was OVER. The fenders (way-the-hell-in-southern-California) were represented to be ‘perfect, with no dents and no rust.’ Of course, I quizzed him…where did the fenders come from? Didn’t know. How much $ did he need for them? He DID know that one. So, I got into my pickup early one morning and boogied down the road. Got there, and, before I went to the house, I saw a pair of fenders, pulled right out to the edge of the driveway..painted blue, with great (GREAT) big rusted-through hand holes in the front, with even bigger rusted-through hand holes in the rear slope, which part connects to the running board.

I suspected that those were the fenders which had been described. But, how did the condition go to hell so fact…in such a short time between the description and my arrival???

I went to the door, raised the man mentioned above, asked him if those blue fenders were the ones he had promoted. His ‘yup’ told me that I’d driven close to 700 miles and, no I didn’t want the fenders because the OE fenders, still on Bertha, were a LOT better than his blue ones with rusted-out hand holes. So I drove a good part of the way back into these mountains, that same day!

By the way, the fenders which are NOW on Bertha came from an IHC which was in the dead row at Walcott, Iowa. From Walcott the fenders went to a place in Gorham, Maine, north of the village, on US 202. They were there for a year, then they came to Utah. If you happen to think of Mason Diesel when gabbing with Carl Phillips, mention that name. Carl has visited; gone through a bunch of the books which they have made of many of the serious retrieval jobs.

See ya, probably at Owl’s Head. Allen M. (ed. Note – and we did see Allen and the missus at Owls Head)

Rambling is just what we have been doing this summer. The Owls Head Show is once again, history, complete with a little rain and a few wet spots, but it appears we made the best of the situation. Gasoline prices did not seem to be the major contributing factor, as some had expected. There was a good turnout on Saturday, and as usual, there was an assortment of new and interesting trucks from the local fields and dooryards. I continue to look in awe at what shows up each year. This year, in conjunction with the Historical Construction Equipment Association, we managed to have a few crawlers and a 22 - B Bucyrus-Erie swing shovel for all to enjoy.  The construction equipment, unfortunately, was a little under advertised, but I think in the future we will be seeing more from these guys.

This year, after many years of manning the Chapter Table, seeing to the chow line, and a lot of the other logistics that make our show so great, the (retired) Madam Secretary and I decided to sit back and enjoy the show, and really get out and visit with the folks who show up year after year to show trucks and share a story or two. This is a side of the show we never really got to enjoy before, and it was in deed enjoyable. So, if it seems like we were not in our usual mode, it is true. We were fortunate to have a nice visit with Ralph and Ruthie Balla from So. Acworth, N.H.  Ralph is known for stopping the clock @ 4:00 PM sharp, and we just happened to be in their area at the aforementioned time. The visit brought back lots of memories of shows and gatherings in the past. It has been a spell since we had time to talk and it was well worth the time.

Terry and I have attended a couple of parades this year, but as spectators, instead of being in the parade. The Model "A" did make an appearance at the Kora Temple car show at Twitchell's airport, and came away with a second place for the class I was entered in.

Right now, we are "at camp" in Naples, and making plans to attend the Barrington, N. H. show this weekend, if the sun will stay out for a  day or two. We missed out on the Green Mt. Chapter show, and Reo Joe Phelan's 70th Birthday Bash, but our thoughts were with them. We have always said we can only be in so many places at one time, and speaking of time, I'd better be getting this to the Editor, or there will be no RAMBLINGS in this issue. I got flack for missing one issue a while back. It set the Fine Gent from Dresden scurrying to see if a page was missing from the newsletter… it was my fault, I just plain forgot. 'nuff said for now… Lars

Tom Smithers, of Gilmanton Iron Works, NH, well known antique truck enthusiast with an affinity towards Sterling trucks, passed away on Sunday, June 29th.  Donations may be made to Gilmanton Year Round Library, Gilmanton Iron Works, NH 03837. Chapter’s condolences go to the Smithers family.

The following individuals joined the Chapter over the two months:

Stephen Marshall, 77 Murray Road. Shapleigh, Maine 04076

Jack Smart, 189 Main Street, Lincoln, Maine 04457

Ronald E. Pollock, 14 Essex Street, Middleton, Mass. 01949

Adam & Wendy Libby, 751 River Road, Windham, Maine 04062

Evans McLaughlin, II, 461 Buzzell Road, Dayton Maine 04005

Colonel Arnold Briggs, 175 Blackmore Pond Road, West Wareham, Mass 02576

This time we are talking about the trucks – the GMC Astro. The Astro was introduced in 1969. It was the successor to the GMC "Crackerbox" in the Class 7 and 8 cab-over-engine truck market. Its Chevy cousin was the Titan.

The Astro was offered through, at least, 1987- an 18 year run. By the late 70’s the Astro was available with a choice of Detroit 2 cycle or Cummins or Caterpillar 4 cycle diesels. The single axle Eaton or Rockwell rears were rated for 23,000 lbs. Eaton tandems were rated for 34 or 38,000 lbs; and Rockwell tandems were rated for 34, 38 or 44,000 lbs. A 1979 Astro could be specified to 130,000 GCW.

Another Owls Head Truck Show is in the books and by all accounts it was another successful show given the weather, economy and price of fuel. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped make the show a success. I will not list names because I will surely miss someone. So, whether you helped Paula at the table, greeted folks at the gate, parked trucks, flipped burgers or handed out cookies at the lunch, or just showed someone where the Chapter Table or nearest bathroom was THANKS! Because without all of you something wouldn’t get done.

I probably should change the title of my column for this month since I am writing this from the shores of Trickey Pond but I guess when it comes to writing and editing the Shop Manual my laptop computer counts as a workbench too. In the couple of weeks between Owls Head and our departure for the campground I did spend some time working on a couple of mechanical projects. I spent a couple of days swearing at the GM engineers that came up with the fuel pump location on the ’73 Corvette and ended up out smarting them with the use of a couple of 3/8ths studs. What a difference. I put a fuel pump in the ’66 this spring and it took less than an hour including a trip to the hardware store for a couple of fittings to adapt the pump that I had on hand to my truck. As it stands right now I have a good 3 hours work and a couple of trips to NAPA into the same job on the ‘vette and the pump is in but not hooked up.

I already mentioned that Nancy and I (as well as the Healds and Ohmans) are currently camping on the shores of Trickey Pond in Naples. Now, we call it camping, but as I type this Nancy is watching the Olympics and I am simultaneously typing and surfing the internet (and watching the Olympics when the swimming is on) from the (dry) comfort of our trailer. We are supposed to get a break from the rain for the next few days (I am sure the tenters next door will be happy) and I hope to get some fishing, swimming and hammocking in during the lull in the monsoons.

Occasionally Clayton or I will come up with something of interest from the internet to pass along. This time I have a couple of sites of particular interest. The first is from our own very own Higmo and Paula. First we saw them on the small screen talking about the scarcity of firewood and now we find out they have their own website. They can be found on the web at www.higmos.com. They have some very interesting information on the history of their mill and a calendar with sawmill events and soon to be added PTC Events. Another one brought to my attention through a truck model group was a selection of videos on Youtube showing Australian road trains in action. Just go to www.youtube.com and type road train in the search box (or dump truck, mack, or whatever you like) and you will see some incredible equipment in action.

See you at Barrington or at the Cumberland or Fryeburg Fairs.

By Paula Hersom

Income: Expenses:

Saturday Sales- $1054.00 Hannaford -      $ 403.35

Sunday Sales - $ 722.00 T-Shirts -          $1734.00

Lunch Donations: $ 373.00 Staples -           $ 8.38

Member renewals: $ 104.00 Wal*Mart -       $ 125.34

Raffle Items:          $ 118.00 Entertainment - $ 500.00

50/50 Raffle:          $ 105.00

Grand Total        $2476.00 $2771.07

Director- Erv Bickford- Dirigo Restorations, Yarmouth, ME 04096 (207) 846-8662

Director- Mike Gladu- 302 Center Drive, Orrington, ME 04474 (207) 825-4729;

Director- Lars Ohman- 6 Antique Drive, Sabattus, ME 04280 (207) 375-6515;

Director- George Sprowl Sr. - PO Box 220, Searsmont, ME 04973 (207) 342-5818

Aug 17 Annual Friends of Togus VA Hospital Car Show and Picnic. Hosted by the

(rain date - Rusty Nuts Car Club, Contact: FMI call (207) 443-6114 or (207) 443-2575.

Aug 24)

Sept 20-21 ATHS Hudson Mohawk Chapter Antique Truck Show & Flea Market

Ballston Spa, NY Contact Dick Linstead (518) 581-1829.

Oct 8-11 AACA Hershey Swap Meet, Hershey Park, Hershey PA

Oct 25-26 Pine Tree Chapter Fall Tour – Bangor Area

Nov 1 or Pine Tree Chapter Late Fall Get-together – Wiscasset/ Woolwich Area

Nov 15 Contact: Clayton Hoak (207) 582-3224

FOR SALE: New 106 gallon fuel tank and brackets part #2005385-C92 mfg- 05/04; also fender panel; fits International Eagle (9300?); possibly others; also two used stud piloted 24.5 aluminum wheels and tires; tires may have value as casings. Contact Bob Dorey (508) 358-1003.

FOR SALE: GMC Crackerbox with a 6-71 (unrestored); 1953 Ford F-600 Marmon Herrington dump. Both units are surplus to my needs. Make offers I can’t refuse. Contact Jon Doyle (207) 622-6124

FOR SALE: 1952 White WC 22T S/A Tractor, 100% complete, w/orig 6 cyl gas engine, 10 mpg, air brakes, 12 volt, 5-spd direct, 10.00x20 rubber, 1 line wet system, some repairable rust mainly in fenders, $3,800

1963 Gar Wood 10/13 yd S/A dump trailer, 18’ long, 1 line hydraulics, 10.00x20 on Daytons, new brakes, bearings, wiring, lights & air lines, $3,500

Parts for 1947 White WB 14, 2 doors w/glass, horn, hood, steering wheel, fan, radiator, headlight buckets, grille, all in excellent shape $450 for the lot

Contact Steve Bayley (207) 883-3120

PTC members Diane Munsey, Hilda Croskery, and Bud Bowley have spent some time at local medical facilities for various reasons since Owls Head. Our source indicates all are recuperating well and are back in their respective drivers seats.