irony noun iro·ny | \ ˈī-rə-nē plural ironies Definition of irony… 2a(1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity Thus Merriam Webster unwittingly described our recent outing at Ilderton’s King Edward Pub, our annual gathering with Bluewater Austin Healey Club and the British Sports Car Club of London. This gathering is always a treat, but this year, under the sure guidance of Kim Rutherford, it was outstanding. King Edward outdid itself in providing great food and adult beverages; members of the three clubs mingled, cementing new friendships; and the weather was May at its finest. What’s more, there was a fantastic turnout; perhaps 30 colourful vintage British sporting vehicles occupying King Edward’s parking lot, while the occupants fairly filled the King’s capacious facility. So where’s the irony? It’s that nobody, absolutely nobody (your humble servant included!) took a single picture! The only pictures are the ones that will linger in our fond memories. If you missed it… well, you missed it. Folks doomed to be Newsletter editors are doomed for failing to take pictures, fortunately we have websites! At least the King Edward Pub gets it’s due recognition. Congratulations and thanks to Kim Rutherford for hitting this one out of the park! As for pictures: “Wait ’til next year!
Transcript
irony noun iro·ny | \ ˈī-rə-nē plural ironies
Definition of irony… 2a(1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result
(2): an event or result marked by such incongruity
Thus Merriam Webster unwittingly described our recent outing at Ilderton’s King Edward Pub, our annual gathering with Bluewater Austin Healey Club and the British Sports Car Club of London. This gathering is always a treat, but this year, under the sure guidance of Kim Rutherford, it was outstanding. King Edward outdid itself in providing great food and adult beverages; members of the three clubs mingled, cementing new friendships; and the weather was May at its finest. What’s more, there was a fantastic turnout; perhaps 30 colourful vintage British sporting vehicles occupying King Edward’s parking lot, while the occupants fairly filled the King’s capacious facility.
So where’s the irony? It’s that nobody, absolutely nobody (your humble servant included!) took a single picture! The only pictures are the ones that will linger in our fond memories. If you missed it… well, you missed it. Folks doomed to be Newsletter editors are doomed for failing to take pictures, fortunately we have websites! At least the King Edward Pub gets it’s due recognition.
Congratulations and thanks to Kim Rutherford for hitting this one out of the park! As for pictures: “Wait ’til next year!
Next meeting, June 12th is at Eric Kernohan’s! Please RSVP to Eric: 519-494-8255 or
[email protected] Did you register your beginning mileage for the Buist award?
Bluewater British Car Club Minutes
Date: May 8, 2019. Number of Members present: Dinner: 11; Meeting: 12 Location: Paddy Flaherty's Irish Pub, Sarnia Minutes respectfully submitted by: Secretary, Sandra Cronk
1. Call to order: Vice-President, Mark Jones, called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. He welcomed Lorraine who saw our ad in the Sarnia Journal and has a 1988 German Merkur, which was made by Ford.
2. Approval of the Minutes of the April 10, 2019 meeting. A motion to approve the minutes as printed was made by Florrie Bachelder and seconded by Allen Bachelder. It was carried.
3. Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer, Roy Overton, reported: Income: none Expenses: $70.00 (British Car Council fee: $40.00 plus Insurance @ $1.50 a member times 20 members = $30.00) Balance: $875.35
June 1, 2019 �2
The Spanner is the monthly newsletter of the
BBCC. Articles, pictures, ideas, etc. are welcomed and
are to be submitted by the 20th of each
month for inclusion in the next
month’s newsletter. Forward items to: Allen Bachelder.
By email at [email protected] Or by post or hand to: 3330 Deerwood Drive
North Street, Michigan, USA
The Bluewater British Car Clubpromotes interest in acquiring, driving,
maintaining, andrestoring all makes of British, and now
European Cars.Membership is open to anyone with an interest in British and European cars.
Meetings are held monthly, every 2nd Wednesday,
6:00 dinner, meeting 7:30 P.M. In addition, monthly club, driving and social events are
� 3Questions: none A motion to accept the Treasurer's Report was made by Alan Cronk, seconded by Jean Hicks and carried.
4. Unfinished Business/Past Events: 1) Sunday, April 21st Ancaster British Car Flea Market and Car Show: members who attended were Roy Overton, Mike and Cathy Cromwell, Kim and Laura Rutherford and Mark Jones. 2) Friday, April 26th "Fling into Spring" event, at Wagg's Steakhouse: Ten (10) members attended and enjoyed dinner. 3) Cards were sent: sympathy to Gayle Stevens by Florrie Bachelder, and thank you to David and Bronwen Kelley by Sandra Cronk. 4) Saturday, June 1st, Classic British Car Show in London: The London club said that they would be able to accommodate up to 5 European cars on the show field. Since the meeting, the London club has added a European car category at the show this year.
5. New Business/Upcoming Events: 1) Spanner: a) There was a question about the formatting of the Spanner on our website. Mark said it will be corrected. b) Congratulations were extended to Allen Bachelder on the great job he is doing with the Spanner. c) Question about whether there are page numbers or not. Yes, at the bottom of the page. d) Expenses for the Spanner? Allen says there are none as all members are able to get the Spanner through email and on the Club’s website. 2) Saturday/Sunday, August 17/18, Overnight Trip to Norfolk County: Mark reported that there are four (4) couples signed up so far. Nine (9) rooms have been reserved. Please let him know if you are interested in joining this excursion. 3) Saturday, May 11th Annual Drive and Lunch to the King Edward Pub in Ilderton. Kim did a phone out and reported that 20 members will be attending from Sarnia and 20 from the London Club. 4) June Drive: Michael Walton reported that he plans to visit the place this week and will get back to us with details. 5) Fall Drive: Florrie and Allen Bachelder reported that they are investigating going to Harsen's Island for that event. 6) Wednesday, June 12th, Monthly Meeting: hosted by Eric Kernohan in Port Franks. Come for dinner at 6:00 p.m. or earlier, or to drive together, meet at Reece's Corners and leave there at 5:00 p.m. A map will be in the Spanner. 7) Friday/Saturday, June 21-22, RM Restorations 40th Anniversary Celebrations in Chatham.
Calendar of Upcoming 2019 Events… Events shown in orange are non-club events. JUNE 1 Saturday: Classic British Car Show put on by The British Sports Car Club of London at the Crossing Restaurant in London, ON.(non-BBCC event) Time TBA
12 Monthly Dinner & Meeting: Hosted by Eric Kernohan. Meet at Tim Horton’s at Reeces Corners at 5:00 PM to caravan together. Please RSVP to Eric ASAP: 1 519 494 8255 or [email protected]
21-22 RM Restorations 40th Anniversary Celebrations: Chatham. Full Details elsewhere in this issue. (non-BBCC event)
23-26 MG 2019 in Traverse City, Michigan. Mark Jones is a featured speaker. https://mg2019.regfox.com/mg-2019-traverse-city (non-BBCC event)
JULY
10 Monthly Dinner and Meeting. Dinner at Purdy's Dockside Eatery; Meeting in Canatara Park. Roy Overton organizing this meeting.
10-14 Annual Get-Together of the North American MGA Register, Dubuque, IA. See https://www.mmgvr.com/gt44-information/ for details. (non-BBCC event)
14 CanadianTransportation Museum & Heritage Village All British Car and Bike Show. Kingsville (Essex) ON. 519-776-6909 (See Ad elsewhere in this issue).
26-28 Run to Concours USA on either July 27th or 28th depending on interest and events scheduled. Hosted by Allen and Florrie Bachelder. More information on page 9. RSVP by June 12th to Bachelders. Specifics to be published in July Spanner.
AUGUST
14 Monthly Dinner and Meeting at Cronk's in Wyoming; Dinner: Chinese food from Petrolia
9-10 TWO EVENTS: WAMBO in Wallaceburg, ON (non-BBCC event) Bothwell Car Show & Fleamarket. (non-BBCC event) 17-18 Weekend trip to Simcoe, ON. Four couples signed up. There is still time to make reservations. Organized by Mark and Judy Jones.
24 Sarnia Hobbyfest. Germain Park. Mark Jones will organize.
8) Question by Lorraine: Where do you buy vintage car parts and have them installed? A discussion took place and a number of options were offered.
6. Announcements: Next Monthly Meeting: June 12th at Eric Kernohan's in Port Franks. See Spanner for details.
7. Adjournment: Mark moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:22 p.m., seconded by Sandra Cronk and carried.
From the President’s Garage…. Mark Jones
Mark gets the month off this issue, However, just to make our American members envious, he sends these pictures of a vehicle recently parked in front of his house. Mark says “The car is an MG ZT in Anthracite Metallic - a Japan export car.” Produced between 2001 and 2005, it’s for sale! Along with this was a Landrover Discovery that we’ll have to save for next issue.
Having been rear-ended a few times over the years in my MGB/GT, I’ve been interested in brighter, more commanding rear lighting for my cars. Modern LEDs definitely address the problem while drawing only a small fraction of the current used by traditional incandescent lamps. I took this first photo after installing just the left-hand LED. By comparison, the right one hardly appears to be illuminated at all.
These are not turn-signals or brake lights – they’re simply the parking
lamps.OK, you say, bayonet-base type 1157 dual-element LEDs are commonly available now. Just pick up a couple next time I’m at an auto parts store and voila! Right? Well…. Maybe…
Many brands of these “plug ‘n’ play” LEDs (as easy as changing a bulb) are no brighter than incandescent bulbs. And pricey at that – usually upwards of $30-50+ US for the pair. What’s more, while the vastly reduced current draw makes your electrical system very happy – there is a quirky disadvantage: your turn-signal flasher unit might fail. It’s a thermal unit – intermittently breaking contact with the heat of the current draw that the LEDs don’t provide. No big deal really - simply replace the “flasher can” with a commonly available electronic one. Or, some LED manufacturers will provide resisters to wire in series with your turn-signal LEDs. Since a primary advantage of LEDs is their low current draw, this solution does not make sense to me.
As the second photo shows, the LEDs I chose are LED arrays mounted on a printed-circuit wafer. Shown is one of my crude brackets attaching the arrays to the tail lamp housings. Hey, don’t laugh – they work!
From here on out, the story gets messier. I discovered my wonderful LED array turn signals did not work when the lights were on! Had I not been committed to the safety issues, I think I would have canned the entire effort at this point.
There are basically two different systems for serving the combined purposes of tail-lamp, brake-lamp, and turn-signal. Many of our vintage cars – like the MGA and Magnette - combine the functions of turn-signal and brake-lamp. If you pull up behind one of these cars signaling a turn, you’ll note that the brake lamp only works on the opposite side from the turn signal. There’s a secret little box somewhere in the engine bay containing a bank of relays along with a bunch of other junk that serves to give turn-signals priority over brake lamps. I don’t know how it works but the 60 year-old one in my Magnette still does so I don’t need to know… yet….
Well… it sorta works… Next lesson about LEDs: and don’t ask me how I know this – ‘cuz I’m gonna bore you with it anyway. Later…
At any rate, to finish my fascinating saga, other cars have an additional bulb just for turn-signals. ‘ Nuthin’ else. There is no shared function of turn-signal and brake lamp. There is no magic box buried under the bonnet with that bank of relays, or any other bank of secret 60 year-old ingredients. Such is the MGB. If this is your car, go out and kiss it – right on the bonnet. Kiss the ground upon which it drives. Shout it from the streets. You are indeed one among the blessed. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.
Why? Well let me tell you a little story. This is the story of Allen and the Four MGs. One day, Allen said: “let there be tail light” and there wasn’t. Or at least there wasn’t much. Thus Allen came to install these LEDs. Oh happy was he with the remarkable intensity of these.
Then one day a dark dark cloud did pass over Allen’s rear end. Let me rephrase that: I mean the rear end of Allen’s Magnette. For lo, while the turn-signals glowed with great luster whilst (got that? “Whilst”) parking lights were extinguished, if said tail lamps were illuminated, the turn-signals signaled naught. Nada. Zilch.
“Ah” you say, the work of the evil Joe Lucas, indeed, the Prince of Darkness – well known to have exclaimed: “True gentlemen do not drive at night”. But no, ‘twas not the work of Demon Joe. When he finished it, everything was fine. ‘Twas the work of the Demon Allen.
Next lesson. Do you know the difference between volts and amps? Neither do I.
Well – imagine a river.
‘ Got it?
Good – that explains that.
And you thought you didn’t know anything about electricity! Next topic.
Ummmmmm, but wait. I’ll let you in on another little secret: the width of that river - the volume of it’s water: that’s its amperage. The speed of that river is its voltage. You already feel better, don’t you.
Oh yes, we were talking about LEDs a couple pages ago, I think. LEDs don’t care much for amps. But they love volts. If they don’t have their RDA of volts, they don’t even glow dimly, they just turn away and go on strike. This is from whence my problem came. My LEDs needed 11.45 volts before they’d leave the picket line and go back to work. And the dirty corroded contacts inside that secret bank of relays would only pass a little over 9 volts. No go.
My solution? Two more relays: one at each tail light. So that the pathetic little 9 volts doesn’t even try to light up the turn-signals . All it has to do is tell the new relays when to turn on and when to turn off. The power to the LEDs comes in a fresh big fat new wire (like a #12). Normally, big fat wires are used to carry lots of amps – which we didn’t need –
but they also minimize voltage loss. This wire came directly from the battery – just taking the scenic route through the fuse box. The LEDs thus get as much as13.5 volts and once again, life is good.
Next month: that all-important third brake light in the rear window. In the meantime, if you can’t wait to try this yourself, here’s how each of the two relays is wired.
Concours USA to convene July 26-28th near Detroit We have just received notice that Concours USA will convene in Plymouth Michigan on Friday July 26th through Sunday, July 28th. 300 classic cars will be on display, and there will be a “British Invasion” - a salute to our well-loved British Marques. Allen & Florrie Bachelder are volunteering to host a run to the event on either Saturday or Sunday the 27th or 28th. If interested, pleaseRSVP by June 12th. Please review details at: https://concoursusa.org and notify Allen at
An Answer to that Vital Question: How Do You Get To Kernohan’s? First of all, you need to know Eric’s address. It is 7468 Dune Dr., Port Franks. But of course, since you just received your shiny new Membership List from Mark Jones a couple days ago, you already knew that, didn’t you. Didn’t you? And when you get lost looking for it, the phone number at Eric’s cottage is: 519-243-2348. Wouldn’t it be easier to meet up with all of us: Tim Horton’s at Reeces Corners at 5 PM and just follow the crowd?
And now, if you kindly turn the page, I’ll show you a map. June 1, 2019 �9
Altermatively, you can also use your Joe Lucas Vintage British GPS: navigation by the stars. Of course, Lucas reminds us that some of the stars are intermittent. Try to find some other stars.
Sympathy Card Acknowledged Our extension of condolences to the family of Rock Stevens was recently acknowledged.
A student was upset when he found out he had flunked his final exam in physics, and he appealed his case to the dean. The exam consisted of just one question: “Explain how you would determine the height of a building using a barometer.”
The student had explained:
(1) starting at the bottom of the stairs, place the barometer on the floor and mark the top of the barometer with a line on the wall. Next, place the barometer on that line and mark the top again. Continue this process all the way to the top of the building, keeping count of course. The result would be the height of the building expressed in barometer-height units.
(2) Obtain a long ball of string, tie it to the barometer and proceed to the top of the building where you can lower the barometer to the ground on the string. Measure the string.
(3) Go see the building superintendent and explain that you will give him this lovely barometer if he will tell you the height of the building.
The student’s grade was changed and he passed the course!
June Spanner addendum Your humble servant apologizes for a miscommunication with our vice president creating the illusion that only the pictures shown in your Spanner Saturday would be emanating from the President’s Garage this month. No-no-no! Our vice president has indeed been busy this month but he still found time to write. Only this morning did his lost column emerge from a black hole in the ethernet. We have printed an extremely important part in red. Make sure you add June 15th to your club calendar.
From the President’s Garage… Mark Jones
What a busy month May has been and it is only a prelude to things to come over the next three months. I finally finished all the jobs I was doing on a friend’s MGF. I was in St John’s visiting another friend who has a collection of Bae Rover-era and later cars, and seeing John Cleese. We were in Detroit to The Who concert, I finally wrapped up the projects on that friend’s MGF as well as work on our own cars; I still don’t have the SUs tuned on the Spitfire. And we were having the concrete around our pool replaced. Thankfully Allen reminded me about the Spanner being due or I would have forgotten about this write-up.
June Drive! Michael Walton has organized a drive to Blenheim to visit Classic Coachworks on Saturday, June 15. We will be leaving from Global Doughnuts at 10am for a leisurely back-road drive to a restaurant (to be determined) and then over to Classic Coachworks for a tour of the facilities. The shop’s proprietor owns a Grey-Dort and is in the process of rebuilding another Grey-Dort. If you are interested please call or email Michael on 519-869-8353 or [email protected]
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Of course there is Retrofest coming up in Chatham, June 21-22, which is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of RM. There is a cruise Friday night and the car show Saturday.
So, June is shaping up to be a busier month than May; lots of club activities, which is great to see. Don’t forget that Eric is hosting this month’s meeting at his house in Port Frank (thanks Eric) and Retrofest car show in Chatham, which is Saturday, June 22.
Calendar of Upcoming 2019 Events… Events shown in orange are non-club events. JUNE 1 Saturday: Classic British Car Show put on by The British Sports Car Club of London at the Crossing Restaurant in London, ON.(non-BBCC event) Time TBA
12 Monthly Dinner & Meeting: Hosted by Eric Kernohan. Meet at Tim Horton’s at Reeces Corners at 5:00 PM to caravan together. Please RSVP to Eric ASAP: 1 519 494 8255 or [email protected]
15 Drive to Blenheim to visit Classic Coachworks for TOUR OF CLASSIC COACHWORKS. Leaving from Global Doughnuts at 10am. Organized by Michael Walton. RSVP to Michael ASAP: 519-869-8353 or [email protected]
21-22 RM Restorations 40th Anniversary Celebrations: Chatham. Full Details elsewhere in this issue. (non-BBCC event)
23-26 MG 2019 in Traverse City, Michigan. Mark Jones is a featured speaker. https://mg2019.regfox.com/mg-2019-traverse-city (non-BBCC event)
JULY
10 Monthly Dinner and Meeting. Dinner at Purdy's Dockside Eatery; Meeting in Canatara Park. Roy Overton organizing this meeting.
10-14 Annual Get-Together of the North American MGA Register, Dubuque, IA. See https://www.mmgvr.com/gt44-information/ for details. (non-BBCC event)
14 CanadianTransportation Museum & Heritage Village All British Car and Bike Show. Kingsville (Essex) ON. 519-776-6909 (See Ad elsewhere in this issue).
26-28 Run to Concours USA on either July 27th or 28th depending on interest and events scheduled. Hosted by Allen and Florrie Bachelder. More information on page 9. RSVP by June 12th to Bachelders. Specifics to be published in July Spanner.
AUGUST
14 Monthly Dinner and Meeting at Cronk's in Wyoming; Dinner: Chinese food from Petrolia
9-10 TWO EVENTS: WAMBO in Wallaceburg, ON (non-BBCC event) Bothwell Car Show & Fleamarket. (non-BBCC event) 17-18 Weekend trip to Simcoe, ON. Four couples signed up. There is still time to make reservations. Organized by Mark and Judy Jones.
24 Sarnia Hobbyfest. Germain Park. Mark Jones will organize.
