Hi Gang! Hope you are having a good summer!
Printing a August club newsletter is pretty rare! It has only happened twice in the past, both in 2010 and 2011.
In the 2011 issue, I mentioned how having year-around meetings was not working out so good . . . I thought that was interesting. I think the right people weren’t doing it? As an active club recruiter I think year around meetings do help build the membership.
How about the weather? If you are a privy or dump digger, you sure can’t complain too much about dry, hard, ground! God has blessed us with all the rain we need, and, He tossed in a few good storms . . . for extra measure!
I know Vince, living down in Portage, was involved in a twister! Praise the Lord he only suffered property damage! But, all really was not a loss, when he woke up in Kansas he had
new ruby slippers!After a close examination of his newly discovered treasures, he noticed they both provided very good arch-support, and, they are also are hand-blown . . . and open- pontiled! The real mystery was that old charred broom stick he was holding!
My oldest son owns Ryder’s Auto Service on W. Centre Ave. in Portage. He lost a few trees. But that storm was no laughing matter! The tornado was on the ground for 11 miles and completely destroyed many homes and businesses. The FedEx building as destroyed and they lost 9 big delivery trucks!
Meanwhile, I am still waiting for my motor-home engine parts which I sent to different shops for machine service. I tell folks my engine is like the scarecrow in the haunted forest! Some is here . . . and some over there. . . and even more over there!
I live on the northwest side of Kalamazoo where we are surrounded, to our north, with large farms. The corn, beans and wheat are the best crops I have EVER seen! Rain is good!
The coming event
that I need to call to your attention too is the Joint-Bottle Club’s Summer Picnic!
Once again this year we are having a combined picnic with our sister club, the West Michigan Antique Bottle Club. Last year they hosted the combined picnic at Brookside Park in Otsego.
This year our group is hosting the picnic at that same location!
The date everyone settled on was Sunday, August 18th, and, there will be some club members arriving at the park’s picnic-pavilion as early as 10:00. (Because we cannot reserve the pavilion) The event will run well into the afternoon, so if you attend church please come when you can.
Ashley Carlson designed some awesome picnic fliers which I am sending one along with all the picnic information. (She is good isn't she?)
I arrived at this point in this newsletter once before and the program crashed! So, I had to start all over! Grrrrrr!
My father’s favorite saying was, “Nothings ever easy.”
There was some talk about putting that on his headstone, but we opted for his favorite Bible verse instead . . .
“But Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” Hebrews 10:12
IN THE MEANTIME
I guess maybe I put too much importance on my vacation time.
At age 73 there should have more than just work . . . right?
Since last summer when I damaged the engine in our motor home, I have been sick at the thought of my stupidity which caused that! I keep blaming the detour we were forced to take . . . but really it was my own carelessness.
When my grandmother passed away each of us grand kids received a $5,000.00 inheritance, which my wife and I spent on this old motor home.
With my wife’s family living in the western U.P. it worked out great. We have had to do mostly minor repairs on the old girl, but I really do enjoy working on her.
Honestly, I have felt very blessed to own this beautiful old classic . . . it’s far better than I deserve.
I have been a motor-head since my teen years. When my family had Curtis Trailer Sales my brothers and father enjoyed drag racing and I was involved with building racing engines and doing chassis work. One of my racing engines is still on the track, still intact and still winning after 35 years!
However a lot of water has been over the dam since those days!
I started out looking to buy a re-manufactured 460 Ford engine, and I did find some.
But, when it came time to place an order, they ask for the chassis VIN number. After they decoded that number they said, “RV engine? No thanks.”
One place, Jasper Engines, said OK, but we need your actual motor, and 6 months and $4,500.00 up front!
But, as far as someone taking the engine out of the van cab, and putting it back in?. . . nobody wanted to do that!
I knew that I had spun the bearings. So, after I pulled the engine and removed the oil pan and pistons, and found that I spun both the rod bearings and the main bearings! NOT GOOD!
I had to replace the entire rotating assembly.
I took the heads to a super nice guy in Portage, Terry, at NAPA. When he pulled my old heads down, we found out that my engine, even though it was original in the 1983 chassis, was actually a mid-70's Lincoln car motor.
Ford must have had them in a warehouse when they decided to build a one-ton cut-away chassis’ for the RV market. I have detailed records from the day it was purchased from Holland Motor Homes in Holland MI. in 1984.
Up until that time, Dodge had dominated the RV chassis market! In the Dodge cut-a-way van chassis they offered the 440 engines.
Ford had been building many shorter wheelbase units with the 351cubic inch engine, but that was the largest engine they offered in E-350 (one ton).
To use the 460 engine, it required mounting it in a rearward-position to accommodate the extra length. Also, they had to completely fabricate new motor mounts. Other modifications also had to be made just so the big engine would fit.
But, my motor was not the heavy duty motor that was built for heavy trucks and RV’s.
For example, on our second trip to the U.P. , I came to a red light stop in Munising . . and it stalled. I could not get the engine to restart. Thank the good Lord we were right in front of a auto service center!
After some testing we figured the timing chain or gear was broken. We left the motor home and drove our little tow-behind-car back to Kalamazoo.
They found it was the main timing gear which had broken . . . and, it was made of a plastic material! Ford had used the plastic gears on the Lincoln Continental motors because they were very quiet! You know, like a Cadillac!
The shop was able to get at the timing gears without too much trouble. I had them use steel double-roller timing gears and chain, just like I would put on a racing engine.
When I removed the oil pump, all these many years later, I am seeing this weird stuff in the oil pump’s pick-up screen . . .yep! plastic timing gear teeth! Yes indeed! That sure would contribute to spun bearings . . . poor oil flow!
Next, I get a call from Terry, who is grinding my valves. He says “Al you need to look at these heads!”
The mid- 70's Lincoln motors did not have hardened valve seats! With the unleaded gas, the valves had hammered right into the cast iron heads big time! And the heat from that had cracked both cylinder heads!
So now this is starting to look like a blessing in disguise!
I found a guy with a pair of 460 heads for sale, ( these heads are abundant, but not all are correct!) This guy didn’t list the casting numbers (which usually were not the right heads). I had already turned down several. So, he sent me a picture of the casting numbers on the heads and they were an exact match! My heads are the same ones used on the 429 Cobra and they can go for a couple thousand bucks!
We drove up north-east of Lansing, and honestly I couldn’t believe how good they looked. I asked; “Where did you get these?”
He replied, “They came off my jet boat, I just put new aluminum heads on the boat and a supercharger.”
These heads DO have hardened seats, and are a 1987 model. The run-time that these heads were in-use could be measured in hours! I picked them up for $150.00!
We ground the valves and checked the springs. A great find!
I am still waiting on the main engine block which is being bored +30 over size. The Lincoln motor did not have the RV camshaft . . . but it will now!
The new pistons and reconditioned rods will be balanced and checked for cracks . . . I can’t wait to start putting it all back together!
Even if I get it all back by the first of August, we still plan to take a couple weeks up to the western U.P. (Lord willing) to visit Deb’s family, so I may not be around for the picnic . . . at this point I just don’t know.
LAST MEETING
During the May meeting, we held our club’s election for officers.
Our new President is
Scott Hendrichsen!
Vice President is
Vincent Grossi
Treasurer is
Len Sheaffer
Club Secretary
Katie Wages
A big “Thank You”
goes out to Rob
Knolle for stepping to the plate and getting
out-in-front of that high-speed breaking ball! Right
when the club needed a home run, he hit it into the
upper deck in straight-away center!It is not always easy to find folks ready to roll up their sleeves! Rob stepped in when we were struggling with the loss of Chuck Parker. We have been very blessed in that regard! Thanks Rob!
Also, at the May meeting, we saw some interesting bottles!
And we certainly had an amazing turnout!
Taking a step into my secret time travel machine and returning to the ghost of meetings past . . . . . . . . buckling my seat belt.
This summer I replaced both toilets in our two bathrooms at home. With the two older stools, which I used for seats, and the tanks are used to house several modified circuit boards which I salvaged from older metal detectors . . .
I finally got this thing to work!
I print out the time and destination coordinates on a special roll of 4 ply tissue held in a roll near the seat. It is pretty simple really, and travel is possible with a simple flush.
The problem with the Back-to-the-Future movie is, traveling back in time is not done in-flight . . . that only goes forward. Going back, requires a downward trajectory. Failure to properly launch can call for a special tool called a System Abort Plunger.
(I can hear Chuck Parker now; "Holden you mother must have dropped you on your head!")
Houston we are looking good . . . The meeting room is starting to become clearer and clearer . . . . and . . . yes. . . I have arrived back at the correct month! Completely unnoticeable like a stable fly on the wall . . . Wow! Look at me! Am I losing my hair or what?
I See:
Dave Wilkins
Susanna Karbowski
Ed Nickerson
Bill Riley
Marian Hill
Mary Gale
Brian Wages
Katie Wages
Kevin Siegfried
Scott Hendrichsen
Gary Dean
Len Sheaffer
Juli Sheaffer
Ron Smith
Rob Knolle
Vincent Grossi
Dan Hill
Allan Holden!
Wow! What a great bunch! It has to be a record!
Where were you Kelly, my friend?
You have to admit the club is growing!
We did
see a few especially neat glass items! Vince was able
to visit the old Vitro
Agate 
Company in
Parkersburg, West Virginia, where he was able
to dig some colorful glass shards for the early marble
making days! How cool is that?Vince also showed us some awesome hand made marbles he purchased recently at an Ohio show!
Susan Karbowski displayed a great Kalamazoo find! It is from the Quality Dairy! It is a little half-pint baby face cream top bottle! It is one of my favorites! A little research and I found where one had sold just one year ago in July of 2023 for about $75.00! Not bad for a Kalamazoo half pint!
Gary Dean showed our group a neat glass tool from the 1890's! It is a small base glass bottle with a long stretched-out test-tube neck.
It is knows as a Babcock Milk Fat
Dairy Tester.
These were important tools for butter or cheese
production.The milk was poured into the bottle, and a mild acid was added. The acid breaks down the casein (protein) which frees up the lighter butter fat. After some spinning in a “whirler,” or centrifuge, for 5 minutes, rotating at 700 to 1200 rpm. The centrifugal force pulls the heavier portion of the mix to the bottom of the flask which forces the lighter portion – the butterfat – towards the top. The top is the long test tube neck which has graduation marks which show the percentage of milk fat. In a way it is the same idea found in a cream top milk bottle where the lighter fatty cream rises.
My grandfather Max Loebel owned two creameries in addition to Michigan Cottage Cheese Company. Also, my stepfather, Howard Norton, worked at Holland’s Dairy in Otsego. Carl Holland was a dear friend of mine.
Howard told me each farmer’s milk can carried his identification mark. When they unloaded at the dairy, each can was opened, the dead flies skimmed off, and the butterfat checked. Why? Well, one reason was some farmers would water down their milk!
Gary Dean also showed off a really beautiful small bottle, which, I was thinking is the coolest little ink bottle I have ever seen. But, a quick
Google photo search and I
realized my mistake! It is actually a sweet
antique Art-Deco Ornate Pressed Glass Perfume bottle.
This bottle would have originally come with a tall fan
shaped ground stopper! Very cool bottle, Gary!Jottings By Vince
The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club's next meeting is
Tuesday: September 10, 2024. The regular club meetings (September to May) are held on the Second Tuesday of each month. Time: 7PM-9PM.
September 2024 Club Dues are now being collected
Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club for New Membership and Renewal of Membership. Dues are still only $ 10.00 !
Membership Form:
Name:______________________
Address:___________________
City:_______________________
State:______________________
Zip:______Planet_____________
Phone:_____________________
Cell:_______________________
Email:______________________
___________________________Category of Collecting Interests:__________________________________________________________________________
Please, Make Checks or Money Orders Payable to: "K.A.B.C."
Mail Payments to:
Len Sheaffer,
665 Lake 16 Drive,
Allegan, Michigan 49010
For More Information: Len Sheaffer 269-512-2640
The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club's First Annual Club Dig is scheduled for Saturday:
September 14, 2024. The
Time and Location information will be available at a
later date. There is a Second Club Dig scheduled for October, 2024. You must be a Kalamazoo Club Member and All Club Dues paid up to attend these digging events. We will be doing a head count for the September digging event.
RSVP: Tuesday September 10, 2024 By 8PM.
For More Information: Scott Henderichsen 269-377-6089(text or call) or
Vincent Grossi 269-220-1873(text or call)
THEME THIS MONTH, RECENT
TREASURES!
There
will be a $5.00 Table!
The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club
Meets At the
Otsego Historic Society Museum
at 7:00 pm
The Museum is located at 218 N. Farmer St. Otsego, MI
Meeting starts at 7:00
Information
