Who has auto stuff on their list for Christmas and Hannukah this year? Anybody? Probably almost everybody!

I asked Santa for a set of one-piece custom fit slush mats for my ’09 Chrysler 300C. I am sure the jolly ole man will bring me a set (front and rear please Santa). Then all winter long I can cruise with peace of mind knowing my ride’s interior and carpet are protected.

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Let’s remember that the best part of gifting is when we are the givers. There are so many people out in the world (living near us and living far away) that can really benefit from our generosity. Some people don’t have the funds to buy even the littlest gifts for their kids, while other people are scraping just to get by on a day-to-day basis. Lets open our hearts and wallets to give to others and not worry about what we are going to GET.

My church is participating in the Samaritan’s Purse - Operation Christmas Child - Shoebox program. Each person is invited to pack a shoebox with as many personal essentials and/or toy items that they can fit inside. Then we bring them to the church and they are shipped to a collection point that distributes the boxes to various countries including the USA, where needy people can open them and enjoy all their little items on Christmas morning!

I hope that many churches (not just churches, but temples too) are doing this…. teaching their congregations about giving to others and hosting some kind of program to foster it! It should be a year-round, non-stop thing, and especially now for the holidays.

My family and I are making up two boxes. My two little guys will each do one for other kids. Not only is this a blessing for the people who receive them, but most importantly, I am teaching my boys about the world, people in need, and what Christ commands us to do for them. This is the greatest gift I can give my children: the knowledge, compassion, and care for others, as well as starting them on their way to a lifelong commitment and involvement to reach out, be generous, and offer what they have to others. My boys will not become selfish kids, nor spoiled teenagers. They will not be hung up on what others around them have, nor will they have a disregard for people in need.

Being a good father is not just about earning $$ and providing for the physical needs and wants of your family, but teaching them love, respect, honor, goodness, kindness, and so many other positive traits – especially in regards for other people. This Hannukah and Christmas I encourage each of you to take your kids to a homeless shelter, donate together to a worthy cause, shop at a toy store for someone else and bring the toys to the Marine’s Toys for Tots boxes or a similar program. Let your kids know the great feeling and satisfaction of spending THEIR money on someone besides themselves, caring that much for someone they don’t know, and the joy they get when dropping those toys into that big box, knowing that they are being generous, kind, giving, and concerned. And – that they themselves, will be putting a smile on some child’s face. A child who might have received nothing else on Christmas morning.

My boys are 6 and 8. We have been doing this since my oldest was three. They take money out of their piggy banks, we go to a toy store, they pick out the items, pay for it with their money, and we bring it to the “Big Box”. They love it. It is one of the best parts of our Christmas!!

May God bless each and every one of you as you give. Teach this to your children instead of lavishing them with tons of stuff and expensive items all the time. Help them learn to be givers and not takers.

HAPPY HANNUKAH! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1 Editor’s Introduction

2 Automotive Quiz Contest

3 Cruise Night Information

4 Guest Writers’ Columns

Marty Himes

Rich’s Tech Tips

5 My Car Story x 2 (combined)

6 The Archive

7 Editor’s Closing

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Long Island Classic Cars’

AUTOMOTIVE QUIZ CONTEST

Here is last month’s winning entry in the QUIZ CONTEST from Dennis P. Ryan!

1) What is the full name of the NASCAR Sprint Cup track in Arizona?

Phoenix International Raceway

2) In what year was the Pocono raceway track built (finished)?

1968

3) In what year (of the car, not the calendar) did Pontiac offer the first Trans AM to the public?

1969

4) What does the GTO in Pontiac’s GTO name stand for? (The true meaning, not peoples’ made up ones)

Gran Turismo Omologato

5) What was the first name of Mr. Porsche? (The first guy who started the company)

Ferdinand

Dennis wins a Four-Pack set of “SIX L.E.D.” FLASHLIGHTS!

Congrats Dennis!

Long Island Classic Cars.com contests will return in our first edition of the New Year.

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“EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!”

The Cruise Nights are done for the season. I believe OBI is the only place running through winter.

If anybody knows any different – enlighten us and we will pass it on.

Winter Cruise location updates:

SUNDAYS: *AM Cruise* Ocean Pkwy, Captree Beach Parking Lot through May, then at OBI. Babylon, NY

Public Gathering

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Guest Writers’ Columns

We are delighted to have the contributions of Marty Himes once again. Marty, as many of you know, has been involved in the automotive hobby as a racer for over 50 years! He owns and runs the Himes museum in Bayshore. Check out his latest feature. Really nostalgic and informative – it’s all about Long Island’s past. Man, we used to have so many racetracks here.

Where have they all gone!?

Rich’s Tech Tips starts the first of a two-part lesson on batteries. It’s back-to-basics time with some important and helpful information. As always, there are sure to be things in his article we don’t know! Let’s get started….

In the My Car Story section we have a His & Hers feature: Two Z cars from Glenn & Priscilla Jahier. They are a husband and wife who work on and cruise in their cars together! These two beauties are great representatives of the breed – they look sharp, ride nice, and are very stylish! Great little performers with a neat history behind them! Glenn will tell you all about them...

Enjoy!

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Remembering the Freeport Municipal Stadium

By Marty Himes

Freeport Stadium was created via the Works Progress Administration (WPA). During the Great Depression, the WPA built sidewalks, government buildings and similar public works throughout the United States. The WPA started work on the Merrick Road exit of the Meadowbrook Parkway – the site was formerly occupied by an ash dump. The new stadium, which included a racetrack, a football field, and a baseball diamond, was officially dedicated in October 1931. The first public event held there was a football game featuring Freeport HS against Hicksville HS.

The first type of motor racing at the stadium featured motorcycles in 1932. In 1933, the promoter came up with an idea of conducting auto races at Freeport as well. To test the response of the public to the new idea, 13 “Big Cars”, souped-up passenger cars without fenders and running boards, were built during the winter of ’33 to run in the 1934 season. The fans loved the new type of motor racing! The following year they decided to bring in “midget” auto racing cars, which were also a big hit with the fans. Some of the finest midget race drivers in the US including Freeport’s own Bill Schindler raced at the stadium. There are hundreds of other drivers who raced at the stadium and dozens of them were from Long Island.

From 1932 to 1945 the 1/5^th mile long racing surface at Freeport Staduim was paved with crushed cinders from the ash dump on which it was constructed. In 1945, the conditions were improved by resurfacing the track with asphalt. In 1949, Jake Kedenburg (one of the promoters) asked midget racing driver Johnny Coy to take a ride to Yellow Jacket Stadium in Philadelphia. The place was packed. They were running a new type of racing car called “Stock Cars”. On the way home, Jake asked Johnny what he thought about bringing stock cars to Freeport. Coy said, “If you do, you won’t have an empty seat in the house!” That was the beginning, and stock cars remained a feature attraction throughout the rest of Freeport’s history. Again, many stock car drivers ran at Freeport including quite a few Long Island boys.

As a side note, my own involvement with racing began in 1952, when with the help of my dad, Reginald Himes, and my younger brother Reggie, we built a Soap Box Derby car. (Which I still have on display at the museum). The car was built using a milk crate and a two-by-four with baby carriage wheels! We raced in Soap Box Derby events sponsored by the Nassau County Police Department’s Police Boys Club. Soap Box races were held at the raceway during intermission. I also worked parking cars at the stadium. Soon after that, I became a driver and also owned and operated “Off The Wall Auto Parts” from a truck in the stadium pits.

I sold drivers and owners supplies they needed to keep their cars running.

During the 1950’s, WPIX Channel 11 featured Friday night racing. Racing was held three nights a week: Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. Prior to the main event, three majorettes would march around the ttrack. A very colorful gentleman named Mike Collins was the starter for all the races. Today, the land where so many had so much fun sits still and quiet. Sadly, 1983 marked the closing of the sraduim. However some of the cars that raced at Freeport can still be seen at the Himes Museum in Bay Shore!

(Thanks for the history Marty. A Shame that all these places are gone now.) Pete

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RICH’S TECH TIPS

By Rich Fiore

AUTO BATTERIES - PART 1

Since it is getting a lot colder out now, you may notice your starter motor cranking slower or you may realize you have some serious years on your current battery. This could mean it might be about time for a replacement. Lets look a bit about the history of lead/acid batteries and today's current battery choices that are available on the market.

The commercial use of the lead acid battery is now over 100 years old. Our great, great grandparents were using them! A battery is nothing more than a pool of stored electrical energy. Drain out the pool without replenishing ... and the level drops. Modern day battery power requirements are huge. The autos built now, with all of their accessories, computers, systems, etc, have about eleven pounds of wire! Because of this, the batteries life span is shorter with roughly 30% of them making it to only 48 months before replacement is necessary.

So lets look at some of the basics. A lead acid battery is basically made up of lead oxide plates. They sit in a 35% sulfuric acid solution with the remaining 65% of the liquid being water. This solution is known as electrolyte and creates a chemical reaction to induce the flow of electrons (A.K.A. voltage ). When you test with a hydrometer you are checking the amount of sulfuric acid in the solution. So if you find it is low, obviously the ability to produce a voltage/current is poor. Now you ask ... where did the sulfur go? Glad you asked. It is now resting in the battery plates. If you recharge the battery (and battery condition is good) it will return to the electrolyte solution. If the battery condition is not very good anymore, the recharging will not take place.

So now when it comes to the major usages for batteries there are two categories. Starting (cranking used in the automobile), and Deep Cycle (for marine and golf cart type of applications ). The starting is used for a quick burst of energy (cranking) and has a greater plate count. Deep cycle has less instant energy but a greater long-term energy delivery. They have thicker plates and can survive a greater number of discharge cycles. The two should not be interchanged.

Nowadays there are different types and variants of the lead acid battery. The variations of lead acid are the wet cell (flooded ), Gel Cell and Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM ). The wet cell is your standard battery and comes two ways ... the serviceable and the maintenance free. The Gel Cell and AGM batteries are specialty batteries which can cost twice that of a wet cell battery. Their advantages are that they store energy well and do not have the tendency to degrade (sulfate) as quickly as a wet cell battery does. In the gel battery, the electrolyte is suspended but a silca additive has been used. The AGM allows the electrolyte to be suspended close to the plates’ active material. This enhances the discharge and recharge efficiency. Both Gel and AGM may require a different charging rate. Also if you don't use either on a daily basis ( Marine applications ) it can lead to premature failure. In most cases the AGM battery will give a greater life span and life cycle than a wet cell battery.

In the next installment ( Part 2 ) we will talk about CCA's, maintaining, charging, testing and buying. Something to really get charged up about !!

Quick and Dirty: If you keep a float charger on your battery during the winter months are you bringing the battery into a warmer environment and monitoring the electrolyte level?

(Thanks for the info Richie. School is back in session.) Pete

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My Car Story

Glenn and Priscilla Jahier: 1971 and 1972 240Zs

I have had several cars that I worked on and restored over the years. In 1974 I became interested in sports cars, and when you are 6’ 5” there are not many that are really comfortable to drive. That’s when I discovered the Datsun Z. In ‘74 it was the 260Z, a great looking sports car with plenty of room and plenty of power. The car handled well, was fast, and I just drove it and enjoyed it. Then came marriage, family and other responsibilities - and then came the “family car”, oh well, my Z was history.

Now my wife and I are empty nesters. We were looking for some new interests and I have always thought back to my 260, and how great it would be to have another. I looked around and found a 1972 240Z. It of course needed repair, mainly on the body. At that time I heard about how bad these cars were but never really understood. Anyway I thought about doing a complete restoration, I worked on it for a while but it all came to light when my wife said to me, “Glenn, neither you nor I will drive that car, it’s a wreck!” She was right, it was pretty bad. So now what? I really wanted to find another Z. E-Bay makes it pretty easy so I did some searching, and within a week, I won a 1971 Z. It came from Ohio. I was to be the third owner after its restoration. Originally it was found in Vegas, a rust bucket heap. But someone had an idea to save it somehow. They did a complete resto and set it up for racing with cam, shocks, lowered & stiffer suspension. And a 3:56 rear (stock is 3:23). When the car was found, it was painted Z Orange. But it was redone and painted Black.

Once I got the car it was great to get back behind the wheel of a Z, going to shows and just enjoying the ride, but now it was two of us enjoying the car but only one driving. Yes there were some adjustments to be made on who was going to drive “this” time. Anyway, it worked out since most trips we divided into who’s turn it was then.

As some of you might know, it’s amazing the people you meet at car shows. I always thought a show was a bunch of guy’s and girls getting together talking shop. Well yes, it is true, but sometimes you get real lucky and find some real great people that are involved in cars for the same reason. At one of the shows back in 2003, we were approached by a fellow Z owner asking us if we would be interested in another Z? I was a bit interested, since he mentioned it was a stock 1972 240Z. So we thought on it, and my wife mentioned how “nice” it would be if she had her own car. Well that sold me, now I could drive my Z all the time!

Well that was summer of 2003, we got the car and it sat for about 3 years. I finished all my other projects and then got ready for the restoration of her car. I might add that I run a factory in northeast Pennsylvania, and since I am up there 4-5 days week, I have a lot of extra time after work. I first built a 25 ft square garage inside one of our storage buildings. It is about 12 ft high, just tall enough for a hydraulic lift.

I started work on her car in 2006, keep in mind the old adage “ buyer beware”. Well maybe the car was stock but what really was wrong with it made me do a lot more than I planned. The previous owner “thought” he knew how to weld, do body repairs & electrical. What he attempted to do was repair the main rails just under the engine mounts with pieces of metal. The welds looked bad & really did not hold much. It had an electrical short in the interior, which he said was a blown fuse. Of course there was a lot more to it than that. What I found was the door switches were grounding out when door was closed and a switch in the dash had a broken wire. I attempted to repair the rear ¼ panels. Seems after attaching them, he used many coats of Bondo to flow the lines of the car into some kind of shape. Well with all these coats, he lost the crease line that was a special detail in the design of the Z! The last problem we discovered was while the block was at the machine shop to be boiled out, bored for oversize rings & bearings, they found the car had blown a head gasket. When it blew, it took a chunk of metal with it. This meant I had two choices: repair it and put it on the mill to dress the head, or find a 1972 head. It was my lucky day, when I was able to locate one!

So much for what was really wrong with the car, now to start the total restoration.

Since the best way to paint a car is to have everything off it, I had to take the engine & transmission out, along with the radiator & all hoses, glass, moldings, interior panels, all lights and all hydraulic cylinders & slave cylinders. Then all wires had to be labeled & wrapped in a plastic bag so not to be sprayed. The entire project of pulling everything off took approx. 3-4 months. Then before it went to the body shop, the entire car was power washed. One last thing, if you ever plan to do this project, make sure you put all parts with their screws in plastic zip bags & LABEL them. It’s amazing how you forget years down the road, when it is time to reassemble, what goes where!

When it went to the body shop, they stripped the entire body by hand and removed all the Bondo. They did that to find the lost crease line. Then all rust areas were repaired. Any areas with holes were filled with solder. Once done, it was shot with one coat of primer to check for any bad areas and then shot again with primer and wet sanded. The topcoat was applied using a DuPont color we had chosen. We wanted something close to the stock silver, but with a bit more metallic. We went with a Chrysler color. There are two coats of color, wet-sanded between coats, and three coats of clear.

I sent the engine out to a machine shop for general rebuilding. This should be done on any engine with over 100,000 miles on it and an unknown history. I chose to have it completely rebuilt. The entire block was sand blasted. I also sent the transmission out to be checked, it was ok and just needed seals. Once the engine came back, I washed it with a metal prep to prepare it for paint. I used POR-15. It is an epoxy paint that holds up very well if you follow their instructions. Since the interior is red, my wife chose to paint the engine Fire Engine Red - which is also the color on the calipers and drums. The transmission was prepared the same way, but I used POR-15 Silver. Next I rebuilt the carbs, and then came the suspension. I removed all of it and painted all parts w/ POR-15 Chassis Black. I rebuilt the struts and replaced all the bushings and shocks. The brakes were also rebuilt and I added new hoses. Before the suspension went back in, the undercarriage was sprayed w/undercoat.

The old Z’s always ran hot, so I changed the two-row core radiator for a four-row and added twin electric fans. The fans were great, but they drew a lot more electric power, so had to upgrade the alternator from a stock 40 AMP to a 100 AMP unit. Other upgrades to the engine, were removing the points and changing to electronic. They have come a long way with these units, now all new parts fit right under distributor cap! I added headers using ceramic-coated ones since they look like chrome but do not tarnish. When the machine shop re-assembled the cam, they set it up the way you do with American cars, meaning lining up the notches on cam one notch on top & one right below it. When we tried to start the engine, it backfired a lot, and never completely started. The mistake the shop made came to light when we did the basic test - which meant finding TDC. What we found was, when they installed the cam, it was done 180 degree off! Kind of explains the back firing. Once all the above was corrected, she fired right up.

Now on to the interior, lucky it was in pretty good shape. The seats had to be re-done, so we found a local Upholstery Shop that did seats for boats, and they worked in leather. Since the original color of interior was Red & Black we went with a two-tone seat, which was not standard. They made the center panels in red and the borders in black, since most of interior was black. They also custom stitched the “Datsun” logo in the headrest and it came out quite nice. We did not want a “big” sound system, just something that looked pretty close to the stock ones used. I found a company that had a radio that fit into the opening exactly and had a flip down front that exposed a CD player – perfect . Then I added three-way speakers from Crutchfield.

Next came the glass, we had a professional install new pieces front and rear. Last step - I replaced the felt in the door tracks, this was not very hard but took some time to adjust the door track to fit the glass correctly. The very last thing was putting tires on. We picked chrome slotted Cragars, which worked real well and also exposed the red calipers and drums. After 3 1/2 years, it came out pretty good, and oh yes, she loves her car!

Since we now have His & Hers, we had to get special plates, I know you might think it’s a bit much, but we love-it.

ONEZEY (my car is 1971) TWOZEY ( since hers is a 1972)

(Very thorough detail - nicely done and now you can enjoy them for years to come!) Pete

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The

Pete Giordano

Editor

Long Island Classic Cars.com

Pete Giordano

www.liclassiccars.com