The Vintage Truck magazine subscription winner for July is

John Finneran
Chino, CA

    Thanks again to the Vintage Truck folks for allowing us to work this contest! Check it out if you haven't already.

Additons to the Gallery
What we added this month

    Well, another busy month with more and more additions to the main Gallery pages. Check these out!

    We have over 7500 truck images in the Gallery alone. Everyone has done a great job in writing some good detail. The Gallery Gang has been a big help in snooping out the info, and getting them edited. All for your viewing pleasure ... and fun!

Stovebolt Stats

    We have forgotten to bring you some of the fun Stovebolt facts for the last few months. And now that we've got this Google thing on the server, it gives some interesting information.

    We just figured out how to share some of it with you all. Hopefully, we'll figure a way for you to have access to see it all. That way you can see how many hits are to your Gallery page or a Tech Tip you wrote; which Features are real popular; where folks are coming from; how long they stay, etc.

    So ... since we have the International Forum HOT this month, we thought you might like to see THAT stat page. We only did the top 25. It's a pretty big pdf file. (And if you could see it live, the global map highlights when you passover a country -- very cool. We'll get that figured out one of these days). In the meantime, here is some fun info from the last 30 days.

        We're going to Kansas City ... Kansas City here we come!!! Yeee-ha!

        This is a biggie for us. If you want some details from last year, read a bit about it here! If you only want to know who those beautiful people are in the picture, click on it!

        Steve "KCMongo" Mosley (our HiPo forum moderator) is the Director of Operations for the show again this year. So, he's reserved a nice spot in a high-visibility area. Thanks to a most generous Stovebolter, we've already got a STOVEBOLT tent, chairs, fancy name tags, and extra hoo-ya (we'll have pictures later). We even hope to have t-shirts this year! Incredible!

        We've opened a special forum just for the Reunion GABFest (thanks to Jim Carter for sponsoring it ). Ed "DaOzTinman" Hoover has volunteered to help Mongo with the Stovebolt end of things there in Kansas. He, Mike "OlTrucks" Taylor and Mongo will moderate the special forum. That's where we'll keep everyone informed as things move and shake around this place. We'll have more of a schedule over the next few weeks, and we'll post it there. We'll post EVERYTHING there!

        We know we'll be going over for a tour (can you say "shopping spree") to Jim Carter's. We may do the Zoe James' museum again. Definitely want to eat as much Kansas bar-b-q as possible. Want to do a lot of singing again (so bring your mufflers ... for your ears!)

        We'll keep a running list of who's coming from where. If you wanna come and might like to share a ride (the cost of it ~ we won't mention the fuel price stuff ~ this is a happy story!), feel free to contact someone!! What a better way to get to know someone than to being stuck in a truck with them. And you can talk Stovebolt stuff all the way to the event! What a Stovebolt vacation!

        Should we have a prize category for the most Stovebolters stuffed in a vehicle to make the trip? Hmmm ... let us think about that one.

        Some of our gang bring their trucks, spouses, kids. Some drive their truck to the show. Others fly in. Many are locals, so they'll come and go. Most of us are staying at the American Inn (details in the forum).

        Some of you new folks may wonder, is this any way to run a circus? Who in their right mind would wait until the last minute for such details. Well, we NEVER claimed to have a right mind, ya know. Besides, this is exactly why we leach on to already existing shows and support them by showing in a gaggle!! Someone ELSE can plan a year in advance. (We worked with the Baltimore-Washington ATHS for their convention in 2006 ... that was serious ... that was two years out ... and that was exhaustingly ... and that was where the GABFest idea was born!)

        So, if you like to wait until the last minute, that's GREAT! See you there!

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Hoo-ya fo-ya
Time for some flag-waving and identification

    By popular demand ... well maybe not super popular. And it wasn't really a demand. More of a request here and there. A hope. A what-if. There was a little begging. Some crying. So, we thought we'd figure out something.

    First off, The Stovebolt flag is available!!!

     I'm waiting to get the exact specs on the flag. Other than it being a 3' x 5' nylon flag, digital image, one side with brass grommets, I don't know if there's any other sales pitch that goes with it. It's a good flag and it holds up to wind, in both ways a flag should. It's light enough to move with a little breeze but it's tough enough to not shred apart. Check the picture on the left of Billy Marlow's 1946 Chevy COE, taken at the Stovebolt HQ Homecoming this past year. It also works well without a pole, as seen by the happy face of Alvin "Achipmunk" Parris (image above right), as the flag is displayed at the Southern Stovebolters GABFest held this year.

     So, to keep things simple on this end: the flag is $100, plus postage. I'll get the details on the weight so that you can figure ahead of time on the USPS web site what the postage will be to get it sent to your house. PayPal and checks will work. Check the Office page for the PayPal link and mailing address.

     Our second request came from Dick "46SortaStock" Sohn (he's got a cool pix of his '46 Chevy in the Gallery). He said, "The desire for a sticker hit me the other day when I saw 235FatFenders on the road and I waved at him. But it occurred to me that he probably didn't recognize me and just thought it was a guy admiring his truck. He was in his Stovebolt but I as in a 2000 Silverado. (Yeah, yeah, like Cletis told you - it'll be ten years before I ever get finished)."

     So these are now in the Hoo-ya shoppe.

     "It doesn't need to be as obvious as a big plastic Domino's Pizza thing on my roof but it would be nice if we had a "Stovebolt ID" sticker on the back window or maybe even on the top front corner of the windshield. It's kind of like having your college sticker on the glass. People notice it. In your case John could probably notice a Marine sticker 100 yards away. Those who know what it means can identify immediately. I like that sticker since I have a 1946. But a Stovebolt in large font works for me too. Does reflective sound wierd like asking too much?" Am I rambling...."

     Nay ... no rambling. Sounds like brain-storming to us. We don't have a lot of brains to storm with, so we appreciate the help. The reflective part sounds cool. AND we'll definitely not comment on being "finished" with anything!! We're checking out the clear stickers. And hay, what's wrong with one the size of Domino's pizza sign? Could have a place ... think out of the box!

     So, as you can see we have more things coming closer to the top of the pile. Several volunteers helped with the research. They found a good place to do the business / member cards; they found a place to do window stickers. We hope to even find a place to get those window flags (it's a flag on a stick that your window holds in place). It'll be neat if we have all these figured out before the end of the month. Year. Our lifetime.

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Lots o' Links
The Bolt giveth and taketh away

      Thanks to some help from George Moniz (our Events forum moderator), we got rid of some dead links in the Trucksites page.

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