The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Got an idea. Anyone interested in a Stovebolt Engine & Driveline Clinic?

Thought the bolters could borrow a page out of the equestrian world playbook where my Reining Horse Association will hold 1 day clinics where current/potential members can learn from the Professionals/Experts. The bolter version might be something like prying Jerry HRL off his farm, and riding the gold wing over to Houston to demonstrate basics like tuning a Rochester carb, or adjusting valves or setting timing, etc. Jerry don't get mad at me, I only volunteered you cuz I know you have a buddy in Houston and could kill 2 birds with one stone ! People that just want to watch/listen (auditors) pay $25/$30 bucks and if for folks to get their truck looked at by the expert would be a little more. We usually pick up travel/boarding cost for the trainers, and rest goes to the association. What do you guys think? I for one would darn sure be there. I'm not volunteering to organize, but be happy to help.

If I lived in Texas, I would jump on it. I think I would pay $25 to get some intellectual property from HotRod. I might even pay that amount just to meet him!

They do some of these mini-clinics at the Stovebolt Reunions in KC. Might get with John and see if they want to enlarge the venue. No sense in doing it way down south instead of mid-nation in my opinion.

Now you gotta think big like the NFR ( National Final Rodeo ) My vote is for Las Vegas. Lots of casinos and entertainment there. I also might be partial to here because I am only a few miles from there.

Its a good idea. Texas is a little far for me but if it was close in California, Nevada, Arizona, or Utah you can count me in. How cool would it to have a national convention of bolters.

Allen, that sounds like a great idea- - - -maybe I can make it to the annual gathering in the Midwest and participate in something like that, or anywhere else we can get a bunch of us together. I've been sponsoring an annual meet & greet for members of the Guns & Ammo magazine forum at my farm in south central Tennessee on Memorial Day weekend for the past 9 years. We usually get together on Friday evening for dinner, have an all-day target shoot and a couple of meals on Saturday, followed by a campfire circle and BS session after the guns are put away, and some folks get together again on Sunday morning before the group heads home. Attendance is usually in the 50-something range, with one member who comes from New Zealand to party with us on occasion. Members from Texas, Florida, Kansas, Arkansas, Maryland, Ohio, and upper peninsula Michigan have been regular attendees, as well as folks from closer by such as Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. There's nothing like getting a bunch of old cyberspace friends together to meet in person.

One thing I've noticed with my bunch of regular visitors- - - -it seems the BS artists never seem to be able to make it to those gatherings!

If we can get together sometime, somewhere, definitely count me in!

Jerry

I am interestred and I live in Texas. In the next few weeks I will be exchanging a 235 for a newly aquired 250 in to a 1948 chev PU. kp

Sounds good , would it be possible to e-mail all members in Texas & La ????

A Stovebolt meet & greet/tech session in central or E TN would be right up my alley (so to speak). The 49 could even make it if I could use back roads

Jerry , that Guns & Ammo get together sounds neat also.

Dave

Jerry,

You might come to Kansas City??!! That would be outstanding. Definitely have all the "clinic space" you want.

Cool ... the original idea is a good one, too. Even at our Homecoming, we do more wrenching than greeting. We've even had stuff for people to take all apart just for the experience. We don't have a fee, but if it can make it happen somewhere out that way, good on ya.

Keep us posted. Jerry, let us know! We may start plans for the Reunion next month since it will be a big one.

Peg

I was planning on attending last year, but some family medical problems got in the way. We actually spent that week at Mayo Clinic in Florida, trying to get a good diagnosis of my wife's chronic stomach pain, but the docs there were baffled, too! She's a little better now, but we're still making diet adjustments, etc. to help her situation be a bit more tolerable. Maybe I can slip away for a few days this year without somebody having a major crisis. BTW, my parents are both 89 years old, and have just moved into an assisted-living facility. They won't be needing quite as much attention as before.

Thanks for the invite!
Jerry

Jerry,

Busy, busy. Let's hope nothing interfers and you get to come. The event always amazes me with the turnout and the number of our kind of trucks that participate in the show. (Ok ... I'll not steal any more of this thread!)

Peg

Hey Jerry, I just realized where you are located. I lived for 35 years over in Wayne Co. Tn. Cypress Inn. Also in the 70's I set up a shirt plant in Ardmore.
I am only about 50 miles South now, of where I was in Tn. at Red Bay, Al.

I'm headed for the Tiffin motorhome factory in Red Bay tomorrow. I do warranty claim inspections now that I'm an old retired auto mechanics instructor, and there's a coach in the Tiffin repair shop with a laundry list of problems. Drop me a PM and maybe we can grab a coffee while I'm there.
Jerry

Well consider the seed planted. Jerry, many thanks for volunteering your time and expertise. Appears we have some interest, but unless we have a Texas bolter volunteer his shop, appears the closest we'll get this year is the KC event which sounds like a great gathering of similarly (didn't say like) minded folks. I would volunteer my own, but until I retire am afraid it's more of an embarrassingly disorganized storage building than a shop. Also look forward to making one of these big gatherings to put faces with stovebolt names.

And Ms Peggy, you have an open invitation to steal as much of any thread I start as you'd like.

I live in ohio, but would gladly travel to attend

Joe d

I like the Kansas, city clinic... it is free, the boys and girls there know their stuff.
and the drive from Tx is great..

you all should come on down, sorry I hi-jacked your post..

also, Jerry and others are always available via pm to answer any questions,
at least they have been for me.....no charge.. I dont like the idea
of charging stove bolt members, just my 2 cents..

Along the lines of what Joker is saying; I too wondered why is a fee to attend needed? Expense of renting a shop? Door prizes? Lunch? Paid instructors? Just wondering.

One of the ways I supplemented my pitifully small income from being a public school teacher for 30+ years was by teaching weekend seminars for line mechanics. (Took a 60% pay cut by leaving industrial maintenance to become a schoolteacher). Typically, a promoter would enroll 30 to 40 students for a 12-hour seminar, with classes on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. The average course fee was $200.00 per student, so the promoter would gross $6,000.00 to $8,000.00 every weekend. His expenses were rent on a meeting room, a photocopied handout for each student, my fee of $100.00 per hour, plus expenses, either a plane ticket or mileage charge if I drove to the location, plus motel and meals. I would clear about $1,200.00 per weekend, and the promoter made a huge profit. I'd cover about 200 overhead projector slides on subjects like basic charging system maintenance and diagnosis, automotive computer theory and troubleshooting, or sometimes 4-wheel alignment or basic automatic transmission theory and diagnosis. The method of evaluating a student's progress was by giving a 25-question test at the beginning of the course, and the same one at the end, so a student could see what he'd learned by comparing scores. Most people showed at least a 25% improvement, and some did much better.

I'm not in favor of paid seminars for hobby-type folks. If I was interested in traveling all over the country as a teacher, there is still a huge amount of this type of business available. Let me assure everybody that if I participate in some type of group training, my services will be as a volunteer, not as a paid consultant. I'm supposed to be retired, although I'm busier now than I ever was when I was "working for a living"!
Jerry

well stated my friend, nothing wrong with making a few bucks on the side, my point was towards the hobby side..

Maybe bolters aren't quite ready for these type clinics. No worries. The trainers time is volunteered, any fees would go toward helping Peggy and John support the Stovebolt site. Maybe years of this Texas heat has affected my thinking, but any day of the week I would pay $20 to cover cost and spend 3-4 hours with somebody volunteering their expertise, like Jerry, helping solve problems for a group of folks that are stuck vs. several hundred to a local shop that may make things worse (if I could even find one to work on my 65 yr old truck). Kansas City sounds like a great opportunity, it's just a little far for a lot of us. Would be nice to have something a little closer. I'll tell you what I'm really jealous of, and that's the Old Dominion reunion I've been reading about. It sounds like Jerry's Guns and Ammo gathering, and anything that involves good Scotch and old trucks has got to be a good time ! Let's put this one to bed for now.