The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Old Dominion Stovebolt Society (MD, VA, West VA, DC, DE and PA) HOT WASH - Wrenchfest 2024

I just want to THANK EVERYBODY, and I do mean EVERYBODY, for helping me with my truck (It's a '55.1 by the way, with an open drive shaft, unlike the '54; see, Jethro, I did learn something) What a GREAT bunch of guys you ALL are!!!!! Even the two that threatened to relieve me of my 235 crank. With all of the loading, tying down, transporting, untying, unloading, removing the front clip and engine, and then doing it all over again.... I just can't thank you guys enough!!!!!!! HRL (Jerry) will be transporting my block to Tennessee and configuring it to accept the new main bearings (and maybe if he can, video how he does it? Please, if at all possible?) It was a GREAT weekend and I'm sorry I didn't make it back out there to see you all on your safe journeys home. AGAIN, THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!! And a VERY BIG THANK YOU to our host even if he is a SWABBY (pulling your leg). And of course it was really nice meeting new people and seeing old acquaintances. Hope to do it again soon!

S2

P.S. Great pics and video

WHAT A WEEKEND!

As I awakened this morning, replaying the events of the past 3 days, I do need to thank some folks who made this event what it is.
First and foremost, Paul! For it is "he" who offered up his magnificent, beautiful property for us to invade for 3 days. Then his wonderful son, Jack! Jack was always offering a helping hand, whether it was fetching tools, or tending to any other issue that needed attention. His personality was perfect fit for our group, and he fit right in. (I do believe he will be finished detox today)
John Milliman. John, thanks for getting this event together for us to enjoy each other's company. Also, all of the behind the scenes work to make this site what it is!!
Thanks to my wingman and gourmet chief, Mr. Amtrak Joe, for our excellent 3 meals a day and anyone else whom took to the grill.
This is one of my favorite weekends of the year. So nice to see everyone and catch up!
Finally, one of my highlights was to visit with Ms. Peggy!
Till we meet again,
Jim
AKA- 53 green-1 ton

All y'all,

The great parts of not having my truck to drive are 5 hours of windshield time sharing a ride with Sweet and Jim honored me greatly with encouraging me to drive his one ton, what a treat!

Incredible venue! Paul and Jackson were incredibly gracious and lively hosts.

Visiting Peggy was icing on the cake.

HRL collecting engines like it was trick or treat at Halloween and a well deserved NED AWARD!

Pat Guy conducting a rigging seminar!

Victor's eggs and marinated beef!

Grigg II relaxed and enjoying himself!

Carl taking time out from his busy concert schedule to serenade us with early Led Zepplin!

Jethro seemed to be everywhere helping everyone!

Joe and Hambone working on Stewart's truck like it was their own!

Mikey being Mikey!

John everywhere with a hand in everything!

Billy Marlow's dogs and hospitality!

Joe at the grill x? Delicious sausage peppers and onions! Breakfast eggs!

I know I missed a ton of thank yous.

Thanks to all!

It does sound like it was a successful Wrenchfest weekend. I've heard some stories from Jerry and a few from John with more to come as he de-programs from the de-programming weekend.

The best was the visit from you all. I've got to get that pix in here for my "show and tell."


Thanks for the details on the eats Cosmo. I wondered how all that went. And thanks for the left-overs that made it back here to HQ. John got the last donut; I was just tickled to see the Hawaiian bread! We have a bunch of assorted chips to share!

Jerry has headed over to Stewart's and then a stop off in Woodbridge VA to pick up "Chris's old engine/parts" that Russ_B_10 posted HERE last week. I think Jerry's had a successful weekend. He also went home with some seats that John had in the sea container and his poncho liner. Probably other stuff ... He was truly humbled to receive The Ned.

John left out here with Charlie loaded with items that had to go back to the garage. I think this will be "take your Bolt to work day" for Charlie.

John and I will be working on the rest of the pictures over the next few days.

I had a blast... Enjoyed seeing and being with fellow Bolters. What great fellowship! Made new friends and got my hands plenty greasy.
What a treat it was for Hot Rod Lincoln to be with us! Helping him figure out how to get that pulley off the '27 Chevy engine, removing the crank and talking shop with him was a highlight for me! He is such a valuable asset to the Stovebolt community!
I topped my tank just before we left, but 52Carl said he would be OK. Well... we were going to fill up on the Virginia side of the Potomac River Bridge coming home... I made it... Carl didn't. Oh well, that was fun too!
The ol' 54 3100 made the 300 mile round trip 60/65 mph without a hitch... 15mpg.
I'm happy.
Already looking forward to next year!

Always great to spend time with you all and wish I could have arrived on Saturday.

Thanks to all that made it a memorable experience.

Home in NH as of today. Shower, laundry, clean shave and ready for next year. As previous, great weekend of wrenching, beering, and smiling. Enjoyed the company of all and thanks to John for the coordination and the property owner for allowing us to have run of the beautiful property. All charges were dropped.
Hope to get an invite for next year.
HB

Where's the 'LIKE' button?! ^^^^

Here:

It was great seeing/catching up with the Friday gang...unfortunately I had to miss Saturday because I was getting my 50 year membership award from my Local Union (IBEW).

Maybe I'll see some of you at York, Macungie, Carlisle or Winchester!

John and Peggy, thanks for making this all happen!

Mike B

I feel like I own you money Jethro. For those of you who haven't heard yet, I decided to park Sweet Pea 50 yards from reaching the peak of the bridge across the Potomac. Ran out of gas one mile from the Sheetz in Virginia where the gas is 40 cents a gallon cheaper than it is in Maryland. Within 5 minutes, one of Maryland's Finest pulled up behind me with his lights flashing so that I didn't have to keep waving at all of the fine travellers so that they wouldn't crash into Sweet Pea. As soon as he got out of his car he hollered, "Hey! You can't park here. Its a bridge." I began laughing so hard I couldn't talk for a bit. I thanked him for his sense of humor. He made a phone call and before you know it, here comes another one of Maryland's Finest with a 2 gallon gas can and poured it in my tank. I wouldn't start, so he pushed me over the peak so that I could coast to the bottom and pull over. Once I was on level ground, she started right up and off to Sheetz I went.
So by my estimation, I got $7.38 worth of free gas from The fine State of Maryland, and since I didn't pay .40 cents more/gallon before I left Maryland, I saved another $6.00. That's $13.38 I got payed for sightseeing, parked on a bridge for 30 minutes. What a country!

So good to see all of you again and Peggy too! Great venue, great weekend, great eats and drink, other than the weather being on the chilly side and a little windy (Hambone, the wind is dying down!) it couldn't have been better. Thanks to the Camp Chef for all the food, for all the cooking and for bringing all of the accouterments for cooking all that food. Thanks to Victor too for the burgers, steak and brownies.
One of these days I will get the blue ton running right and be included in the caravan again. Thanks again Mike for the rescue, I mean for the trailering exhibition! Thanks to all that had a head under the hood on Saturday. At one point I counted about 8 people involved in the diagnosis and resuscitation attempts.
Stewart, I hope you continue to make good progress on your truck. I love the story behind it and look forward to seeing it on the road soon. Thank you for the beverages you added to the cooler!
I'm sure I could go down the list and thank each and everyone of you for you contribution to the fun time had by all but most of all I want to thank the Morgan's for allowing us to invade their beautiful farm. I won't soon forget that little slice of heaven.
All for now, I look forward to our next get together.
Billy

You were caught in the act!

Kyle! That picture is priceless! It may turn into our new ODSS logo!!

BTW, my 216 is over at the farm shop (where we did the coffee and donut thing). It's still attached to the hoist, but sitting in its cradle. You'll need most of the peripherals from your other motor, including the valve cover. I can go over all that with you when we can meet up over there.

As for the rest of you ...

Good time as always. Thanks for making the trip to SoMD!

A couple of my highlights:

-- Billy showing up
-- Mikey's help with onsite logistics was huge
-- Pat's class on hauling ... And watching Joe learn one-on-one from Pat the finer points of backing a trailer around a blind corner using only mirrors.
-- John V wading into the midst of the Bow Tie Tribe.
-- Once again having Hambone to abuse. One of these years in court, I will get *something* to stick...
-- Being huddled against the backside of the OR to get out of the arctic blast and spitting snow with my besties!
-- Haggling with Amtrakjoe over some junk (wait 'til he finds out they don't work ... )
-- The ride to and from the old OR with Carl and Jethro to pick up the '27 engine. A couple of great guys. Well ... Jethro, anyway ...
-- After getting back to the farm from visiting Peggy, Roverdan (who drove Charlie back from HQ) says, "Wow. THAT was fun. I may have to get one of these."
-- Mr. Curtis, in the midst of the mayhem, just turned to look at me and ... slowly shook his head.
-- The therapeutic effect of staring into a huge fire in such fine company whilst holding a beer in one hand and a good cigar in the other is not trivial.
-- The decision process to award the Ned took about .003 nanoseconds -- I posed the question and Cosmo, Sweet and I instantly blurted out the same name -- Jerry.
-- Grigg Jr. (!), despite having murdered my beloved duallie...
-- How you all persevered to overcome the challenges thrown at you by Stewart's truck. Yes, I *was* paying attention ...

Thanks for riding over to see Peggy. It was awesome to see her face with all of you around her. It was pretty cool to see Rosalie Way filled with Stovebolts, too.

Each of you made the weekend a success and I am thankful for your participation. It was fabulous to finally take Morgan up on his gracious invitation!

J

Added some images to posts above and tried not to duplicate too many already in the WF pictures thread. Working between John's computer and mine. Then there are some on my camera and not his. There are some gems in there. AND at some point I know we'll get some great ones from AmtrackJoe.

What a weekend.

Too short as always, but a big thank you to the Morgan family for allowing some crazy characters from the internet convene on their beautiful property for the weekend. Many wrenches were spun and a great time for everyone. John did a great job putting this event together. Hopefully we can return in the future.

Now for the ride home.......

Cosmo and I were motoring along, and stopped for fuel at Sheetz just over the river. Cosmo darts to the facilities while I fuel up, when he returns, I head inside to do the same. When I come back to the truck, Cosmo has a grin on his face. He then asks the man at the pump next to us to repeat his question:

"Do you know a guy with a truck that looks like yours only its beige with the paint flying off? If so, he is stuck at the top of the bridge."

Of course who else could it be but my Brother Carl. I look around and see Jethro's truck on the other side of the gas station so we go over.

"Carl didn't make it!" As we derive a rescue plan, we are getting updates from every-other car entering the station.

When we hear he is off the bridge and on the side of the road on the other side, Cosmo and I decide to go see him. By the time we get there he is driving away........

Absolutely priceless.......

Back home in Tennessee- - - - -late evening yesterday. It was great, seeing and working with everybody- - - - -and receiving the Ned award was an unexpected , and truly humbling experience! I've already got an idea what to add to it before passing it on to the next recipient. My old van has discovered a new purpose in life- - - - -it handles that 16 foot trailer like it's not even back there, gets fairly decent gas mileage, and also serves as a field-expedient motel room with that big back seat. The wheelchair lift is a plus- - - - -I wonder if it will handle a stovebolt engine?

Thanks to everyone for putting together another memorable weekend. The fact that it also happened on my birthbay was a real plus! Special thanks to John and Peggy for taking in a weary traveler in need of room, board, and truly great companionship!
Jerry

Jerry -- This afternoon, I finally got around to playing with the Carter YF you gave me at Wrenchfest. It looked so good, I thought what the heck and slapped it on.

Wow.

The difference is amazing!

THOSE DETAILS are in the Engine Shop.