The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin": Vol. 2024 #43: 7-24-24

Posted July 24, 2024

                        VOLUME 2024          JULY 24, 2024         NUMBER 43

President Bill Wisdom welcomed the membership and guests and presented the following reflection:

“Life is tough, and if you have the ability to laugh at it, you have the ability to enjoy it.”  I believe that humor has the power to bring people together, to build memories, and to show us that the bad things in life can be flipped around into good things.  Finding people who I share a sense of humor with is something that is important to me.

From a Web Site called This I Believe, by Luisa Wellesley

The flag salute followed.

Program:

Ron Wells, Classic Car Restoration
Ron Wells was born and raised in Manhattan and is a lifetime resident and attended Manhattan Catholic Schools twelve years and graduated.  He attended KSU and served in the Kansas National Guard.  He was a general contractor and home builder and owned a custom manufacturing business for twenty years.  He is a past president of the Manhattan Builders Association.  He hosted an hour-long radio show on KMAN on Saturday mornings for 10 years about building and remodeling homes.  He served as a Riley County commissioner for eight years and served on the Law Board while he was a commissioner.  He is a member of the Kansas Quality Woodworkers Association and the Yard Art Classic Car Club.  He assisted in teaching home building for one year at Manhattan High School.  He was widowed after 46 years of marriage and is currently married to Mary Lynn Farmer.

The first car he restored was a red 1965 Dodge Coronet with a hemi engine about 20 years ago.  He recently restored another 1965 Dodge Coronet, a blue one, he found in a storage unit near Tuttle Creek Dam.  He contacted the owner and purchased it to restore it for his wife, however, she passed away before he got started on it. 

500 cubic inch engine producing 652 pounds of torque.
In 2016 he decided to bring it into his garage to begin restoration.  Hemi engines had gotten expensive by then, so he used a 400 cubic inch Dodge engine.  When he took the engine to the machine shop in Salina, as they were talking, he ended up with a 500 cubic inch engine producing 652 pounds of torque. 

Engine and transmission installed.
Steering wheel before restoration.
Ron shared pictures of rebuilding the steering wheel, which can cost $500-$600 for a finished one.  He used slow curing epoxy to refurbish the steering wheel. 

The body of the car on the “rotisserie,”
He also showed pictures of the body of the car on the “rotisserie,” which is a framework to hold the body of the car, without the drive train, so it can be turned around on its horizontal axis to, sandblast the undercoating, weld repairs etc.  It provides easy access to all parts of the car’s body.  The first car he restored had factory undercoating and required 200 pounds of sand and took two to three hours to clean the bottom.  However, the undercoating on this car was undercoated at the dealership was quite heavy and required 800-1,000 pounds of sand and eight hours to sandblast the undercoating away.  You can’t sandblast the paint off the metal because it will distort the metal.  This car’s paint was worn enough he could sand the paint off the metal.

Front Crossmember
He showed the front crossmember and shared the mechanic must bolt the engine and transmission to it and roll the car over it, then raise the assembly and bolt it as a unit to the frame.  The engine and transmission cannot be removed through the hood of the car. 

Patching rust damage.
He uses 20 gage sheet metal to form the body shapes he needs to repair rusted places on the car body.

Completed Repairs
He takes pictures of the wiring for reference when he rebuilds the car.

The prices for tires and the transmission doubled after covid.  The hemi engine was $13,000, and he has $20,000 in the one he put in the car.

The model of car he restored was only styled in the way it was for one year, thus the hardware and trim are very expensive to buy because it is so rare.  For example, the pair taillights for that model are $4,900 because the design was only used for one year.  He used a different model of taillights that fit and were more economical.  The trunk emblem was $5,000, so he used one similar that cost $500. 10:00

He did all the work himself and had $30,000 in the first car and Barratt Jackson sold an identical one for $130,000 in 2007.  He insured his car for $45,000.  If you choose to restore a General Motors car it is affordable as body parts are easily available.  He also used clear plastic sheets to create his own paint area.  The new paint is very forgivable, and he uses it on the outside.  For the inside he uses old style paint. 

Test run at a drag strip; note left front wheel off the pavement.
Before he finished painting the car, he took it out to the drag strip and discovered it was super powerful and would lift the front tires off the pavement at the drag strip.  Since it ran so well, he finished painting the car.  The engine was a high compression engine and very loud, so he had to wear hearing protection. 

Finished Car
He is anxious to try out this finished car on a drag strip.  Since local drag strips have closed, so he has to go to Kansas City or Wichita to test the car. Ultimately, he sold that one to his friend. 

Guests: 

No guests were present.

Club Stuff/Announcements:

President Bill Wisdom provided a second reading of the list of officers and directors for 2024-2025 to the membership.  The membership approved the slate of officers and directors on a unanimous voice vote.

LINK TO APPROVED SLATE OF OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

Bruce Bidwell thanked the Manhattan Optimist Club members who pitched in to help trim the tree branches along the tree/brush line of Jessica Field at Optimist Park on Wednesday, July 17th, 2024.

Bruce Bidwell                     Brad Horchem
Steve Boeckman              Dan O’Neill
Mike Fincham                    Bob Seymour
Jim Franke                          Steve Springer (& his pole saw)

Steve Havenstein                            

Save these dates: Just Try It, Saturday, August 10th from 7:30 to 12:30; September 8, Fall Social at the Park; September 28, football parking for the OSU game; October 19, Aggieville Chili Crawl.

Adjourned with the Optimist Creed

Next Weeks’s Meeting:

JULY 31: MORNING MEETING: MOC Business Meeting featuring Greg McCune, Topic: OI International Convention.

August Meetings:

AUGUST 7: MORNING MEETING: Renee Langvardt, Owner/Operator, REX Theatre, Clay Center:  Topic: “REX Theatre Renovation – Children’s Programs”

AUGUST 14: NOON MEETING: Lauren Farwell, President, Board of Directors, Wonder Workshop: Topic: “Wonder Workshop Services to Community Youth”

AUGUST 21: MORNING MEETING: Blade Mages, Owner – Middle (formerly 502 Media): Topic: “Wareham Hall Project”

AUGUST 28: NOON MEETING: Kendra Kuhlman, Director – Manhattan Arts Center: Topic: “Master Plan for Manhattan Arts Center”

JULY BIRTHDAYS

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS