Having your car judged at The Buffalo National meet? ‘FREE’ Judging points:

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

I have noticed over the last ten or more years when judging our cars, that there often are many points lost by the car not being prepared fully for judging.

Now, you might think I’m referring to polishing or waxing your car, or touching up the paint or similar cosmetic items. But I’m not, I’m referring to several safely items that should be attended to before the car is even taken out on the street.

‘FREE’ points ?? What I mean is that this will cost virtually nothing,

Here it is:

Perform a thorough light check on all lights on your car, including added accessory lights. If it’s installed on your car, it should work, and work properly.

Also, perform a operational test of your wipers. Often they are not used for years at a time,When was the last time you drove your Pierce in the rain? Wipers need regular exercise to work.

Test your horn. Sometimes the horn button itself has a certain ‘spot’ that works, or it may have a lot of dust and fuzz between the horn button electrical contacts. Whatever it takes, a brush, a vacuum or some wire wiggling, but get the horn to work.

Most of the issues found with the above items are slightly loose electrical connections, Often just loosening a wire connection, working the parts against each other then tightening the connection again will restore proper operation of the light, horn, etc.

Sometimes a lens needs to be removed, and the light bulb replaced, or a bit of Scotchbright used to polish the bulb base, and socket as well as the central pin in the socket, and the lead ‘button’ on the end of the bulb.

With our triple tailight assemblies, the whole assembly often gets a bit of corrosion under the mounting bolts, leading to no ground for the entire light assembly, Again, loosen the mounting bolts, work them back and forth a few times, and retighten. If that doesn’t do the job, then remove one bolt at a time, and carefully sand the bolt head, nut, lockwasher and the seating areas where they tighten against. The reinstall the bolt, and repeat on the remaining ones.

Some stubborn bad grounds can try your patience, but bright, visible stop lights, headlights, a loud horn, and working wipers are all important safety items to have working when the car is being driven on public roads.

There are points deducted for any light not working. a missing or dead horn is 5 points, an inoperative brake light, a huge safety item is usually a 5 point deduction.

So go over you car, make sure these relatively easy tasks are done, and save your car from loosing lots of ‘FREE’ points.. They just take a little bit of time and care. And your car will be safer to drive on the public roads.

Greg Long

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

This is superb advice! Thanks, Greg. I believe it was at the 2000 Meet in Boerne, TX, that an older-restoration Series 80 which ***should** have had at least 2nd place failed to place due to multiple lighting issues, probably due to bad connections which developed over time. These are the cheapest judging points you will ever earn!

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

When I rewired my car I included a separate ground wire to all electrical items. I suppose this was reason to knock off a point, BUT MY HORNS WORKED BETTER AND YOU COULD SEE THE DIFFERENCE AT NIGHT LOOKING AT ANY LIGHT. I also used welding cable replacements for the battery ground and starter cable. All the wires that originally were #16 went to #14, and all #14 went to #12. Because I used original fabric coded wire covers, no one ever did check me out. The wire ends were crimped and soldered, and I used shrink tubing carefully over the ends. all the wire passed through the original metal flex tubing, all of which had been bead blasted and repainted. I had 3 horns, 3 added head lights, horn and light relays, expanded capacity delrin replacements of the original bakelite connector blocks, a right hand taillight assembly ( copy of the factory left hand unit), and running board courtesy lights ( original factory drawings show these for the Model C). I also used dual 6 volt batteries with blade switches to connect as needed. I did the work myself (didn’t trust any one else), and used the PAS wireing booklet to assist me.

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Thanks William, my point was to just spruce-up the existing lights and accessories. There is no doubt that adding a new, well hidden ground is going to make for very little voltage drop. But that defeats the subject of tis post: Virtually ‘FREE’ points [points retained instead of deducted ] .

If a person was to undertake a ground-wire project at this late of a date, the car would not make it to the Buffalo national meet.

However, If a person finds the dirty light bulb socket, the loose wire connection, wiggles and tightens the mounting bolts and screws for the taillight mount, and restores the function of the lights, horn etc, Then the car is much safer to drive in traffic with modern cars and ‘modern’ drivers.

There are other almost ‘free’ points to be saved: if there are any philips screws, replace them with slotted head hardware. If there have been wiring repairs with modern plastic wire, and crimp on connectors that usually are obnoxious colors, cover them with shrink wrap and wire loom or at least paint them black !!

Greg Long

[Author]

Posts