Quote:
Originally Posted by Model "A" Fords
Aluminum fans are the answer to the safety and looks nice only lacks an accurate original shape. I've studied original fans for some time with the idea that a new one could be built that looks the part while being reliable. It has been a fun journey. Brent, in the meantime I'm interested with your own fan restorations. What are you doing to the original fans that give you the confidence of their reliability?
As far as points are concerned, they are used to establish originality therefore my goal of 500 points. I would be good with no score and just receiving a sheet showing deficiencies. I would still work towards originality and be ready to receive the truth. I like the idea of originality and not to be judged against the car next to me.
|
Bob, I will start by addressing your 2nd point first.
To begin with, I never understood the mindset of the founding fathers of the "5000-to-500 Point System" other than when you round a number, it potentially makes a vehicle look like it scored better. What I am speaking of is the score we tell everyone is based on a 500 point system, ...however on 'judgment day', the vehicle is evaluated using 5,000 points.
So in reality if a vehicle scores 4,976 points (-theoretically there were 24 points deducted for deficiencies) however on Awards Night, we tell people that car scored a 498, ...only 2 points off of a perfect score. Kinda misleading IMO.
In my thinking, by
only using the points system to evaluate for Best of Show, -AND by never revealing
any scores outside of the view of the Chief Judge and the points tabulator(s), it truly allows each vehicle to compete against the Judging Sheet only without comparisons and/or egos getting involved. Additionally, it takes away the ability for people that compare vehicles that were evaluated on different years yet say one is more/less authentic than one that was judged on a different year. Just because one scored 496 on one year vs. someone else's vehicle maybe scoring 498 on a different year does not mean the 498 vehicle was more authentic. Think about it!
One other positive point (-at least from my perspective) about not revealing scores/points to the car owner is this opens the opportunity for each Team Captain and their team members to meet with each car owner after adjudication (-maybe the following day) to quickly discuss what deficiencies they evaluated/noted on that vehicle. This should be a great learning opportunity for each car owner if they truly are interested in bettering their vehicle. And, if during the conversation with the car owner an error in adjudication is discovered, at that point all the Team Captain needs to do is tell the car owner to strike that off of the sheet. No Harm, -No Foul!! Think about it, ...No points would ever need to be changed, -nor should meeting like this ever be a stressful time for the Adjudicators nor the car owners simply because points are not discussed. Heck, if anything, a Team Captain can tell the owner something like "It appeared this might be a reproduction part however we were not sure so we gave no deduction." Even if the team did make a deduction, the owner would never know nor have a reason to be upset. By no scoring numbers released, it also eliminates another issue that has really ticked-off car owners in the past. By eliminating the practice of revealing the vehicle's score, it eliminates the discomfort when a car owner wrongfully loses points on an erroneous deduction only to find out about it several weeks after the show has ended and the judges are no longer around to right the wrong.
About fan restoration....
These fans rarely had an issue during the first 25-30 years of their life. What changed is, they became bent from hands tugging on the blades during timing operations, or rust formed inside the two layers of metal, or?? where a culmination of these created an imbalance that often set-up harmonics for the fan blades.
To correct this, I drill the end of the outer blade to see if there is any rust powder inside. Media-blast and then soak the entire fan (inside & out) in Evapo-Rust to stop any new rust from forming. Use a wet-mag to inspect the fan hub for micro cracks. This is where the pressed fan blades are attached to the hub as this is where I find about 98% of them fatigue. If there is only one or two cracks, these can be fuse-welded by a competent welder. After all the liquid has been dried from inside, weld and metalfinish the inspection holes closed. Next, mount the fan onto a mandrel where it can be spun balanced. I purchased mine probably 10 years ago from the late Tom Wessenberg when he made a couple of static balancers. I adapted mine to a dynamic balancer. Removing weight from the entire tip is where I lighten them.
Contrary to what many may believe, most of the fans that break have been cracked for awhile. We see quite a few vehicles come in for service that have an original fan. Often times these are cars that are driven frequently and they will have a cracked fan but the owner had no clue. No telling how long it has been that way either!! While we always replace with new alloy fans, a properly restored fan will more than adequate to safely make it through Start & Idle, and survive the Mandatory Tour. Think about it, it is the high-speed RPMs that create the detrimental harmonics that cause these to fail yet 99% of these cars are driven very gingerly thru S&I and on the Mandatory Tour.