15th Annual CTCC Tech Session

Thirty-eight CTCC and AACA members gathered on Saturday, April 13

at the garage and antique car collection of  Frank Troost in Hillside, Illinois. 

The visit was arranged by Dick Murray from  AACA. 

The cars are in a former machine shop with a wooden floor,

surrounded by lumber yards. 

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  As we munched on coffee and rolls Frank explained each of his cars. 

His Maserati which he drove in,  Starmist Blue ’57 Thunderbird,

a Desert Sky Blue ’03 ‘Bird, eight ’55 – ‘ 61 Imperials and Chrysler's, 

a ’55 Dodge three tone, ’70 Plymouth wagon, ’48 yellow Studebaker,

and a two tone ’55 Oldsmobile with factory air conditioning.

Ken Smizinski began the Tech Session. He is a Master 3 CTCI judge and has worked on 600  ‘55 – ’57 Thunderbirds.  The first topic of discussion was adjusting transmission bands which must be done with the trans. out of the car. There is an access plate with the seat out of the car but this is insufficient.

   The next topic was the correct mounting of the engine front  to rear which is absolutely necessary to eliminate vibration.   There is a steel plate on the front of the timing chain cover which mounts to a hole in the frame in front.  The rear engine mount is to the transmission.  ’55 and ’56 ‘Birds have two mounting holes offset, while ’57 has two holes next to each other.  The ’57 needs a metal plate which sits on the frame.  The rear engine mount is on the trans. bracket, same for ’55-’57 ‘Birds.  The circle of the nut must be in the center of the hole in order to have the spacing correct.  The steady rest bracket mounts on the frame and engine to take up torque.  An  extra washer with a lip is needed.  The bracket should be adjusted with the nuts off, bottom raised up, then tightened.  One inch play is needed in the steady rest mount.  On the bottom of the steady rest  the second washer centers in the hole.  The spacing plate for the engine mounts is different on a Thunderbird from Ford passenger cars.

   The final topic of discussion was the dying of padded dashboards, which only come in blue.  Casco has vinyl  dye in the correct colors.

   At the conclusion of the Tech Session 30 of us went to lunch at “Q’s Restaurant” which featured Italian specialties. 

CTCC and AACA members in attendance were: Dan Anderson,  Jay Ayares,  Sean Bickerton,  Laura Cielenski, Mike Cielenski, Joe Esdale,  Pat Flynn,  Kurt Frederick,  Charles Freund,  Gordon Gluff,  Pete Hauser,  Len Keil,  Barry Konigsford, Pete Kramer,  Joe Kraatz, Sandy Kraatz, Bob Markert,  Jerry Michna, Dan Mrozek,  Dick Murray,  Tom O’Donald,  Bill Parks,  Ron Pavlak,  Rich Peterson,  Dave Pogorski,  Dan Pritchett,  Frank Racyvinski,  Lloyd Schellin,   Ken Smizinski,  Darlene Sobczyk, Dan Sobczyk,  Bob Sroka,  Len Vinyard,  Bob Wenderski,  Liz Werth,  Jim Wilson, Tom Wolfe,  and Kami Woody.

 
 
 

By Jim Wilson