February 2015 Venice Florida Corvettes Club Newsletter 71st Edition Sponsored By Bill Buck Chevrolet Club Web Site: President’s Message Newsletter Editor: Bill Sabatino Deadline for submissions to the newsletter is the Tuesday before the club meeting. Executive Board I would like to welcome our northern club members back to "Paradise" and Venice Florida Corvettes! We have many great events planned for this year with our car shows and our social events including our club membership meeting picnic which will be held at Maxine Barrett Park on April 7, 2015. I hope everyone can attend this special meeting before heading north. President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Membership Director Immediate Past President Our club continues to have new members join every month and with our new members come new ideas. If you have any suggestions or ideas of activities or how we can make our club better, please contact me or any member of our Executive Board. This is your club and your continued interest, ideas, and involvement is making this club one of the best Corvette Clubs in Florida. www.venicefloridacorvettes.com Harry Hite John Gammel Anna Marie Marano Judy Umbreit Jeff McCartney Al Royal Committee Leaders VFC Car Show Quartermaster Social Committee Sponsor Liaison Sunshine Celebrations Technical Committee Web Master NCM Ambassador I want to remind everyone of our upcoming club show this year on Sunday, March 15, 2015 in Centennial Park in downtown Venice. This is our 11th annual Corvette Show and has been one of the favorite Corvette Shows to attend in Florida by Corvette enthusiasts. Again, we will have judged and participant's choice awards given with a total of 50 Shark's Tooth Trophies awarded! We have changed our show this year to pre-registration only and limiting 165 entrants' Corvettes. This was done to make it easier for the entrants and our volunteers. Harry Hite & John Gammel Ron & Joan Kubala Sue Marchiando & Barb Turner John Vidas JoAnn Royal Jake Delaney Don Kerndt Mike Walsh Our Welcome Party will be held on Saturday evening March 14th at Bentley's Boutique Hotel which will be our host hotel for this event. We will open admission to the Welcome Party for our show volunteer members in February. In addition, the last chance to order the 2015 Show Shirt will be at the February Membership Meeting. Our club show currently has over 100 registrations and it promises to be another great show! The success of our shows ultimately depend on the volunteerism of our members and our members have always 1 done a great job! If you wish to volunteer to help with our show, please contact me or the car show assistant chair, John Gammel. In addition, there will be signup sheets available at our February Membership Meeting. Board Meeting If you would like to bring up a topic for discussion or you’re just interested in what goes on at the executive board meeting come join us. The meeting is open to all members. The meetings are at the Venice Community Center at 7pm (see calendar for date). Harry Hite, President Vice President’s Message Quartermaster Corner The new team of both the board and the committees have been very busy with the planning and the initial year’s activities. One focus is to plan out all of the car shows and caravans for the year. We have typically gone to shows of the clubs that support us by coming to our annual show and will in general continue this practice. But I’m also interested in shows that you think we should have as a club event whether it’s our primary show for the month or one that we’re just informing the members about. If you have a show that we haven’t typically supported/attended I’d like your input. The time to have our annual Car Show is getting closer and for all the members we want to remind you that at the Feb. Meeting you can order this year's show T-shirt, we will have a separate table available just for this ordering, emails have been sent. The other club items will be available at the regular table. The Quartermaster's table is open prior to each meeting from 67PM only. When the meeting starts the table(s) are closed. Key to any supported show is the event captain. It’s important that we expand the base of members who can comfortably volunteer for this. To that end if you’d like to volunteer to be a captain but feel you’d like some help with the process we’ll find someone to help you. Your helper will walk through the entire process so things will go well and you’ll be comfortable going forward. This will be our last year as Quartermaster, anyone who is interested in taking over this position please let me know or our President Harry Hite. Joan and Ron Kubala, Quartermasters Membership Corner Our upcoming club car shows are the Pelican Preserve on 2/7 in Ft. Myers captained by Al and JoAnn Royal and hosted by Corvettes and the Gulf and the Corvettes of Charlotte County All Corvette Show on the River on 3/1 in Punta Gorda for which we still need a captain. Be sure to reference our website for both show lists and flyers for these and other shows. As of January 12/2015 we have 193 Corvette family memberships with a total of 244 Corvettes owned by our membership. There has been some interest in small, limited attendance hands-on clinics for specific subjects. Among the areas might be: wheel restoration and cleaning, detailing on older cars using power equipment, tune-up and spark plug changing, show detailing, and engine compartment detailing. What would you like to attend? John Gammel, Vice President On January the 20th we held our first “NEW MEMBERS WELCOME BREAKFAST” at Ihop in South Venice and it was well attended. Those new members attending and their cars are: Don Behnke 99 Magnetic Red Tintcoat Coupe Bob Holland 03 Anniversary Red Convertible John and Jane Hollabaugh 98 Bright Silver Metallic Convertible Rob and Susan Holsgrove 86 Gold Metallic Coupe Ralph and Kathy Tanski 64 Riverside Red Convertible Dave Timmerman who has three corvettes and they are a 02 Millennium Yellow Convertible, a 05 Datona Sunset Orange Coupe and a 98 Black Coupe. Upcoming Activities & Events Venice Florida Corvettes monthly meeting is the 1ST Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm at the Venice Community Center (see below for exceptions). Jan 29 Feb 3 Feb 7* Feb 8* VFC Board Meeting - Venice Community Center – Contact Harry Hite VFC Meeting - Venice Community Center – Contact Harry Hite Pelican Preserve Car Show – Ft. Myers – Contact Al Royal** Big Cat Habitat – Sarasota – Contact Terry Candido** Jeff McCartney Membership Director * Caravan planned ** Designated Club Event 2 Suggestion Box February Celebrations Wish the club would do something you enjoy? Did your old club have an activity that we don’t do that you really enjoy? Let us hear from you. Send your ideas to me and I will distribute them to the proper people for consideration. Bill Sabatino Happy Birthday February My Mother Taught Me My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE. "You are going to keep scrubbing that wall till it is right!" Ron Sanders 1st Gidget Roberts 2nd Carol Craig 4th Raymond Gomes 7th Bill McHale 8th Debby Trenner 11th Gayle Behnke 12th Karan Raymond 13th John Wurster 14th Don David 14th Lynda Card 14th Joanne Walsh 16th My mother taught me RELIGION. "You better pray that will come out of the carpet." My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL. "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!" Do You Need This? This is the first article I am writing that I haven't actually done the work. The reason I am writing about replacing the shift cable is that it has failed on several members cars. I'm talking about C5 and C6 automatic Corvettes. It seems when they get about 7 to 10 years old and they break you cannot shift the car. What most members have experienced is, it is in park and the shifter moves but is not connected to anything. It can break at either the transmission or the shifter. It is costing between $250 and $500. The cable itself is not breaking; only a plastic bushing. GM has no fix but to replace the entire cable. Some people are buying new plastic bushings at places like AutoZone and making the old cable work. Others are drilling and tapping so a bolt can hold it in place. Realize, I have never worked on this cable so I have no real experience. Here is a brief procedure on how to replace the cable: Richard Rudin 16th Terry Owens 17th Jane Griese 19th Georganne Marfizo 22nd Diana Gilson 23rd Linda Wencil 24th Claudia Bost 24th Ron Wencil 27th Jane Scorse 28th Monroe Kokin 28th Betty Miller 28th Joan Deleo 28th Happy Anniversary February You can do everything from under the car. There is no need to remove the shifter. The exhaust and tunnel plate must be removed which is the hard part. Pop the cable off the ball connector at the shifter with a screwdriver. Pry the metal clip out using needle nose pliers. There are two tabs on the large side of the cable that goes through the mount. Depress the tabs and push the cable back through the mount. The transmission side is basically the same and held in by two nuts. Remove the cable end of the ball connector by prying it off. Remove the mount first and then the cable. Jan & Leslie Hahn 7th Curt & Carolyn Norton 8th Richard & Janine Rudin 8th Anello & Barbara Cocchi 13th David Dodds & Myrtle Boggs 14th Charlie & Debbie Zuberer 14th Gene & Jane Scorse 15th John & Linda Richter 21st Ed Gilmore &Linda Baldwin 22nd Don & Carol Mager 28th The main purpose of this article is to warn members before this breaks and leaves you stranded. You might want to fix it sooner than later. JoAnn Royal, Sunshine Lady Happy motoring, Larry Rains 3 Corvettes On The Gulf Car Show Welcome Back Brunch Six Bends Harley Davidson/Corvettes on the Gulf - Tenth Annual Corvette Open Car, Truck & Motorcycle Show On Sunday, the 18th of January, 102 of our club members enjoyed a wonderful welcome back brunch at Boca Royale Golf and Country Club in Englewood. About one half of those attending met at the old Albertsons on the bypass in Venice at 9:30 a.m. and traveled via caravan from Venice to Englewood to meet up with our remaining members at the Boca Royale clubhouse. On Sunday, January 4th, four members of VFC attended the Tenth Annual Corvette Open Car, Truck & Motorcycle Show sponsored by Six Bends Harley Davidson and Corvettes on the Gulf. It was a beautiful day and over 200 cars, trucks and motorcycles were on display. Lead by Captains, Rich Gruenberg and Judy Umbreit, Frank Vassallo and Pete Bryne headed out from the Race Trac on Jacaranda at 7:50 AM for Fort Myers. We were joined in Ft. Myers by Dave and Angela Gutt. The show organizers parked us together right up front, so although not large in numbers, our presence was noticed. This was Frank’s first car show and he was along to enjoy the day and get a feel for what is involved in showing ones car. Since he was parked right between Pete and Rich, he got many tips as the morning progressed and was even talked into opening his hood for the judges. Hopefully, he will be joining us at future shows with cleaning products in hand. After giving the cars a good cleaning, it was time for a break to await the arrival of the judges. At the end of the day, VFC was again noticed as Rich Gruenberg received a “Best of Show in Class” trophy. Upon arrival we all enjoyed great food served at various stations scattered around a spacious atrium with soft music being performed. We enjoyed a relaxing few hours catching up with our northern friends and enjoying the golf course views through the floor to ceiling windows located in the spacious room provided to our club by the Boca Royale folks. Thanks to Pete, Frank, Dave and Angela for attending the show. Event Captains: Rich Gruenberg and Judy Umbreit 4 Rolling Thunder We had 53 Corvette families sign up for the Rolling Thunder show. Unfortunately the night before there was a storm and the weather really looked bleak. We had a few phone calls wanting to know if the show was canceled, but with most shows once a date is set it is rain or shine just like our Corvette Show. At about 6am the weather didn’t look the greatest but checking the radar I thought we might get a break. God must have owned a Corvette at one point because the weather did break and the drizzle ended. It was still breezy but when the sun was out everything dried and it warmed up. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, the Boca Royale folks, being excited to have 50+ corvettes on their property, took photos of some of the cars and club decals and posted the photos on their website. A great time was had by all. This event was planned by VFC's social committee members Angela Falge and Linda Wencil. 5 We had 35 VFC Corvettes brave the weather and four of them won plaques. The food was good and the Venice High Band performed for the crowd. Some of our members came a little later and that was fine. We did win the club participation award, a plaque and $100. We gave the $100 back to the Band Boosters as a donation to help fund band programs. The gentleman that won the 50/50 also did the same in honor of his daughter who served in the military and was killed in the service of our country. A great gesture! We were all young a few years ago and this is a little way of supporting our communities’ young people. The Venice Band THANKS you!! Gerry and John Vidas, Rolling Thunder Captains thank you also. See you next year! Member Businesses If you have a business and would like to see it displayed in the newsletter, please e-mail your business card to Bill Sabatino. 6