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October 2016 - Monthly News & Updates
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Sorry we are late this month. It has been a crazy end of the fall with going to shows, and hosting the Bugs by the River show.
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"Fall"-ing in to it.
September is over, and October is here. It seems like I just said basically the same thing about August and, September, just a few days ago. When I first committed to producing a newsletter every month I didn't realize how quickly time can pass if you have a recurring deadline. The next months effort sneaks up on me rather quickly, but I am learning, and adjusting.
The Bugs by the River show and open house is over. Everyone seemed to have a good time, although the turn out was slightly less than last year. There was a good mix of nice cars to look at and friendly people to talk to. We received word that there were rain showers all around our location, so that put a damper on some of our visitors. While here it was overcast early in the day, with a short period of drizzle, the rest of the day was dry, but overcast. The slow race went well, and was interesting to say the least. Hopefully next year will bring better weather.
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Hog Swat
The Hog Swat car is done, (aka. The Berrien Boar Blaster). I am now making final plans to ship it to Georgia where it will have an electric drive train installed and be final detailed. In a few months I hope to have pictures of the finished car. It looks like Little John is going to make the delivery. He is our go to gun guy and Hal gave us a standing invitation to participate when we do the delivery, so LJ gets the trip.
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Building Inventory
This past weekend was the NHRA Dodge/Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. I reserved a space in the RV Court again this year and Barb and I attended. The RV court is "inside the fence" and our spot was directly in line with the 1000 foot finish line and about 30 yards back from the fence. We set up Thursday afternoon in the rain and drizzle. We passed on the Dodge block party at First Energy Stadium in Reading because we thought it would rain out. It turned out that the party went on as scheduled, and we missed what was described as a good time.
The two pro qualifying sessions both rained out Friday, but the teams did prep the cars, so I got my dose of nitro fumes when they warmed up the cars, Barb thinks I am crazy (along with quite a few others), because I stand there next to the trailer, along with many others, and breathe fumes and have our noses running, our eyes watering, and can barely breathe. What an experience!
Anyway, they got one qualifying session in on Saturday, and then it rained again. Sunday was overcast but with a lot of track preparation the NHRA guys got the track ready and got the show in. The top fuel class was won by a margin of .003 seconds. That is close racing, and was awesome to watch.
The rained out, June Bug VW show and drag race is in two weeks. It happens on Sunday, October 16th. It is at Maple Grove Raceway, and is a one day affair with car show, swap meet, new parts vendors (us), and drag races with several classes. Hopefully we will have good weather and a great day. Check out www.maplegroveraceway.com for details.
Sales are a bit slow this time of year so we are building inventory ahead. Chassis, bodies, & Berrien's various parts are being built. Tank just finished an adapter to bolt the UTV seats onto our Lowered Seat Tracks. After the June Bug Show, we hope to spend some quality time on the GTX (Gob Stopper Project).
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We Own a Dragon?!?!?!?
It has been a year since we began using our Torchmate, CNC Plasma table. The Torchmate, along with several other smaller machines have made a huge difference in our production operation. We are now moving on to the next phase of production equipment. About October 15th, we will be taking deliver of our new Bend Tech Dragon. The Dragon is a CNC-Plasma-rotary tube cutter. When we get it all sorted out the plan is to cut all our joints, copes and angles on the Dragon. The idea is to speed prep times and end up with much closer tolerance joints. This machine also will be marking the location of the various tube joints, so our Warrior and Cruiser pieces will actually be marked where the tubes weld together. It can also engrave a part number on each piece to make part identification much easier. There is no doubt that it will take some time until everything is in place and working. We believe the end result will more than justify the cost and time spent on input.
You can check out the video of the Dragon in action here:
Facebook Video
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New Dealer in Minnesota!
It is now official. We have a Berrien Buggy Dealer in ST. Paul, Minnesota. VI Buggies, 760 Payne Ave. St. Paul, Mn. 55130. The owner is Hank Laurent. Phone 651-263-3181.
Brenda is making a big difference in the parts department. She has been organizing and cleaning the whole department. She is also expanding sales areas on the second floor. We now have a seat display area, and all our header and mufflers in a separate room, including the older Bug Pack and Thunderbird stuff we found in a back room at Berrien Buggy. At the same time she is starting the "flea market" section to begin displaying some of the various parts from the New Jersey, estate buyout.
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In Closing...
That should do it for this month. It looks like the month of October may be less hectic that September. That may not be a bad thing. I am kind of regretting that I am not going to the SEMA show this year, but hope to next year. Because of that I will have a few weeks where I can relax and goof off on the weekends.
One last note. October 13th. is my birthday. I was born in 1946. Mom always told me " Johnny, some day you are going to grow up, and get away from this car thing" I wonder when?
"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea!"
John
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