From: Neil E. Amrhein (neil@compu-powr.com)
Date: Fri May 31 2002 - 12:13:36 PDT
List,
This is a little after the fact, but it is still bothering me, so I need
to vent a little and put it out there for comment. If you want to respond to
say: "It's just an army truck" or "These trucks were meant to be used" etc,
etc.., save your energy. I don't expect you to understand.
When I was at the Churchville show, I entered my truck (M35A2) in the
restored class. Randy Emr (sp?) also had his (beautiful) M35A2 entered and
was parked next to me. I believe this happened to his truck as well. I did
not watch the judging of the smaller vehicles, so I cannot say if it
happened to them, as well.
When the judges came over to check out my truck, they mistakenly thought
that the bumper was a table on which they should sit their clipboard and
take notes. If that was not bad enough, they mistook the fender for a table,
as well. The clipboard has little metal rivets on the back which do leave
small scratch marks in the paint. They also insisted on rubbing their hands
across the body wherever they saw a small dent. I'm not sure why you would
need to *touch* the dent, except for the fact that maybe you don't believe
your eyes. Granted, restored trucks aren't supposed to have dents (which I
know I lost points for), but even if it was in Motorpool class, I would not
want them rubbing all over my truck. That's why I put a sign in it that says
"Do Not Touch". There is no exclusion for judges. My truck has real CARC
paint, which, when rubbed with a hand or anything else (as many of you
know), leaves chalky white marks that will only weather off. My truck stays
inside, so they do not weather off. I must try power-washing these off. When
I saw this, I walked over to complain about this to them, but they walked
over to judge another truck, and I never got back to them.
Even if I had been entered in Motorpool class, I would not want them to
sit a clipboard on my fender or rub all over my paint. I seriously doubt
they sat their clipboard on the fender or hood of someone's Restored (or
Motorpool) GPW or MB. The owners of those vehicles would probably kill them.
I'm not really into Jeeps, but I fully respect the effort and detail put
into the restoration, and I admire the vehicles for what they are. I'm into
bigger trucks, but I don't see any difference between a restored deuce and a
restored MB. They are both RESTORED. The owner of any restored vehicle has a
big investment in it and it should be treated that way. I drive my truck all
over, but I want it to stay nice. If this is how the bigger trucks get
treated at judged MV shows, then I won't be entering my truck in any more
shows. I'll come to hang out, but I don't need to enter shows just so a
judge can leave marks all over my truck that I need to spend time and money
trying to remove. Driving it does enough of that for me.
Anyone else experience this? Should I tell the judges "Do Not Touch"
before they start to look it over? Comments?
Sorry for the length.
--Neil
1971 General Products M35A2, Turbo, W/W
1985 Turtle Mountain M105A2
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Aug 16 2002 - 11:21:43 PDT