The NICC is a very active club. Activities include monthly meetings, drag races, cruises, shows and tours. Take a look at some of what we've done to get a flavor. We have an annual picnic but there aren't a lot of pictures. I guess we're too busy enjoying the company and food!
This is a sample of what we like to do.
SHOWS:
This picture is from Chevy/Vette Fest, 1996. Mike Black is enjoying a beef sandwich, Rick Miller is hamming it up and Bill Holer is enjoying the fun. Rick's dark blue 1964 SS there and Tom Wilkin's 1972 is behind them. We had fun, as always.
This is the picture of some of the NICC volunteers from the 1994 NCOA Convention in Schaumburg. We had fun, worked hard and collapsed after hosting 150 judged Chevelles, another 40 daily drivers and all of the tow vehicles.
Some of the 50+ Chevelles at the show in Naperville. Marty Leibrock's '72 (headlight showing) is next to Bill Holer's '64, Mike Hogan's '65 and Lou Scola's '64. We had a great time and had a car towed from Iowa joining us in the fun.
Some more pictures from the Naperville show. The second car on the right is the bronze Yenko of Gary & Shelley Place.
RACING:
This is member Jim Karg and his '66 getting up to speed at Union Grove. Jim is an old drag racer and loves using all 427 cubic inches. Jim tells stories of visiting Nickey Chevrolet after getting out of the service and buying a 2 door post 396-375hp Chevelle. He wishes he still had it.
Heating up the tires on a '70 LS-6 getting ready for battle with the 'Vette in the right lane.
We race hard and enjoy the company. Between rounds Rick Miller, Tom Wilkin and Mike Black practice waving to the competition.
This is Mike Black leaving hard at Byron on probably was another 12 second run with his crate LS-6 and four speed. Watch out when cruising in Hennepin, IL.
This is what we've done !!!
Christmas Party, December 5th.
Our 26th Christmas party and we were once again hosted by Andy & Lisa Marchiando. Very nice weather with clear roads and decent temps. The event started at 5pm with the food being delivered around 6pm. Andy & Lisa were all prepared for the NICC with Christmas decorations lit and helping everyone to know exactly where their home was. 37 NICC members spent the night at the party which was a great turnout. The nice thing was that people arrived throughout the night; if they couldn't make it at 5 or 6, it was 7pm, and having the "flow" was fun. Also, we had NICC children and granchildren there which was welcome.
Prior to the food being delivered, there were appetizers that were brought, for all to enjoy. We were all food tasting experts for a night and the consensus was that it was all excellent !!
Several NICC members attended the Frankenmuth, MI. car cruise. While there they saw another Chevelle on the road and waived and made the "Chevrolet nod". Well, the people in the car noticed a NICC sticker and found the address and sent Mark Witczak the card on the left. Mark brought it to the party and Wes is reading it by the drinks. Pretty neat that they took the time out to do this. You never know what people will notice.
Fred Aguayo updating Joe, Bob and Jim on the status of his 1970 SS. After many years of restoration, it is done and will be out at the NICC 2010 events. Behind the couch is the table on the left which held the main dishes and in the back on the wall was the "Shelf of Temptation", also known as the dessert table. The selection was great. We just looked at it as 107 Octane for us. No calories, carbs or fat to worry about, just high octane food to keep us going strong throughout the night.
Attached to the house are two garages (holding 3 cars). The picture on the left is the 2 car where Andy keeps the '66 and Lisa's '96 Impala SS. The picture is taken from the top of the stairs leading into the garage and immediately to the left is the 3rd bay, where some additional seating was set-up (pic on the right). Here you see Santa's helper, Joe Wirth, is helping set-up.
Jim, Wes & Rick at the start of the evening. This picture is from the front of the 2 car garage and behind them is the 3rd bay, which house even more seating area. On the right is the 3rd bay area.
RECAP OF NOVEMBER 7th MEETING
AT WHEATLAND COLLISION CETNER
The weather was perfect for our meeting. We had eight member Chevelles and seven other Chevelles/hot rods. Joe Gomez did a great job of arranging the meeting. Rick, the owner, gave us a great place to meet. Food was provided and everyone had a good time. We had close to 20 members show up and there were numerous guests. The local PPG rep was there and gave away calendars and posters. The owner of the media blasting shop down the street showed up and told us about his good service and reasonable prices. After the normal looking and talking, the food was served. We had a brief meeting after the food. Some of the items discussed were:
- The Christmas party will be held at Andy Marchiando's. He and Lisa hosted the party a couple of years ago and a good time was had by all. The party will be Sat. December 5, 2009. The details will be in the newsletter and on the website.
- Andy, Scott, and Fred (along with Wes and Jim) will be doing the Hot Rod Power Tour in June. The tour is starting in Newton Iowa and proceeding to Springfield Illinois. The would be a good outing for the club. If you want to do one or two days, it'll be an easy drive. More information will be available soon. Andy will be the coordinator. If you have questions or would like the hotel list, please call Andy at (630) 357-4043.
- If anyone has suggestions for the January, February, and March meetings please let George (630-305-9537) know.
Jim & Jill Kargs Cruise to Woodstock
By Jim & Judy Wersching
We
left the Karg's home in Des Plaines around 11:AM. It looked like it was going to
be a wonderful day. The sun was shinning and we had “blue” sky! After the past
week or so this was great. Jill did an excellent job mapping out the days route
and made sure everyone had a copy of the directions. The plan was to take all
back roads and see the fall colors on our way to Woodstock, IL, then on to Marengo. There were over 40 twist and turns, all described in detail by Jill. No
one got lost and the drive there was beautiful and uneventful. We went through
small towns like Long Grove (sorry Andy – Lisa really wanted to stop and shop),
and some I never heard of. As we got closer to Woodstock, Steve Husak and his family
joined us in his beautiful ’70 Chevelle wagon.
After about a wonderful 2-hour ride from Des Plaines, we arrived in Woodstock where Jim guided us to a nice isolated parking lot where we stopped to walk around town and have lunch. There are quite a few restaurants in town and after much debate we decided on the “Public House”, which turned out to be very satisfying to all. Fred had a “gigantic” burger and after his plate was empty, we asked how it was and all he could say was “It’s Gone!”.
After eating, we did a little
window-shopping around town until we left for Marengo. They have something
called the “Autumn Drive” which is kind of a fall festival. Some twelve family
farms are open to the public for the weekend; antiques, arts, crafts, pumpkins,
popcorn - like a big flea market. Once again Jim found us all a nice isolated
place to park and we 
just
kind of “moseyed” around for a while enjoying the country atmosphere. The ladies
couldn’t buy too much since there is not a lot of room in these cars. Jill was
looking at some nice flowers, “mums” that were just gorgeous at 5/$20.00. Maybe
next time if Jim brings the El Camino.
From there, we ended up going to Cody’s Pumpkin farm where Judy and I along with Joe and Carol, picked up some pumpkins. They had hayrides and all that kind of “Fall” stuff. A hayride would have been nice but it was getting late and turning colder.
We all left to go home around 5:PM. All in all, this was a great time. I hope next time that more club members and friends will decide to join us. It was a wonderful way to spend a fall day. Who knows, maybe next time we could even get the Club to foot the bill for lunch!
August 29th Cruise Hosted
by Andy & Lisa Marchiando
Well the cars looked great. One of the highlights was the fact that it was Andy & Lisa's 36th Anniversary. That was a nice way to spend it. There were many cars that came to Andy & Lisa's and we provided a show for those driving by on Knoch Knolls Dr. in Naperville. Kinda fun watching the looks as they drove by.
From there we drove to the Freedom Center where Jim & Judy were waiting for us with the green Chevelle. After we parked the cars we went for dinner with most of us going to Jason's Deli. First learned of Jason's while in Colorado Springs (go there every time) and their fresh food is great. You can enjoy the rueben sandwich or the excellent salad bar. Whatever you wanted at least it was warm inside!!
After dinner we went back and the Leibrock boys and Danielle Primm set-up the Summit portable table and began to play games while the rest of the adults looked at the other cars there and enjoyed talking. It was a nice relaxing evening. AT the end of the evening they handed out 4 trophies and 3 NICC members received them; Andy & Lisa, Mark Witczak and his '65 and George Primm with the '71 Monte SS. After that we all enjoyed the beautiful sunset and then began the drive home with the heaters on !!
Gotta love that devilish look in Joe's eyes !!!
He gets excited when he has his Chevelle, his wife Carol and his grandkids !!!
Even rained on the Rain date
On Friday, July 17th it rained in the afternoon in some suburbs, but not all and that was enough to keep the attendance for the entire DG cruise to about a quarter of what it normally is. Despite the afternoon rain 8 NICC cars / members drove to Downers Grove and enjoyed plenty of parking in partly sunny skies but cooler weather. Who would have believed that sweaters and sweat shirts would have to be worn in July. We were all talking about how we could use some global warming. Hot coffee was the beverage of the night. Probably around 70 cars in total when they usually have several hundred.
You'll notice in the picture above of Joe Wirth, jackets and sweaters were required on a July 17th night. The discussion we were having concluded that Al Gore has no idea what he is talking about. Coolest June and now July. We voted on the coming Ice Age as was predicted when we were in college in the late 70's. Egads.
The weather was cooperative, sunny warm and clear. That encouraged 14 NICC cars to come out to the first cruise of the year at Jim & Mary Holbach's. We had a VERY SPECIAL occurrence for those long-time members who new Bill Holer, and there will be pics of that later. Even had a visit from Jim's neighbors and the question we all asked is, "is there a personality test to be able to move into the neighborhood". The neighbors were not shy and it was obvious they were all good friends.
We left Holbach's home at 6pm for the cruise spot in Mt. Prospect. At Jim's directions we split into 2 groups for cruising so we would be certain not to get split up. Took about 15 minutes to drive there and once we parked, we used the convenient restaurant map that Jim had prepared. Great job.
We only had a few mishaps. Looks like the 1995 Z-28 in attendance lost a fuel pump but it was great having Joe Wirth as a club member, cuz the Z was towed to Barnes Automotive on Rand Rd., which is the shop Joe manages. Also, Bob Reichenbach had a close call with a truck, but that situation ended up fine.
After we parked, it was time to look at the cars then hit the food !!! We had a very good time and wish even more could have made it, but it was just fine. For your enjoyment, there are pictures for your enjoyment.
This is the car that caught the attention of all the "older" members; Bill Holer, an original NICC member passed away from cancer in March, 1998. One of his unfinished projects was the 1964 Malibu convertible he bought from Jim Clark, who found the Malibu. After Bill's death the family sold it to NICC member Andy Marchiando, but he has many projects and Mark Hojnacki bought it last year and this was it's NICC debut. That's former owner Jim Clark in the green T-shirt walking behind the left quarter panel. That's Uncle Jim Holbach on the right letting Mark know he did a good job. It was nice seeing the car. Here are some more pics of the car for you to enjoy.
Mark Hojnacki's wife was past her due date, but that didn't stop her from attending the cruise. There wipes out the excuses of all the club members.
April 25th Meeting at Wilkin's
Rick Miller & Chuck Maroni drove up from the Streator area.
Here they are talking with Rick's daughter Sarah. Last time we saw her she was about 36 inches tall.
I
t was basically nice all week and then on Saturday afternoon, wham, the rains, I mean, thunderstorms came. What is normally a meeting that has over 30 in attendance, was held down to 17, but that's ok. For those who could not come because of time issues, or thought their car might melt (HA), the meeting is recapped here for your convenience.
We arrived at 6pm, but to be honest, we had SO MUCH fun talking we didn't start the meeting until 8pm. This is our time to catch up on what has happened and what is going to come this summer. Here's a few updates on general news.
 |
Jim Karg is probably not going to be going on the Hot Rod Power Tour because of knee surgery; which will be his 5th on his left knee. This is a result of his athletic adventures as a youth. He's one tough guy though, as he can hardly walk on it, but he takes an Advil everyday and drives the manual transmission delivery truck. Keep him in your prayers and thoughts. |
|
John Sonnefeldt is now working for Heidt's Hot Rod and Muscle Car parts. As you know, Heidt's was sold about a year ago and never had a national sales organization, but that is changing with John's involvement as National Sales Mgr. They had an open house on April 26th. |
|
Crane Cams, long a recognized name in all things valve train related, closed for business earlier this year as a result of the downturn in the economy. They've made it through many downturns, but not this one. |
|
The economy is also hitting the cruise spots / schedules. For cost reasons, many towns are not having their cruises this year. |
We are getting older !! We loved seeing Rick and Chuck arrive, but then we had a shock when Rick & Bea's daughter, Sarah walked in !! She's graduated from U of IL at Chicago with a architecture degree and is living and working in downtown Chicago. You know, that's not a bad thing, we were glad she spent time with us.
After 2 hours we got to the meeting. We had an agenda, but it wasn't real long. We discussed the meeting at Strat's which had ideas including:
1). Fixed meeting times each month.
2). If members have regular cruise spots and they want to invite fellow members to join them on a particular week, ; having members be able to request and have sent an "Email Blast" so that the members know they have an opportunity.
3). Help for members. It used to be that when a member needed help finishing a project, they'd put a "help wanted" in the newsletter. Now we can do it instantly via emails and this webpage. Get ready, because the Primm's may need your help for the Power Tour and getting Joel's wagon ready. Just a couple of hours would be extremely helpful.
We also discussed the Power Tour and Andy Marchiando heading that up. Looks like 3 NICC members will be LongHaulers with many others spending what time they can on the Tour.
Officer Elections. After discussion and requests for volunteers for President, it was moved, seconded and voted that the officers currently in place remain for the coming year. This DOES NOT preclude anyone from volunteering to do things; ask Rick Montalto, John Sonnfeldt and others what happens when you volunteer. You are given the responsibility to get it done!!!
For your pleasure here are pictures of the meeting. They are all inside as there were no Chevelles to photograph because of the rain.
As noted on the website and an "all call" email to the
NICC membership, we had a "pre meeting" a
t
Strat's
Hot
Dogs, which is across the street from Atomic. This meeting a result of the
bowling event where some members (Andy Marchiando, Jim Karg, Joe Wirth and Ralph
Weidenbach) wanted to see if there was anything we could do to get more of the
"new" membership out to our various functions. We have a great "core"
group and sure would like members to know they are always welcome and wanted.
It was a great idea and we have some ideas, but the bottom line is that your
fellow members are so wanting new members to come out, that 24 members, or about
18% of the membership came out to this meeting. That should mean alot. To
have that many members wanting more members to come out confirms that not only
are we a friendly group, we are willing to give up our time to see how we can
help.
While at Strat's, the owner, who owns a 1970 Nova 375hp
that had a 427 installed at the dealer in 1969 when he bought it, went and got
his ca
r
and
brought
it for us to see. He would also like to invite the NICC to a
Chevelle / Camaro gathering. He'll contact us and let us know.
That's cool. After our meeting at Atomic there will be some "Atomic
Transmissions" in some NICC cars at that show. More on that later.
For
those who have not visited Atomic, one could say that their quality of work
speaks for itself with the amount of cars, classic, peformance, luxury and work,
in the shop for service. Foreign or domestic, Atomic is ready to help.
Frank, the owner, and his employees were there to inform us when we asked
questions and give us tips and advice on selecting and servicing manual and
automatic transmissions. Not only did Frank have his main employees in on
what normally would be a day-off, he provided chips, drinks and 8 feet of sub
sandwiches for the NICC members to enjoy. It was a PERFECT day
evidenced by the 35 NICC members who attended and the 10+ classic
Chevolets that rode along with their owners !! Awesome sight and nice to
have the warm break prior to 2009 getting out in full.
Here are some pics of the shop. Atomic is now the central trans repair for several governmental agencies, including the US Postal Service. In the 3rd picture in, you may see a maroon Dodge pick-up. Atomic had just been requested to pick the truck up in Ohio and flatbed it back to have it fixed. You see, the owner had the trans done by another shop and it failed over 350 miles from home. Knowing he wanted it fixed and not having to worry about it again, he paid Atomic to come get it. Need more confirmation of their quality?
Paul Mueller drove his silver '70 out. Atomic went through his 700R4 and as you can see, his engine compartment was attracting some attention. Justifiably so though, as you can see by the engine shot.
Prior to the meeting Wes Frisch, Mike Hogan and Josh Primm talk about how it is to be done with college and now working full-time. Behind them is Mike's Impala SS. He loves it; the 305hp V8 gets him 30mpg on the highway when the cylinder deactivation systems hits. Likes it better than the V6 LTZ he test drove. It was the dealer owner's car and well kept. On the right some of the 35 members in attendance enjoying the warm sunshine and friendships.
Frank was kind enough to provide enough food for everyone
and a facility that provided us a great atmosphere; sub sandwiches, chips, pop
and water
surrounded
by some nice cars and automobile smells in the morning. What gearhead
could ask for more? Tables were set-up and
the members took advantage. The main topic covered was what type of trans
would be best; 200R4, 700R4, 4L60? Well it depends. The 200R4 is
more closely geared to the TH350 so there isn't a great drop-off in RPM between
1st and 2nd gears, but to handle alot of HP will take more money than an
comparable 700R4. The 700R4 can be adjusted to your car but the "Mack
Daddy" of them all is the Electronic O/D's. Atomic can set you up so you
can "dial-in" your trans right from the driver's seat. Want more stall
speed at the track or cruising on the highway? Dial it in. It comes
down to cost, with he 700R4 probably being the most cost-effective at this time.
There
were two NICC 1972 Chevelle convertibles at Atomic Trans that week.
What are the chances of that? Cathy & Marc Podgorny
(of
Manhattan) picked up that morning their dark green Chevelle as they had their
TH350 rebuilt. Also Bob Stitger (of Frankfort) had his blue '72 there
having a 700R4 installed. Sweet. That's at least half-a-dozen
NICC Chevelles that have used the expertise of Atomic. There are more
to come.
If you need work done on your manual or automatic transmission, want to swap to an O/D trans or top-notch differential work, please call Gordon at Atomic. 630-832-1034. Tell him you are with the NICC. Below are more pictures of the event.
NICC MARCH BOWLING
We must be doing something right; it was another gorgeous March day as 25 members gathered in Lisle to enjoy some relaxing time bowling, talking and sharing family and car news. We also wished that more would have been able to join us. We know there are family obligations and we need a time to relax, but those NICC members who make it regularly to activities encourage ALL members to come out to something. Even if it is just 2 or 3 functions a year, that's it. Over the 25 years we've been going along and becoming friends, we desire to have more become our friends. Doesn't take much; don't even need to drive your classic car. For your enjoyment, here are some pics of the March 15th event.
JANUARY 17th MEETING AT
CREATIVE AUTO TOPS & INTERIORS
If you were one of the 20 NICC members who could not make it to the Saturday meeting at Creative Interiors you missed what turned out to be a very informative meeting. We had a live demonstration of recovering and repairing the foam on a bucket seat. It was very good and the host, Mike, probably picked up quite a bit of work; convertible tops, seat repairs, headliners, dash repair and a console construction project. It's good to have another source for getting our work done.
After the meeting 9 of us went out to lunch and it was good. We had everything from a Julienne salad to a Malibu Sandwich; yep Jim Wersching had the Malibu.
As requested we first met at Mike's shop at his house. Because he was not yet finished moving from his shop just down the road, after we all got there we went to the shop for the seat restoration demonstration. We had a meeting where we discussed the upcoming events and the Power Tour in June. We also need to get the summer's activities lined-up; already have the Bob Jass Chevy cruise June 20th in Elburn. Then Mike introduced himself and gave us directions to the shop.
Tucked in a project car was this Tuned-port small block. I was kinda hoping he was going to say it was for sale for $1,500 or so but no such statement was made. Oh well.
When we got to the shop where Mike is moving from, we saw a Porsche that was in the process of having its interior replaced; carpet and all. The carpet appears to be cut and sewed to fit by Mike. There was also some cookies for us to enjoy and we did. We weren't sure if we'd like them so we said "Let Mikey eat it". Mike Hogan taste tested the cookies and he gave his blessing, so we polished off a tub of them. Got us ready for lunch afterwards.
We quickly settled into the shop and toured the various sections of material and items Mike had organized for his move. While there, Mike Moeller was asking about what bucket seats to us in his 1959 Suburban project. Newer seats are wider so you need older buckets, and the owner had 4 matching Ford buckets seats that he gave to Mike for the project. He was going to throw them out, but now they'll live in Mikes Suburban. Nice and thank you !!
Mike started the bucket seat restoration with a demonstration of the history of seat building. It started with the original seats that literally used horsehair and tar. Wanna know something? Mercedes still uses that method, believe it or not. He had a sample there and it wasn't too inviting. The next step in seat development was foam with wires. Finally it has come to just foam. Mike mentioned that the issue now is something we've all experienced; buy new foam and put in new springs and you have just elevated your ride height several issues and you are very close to the headliner. It is best to repair the springs and the foam, not replacing it. Repair the foam . . . how do you do that? Well, he showed us and the pictures are below. On the picture on the right Mike is showing us the new foam and directly to his left on the floor is the bottom bucket seat cushion that he was going to repair for us.
This is the seat that in a matter of 50 minutes, would be taken apart, had the foam repaired, the seat cover repaired and stiched and reassembled. I dream about this process and watching an expert with 26 years of experience show us, just made it seem that much easier. It's not, but it sure looks like it. The seat as it started covered and then being stripped with expertise. He knew where every hog ring was; no guessing or getting in trouble like us.
This is the seat cushion's condition after taking it apart. What would the average car owner do? Buy a new cushion. Not a pro, by the time he's done with this the original foam will literally be as good as new. Nice.
After finding the correct consistency foam, Mike sprayed both the foam and the seat portion to be repaired with glue. I don't know what it is about the smell of this glue but it was good. Once he sprayed glue on the old foam contact points that was pinched together and it was in fine shape. What was used her was a "fiborous" material. Mike referred to a "backless carpet" also.
After checking out the side bolster foam repair, we passed it around and checked it out. When comparing the original unrepaired side to the repaired side, you couldn't tell a difference. On the right the top side bolster was repaired. It was in bad shape with a wire sticking out. By the time the repair was done, you couldn't tell and the final product was great. Mike used his saw to cut the bad foam. In the background you can see Jim Karg's expression as the cutting was done. He loves this stuff.
The final cut and now it is time to get the initial "fill" of the correct foam. From here Mike sculpts it with the saw and a grinder.
Mike getting ready to fix the original seat cover's seam and the metal rod pouch.
A series of pictures of the procedure Mike used to fix the foam on the top of the bucket seat. The front part of the seat only needed 1/4 inch foam while the middle needed a full 1/2 inch. After the seat cover was put back on, voila, perfect.
Some other things learned from the meeting.
- For vinyl top treatment do not use a product meant for rubber, such as Armor-All. Use a product for vinyl, such as, Nu Vinyl".
- Is it best to completely replace a seat cover or patch the area on the seat? It depends. Some material is very expensive, up to $200 a yard, so if the patch can be made that is the choice. If the aftermarket seat covers are reasonably price then replace them.
- Is there a difference in seat cover kits? There is one major supplier, PUI. While the kits are very good, Legendary interior kits are superior. They may cost a little more but Mike says they are worth the money. Legendary is out of Alabama.
- For convertible top replacements, Mike likes Electron products.
- Mike Black mentioned the experience with the Keisler 5-speed. The stock shifter isn't quite good enough and the syncros fall out of the trans. After calling Keisler they sent him a new one but it did the same thing. The answer for a smooth shift is the Pro One.