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A Publication
of the Jaguar Club of Tulsa, Inc.
March, 2005
The Cat Tale
A Publication of the Jaguar Club of Tulsa, Inc.
March, 2005
TUESDAY, MARCH 8
6:30 P.M.
DINNER AT THE
ENGLISH OVEN RESTAURANT
Join your fellow club members for an evening of fine English Pub Dinning at the “English Oven”. The restaurant is located at 3711A S. Harvard (38th and Harvard in the shopping center). The menu features typical English fare from dinners of Fish & Chips, Steak and Kidney pie, Bangers & Mash and more to burgers and sandwiches. Of course there are desserts, a few being Apple Strudel, English Trifle and Chocolate Chip Pound Cake. In short, there is something on the menu for everyone to enjoy. Prices range from $5.50 to $9.50 for main courses and sandwiches range from $4.95 to $6.95. Desserts are $3.50 - $4.00.
This is a regular business night for the restaurant and since it is a small establishment we ask that you call Gary Grover at (918)481-1789 or e-mail him at tiremanogg@aol.com and let him know how many are in your party ASAP. The restaurant proprietors will have the correct number of tables reserved for our group.
For those who have enjoyed the hospitality and good food of pubs in England, this will be a pleasant reminder of those establishments. For those who have not yet made the journey “across the pond” you can get a taste of “Merry of England” right here in Tulsa. This will be a very enjoyable evening for everyone and the weather will be co-operating so we can fill the parking lot with Jaguars. Make that call to Gary today so you don’t miss out!
SATURDAY BREAKFAST
SHERATON HOTEL BUFFET
Can you believe it? The first Saturday in March is already here. Coffee will be waiting for us at the Sheraton Hotel, 41st and Garnett at 9:00 am. Be there to get your day started off right with your Jaguar Club friends.
APRIL 8TH - SATURDAY
“MEN IN TIGHTS” We have a unique opportunity in April to attend, as a group, the Tulsa Ballet for the spring trilogy “Intense”. Don’t stop reading yet! This is not just a bunch of ballerinas tottering around in tutu’s! The Company will be presenting 3 totally different ballets (each short!) that show off the athleticism and excitement that Tulsa Ballet is famous for. Yes, it really IS famous. It is considered one of the top ten ballet companies in the U.S. and has just been given a gorgeous feature
article in the March issue of “Dance Magazine!”
There will be a work by our Chinese dancer and choreographer, Ma Cong, that slithers, jumps and titillates; a trio of pas de deux (dance for two) by Jerome Robbins (of "West Side Story" fame,) and "Bruiser", filled with the heavy breathing, hard sweating, athletic, technical tools behind the tutu.
After the ballet we will be given a tour of the back stage area and get to meet some of the dancers. It is one thing to watch a breathtaking display of dancing but what goes on behind the scenes is equally interesting and important.
To complete our evening of Culture we are trying to make arrangements to visit one of Tulsa’s newest wine bars for a relaxing and tasteful end to our evening.
This club event will take place on Saturday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. so mark your calendars now and bring the whole family for a very enjoyable evening. More info will be in the April issue of Cat Tale.
APRIL 23RD SATURDAY
GERMAN GOURMET DINNER
A genuine “taste of Germany” catered dinner that will include items as Rouladen, a “Stuffed beef roll with gravy”, Rotkohl, “Sweet red cabbage” , Spaetzle, “egg noodles, Strudel and of course appropriate German beverages. The dinner will be held at the new home of Don and Carol Wright who are well know in the community for their involvement in the local German-American Club. We can expect a gourmet repast of fine German fare that will be a treat for all attendees.
More detail about these activities will be forthcoming in the April “Cat Tale” but mark your calendars now so you will not miss these evenings of fun, entertainment and fine dinning with your club.
PRESIDENTIAL PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT By – Gary Grover Medical Alert!! Jaguar Infatuation Syndrome (JIS)
Hello My name is Gary & I've had JIS since 1963. I've not been Jag-free since 1972. I've been attending JCTI meetings since 1972 but we all know that it is a permanent condition. While driving & owning a Jaguar can send JIS into remission, I still try to minimize my exposure to Concours & showroom floors. A dealership can be like a casino to an addicted gambler.
Most of you are familiar with the symptoms of JIS ... scanning car magazines, newspaper ads, the internet, buying pictures, shirts, .... These can appear suddenly and are difficult for close acquaintances to abide.
Research indicates that JIS is transmitted through all the senses ... (taste being the more unusual) .. sight, sound, smell, and the feeling of acceleration are the usual methods of acquiring JIS. Owners of XK's, E-Types, XJS's, XJ6's, and R-types seem to have no reservations about transmitting JIS to friends, relatives, and even strangers. The CDC finds it frustrating that people infected have actively fought the DOT's occasional efforts to cure JIS by legislation to stop importing Jaguars.
If you have contracted JIS recently, contact your local Jag Club for sympathy and a schedule of regular meetings. See your financial advisor if you have been purchasing more often than annually ... this could be a warning sign of HYPR JIS which may require professional help!
WHY DO THEY DO THAT? By – Bill Watkins Often times the performance of various maintenance or repairs on our beloved British vehicles provides us with moments of contemplation and reflection. Usually the nature of such tasks leads to contemplation of or reflection upon such weighty questions as “What idiot designed this?”, “How in the world could anyone do this without a U-joint between the elbow and wrist?”, or, my favorite, “Why in the h*** did these fools decide to do it this way?”. Is it any wonder that we get so much joy, satisfaction, and relaxation from our hobby? Recently I had several hours in which to contemplate all of these questions while standing on my head in the floor boards of the TR4. A year or more ago the shifter boot came out of its designated hole in the transmission tunnel. After many frustrating attempts and returning it to its rightful location I gave up and just screwed it down into the Mystery Material the tranny tunnel seemed to be made of. Sometime after that the boot itself tore so I had no choice by to replace it due to the volume of heat, noise and crud getting into the cockpit through the resulting hole.
After receipt of a new shifter boot I tried again to get the boot to go on where it belonged. No dice. Screwed it down again. So, of course, after a few months of use, the screws all pulled out of the Mystery Material. I pretty much gave up at that point and just drove around with it loose and tried to keep it pushed down over the opening where it was supposed to be.
I resolved to get this problem fixed over the winter. The first step was to remove the carpet and see what the problem was. It was pretty obvious - there was a big chunk of the Mystery Material missing from the passenger side of the shifter opening. Doug Schrantz suggested just fiber glassing the hole as a repair but the Mystery Material seemed so soft and saturated in oil that I didn’t see how such a repair would be very long term. The solution was to order a new fiberglass tranny tunnel from Vicky Brit for about $120.00 (tunnel, seals, fasteners and shipping included) and do it right. I pulled the old one out and determined that it was made out of some very heavy grade of cardboard. I like to died. So, “What idiot designed this?” and “Why in the h*** did these fools decide to do it this way?”. The obvious answer is price, I guess, but how much more expensive would it have been to stamp a thin piece of sheet metal into this shape or make it out of fiberglass (sorry, “glassfibre”) in the first place? Surely only a few dollars more on the list price would not have mattered in the market place. I’m sure cardboard adds tremendously to the torsional rigidity of the structure! I really was amazed at this. Maybe I’m just naive. Five hours of working on my head or with my head between my ankles to get this sorry piece of Mystery Material swapped out. And that’s another thing, while I’m at it. In the “Why in the h*** did these fools decide to do it this way?” category, why is if that so many replacement parts don’t fit properly? After an hour or more of careful measuring and drilling the holes in the new tranny tunnel, I found that it was about half an inch wider that the original. Therefore, after I shoved one side of it inboard to its designated location the holes would no longer line up. Damn!! You would think that the size of the space to be covered by a TR4 tranny tunnel would be consistent enough that the manufacturer could get it right. Well, anyway, I got it done. The new fiberglass part was rough and unfinished so I felt like I had been handling fiberglass insulation all day. I never did get all of the bolts in securing the tunnel - 9 out of 12, I think. I didn’t bother with the ones in the firewall as some previous owner had also decided they weren’t necessary. Its not like stiffness was an issue here. It looks good, does its job, and should last longer than cardboard. All just a part of another relaxing project. Next project is a thorough going through of the cooling system on the 3.8S Jag. This ought to be pretty straightforward, right? I’ll let you know.
JUST A PAINT JOB AWAY!
The Continuing Saga of the Series I XJ6 By Stan Lackey
With my car now "running" it was time to pick it up. I couldn't drive it home because in preparation for paint it was missing the hood, headlights, brake lights and all the rest of the essentials that keep you from attracting unwanted (but warranted) attention from the local constable! Not to mention that the car was neither registered or insured.
Several months prior to the final assembly phase of "my project", I had gone on vacation to see my parents. My parents are retired and like so many other folks out there they have chosen to spend a fair amount of new found leisure time traveling about the country in a motor home.
Apparently one of the essential tools of "motor-homing" is having a second vehicle that you tow with you. I don't know about the rest of the traveling community but my parents tow-able (apparently referred to in the motor home world as a "Toad") was in pretty rough shape. Don't get me wrong, it ran great and was safe, but having been towed in the last 10 years more miles than is was driven for the first 8 I guess you could simply say it had seen better days. Bottom line, it needed a paint job.
Knowing that I was preparing to paint my Series I, I thought that a I'd give my self a test run by painting my parents "Toad" for them while they were at my house for a visit.
The timing was perfect. The proposed "practice paint job" was to take place during the time and while my XJ6's motor and drive train were being assembled by Jaguar Services. This wasn't the first car I had painted or the first time I had used the manufacture of the materials that I had selected for the paint job. Actually, both paint job's. I think that I have probably painted 10 or more cars prior to this "practice" job but most of those were like spraying the paving stones from the Great Wall of China than the new paint on my parents car.
I knew that I had made my father a bit uncomfortable a time or two with a few of my "oaths" and as I was standing there laughing and sanding I looked over at him and said "you know this is exactly what happens when you shoot your mouth off!! ". My Dad is a retired college professor, and academic dean as well as a bit stoic. It seemed that initially he didn't really know how to take my "shoot your mouth off" statement. You see my parents were a bit reluctant to accept my offer of a "free" paint job any way. Not as a result of questioning my skills or abilities (they had seen my work before) but rather because of the amount of work that it was apparently going to take.
Knowing that I was on the down hill side of this job I was now in full stride and made the "shoot my mouth off " statement knowing that I was in the home stretch. Seeing the smile on my face and sensing that "the fever had broken" apparently my Dad realized that my last statement was just "guy talk" and started to laugh as well. It was a lot of fun. I guess I had just hit the 26 mile mark and knew that I "had it in me". Not just for this practice paint job, but now I remembered what it was going to take for BOTH paint jobs and I was ready.
While painting my parents "Toad" may not seem tremendously related to "my project" is was an integral part of at least two phases of my life. Those 4 days of sanding along with the two days of painting and one day of body work really got my patience meter in full swing and working well. The second thing it did was make my parents happy to have a new $2,000+ paint job (for about $250 in materials) on part of their RIG! Actually when it all comes down to it , I think the long term rewards of the "practice paint job" will be remembered long after my XJ6 project has come and gone. With that in mind I honestly I don't know how I could have spent those 7 days better!
Please stay tuned for my rendition of "final assembly" and "DRIVING IT!!!"
WORLD TRAVELER NEWS
Joan and Les Neidell are still in Chengdu, China and what an adventure. They have been across country to X’ian see the Terra-Cotta soldiers, during the Chinese New Year. They learned you can not always rely on what the guide books say about accomodations! In spite of a few mishaps they are having a wonderful time. Joan sent a couple of pictures of the terra cotta soldiers and I wish I could reproduce them here. To look at the picture and think that they expect to find 6000 more of these full size statues boggles the mind! They decided to stay in their original apartment as it has been cleaned and up graded for them. Bear in mind, it is winter there and they only have heat in two rooms of a five room apartment. Les’ class is meeting in their apartment because the class room at the school are too cold! I don’t have enough room left to give you more details of their adventures, but if you are interested, e-mail me at mmra@valornet.com and I will forward Joans’ amusing and discriptive letters to you.
CLASSIFIED
Classified ads are free to club members. To place an ad e-mail to mmra@valornet.com or call (918) 258-8320.
For Sale: 1976 XJ6C. BRG with biscuit interior. Paint and interior in very good condition. Nice driver, low mileage, A/C works! New Dunlop tires (all five), original 8-track, rebuilt transmission, factory tool kit, manuals, parts book and Delanair manual. Drive anywhere. Always scores high in driven class. Asking $12,000. Call Richard Crump (918) 587-3939 (w) or (918) 541-7378 (cell)
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