May 2022 Newsletter
DIRECTOR’S THOUGHTS, MAY, 2022
Hooray, winter is gone & warmer weather is here!!! I love the month of May because things come ALIVE again! Somehow we experience a surge of energy w/ the warmer weather, right? Along w/ the warmer weather, May will be our last time to meet for dinner meetings before we go out for the summer months. Which leads me to the May dinner meeting. Members are encouraged to bring a few items pertaining to a hobby they enjoy. Come & share w/ others.
We lost a fellow member, ”Alfred Paul” on March 12, 2022 from a short medical illness. Please remember “Bobbie” Paul & her family during this most difficult time.
Please sign up to attend the tour to Bethlehem, Pa on Saturday, May 21st. Tour masters are Kathleen/Thomas Duckett. Meet @ the Industrial Museum NO LATER than 10 AM. The first tour starts PROMPLY @ 10 AM. Please read about this tour further in this newsletter. This will be a local history learning tour for you! Enjoy!
Your Elected director, Sally Getz
“Free Spirit” Meeting Minutes – April 5, 2022
Meeting called to order @ 7:30 pm. 15 members present. Sally “Welcomed” everyone to tonight’s meeting & wished everyone a “HAPPY SPRING!”. She asked the group if anyone did anything very exciting during the past month. Lisa Senishen’s daughter bought a wedding dress.
Motion to accept March meeting minutes as printed in the April newsletter, Debbie Brady, seconded by Thomas Duckett, so carried.
Treasurer’s report: Treasurers report for March 2022. Motion to accept Isabel Lenny, seconded by Shirley Schaffer, so carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Historian: April 1, 2022 Morgantown Tour pics taken.
Lehighton: Flyers are available for members to take to hand out at car events, etc. Received BCA award allotment monies for 2022. Waiting for J C Taylor.
Membership – Lost member, Al Paul, March 2022.
Newsletter – Waiting for J C Taylor to renew their ad. 2 members to see if Haggerty would accommodate this chapter in placing an ad/award allotment monies.
Publicity – No report
Technical – Morphy’s Auctions, Denver, Pa will take your pictures of items you would like them to provide for auction. They are a well known nationally auction business.
Ways-n-Means – no report
OLD BUSINESS: Annual chapter picnic = Sunday, June 12, 2022, Weeping Willow Pavillion, Macungie Park, Macungie, Pa.
16 “Free Spiriters” attended the April 1, 2022 tour to Classic Auto Mall/Shady Maple Tour. All enjoyed their day!
NEW BUSINESS: Chapter received a “Thank you” note from Bobbie Paul, “Please let the club members know Al thoroughly enjoyed his time with the “Free Spirit” members.” During May’s chapter meeting, “HOBBY” night will be for all participants.
Cell phones were going off, LOL!
The “Cream City” Chapter, Milwaukee, Wisconsin has disbanded as of December 2021. They donated their treasury monies to the “Bugle.” They were in existence for 39 years.
May 21, 2022, tour masters Thomas/Kathleen Duckett will be taking the group with personal tours to the Industrial Museum and History of Bethlehem Steel. Everyone is to meet there. 1st tour to promptly begins @ 10 AM.
Motion made to adjourn, Steve Chappelear, seconded by Kathleen Duckett, so carried. Time 8:19 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Lisa Senishen, Secretary
CALLING ALL HOBBISTS!!
During our May meeting, the guest speakers will be our members! How, you ask? First, I am asking all members to attend the business meeting. Second, bring along some items, if able, of your hobby(ies) to share its importance w/ others. You will be the point of interest this night!! What do you say? Great, glad you will attend and participate during the meeting. See you there!!
Chapter Tour, Saturday May 21, 2022 to the National Museum of Industrial History Museum, & the Rise & Fall of Bethlehem Steel
The National Museum of Industrial History, housed in the former facility of Bethlehem Steel, is a museum affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution that seeks to preserve, educate, and display the industrial history of the nation. It holds a collection of artifacts from the textile, steel and iron, and propane gas industries. The NMIH holds a significant collection of industrial machinery on loan from the Institute’s National Museum of American History. The museum also has a large collection of documents, machinery, photographs, and other archival material from Bethlehem Steel.
For nearly a century, the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem served as the economic lifeblood of the community, employing tens of thousands of people while producing the steel that built our nation’s skyscrapers, bridges and even the U.S. Navy, helping win two World Wars in the process. In 1995, however, after a nearly 120-year history of steel production on the site, the plant closed its doors forever, leaving the region with a void that seemed impossible to fill.
Rather than demolish the historic mill or walk away and let it fall apart, the community rallied around the iconic plant, working hard to bring new life to the former industrial giant. In 1999, the City of Bethlehem, Bethlehem Area School District and County of Northampton – the three local taxing bodies – established a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district on the property, dedicating any future tax dollars generated from new business on the site to helping revitalize the former steel plant.
Please save this date & submit $20.00 per person, attending this tour, to Kathleen Duckett, 6023 Riverview Road, Slatington, Pa. Please submit by May 15th due to obtaining tickets for the tours. Meet @ the Industrial Museum by 10 AM for the first of 2 tours to be taken this day.
Kathleen/Thomas Duckett
Annual Chapter Picnic
“Free Spirit” chapter picnic will be held on Sunday, June 12th under the Weeping Willow Pavilion, RAIN or SHINE! While the chapter supplied the silverware, plates, meats and drinks, members bring the following hot/cold/dessert items. If your last name begins with the latter category of the alphabet, please bring that food that best fits:
A – G desert item(s), H – O hot item(s), P – Z cold item(s)
Bring your quarters for “BUICK BINGO” will be played for a few rounds! Has is your luck to play and win @ BINGO? Join us for a day filled w/ excitement!! Bring your lawn chair(s), stories, jokes, and delicious food selections!! Sandy/Dan Reiniger
“FREE SPIRIT” RENEWAL DUES
Next month is the annual MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL DUES month. Renewal dues are, still only $12.00!! (There are still some things that haven’t increased, right?) Dolores Kennedy, membership chairwoman will be accepting your dues during the annual picnic, or via mail:
Dolores Kennedy, 2620 Ambassador Drive, Bethlehem, Pa 18017-7717. Please submit your $12.00 to Dolores by June 30, 2022.
April 1, 2022, Classic Auto Mall/Shady Maple Tour
16 “Free Spiriters” enjoyed their day touring the Classic Auto Mall, Morgantown, Pa. Over 1000 different vehicles were on display. Of those 1000 vehicles, some were actually “For Sale.” Steve Chappelear had his eye on a Ford. The facility is so large, David/Debbie Brady did not get through the entire place!
There is an area for when a vehicle sells, they are placed in their own area till the new owner comes to pick up the vehicle. My guess is that there were about 30 + cars in that area just waiting to get to their new home!
For lunch, the group got to pick out whatever their hearts desired from the buffet @ Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Then, of course, there were multiple desserts one could pick from. Everyone had a great time!
The Classic Auto Mall will be the venue of which the “Tri-Regional All Buick Show” will be held next June 21-24, 2023. Be sure to save this date on your calendars now!
Sally Getz
Rare Rides: The 1958 Buick Limited Lineup, a Very Expensive Roadmaster
Today’s Rare Ride was a single year offering at Buick; it came and went in 1958. As General Motors reworked its large car offerings that year in response to styling changes at one of its biggest competitors, it reintroduced a historical nameplate at Buick: Limited.
Chrysler vehicles wore new clothes in 1957, as Virgil Exner’s “Forward Look” introduced more fins, more chrome, and more exterior detailing. As we learned recently, the independent Imperial brand received this new styling as well. Forward Look was less conservative than other luxury offerings, and caused luxury buyers to flock to Imperial. Well-heeled Americans bought over 37,000 Imperials in 1957 and made for the brand’s best-ever sales year. General Motors was caught out by the Forward Look and had to act.
The simple, easiest answer was to facelift the Buick and Oldsmobile lineups for 1958. Buick’s lineup at the time consisted entirely of full-size cars: Special, Super, Century, and Roadmaster. All the brand’s offerings received a new Harley Earl-designed front end for 1958, which was notable mostly for Buick’s subtly named Fashion-Aire Dynastar grille. The chromed visage was made of 160 separate squares and was designed to reflect light as much as possible. In The Current Year, you’d just call it Dynamic Bling or something.
Other visual changes included America’s new favorite thing – quad headlamps – and additional chrome around the body perimeter. Like at Chrysler, gun sight trim appeared (at the front instead of the rear like Imperial), and additional chrome was added to rear fenders. Such detailing was added across the lineup, which it called the “Air Born B-58.” Marketing materials incorporated fighter jet references here and there to drive the point home. Limited was set apart in the lineup and received its own Series numbers: It used 700 for the hardtops and the 756 for the convertible.
Limited was used previously on a Buick back in 1936 where it represented the brand’s flagship and used the same platform as the largest Cadillac (the Series 70). Limited existed until 1942, by which point Cadillac executives were sick of the prestigious Buick’s encroachment into Fleetwood territory. Buick punched back, and said the minuscule Limited production could hardly be a bother to Cadillac’s big, strong sales figures. Neither argument mattered for long, as World War II interrupted and Buick dropped Limited offerings. The name lies dormant until 1958.
Buick’s flagship Roadmaster was already a new design in 1957 and used the familiar C-body platform for its fifth generation. For a single fateful year, GM turned the Roadmaster into the standalone Limited to compete more directly with the Forward Look Imperial. Limited rode on the same 127.5-inch wheelbase as the Roadmaster and used the same 364 cubic-inch (6.0L) Nailhead V8. That engine was shared across the Buick lineup that year and came in two different variations through 1961: Two-barrel carb for 250 horses, and four-barrel carb for an even 300. All cars used the same two-speed Dynaflow automatic transmission. Dynaflow was in its latter days at that point, as the three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic approached by the mid-Sixties. Power brakes were standard on the Limited.
Limited was differentiated via its length, as it was notably longer than the top-tier Roadmaster. Spanning 227.5 inches, it dwarfed Roadmaster’s 219.2 inches. Other dimensions matched the Roadmaster, with an overall width of 79.8″ and height at an even 60 inches. As it was longer, the Limited weighed between 4,500 and 4,900 pounds, where the Roadmaster topped out at 4,700. Body styles were three and included a four-door hardtop, and two-door hardtop coupe and convertible. Though the hardtops were similar to Roadmaster, in 1958 the convertible was available exclusively as a Limited.
Other differentiation occurred via trim, where the Limited was more toned down in its use of chrome (relatively speaking). Where the Roadmaster had large chrome panels along the side, Limited used color-match trim instead, festooned with 15 total chrome backslashes, set in tally groups of five. The rear of the Limited was different too, and used wraparound tail lamp lenses, again with more chrome added. Rear lighting was contained in some big Dagmars.
Inside the Limited was pure luxury, as passengers in the land barge enjoyed higher quality materials than Roadmaster. Convertible versions took things a step further and included a full leather interior. Aside from its more upscale materials, the Limited shared interior design entirely with the Roadmaster. Limited was available in 18 different exterior colors, with two-tone an optional extra. Seven different leather interior colors were offered on convertible Limiteds.
With a high level of standard equipment and a long list of options too, the Limited was not an affordable automobile. The Limited four-door asked $5,112 ($49,833 adj.) as new and was actually $221 ($2,154 adj.) more expensive than the Cadillac Series 62 four-door hardtop. Unfortunately for Buick, American consumers were not prepared to spend more money for a Buick they generally regarded as too glitzy and turned to Cadillac instead. The aforementioned Series 62 moved over 13,000 examples in 1958, while Limited sold 7,438 (839 were convertibles).
There were other issues foisted upon Limited too, like the global recession of 1958 and the fact that Buick didn’t have a sterling reputation at the time. As a result, GM told Buick execs to have a do-over for 1959, and the company’s entire model lineup was renamed and restyled. The Chrome-Aire-Whatever grille disappeared, and Bill Mitchell penned the new Buicks. Models were now called LeSabre (formerly Special), Invicta (Century), and Electra (Roadmaster). The lower-midlevel Super was eliminated from the lineup. For its part, the Limited was most directly replaced by the most expensive version of Electra, the 225. Buick moved on, and there was never another Limited as an independent model.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
MAY 2022 HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
- 3 – Monthly chapter dinner meeting, Starlite Diner & Lounge, Allentown, Pa. Dinner @ 6 pm, w/ business meeting following @ 7:30 pm. “HOBBY” night. Bring in some items, if able, about your HOBBY(s). Share your hobby w/ others during the meeting.
- 7 – 38th Annual Show, Bicentennial Park, Bethlehem, Pa
- 14 – Wheels For Victory, Kempton, Pa
- 15 – Ambler Car Show, Ambler, Pa
- 21 – “Free Spirit” Chapter Tour to Bethlehem, Pa.
- 28 – Chester County, Classic Auto Mall, Morgantown, Pa
- 29 – LV Iron pigs Show, Coca-Cola Park, Allentown, Pa
JUNE 2022 HAPPY SUMMER!!
- No monthly meeting, VACATION(s)!!
- 4 – PA Outdoor Show, Egypt Memorial Park, Whitehall, Pa
- 5 – GM on Display, Macungie Park, Macungie, Pa
- 12 – Annual “Free Spirit” picnic, Weeping Willow Pavillion, Macungie Park, Macungie, Pa
- 17 – ATCA’s Truck Show, Macungie Park, Macungie, Pa
- 18 – Palmerton Memorial Park Show, Palmerton, Pa
- 24 – 25 – GM Nationals, Carlisle, Pa
JULY 2022 HAPPY 4th of JULY!!
- 22-25 – BCA National Meet, Lisle, Illinois
CARS/PARTS “FOR SALE”
1967 Buick Skylark Convertible 340 – 4 BBL Carb, 260 H.P. Hi Performance Pack, 104,882 ORIGINAL MILES. Exterior: Code D, Sapphire Blue, Interior: Black Madrid Grain Vinyl. Interior: ALL ORIGINAL. Exterior: Repainted NO AIR!! AM/FM Radio, tilt column, factory console w/ tachometer, power steering, power brakes, chrome road wheels. Clean/Clear title GARAGE KEPT!! $27,000. csgetz@ptd.net, 610-377-6130
1982 Buick Coupe Riviera V8, Auto Trans, 50K original miles. Interior = leather seats, ALL ORIGINAL. Exterior = Landau top, medium Sandstone w/ pin stripe, ALL original. Factory air, AM/FM radio w/ power antenna, PW/PDL, PS, PB, CC, Center console, rear air suspension, mag wheels, 4 NEW tires, clean/clear title. Recently inspected.$10,000.00. Sally Getz, 610-377-6130. Pics upon request.
1951 Buick Super mustache bar, $360.00. 484-948-6213.
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