Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

[Ted S.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

John, Do they still do the pad tracing or is it digital images these days?

[Steven B.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

How many Bloomington Judges are also NCRS Judges?

[Bill O.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

It's all digital image and there is a seperate team of two (in addition to the team of 4) that inspects/photos the engine pad...and not at the same time as the main team....at least not my car last year.

Also, if you have base coat/clear coat you will go home early (assuming your car didn't come with that)

Bill

[Ted S.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

What's their postiion on restoration blocks?

[Bill O.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

Ted;

The guy 3 cars down from me was automatically put in the "SILVER" class, because somewhere in FINISH, DATE, INSTALLATION, COMPLETE and CONFIGURATION his "block" was considered as "deviates from typical factory production".

Those two guys will study the broach marks and the shape, size, alignment and spacing of characters on the pad, check that the block casting, block assembly and final assembly dates are in sinc, that the serial numbers agree and will check the block casting date with the point of a pin to assure integrity. Things generally have to be "spot on". I was very impressed with their knowledge. They don't ask you whether the engine has been replaced...they only examine it and draw their own conclusions as to whether it's close enough to what they expect to see.

Go for it unless you already suspect a defect.

Bill

[Fenwick B.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

Are their Judging Manuals similar to the NCRS manuals?

[Dick W.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

No manuals nor are the judges supposed to have any manuals on the field

[Michael W.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

What's their postiion on restoration blocks?

Same as NCRS.

[Ron L.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

Thanks,
Ron

From a little experience I can tell you that going from 95 to 97% is gonna cost you a bit of money and time.....going from 97 to 99 , now thats gonna require Obama cut you in on a good hunk of the "porkulus" package.

if you got a 95, youve got a nice ride. I understand wanting a 97%though...ive had that fever before.

[Greg T.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

I noticed the body panels are boxed. Does this mean any replacement panels other than GM will fail?

[Pat M.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

From a little experience I can tell you that going from 95 to 97% is gonna cost you a bit of money and time...

I can tell you from experience that as you go up the judging ladder STAYING at a 95 will be tough. I scored a 97 at a Regional, and in preparation for getting at least a 97 at a National I spent a TON of money, time, and effort, including an entire, correct lacquer repaint and new carpeting among MANY other things. And while I did achieve another 97, I was amazed that I still didn't break into the 98s.

[Terry M.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

How many Bloomington Judges are also NCRS Judges?

I don't think anyone keeps score of that -- but the number 80% is tossed around. Could be more or less, though. Almost everyone who judges, whether at NCRS or NCCB does it for the love of the cars.

[Bill O.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

Let me say.
One of these engine judges in the NCRS is from Culver City, CA who has a business called American Motoring Memories and he is tops....seen none better...Jeff Reade.
He's worked on my car before....I only wish I was closer.

Bill

[Edward S.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

I went through the Bloomington Gold judging in 2005 and have all my sheets. The longest any judge spent on my car was 23 minutes and at that time not every judge worked on my car at the same time. Saw 3 cars
(including one parked next to mine) who had problems with their stamp pads and were told they could do no better than silver. Don't know if he still is, but at that time Al Grenning had the final word on anything to do with pads and tags - they had well known judges, In fact one of the Nabers Bros. did all the judging of engine numbers, etc.
All in all, everyone had a great time and plenty of great cars and the auction is always a treat - the average temp. when I was there was around 103 was a real buster working on the car outdoors. I also just remembered at that time god forbid you should need a part. In preping and checking everything for judging my wipers failed to work correctly, I figured no sweat with all the major companies there with large trucks. I quickly found out those large trucks held mostly tables and chairs ( no inventory) if you wanted something you sat done picked from a catalog and parts were shipped to your house. I lucked out and found the salesman from Chicago Corvette packing up his station wagon to leave and he had a original of the part i needed. Without him I was dead in the water. We had great fun and met alot on nice people - it is worth doing at least once. Good luck.

[Chris E.]

Re: Bloomington Gold / NCRS Top Flight

Ok, so humor me with a stupid question.

If no manual exists to determine the content of each component to be judged, how can an owner effectively prepare their car? (assuming they didn't know about NCRS)