Back some years ago I joined a Pontiac car club when I was starting my full frame off resto.. {more like a whole car build,everything needed replaced}.. I knew very little about anything.., I figured what better place to gain knowledge and hopefully get some hands on help, which was very badly needed.. I was so Dissappointed, I lasted about a year or less and quit.. I guess I was very niave.. I suppose I put to much faith in my fellow car enthusist's.. The guy who started the club was so self centered, jealous, and had a huge ego, his car was always better than everyone elses.. most of the members could care less if you finished your car or not, and probly preferred you never finished it for fear it would get better praise than theirs.. How sad.. I just 'assumed' {you know what that gets you}.. that everyone would help each other out, don't get me wrong, I did'nt expect anyone to build my car for me for free.. I just expected to help everyone else out and someone would help me,, There was one guy who actually stop by one day to look at my car, {who lived about a half of a mile down the road from me} and to show me his car, which he never even got out of his car the few minites he was there.. It was not only me, they never even helped each other out.. They all had there own agenda.. from what I have heard, they have had many many members come & go.. Am I misguided, niave, or just plain stupid. Either way, I was thinking today about starting a 'New" car club,,. something very noval.. It will be required that all members help each other out or they need not apply.. Dues and donations to help other members buy parts, Could you imagine how fast one could get there car finished if you just had several guys working on it all at the same time,, you could sand the car down in less than a day. Just the fact that their there could really boost your motivation.. Is this a fantasy, I think not.. everyone has a little extra time to help out a fellow car nut.. or you would'nt be doing this.. I think I'm onto something here, that has'nt been seen around this town in years.. whadda ya think,, any suggestions.. I know this has been a bit long, but this is ramblings & chatter..

i have never joined a car club and i probably never will.

No one is going to be as enthusiastic about your car as you. And if you are laboring on someone else's car, it's easy to think of many other things you could be doing that day.

Some clubs have "Monster Garages" to tackle difficult/many hands projects and combine them with beverages and food for all. Small groups are much more manageable, along with once a month or so get togethers.

No one is going to want to pay in. It's hard to find incentive to help someone else pay for new parts for their car. But if the group has spare parts, swaps or gifts can work.

I've been in a few clubs. One met every summer Wednesday at the local drive-in. It was basically a brag session. Booooring.

Another was a local group led by a member here who was good at contacting all of us and getting us to commit to events. There were half a dozen or more of us who would show up with '69 Firebird 400 convertibles and do local shows and cruises. It was cool with the "birds of a feather" theme and we'd swap off parts too.

I am a member of H.A.L.F. but I've only been to two gatherings, and a member of POCI and haven't done more than read the magazine.

I guess this is a timely thread. When I lived in Buffalo we belonged to a club. We had meetings and went to shows/cruises together etc. Then we held one large show and the end of the season on Labor Day evey year. Proceeds went to the Buffalo Ronald McDonald House. Very worthy and just an awesome charity to be part of.

Then, two years ago when we moved here to FL we joined a local club. Here is why this is so timely. The club members had become familiar with my vision issue. A friend in the club made it possible for us to buy a conversion van and then sold me his enclosed trailer as well (knowing we wanted to travel this summer and make as many shows as possible). Well, after getting the conversion van and trailer we then realized with the loss of income etc. due to my vision loss we were not going to be able to do the travel we had hoped.

Well, unknown to me until last night at our monthly down town cruise, our car club had been selling raffle tickets at the weekly cruise night on Fridays, had a special raffle within our car club and have been working with local businesses etc. to help sponsor our trip to the Ames Performance show and then to the Woodward show.

They presented some of the collected funds to us last night along with a profesionally created collage which they then framed (see pic below) and presented to me as well.

Needless to say for the first time in my life I was speechless. I am forever grateful to my friends for pulling all of this together. We plan to take plenty of pics and videos along the way. I will be sure to post many pics when we get back.

After several years of being the car hobby and being in car clubs, up to this point I have never been on the receiving end of fund raisers etc. Although I would much prefer to be on the other side of it, I am grateful for what everyone has done for us. So as you can see, car clubs can in fact offer more than what you might expect.

Personally, I recommend joining a local club that meets regularlly and maybe hosts a show and or cruise night. As far as the parts pool, I wouldn't count on that happening, this site is your best resource for that. I have seen people swap, buy and give each other parts on this site often. I have also done so myself. This site is about as good as it gets for anyone who owns a FGF!!

That's a really wonderful tale. Are any of the club members taking the road trip with you?

Yes, my friend Mike. The guy whom I talk about quite a bit. He is a great friend and has been a tremendous help to us in many ways over the last serveral months. In addition, another friend Dave who owns a 67 GTO and a 51 Pontiac is also going. He will be driving his GTO up with us. Then, there are a handful of people whom I have never met, that are meeting us up there and are also in on this entire ordeal as well.

It is humbling and comforting to know that there are such caring people in this world still especially given today's current econmic state etc.

I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!

DoubleEagle: Where in Ohio are you? The local POCI club is not bad so I hope you weren't speaking of them.

Man, what a great story. Good to know there are still great people out there.

Not a club but, on the XS11 website I'm on they actually have a "Rallies" sub-forums section where people post rides and get togethers. It's broken up into sections across North America; Northeast (and Eastern Canada), Southeast, North Central (and Central Canada), South Central, Northwest (and Western Canada) and Southwest. We have a "Meeting of the Minds" get together in South Central, other areas have something similar, once a year where we fix each others bikes. It usually brings in 15-20 bikes and people from all over. You bring the parts and we all fix it for free! Plus there is tons of food and drinks and nobody asks for a dime!


I think biker people are a little nicer because they have realized that basically any one of us could be in an accident and never see that person again. One of the guys in our group got rear ended on his bike by a teenager in June. It broke his hip, bilateral, and some road rash, he was very lucky. A lot of "member" donated money to help out his family and offered parts to rebuild his bike. That's his bike and the car that hit him, notice the teenager with his arms crossed. http://www.hutchnews.com/Print/motor2009-06-13T22-21-07

I dropped out of POCI and the Wisconsin Badger chapter this year. POCI's magazine wasn't worth what I was paying for membership. The Badger chapter doesn't appeal to my kids since they don't do anything to attract them. I don't want to participate if I have to go alone.

The only thing I think will not work in DoubleEagle's plan is the money. HALF is everything you described with no dues.

too bad you are not in Houston , or around....we have the HALF club , a "no club club", I had been a member of two clubs before (other makes) ,so when we started ours I demanded it was a no dues, no rules , no presidents etc club....we have many members now approx 25-30 locals, typically we meet every sat nite...normally 5-8 people...we often have monster garages ,help ea other out , loan/borrow tools...etc...a VERY nice club...Vikki is a long distance member and has been here a couple of times...Brett L in Seattle i a member, Hansi in Norway is too...most are local tghough , meaning , San Antonio, Austin , Houston ,Corpus Christi...we fdo have cruises a few times a year ,

you got to get the right people...

Kelly (in Corpus ) usually says about ours that its a great group of people, nice ,helpful etc, and that we gget to cruise around in nice cars is just an extra plus


we also have "Other HALF" which are a few people with other cars, not Firebirs, (since we have no rules!) they just enjoy our group better , so we let them!

then we have "the Better HALFs", for the wives (or husbands)....

you can check out a few pics under 'meetings' on our site..

http://www.halftx.net/index.htm

Everyone handles the situation different. Myself, I do enjoy how they enjoy working on their cars and not pick on the restoration they did. I see this way: "If I like it, even if it is rusty, Who cares!!!!!!! So go on and work on it and enjoy it.