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THE LOBBY A gathering place. Introductions, sports, showin' off your ride, birthday-anniversary-milestone, achievements, family oriented humor. |
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#41
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#42
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#43
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https://www.gofundme.com/c/how-it-works
It would not be appropriate for me to start this. Arnie appears to have some close friends here, that would be more appropriate. Rather than bumping or wondering, how about stepping up?
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72 Bird |
#44
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Hope he makes out OK this time with Insurance Co. I have met Arnie a few times at Pontiac events, SUCH a nice man.
I am going to buy stuff from his site to help out. Not sure if Arnie reads this site, but if you do Arnie, Just know we feel for you again and good luck. Dave |
#45
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#46
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Sorry it's been awhile for this post. I finally had a chance to talk at length with Arnie. I had made numerous calls to him, but as you can imagine, his plate is pretty full. First and most importantly, his wife Evelyn is home from the rehab. center and is recuperating and building her strength after radiation and chemotherapy. Concerning the barn fire. The cause of the fire has been determined to be the large 800 lb. round bales of hay that were delivered to the farm less than 1/2 hour before the fire started. They were outside the barn waiting to be ground up and blended for feed for the cattle. Huge amounts of rain and then weeks of no rain and intense sun builds tremendous heat inside the bales. Moving them around for delivery punctures areas in the bales allowing oxygen to circulate through them and self-ignite the bales. Apparently fairly common in farming country. (I had no idea). Anyway, most on here probably want to know the damage. Barn was over 100 years old and three stories. It is a total loss. Arnie had old cars, Mostly Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles in the lowest level. Everything in there is a complete loss, nothing can be salvaged. A rare mid-50's Oldsmobile Arnie said had all the sheet metal melted off as if it was never there. Only the frame, engine block and heads remain. I saw that car a few years ago and our crew member, an Oldsmobile freak, was considering buying it for a restoration. There was GTO sheet metal, 69-72 Grand Prix sheet metal as well as rear ends and general parts of all descriptions all a total loss. I was able to obtain an original Boss Bird ram Air V header Arnie ran about 2 years ago when I visited. It was in that pile of vintage parts. I restored the header and it will be even more cherished now. The main floor was Arnie's shop. Lots of tools and memories in there, all gone. From an economic standpoint, the main floor had the entire stock of "Arnie Mart" Hundreds, if not thousands of items Arnie would bring to events like Norwalk to sign, sell and meet with fans. Of course, he would often have to buy huge quantities of many items especially die-casts to have a run made and all that inventory is gone. The economic impact of the product lost will never be able to be recovered. Finally, the third floor was primarily an area for his daughters while they were growing up. He said a large area had been converted for their gymnastics activities as they grew up. Sounds like it was pretty extensive with balance beams, trampolines, vault, uneven parallel bars, over a dozen Olympic size floor exercise mats and so forth. Also a total loss. Fortunately, his house escaped major damage.
There is plenty of reason for Arnie to be really down. But as I have said a thousand times, there isn't a more determined man on the planet that I have ever met. I just don't think he is ready to hang it up yet. We would like to do something more for Arnie than we have so far, just haven't figured out what yet. Wanted people on the message board to know that EVERYTHING you may have purchased from the Boss Bird pits at Norwalk, shirts, blown-up parts ect. we gave the money to Arnie after the event. So if you did buy something from us you helped Arnie in some small way. It was just a few hundred dollars, but it should help him a little. Open for some ideas to get him some financial help, but certainly don't feel obligated. Looks like any insurance help will take an army of lawyers and years of litigation as expected. A bunch of insurance companies and individuals pointing fingers at each other and passing the blame around......Typical. Last edited by mgarblik; 08-21-2019 at 10:23 PM. |
#47
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Sad
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#48
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Thanks Mike, for the lucid report.
And many thanks to you and Eric and the whole crew for your dedication to Arnie and his legacy.
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Anybody else on this planet campaign a M/T hemi Pontiac for eleven seasons? ... or has built a record breaking DOHC hemi four cylinder Pontiac? ... or has driven a couple laps of Nuerburgring with Tri-Power Pontiac power?(back in 1967) ... or has a Pontiac born the same year as Jim Wangers? (1926} |
#49
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The Oldsmobiles were a 1958 88 and a 61 wagon. Burning the body off a 58 was an accomplishment, they were tanks. It was super rusty though. The 1961 wagon being lost is a tragedy.
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Clutch Guys Matter _______________________________________ 53 Studebaker, 400P/th400/9" 64 F-85 72 4-4-2 Mondello's VO Twister II 84 Hurst/Olds #2449 87 Cutlass Salon 54 Olds 88 sedan |
#50
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wow.
thanks for the update.
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1970 Formula 400 Carousel Red paint on Black standard interior A no-engine, no-transmission, no-wheel option car. Quite likely one of few '70 Muncie three speed Formula 400's left. 1991 Grand Am: 14.4 @ 93.7mph (DA corrected) (retired DD, stock appearing) 2009 Cobalt SS: 13.9 @ 103mph (current DD; makes something north of 300hp & 350ft/lbs) |
#51
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I'm not close geographically but would still volunteer time to guide Arnie with his property claim, if he needs assistance. Once the claim is settled with his insurer, they can then duke it out with the responsible parties, if identified, to attempt recovery. |
#52
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What a shame. Hay bales catching fire is well known, and once on fire, pretty much cant be put out.
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1968 Firebird 400 RAII M21, 3.31 12 bolt, Mayfair Maize. 1977 Trans Am W72 400, TH350, 3.23 T Top Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. Bill Nye. |
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