The NEGMC awards program is back for 2020. We will continue to have two awards, the President’s Award and the Prestige Award.  The aim of these Awards is to encourage membership participation in the Club’s various activities and to acknowledge those members that do participate.

There are two award categories:

First is the NEGMC President’s Award – This Award is for the members participating in activities with the Club during the year.  Points are assigned and any member that achieves a points total of 100 points are more will receive this Award.

Next is the NEGMC Prestige Awards which are broken down into three class groupings by age of the NEGMC Members cars. Those breakdowns are: Prestige Class 64.5 – 78; Prestige Class 79 – 04;  and Prestige Class 05 – 20.  The Prestige Awards are given to each NEGMC Member that has accumulated the top points in each class.

There are still several qualifying NEGMC Meetings and Car Shows remaining for this year that can help you achieve your goals.

Additional information is available on the web site’s Awards tab or by this link:  NEGMC Awards Program  

Congratulations to Kenny and Lisa for being awarded the MCA Red Grille Medallion for their 2004 Mach 1.  In addition to the Red Grille Medallion Award, they also received a Gold Award for the Houston show.

Great Going!!

For those of you thinking of striving for their own Grille Medallion this is how to achieve that goal:

When you attend a National event you will earn 2 points for your Mustang when receiving a Gold Award (1st) and 1 point for a Silver Award (2nd) at that show.

When you attend a Grand National event you will earn 3 points for your Mustang when receiving a Gold Award (1st) and 2 points for a Silver Award (2nd) at that show.

It takes 20 accumulated points to earn one of two different types of Grille Medallions:

• Red medallions are awarded in the Occasionally Driven; Daily Driven and Modified Classes
• Blue medallions are awarded in the Concours; Thoroughbred and Unrestored classes

Once you accumulate 20 points then you simply need to fill out the form (typically in the MCA magazine) and submit it.

It takes a dedicated individual and/or individuals to achieve this recognition which only adds to the awards prestige.

Again congratulations to Kenny and Lisa as it has been several years since a NE Georgia Mustang Club member has received a Grille Medallion.

We are off to a very exciting year. We conducted our first board meeting, evaluating all the work ahead of us this year. We are currently in the throws of moving our Mustang Unlimited show to YearOne Muscle Car Parts in Braselton, GA and all the planning that is involved. For may years we were fortunate to have an awesome relationship with all the people who worked at Mustang Unlimited and they always did an incredible job hosting our shows. With Mustang Unlimited closing the Georgia location, it created an opportunity for us to seek a new site for our show. YearOne has been gracious to invite us to start the car season at their location. Not only are they providing the site, but partnering with us to have a very successful event. You will probably see some not Ford products at our show and a section will be set aside for those cars. It was our intention to have an only Ford show but given that fact, YearOne has been doing shows there for many years, open to all automobiles. so, it may happen that something other than a Ford product may show up and as car guys we don’t want to turn anyone away. Our awards will be focused on Ford products. As far as a Club Show, the voting will be separate from the non-Ford cars. However, there will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards for the non-Ford cars. I simply want to bring this to your attention so if there are non-Ford cars there, it would not come as a surprise.

We have a ton of events planned for this year as you will see on our website calendar. This should appeal to all our members, as it will not be just car shows. Our next meeting, at Gateway Classic Cars, we will discuss the usual events and in addition, will be rolling out many new opportunities for our club and members.

The club address has been changed from Baldwin, GA to Braselton, GA to facilitate our ability to retrieve mail from the PO Box. We have updated our information on the MCA site to reflect our new address and officers, so as you search for clubs on the MCA website you will see that as well. The NEGMC website is being updated daily, which keeps it current. It is your best resource for information pertaining to the club and other activities.

Our spring show is now an MCA regional show making both shows MCA regional shows. Our March show is listed in Mustang Times (Maggie Valley soon to follow). We had a guy in NC saying he saw it listed in Mustang Times and is coming to the March show. Maggie Valley planning is going hand and hand with the YearOne planning and both prove to be great events.

I’m going to stop here, but I wanted to bring you up to date on some of the club activities. More information to come at the February meeting. Again, it is at Gateway Classics in Alpharetta. Be sure to have your club decal on your windshield. The decals will be available at Gateway if you do not have one (I will tell you why at the meeting.) Bring your chairs!

See you soon,

Steve

Last June several members of the NE Georgia Mustang Club participated in the Hot Rod Power Tour.  Afterwards we met and put together an article for submission to MCA’s Mustang Times magazine.  The article was accepted and published in this month’s issue, enjoy the article.

For those of you who have not been a part of the Hot Rod Power Tour, in June of 2019 the starting point will be at the zMAX Drag Strip in Concord, NC.  Where the tour will go after that will not be announced until this January.

Several NE Georgia Mustang Club members will be taking the tour next year, think about joining us.  I know you will have a great time.

Congratulations to Paul Wilbanks!

Mustangs Unlimited has added Paul to their “Featured Customer” page – http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/Pages/Featured-Customers/Paul-Wilbanks/

Paul’s write-up is as follows:

My fascination with Mustangs started when my brother bought a 1964 Ford Mustang. He was 12 years older than me and I looked up to him. I remember driving around the neighborhood with him and just being the talk of town in that Mustang. My brother would drive that car all over the place. He would even take it from northern Georgia to Daytona and Miami on a weekend. Once I got a little older and started driving he would let me drive the Mustang. I remember having such a blast driving that thing. Unfortunately, he sold it off for almost nothing when he was done with it.

Fast forward to 1988. My family was complete as we had four children and it seemed that there was less time in the day than there was money. I started to get the itch for a Mustang of my own. I didn’t really have the time to work on a car and restore one, so buying a 1964 like my brother had was out of the question. So, on my birthday in November I decided to buy a brand-new Fox Body Mustang. I ordered the early 1989 Mustang so that it matched the 1964 my brother had as close as possible. It had the V8, leather, convertible top, manual gear shift and was the closest color available to what my brother had on his.

I pretty much drove my Mustang from 1989 to 1998. Following in my brother’s footsteps I allowed people in my family to drive the Mustang, so they could experience it as well. Unfortunately, when my daughter was a senior in high school (twenty years ago), she got in an accident with the Mustang. Luckily, she and everyone else involved were okay, but the Mustang was technically totaled. I had it towed to my garage where it sat for about a year. Not being much of a mechanical type person, I started taking an auto repair class at Lanier Tech in Gainesville, Georgia. During my classes I learned a few tricks of the trade, which I would take home and apply to the destroyed Mustang. Over the next few months, I replaced the convertible top, bezels, weatherstripping, moldings, door panels, carpet, leather upholstery, emblems and tons of trim parts among other things. Shortly into my work, I realized I was not meant to be an auto body mechanic, so I left that work up to a nearby auto body shop. With the rebuild, I tried to keep it as it was in 1989. I still have Norwest Automotive in Sugar Hill GA maintain the motor. They keep it in top running condition. Before I sent it to Norwest, the motor was leaking about anyplace that held fluid, but they managed to seal it all up for me and keep it running like a top.

During my time with the Mustang, my wife has gifted me gift certificates to Mustangs Unlimited and bought me a few gift type items from you guys. The next thing I would like to get from you is a set of shocks, springs and struts.

I love driving the car. I joined the Northeast Georgia Mustang Club, so I could be around like-minded people. It is rare that I take the car out and do not get thumbs up or someone telling me that they love the car or that they knew someone who used to have one just like it. It is great feeling knowing that I know such a great piece of Americana and that I played a part in restoring it after the accident. I am looking forward to the many miles ahead!

— Paul Wilbanks

In the May issue of the Mustang Club of America’s Mustang Times is an article documenting the upgrading of Steve Harrison’s 1966 Fastback from a carburetor to Electronic Fuel Injection.  If you are considering a similar upgrade to your Mustang, the following is a good description of the effort required.

Here is the link to the complete Mustang Times issue: http://cdn.coverstand.com/7066/489524/1a8d44e3ee02b87d45c00a95782ef611085da2fc.1.pdf