More on judging cars at the National

[Gordie]

If we own a nice but deteriorating car and wish to repaint or reupholster it it would certainly be nice to have information to do it correctly even if we decide not to. Last year at Puyallup we had a modified 1947 Kaiser awarded a Silver trophy when this particular car shouldn't have scored more than 40 points out of 100.  That must have been a real insult to those members who have worked very hard on their cars to attain a silver level.  Our judging awards should be based on a certain standard and have integrity.  Of course the main purpose of our club is the fun of the cars and the friendships when we all get together but if we are going to have judging let's do it with accuracy.  That is why we need the judging guidelines.

[DTort96646]

I agree Gordie, but aren't there guidelines in place now? What has been going on for years as a judging standard? Not a "good ole boy system" I hope. And that is my point, I thought that there was a semblance of accuracy and integrity in the club judging standards. I guess I have been stuck in the Darrin part too long.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

To quote former Chief Judge Fred Walker, "I know everything there is to know.  You'll do ok if you buy all your parts from me or, better yet, have my shop do your restoration work".  We have no decent written standards; things vary from judge to judge and from meet for the same car. 

[Corsairdeluxe]

I did not think I was the only one. I inquired about restoring a Henry J and I was assured I would get a first if I did.

[joefrazer]

Wow...to read this thread one would think our judging process is seriously flawed. Well folks, it's not. Rather, it is evolving. We've moved on from the days of the "one man show" and are today working to assemble a set of standards that will accurately capture how a Kaiser, Frazer, or Willys vehicle was equipped when it left the factory.

I judge at KF national meets and have done so for many years. I've judged with the Classic Car Club of America and I'm also a concours judge with the Mercedes Benz Club of America so I feel I'm qualified to to look at our process and how it compares to other organizations. In many ways, for a single marque club, we've made great strides in building our judging system, and in still others, we have room to grow. But, to grow we need to have people dedicated to building the standards and still more willing to execute them on the show field. If you're one of those folks who attends our national meets, consider becoming a judge and volunteering your time to better the process. Judging standards are only as good as the folks who use them and if we can build a core group of tenured judges, I guarantee you'll see positive results.

So, let's stop the complaining and focus those energies on bettering the judging process.

[HJ-ETEX]

I offered to judge at the 3rd National I attended. Fred didn't trust me so I got stuck with the HJ/Allstate class. I am a strong believer (and I believe our current President would concur) that you should not b*tch about judging until you have some experience in KFOCI judging. You think the same group of people are judging the cars at every convention? Move your butt and join in the judging! May be you will understand what the judges are looking at.
I have number of KFOCI friends that show up at the Convention and I have convinced a number of them to join in judging at least once. I would like at least 50% of our members to be able to claim that they had participated in judging.

[HJ-ETEX]

Now really Fred Walker didn't care for HJs and as a result didn't know that much about them and wanted to be rid of the HJ parts he got when he cleaned out the dealers. That ties into why my 1st judging assignment was HJ/Allstates.

[Gordie]

I too was reluctant to judge for many years but have been doing it for the last few years and have learned more about the cars than I ever knew before.  The new judging guidelines which won't be available this year will make it easier and much more fun to judge.  Please sign up at Gettysburg if you are attending this year.  Get to know more members and more about our favorite cars and help speed up the judging for everyone.

[HJ-ETEX]

Before you complain about a questionable condition car getting an award, you should specify what class the car was judging in. In particular, the Modified Class is judged on condition alone, not originality. However, to qualify for the Modified Class, the car has to have a major body or drive train (mostly interpreted as a motor swap) alteration. Funny paint, wheels or upholstery isn't sufficient.
Some people at various Conventions tasked with judging Modifieds took off for originality anyway. On the other hand, I had to take off not just 1 point but max points (2 points) on one modified car because the tread was so separated on a tire I really thought it would throw if driven less than 10 miles.