Grease Monkeys: Automotive Restoration Hobbiests

OK, I’m lazy, and unwilling to spend energy brainstorming, so I go to Google and first off I wanted to answer the question, “Would Henry Ford have been a Grease Monkey?” After a bit of research, I’d say, “Yes.” but not as part of a club. His only membership was as a Freemason. He was generous as a mechanic with friends. There’s a story about him camping with Firestone and Edison, the fan of a car breaking and puncturing the radiator, and Ford repairing it himself on the side of the road while dozens of locals watched. End of the story, though. So, I continued to search including using (“Most Generous Mechanic” “Model A Ford”) when I found a story of my own presenting the Grease Monkey Award to the San Diego Chapter’s Arlyn Bieber. Again though, that’s the end of the story. Finally, I searched Google for ("most generous guy" "auto mechanic" "Model A Ford") and that came up with a story and justification using Google Gemini. Reading who it identifies, I ...

Things have slowed down a bit awarding founding memberships.   Mostly this has to do with club leaders, once reached, asking for time to consider who is most deserving of the award.   This means that in the job of coordination, the coordinator now has twenty two chapters contacted with offers. This shows a possible lack of coordination as there are actually only twenty five patches remaining unspoken for, while offering most of those clubs more than one award—if and when they respond. Eventually, it can be expected that after several attempts by email, phone, and in person to reach and then remind chapter contacts, they may get around to responding with the name of the nominee or nominees and all of the patches will have run out. There is an artificial deadline, however, in that the Coordinator Monkey will be swinging from another tree in a few months, so that’s the goal for having all founders of the order selected. If the 100 envisioned founders are not achieved by the...

Potential seems like a pretty strong idea because it’s got the word “Potent” imbedded inside it, but what is the strength of a small group of already, very busy, mechanics spread all over the country who are about 70-years-old on average? How will meetings, parties, and service events take place? If we develop a FROGMEN handshake, will two members meet each other to physically try it? There’s three directions to look for GM potential: is there an organizational norm we’d need to follow to be legal; is there a need for us to fill; and, is there something we want to do that we can’t do on our own. * I think we can run this however it works, I imagine the need for a figurehead president and then a bunch of committees with committee chairs, such as a publicity committee, a financial committee, and a membership committee. Individual officers will become out of touch with such distances. * A large number of people now live in gated "Planned Communities" with HOAs, and HOA’s h...

It was encouraging to read page 45 of the March/April 2025 issue of The Restorer which featured the Diablo A’s own Bob Grady receiving the Grease Monkey founder award for his generous works.  It’s the first time the group has been mentioned in a publication with a national audience. Searching for “’Mechanic helps’ car emergency” there is a single story of a mechanic using CPR to save a life, but if you search for “Man helps car emergency” you can find such exciting stories as: ·   Man helps dig car out of avalanche debris ·   Man helps woman, dog after car bursts into flames on Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and ·   Man helps pregnant woman escape after crash into Spokane River,  Looking for a “Generous Grease Monkey”, I found Kristin Cline, a videographer in Aurora, Texas, (formerly the LA Area) who goes by the handle Grease Girl . She has restored a number of cars, and made instructional videos to help others learn about mechanics. Cline hasn’t made national...

March 23rd, 2025 was the 62nd Annual Orange County Pancake Breakfast.   It was hosted by the Orange County chapter of the Model A Ford Club of America, but all models of antique, collectors, and hot rodded cars, motorcycles, and even bicycles transported people to the event. I recognized five Grease Monkey Founders in attendance, although I’m sure that was just the tip of the banana. I was hoping that some of those members who were the inspiration for the fraternity would drive their cars to the show—I’ve missed their progress with car restoration since I finished the Palomar Auto Tech certificate in December—it’s understood that the projects that inspired their own enrollment continue to be unfinished and they didn’t want to admit defeat by driving a modern car.   Hopefully we can lend each other a hand and next year will be the start of their regular attendance. Those of us with several cars had no need for such admissions and were just slowed deciding which car to drive...

  William J Bennett Jan 28,1960 Feb 3, 2025 The Grease Monkeys suffered a great loss with the death of Bill Bennett. A lifelong resident of Visalia, Bill worked on old Fords since he was 11 years old, and was the master mechanic, Grease Monkey selection of the Charter Oak A’s. He was the head mechanic for the Blain Motorsports Foundation, restoring and preserving pre-World War I race cars. He was also a major part of the success of the Ragtime Racers organizing races and swap meets for those cars. Daughter Katrina says what we all feel, “He was the one I called when the car was making a funny noise. He was the one who would drop everything to always answer when I called no matter what.“ Bill is survived by wife Shiela, children Mark (Taiko) Bennett and Katrina (Chris) Studer and a granddaughter.  

The foundation of the Grease Monkeys was within a small group of friends who met in San Marcos, California. The intention was not to remain there, or even focus on that one city. The serendipitous joy of meeting another member would be less if we had a geographic restriction. Surprise meetings and suddenly acquiring a new friend, is the value of any large, fraternal organization. Generous Mechanics are being rewarded for their generosity in the Central and Northern California Regions, but soon will be followed by Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,   Alabama, and South Carolina.   Thanks to the   uniformity of United States', First Class Mail, sending the gift packages has been both easy and affordable.   The most difficult thing about the   distance is obtaining trust from contacts, and   because of the vast distances between members, the chances of unplanned meetups might reduce the benefit of being a founding member. Founding memb...

  David Frazee, self-appointed coordinator of the Fraternal Order of Grease Monkeys, Engineers and Navigators, himself, a navigator , has been recognized for his contributions to the hobby by being appointed as secretary of the Model A Ford Club of America for 2025-26. Navigators are not known for their contributions as mechanics or for improving or customizing the design of factory built automobiles. They work tirelessly, for many years,   organizing and documenting the contributions of the countless mechanics and engineers throughout the many antique car clubs of the world.   Frazee has plans to attend many firsts for him throughout the next two years.   Expect to find him like a Manhattan tourist: frozen in the middle of a sidewalk, mouth gaping, looking up in wonder.  

We are adding a dozen founding members every month. Of course, what is not to like? For the 75 to 85 founders imagined, there will be no cost and no expectations.   Only if during the August meeting enough founders get together with goals beyond just fun and games will any money be collected and bylaws be agreed upon for the then “participating members.”.   The desired result for founders is illustrated in the picture above.   Most founders have had over forty years experience working to restore and maintain antique cars, and while we love those cars, Grease Monkeys are generous mechanics and show some interest in younger mechanics as well, sharing stories, diagnosing their mechanical issues, providing advice, and inviting them to work in their garages. Grease Monkeys should stand behind younger hobbyists—even sometimes sticking their head through the roof of a car to do it… The joys of artificial intelligence, am I right? Most of the Central California Region and ...

During 2024, I took 8 classes, 25 units. Most for mechanics, but one was an elective in Refinishing and one in Welding. I finished the program’s ten required classes Dec. 19th in five semesters; four is the quickest possible due to lack of instructors and classroom/lab space. I have a high priority level with scores of units, but others without that priority have been idle, taking only electives, unable to get the last few classes for a certificate needed for their promotion to mechanic.  Folks ask if I learned anything about Model A’s, and while not specifically, I learned to use machines, tools, and chemicals on many different steel parts in a safe and focused way. You’d think that after almost 50 years in various garages, I’d have had that down, but when you’re taught to fix Model A’s with hammers, pipe wrenches, bailing wire, Bondo, and duct tape, and you’re happy if it only squeaks a little as it makes its way down the road (Just add more gre...