2022 has been an interesting year for the programs group as CVR has emerged from the pandemic. The CVR board’s main consideration has always been the safety of our membership, so we wanted to make sure we went back to “in-person” monthly meetings when the time was right. On top of that, our hosts also had to feel comfortable with the process of holding a meeting at their location while considering our membership and the safety of their own staff. With things finally calming down in early 2022, May saw the return of our first monthly “in-person” meeting with our friends at Automobilia. We had a great time and all went well and we were glad to be back. Additional monthly meetings followed as we visited three of our Connecticut dealers over the summer months including Wallingford, Fairfield, and Hoffman. All four of these events were great successes and the membership was thrilled to be meeting back in person. Our attendance numbers grew with each meeting but still haven’t crept back to the pre-pandemic range.

This October marked the close of our monthly meeting season and we found ourselves with a new host, Billings Media. The Billings team can often be seen at automotive events as their services are often utilized by auto restorers, especially their latest offering – dry ice blasting, so you may be familiar with them.

60 CVR members made their way to the Billings location in Glastonbury for a Thursday night meeting. Kent and Glen Billings had the place all set up for us so we could take in part of the shop while a slide show demonstrated before and after photos of projects they have completed. We jumped into our typical meeting format with a fine dinner and socialization and then moved to our business portion. Our President, Allen Fossbender, was there to review the CVR calendar and activities. This was Allen’s last monthly meeting as President as he completes his term at the end of the year. Thank you Allen for your great leadership.

With the business portion of the meeting complete, Glen Billings took over and reviewed the company services with the membership.  It was fascinating to hear about the variety of media blasting services that they offer. Glen explained that the Mohs hardness scale dictates the harshness of the various abrasives, many of which are offered by Billings. You choose the abrasive to clean your item based on the material the item is made of and how aggressive you want to be with the cleaning. On top of that, you need a trained technician who knows how to get the results you are looking for. The Billings team passed around samples of a few media materials including garnet and walnut shells.

We split the CVRers up into two groups for the tour of the shop. The highlight of the tour was the example of the dry ice blasting process that they offer. The Billings team went on to explain that the dry ice media is getting difficult to obtain (supply shortage) but the results of using it were very impressive. Up on a lift in the shop was a 964, which had half of the undercarriage cleaned by their process. It was amazing to see paint finishes, plating, and even factory paint dabs (indicating a nut had been installed and torqued to the properly spec) unharmed while all the grime and dirt was gone.

We finished up the evening with a question and answer session and then our raffle. All in attendance were much impressed with the shop and very much enjoyed the evening’s presentation. Thank you Kent and Glen Billings (and Christina) for hosting our October meeting.

So, that is a wrap for programs 2022. We are already working on the 2023 season and hopefully we’ll see our attendance numbers return to their pre-Covid levels. We’ll start 2023 with our annual kick-off pancake breakfast at The Trailer Depot so watch for an invite in the new year. In the meantime, get your Porsche’s tucked away for their winter hibernation and enjoy the holidays.  

Thanks, your CVR programs crew.