Larry,
Well, I may be the one confused, but I have a bunch of pictures from Oak Creek dated 1978 with Smith and the others I mentioned, and it was raining pretty heavy in the pics.  There was a fair amount of alcohol involved back in those days (the pictures document that also) and we three or four trips to Oak Creek so you're likely correct.  I guess we'll need Ray to confirm the dates.
Bill
 
From: lhofer@corvetteshopsandiego.com <lhofer@corvetteshopsandiego.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2026 10:31 AM
To: 'william hogue' <hogue34@hotmail.com>; don.kleine.vortex@gmail.com <don.kleine.vortex@gmail.com>; 'Michael G. Brattland' <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com>; 'Tony Cortez' <tltony@cox.net>
Cc: 'San Diego Car Guys List' <sandiegocarguys@brattland.org>; 'Ray Gauthier' <ragauthier@cox.net>; 'Ron Lambrecht Home' <lambrecr@outlook.com>; 'Pete Cowper' <petercowper@att.net>; 'Kevin Black' <kblack1967@gmail.com>; 'Michael G Brattland' <mgbrattland@big3partsexchange.com>; 'Bill Jansen GMail' <coebill@gmail.com>; 'Bill Personius' <billpersonius@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Sandiegocarguys] Re: My Willy Aum Oil Pan
 

Mornin Bill;

I am confused,,

Ray broke his oil pan on two different occasions?

That trip that Don was describing was memorable.

It rained so much it filled my cylinders in my roadster with water.

Needed to remove the spark plugs to get the water out  of the cylinders.

Didn’t do any damage to the engine.

We ran across some older guy (like you and me now) who had a really large collections

of mid 40 and 50 and 60’s cars in one of the mining warehouses,

He let us in to look around.

Was Kool

Best to you and Patti.

 

Larry Hofer

Corvette Shop/Raylar Engineering

4645 Ruffner St., “I”

San Diego, CA  92111

858-277-8388

 

From: william hogue <hogue34@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2026 10:21 PM
To: don.kleine.vortex@gmail.com; 'Michael G. Brattland' <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com>; 'Tony Cortez' <tltony@cox.net>; lhofer@corvetteshopsandiego.com
Cc: 'San Diego Car Guys List' <sandiegocarguys@brattland.org>; 'Ray Gauthier' <ragauthier@cox.net>; 'Ron Lambrecht Home' <lambrecr@outlook.com>; 'Pete Cowper' <petercowper@att.net>; 'Kevin Black' <kblack1967@gmail.com>; 'Michael G Brattland' <mgbrattland@big3partsexchange.com>; 'Bill Jansen GMail' <coebill@gmail.com>; 'Bill Personius' <billpersonius@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sandiegocarguys] Re: My Willy Aum Oil Pan

 

Don,

Ray Smith was with a convoy of Over the Hill Gang members and we were actually going to the Oak Creek Rod Run (a bit south of Sedona).  The year was 1978 and the group included Roy Chisolm, John Pickle, Norm Fletcher, Butch Whitley, Patti and me, and several others.  As I recall, we "fixed" Ray's '38 Chevy by hammering a piece of wood in the hole in the oil pan and continued on to Oak Creek. Hillbilly engineering at it's finest!

Bill

 

From: don.kleine.vortex@gmail.com <don.kleine.vortex@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2026 1:43 PM
To: 'Michael G. Brattland' <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com>; 'Tony Cortez' <tltony@cox.net>; lhofer@corvetteshopsandiego.com <lhofer@corvetteshopsandiego.com>
Cc: 'San Diego Car Guys List' <sandiegocarguys@brattland.org>; 'Ray Gauthier' <ragauthier@cox.net>; 'Ron Lambrecht Home' <lambrecr@outlook.com>; 'Pete Cowper' <petercowper@att.net>; 'Kevin Black' <kblack1967@gmail.com>; 'Michael G Brattland' <mgbrattland@big3partsexchange.com>; 'Bill Jansen GMail' <coebill@gmail.com>; 'Bill Personius' <billpersonius@gmail.com>
Subject: [Sandiegocarguys] Re: My Willy Aum Oil Pan

 

Hi,

Just like the pan the Ray Smith broke on a rock going to Sedona in 1986 on the freeway in the rain east of Yuma.

Don

 

From: Michael G. Brattland <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2026 12:27 PM
To: Tony Cortez <tltony@cox.net>
Cc: San Diego Car Guys List <sandiegocarguys@brattland.org>; Ray Gauthier <ragauthier@cox.net>; Ron Lambrecht Home <lambrecr@outlook.com>; Pete Cowper <petercowper@att.net>; Kevin Black <kblack1967@gmail.com>; Michael G Brattland <mgbrattland@big3partsexchange.com>; Bill Jansen GMail <coebill@gmail.com>; Bill Personius <billpersonius@gmail.com>
Subject: [Sandiegocarguys] My Willy Aum Oil Pan

 

 

All back together and running here. As you always do a very nice Tig Weld both inside and outside on my hot rod oil pan which got holed at the oil changer place.Thanks so much making this pan repair for me Tony.....mgb

 

 

MGBrattland Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S23 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone