Lone Star Lady April June 2008 - Rroctexas.com

If You Can’t Dodge It...Ram It!by David KrazerA few years ago, the supply of the TexasRegion RROC club badges had diminishedto the point we needed to reorder.It was put before the Texas Region boardof directors to possibly change the design,then look for a manufacturer of the newbadges. At that time, our club’s residentartist; Steve Krazer, put forth the designlogo for board approval. The new logo wasapproved and Sneed Adams was assignedthe task of locating a badge supplier.Sneed was able to secure a bid from severalbadge makers and the Board approved thepurchase of an initial order of badges. Thebadges sold very well and the Region wasable to recoup the cost of the badges - andeven made a little profit.A small problem occurred about a year orso after the badges were distributed. Thecolor resin on the face would peel off leavingonly the chrome metal backing. I hadproudly installed my beautiful Texas Regionbadge onto the front bumper of my2003 Dodge 2500 pickup - the Test Mule.I had been living in Amarillo, Texas at thetime so I chalked it up to the extremesin weather patterns there. I then foundthat I was not the only one with this issue- other members around the region wereexperiencing the same fate. We contactedthe manufacturer and found that the clearcoat was designed for a life of about 2years. They did redo some of the affectedbadges, but the “Test Mule” in Amarillodeveloped the same issue again. The boardthen decided to scrap that manufacturerand locate another one. The Board askedabout the issue of peeling with the newmanufacturer and were assured that wasnot going to be a problem.So now the Texas Region has a new andimproved badge. I am proud to say I havenot had any more peeling issues with ournew badge. But this mule had one moretest… a several weeks ago I was comingback from taking our son, Patrick, toschool and Ford Ranger pickup truck hadstopped in front of me and, yes, I rammedmy Dodge pickup into him. The badge,my beautiful badge, popped off its perchand landed on the street in the other laneof oncoming traffic. I ran out into thetraffic to retrieve my lovely badge. I attestto the fact that the new badge was hit andrun over and still has not peeled. The TestMule is still at work for our members andthe badge has survived its latest scrape.The tests continue…May–June 2008 • The Lone Star Lady 9