Made a LONG trip to Montana, but it was worth it!

A guy gets a hold of me off of Fordbarn saying he has a very nice original 1934 Ford grill for sale. He sends me pictures and we go back and forth on condition, price, ect. This all takes about a month as he does not answer emails everday. We finally come up with a deal, but he will not ship the grill in fear that it will get damaged. He lives in Great Falls, MT...360 miles away so I say thats fine, I will come get it. The weather was suppost to be good yesterday and get stormy later that night. So yesterday my Dad, my friend Lenny and I jump in my trusty Subaru and head out at 6AM. We arrive in Great falls arounf 12:30, meet the man, look over the grill and buy it. I was pretty excited to say the least....it was a lot of dough but it is the nicest original I have ever seen! Jump back in the car, grab some lunch and head back. I had an appointment to also check out a 58 Chevy pickup in Missoula that afternoon.
All was looking good until we were heading up Rogers p*** about 60 miles from Great falls. I noticed the temp gauge on the ol Subaru rising QUICK! We pull over and check it out, conviced it was a stuck thermostat. I had just put one in about a month early...even bought a Subaru one from the dealer. I had tools with me but nothing to collect the drained coolant into. So we let here cool down and milk it up to the top of the p***. Coast down and limp it SLOWLY to the town of Lincoln about 15 miles away. Pull into a gas station, barrow a bucket, pop the T stat out, gut it, and stick it back in. It's on the bottom radiator hose and we had to gut it because it's the type with the O ring that seals it, had to have something in there to hold the seal. That did the trick and back on the road shortly. Made it to Missoula about 6, checked out the Chevy truck that turned out to be junk, and hit I-90 just in time for that storm to be rolling in. We were hit with a downpour of snow the whole way home, most of the time we were the only car on the road with no tire tracks in front of us! Had two more p***es to go, and I finally arrived in my bed and midnight. It was a 18 hour 800 mile treck, but I can say it was worth it


Heres how the first part of the trip looked in the morning:






This is the town of Lincoln....the town that would later save out ****s!



After crossing the Cacsade Moutains, we came to awesome blue skys and dry roads!




Our gutted T-stat, and I putting it back in










And Finally, the grill The man I got it from said his Brother had a 1934 5 window coupe about 40 years ago and he picked this grill up for it. The car is long gone but he still had the grill. He said before his Brother got the grill, it hung in a garage for who knows how long. I would belive it, man this thing is flippin beautiful! It will look good ont he front of my roadster!

 

Great looking grill, wish I could find one like that. Even better I wish I could afford one like that!

 

What a beauty!

 

Wowwee wow wow!!!

 

been a lot of subaru's going on road trips and breaking down lately. Glad you made it home safe with your "treasure"

 

Awesome grille Chris!

 

I've owned that ol car for like 5 years, and this is the FIRST time it ever made a peep of a problem! I do drive the **** out of it too. I know there not the coolest car in the world, but in a climate like this, I swear by em I'll go get another thermostat that will hopefully last more then a month! Oh, and on long trips carry a drain pan and a jug of water

 

Nice Grill, your Lucky!
Eric

 

Cool Chris,beautiful piece,you are definitely ******** and I appreciate that, having been around Tom and Fabian, I know the fire.

 

Gorgeous grill Chris... I always dig your stories!!

 

Definitely good cars. Except no one on this side of the mountains can figure out how to drive in the snow. So they might as well be rwd. We had transmission issues going down to Gambino's just before christmas....only reason I said anything.

 

You always find the good stuff!

 

Dude, you're nuts! Nice grille though!

 

...if you crossed the Cascade Mountains you wern't in Montana anymore...

.

 

Very Cool Pix & Grille ! Congrats all the way !

PS: I flew to Helena a few years back, and at that time I'll tell you it almost cost as much to fly from St. Louis to Montana as it does from St.Louis to London !

Jonnie King www.legends.thewwbc.net

 

My Son lives in Vermont where the car of choice is the Subaru 4x4. Seen some with four wheel snow tires on old steel wheels.

 

Great story and beautiful grille, Chris. Long day, but worth it.

 

So which is better the part you found or the adventure to get it ....probably it would be hard to choose eh? As for the Subaru W

 

Hey....I had to do the EXACT same thing to my wifes Subaru while we were on our way to VT.............

 

Sorry about that unfinished reply ...finger problems....! As for the Subaru we have one as well and it is the greatest little car I have owned, they are great in the snow and rain. Rob.

 

HAHA good catch! Sorry Rocky mountains I got confused when looking at a map it said the area just beyond the mountains was Cascade...and I get confused easily

"I don't know, I just live here"

 

I hear it dude, just got back from the dealer and they warrantied the flippin thing for me at least

Anything man made will have no exception to possibly haveing problems

 

Hey thanks for the compliment. I'm ***uming you mean Tom Branch? Hell of a guy, never met Fabian but my oh my if I had a lick of his tallent!

 

Nice grille,cool story.

Good thick garbage bags work well to drain fluid into and they take up very little space.

 

Reminded me of one of my "finds". Back in the early '70s I owned a nice '34 Victoria and knew of another in a barn that was complete but in need of restoration. I took my friend to see it and then went to see the owner at his Pharmacy in Beavercreek, Ohio (Gene Mooseburger). He said he wanted $600 for the car. My friend wanted it but didn't have the money so he asked if I could go "haves" on it and I agreed. Then Gene said we could pick up all the "parts" that went with it!!!??!! He said he had (ALL NOS) a Grille, 4 Fenders and Running boards (before repos)! I about fell on the floor as he never said anything about the parts going with it before! I had seen all the parts in one of my Saturday trips to his STUFFED ba*****t and cars in MANY barns, but he never wanted to sell them and never said they went with the Vicky.
I was founder and president of the So. Ohio chapter of the Early Ford V-8 Club and we DROVE both cars to the Dearborn meet that year as "Before & After". I later traded my friend a newly chromed grille for the NOS one for my National winning '34 Roadster. Found another NOS grille and sold the 1st one to Chris ?(Carrier-I think) and it went on the famous "California Kid's" '34 coupe.
One of my 4,000 cars stories over the past 55 years. You should here about the Dusenberg & Bugatti in a barn and the 18 cars in a barn stories! Tom Kitchen

 

Here's one I always use: "Anything made by a human is subject to failure."

Nice grille BTW...

R-

 

......Thanks for the great story and thread......just to let you know....the grille is usually the first thing you see on a car or truck...yours looks perfect .....worth every dollar you spent.....you'll be telling this story to everybody for years when they real nice grille.....

 

I don't think I've seen a finer grille anywhere this side of a restored car. Nice find, certainly worth the trip.

I've been on that road you're discussing so many times. Driven it during dusty dirty construction in a Hemi-fied shoebox, 58 Vette in the winter (not much fun, but some G/hound bus driver with more hair on his fanny than I have p***ed me!!!! in the mountains...on hard-packed snow...and I have some driving credentials...but apparently insufficient for that trek. Beautiful drive anytime of the year.

Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Looks like fun and completely worth it, great score!

 

I am officially changing my name to Chris.
Damnit..its already taken...