CRAKK RUN - flatoz & rat bastad & swifty's road trip

Firstly,

as I sit here, I have a truck load of mixed feelings about it all this will become evident at the end. But lets look at the B&W of it all. the plan was a 6 day road trip to Canberra, Australias capital city, to attend the CRAKK run ( Canberra rod and kustom krooze).

Primarily also to catch up with jimbob and drewfus, and take my roadsters new engine on its maiden voyage. Well , all that happened.

Firstly we set of late on wednesday evening as rat got caught in traffic . so it was about 6pm when we left Canberra is about 400mi away. We made good time and the weather was to die for. Rat was cruising solo as he had a bad back and was spread across the interior of his couple like a road kill rabbit. Swifty ( my old man) was riding shotgun with me in the roadster. I'm pretty proud of him for doing this, hes 65 and most would be settling into watching TV not a 400mi shotgun ride in a roadster.

as we hit the freeway the sun was warm, the road was clear and we sat on 70mph my temp was sitting at about 160-165f and oil psi was 52, the flatty was cruising at about 2400rpm and my arm was hanging out the side and life was about as good as it gets.

As the evening wore on, the sun went down and twilight set in, it was the best. the throb of a blown flatty just humming along, my old man to keep me company and chat about hot rods and 5 days of relaxing with mates, having the odd angry bird and some ceveza and a bbq or two, hell I was salivating just thinking about it.

we made it to one petrol stop at glenrowan and the stars came out. juiced up and hit the road, turned the lights on and stared at the wide expanse of sky overhead. that lovely time when its dark up above but tapering to blue on the horizon.

we got to Albury about nearly half way and the car cut out. no problem started it up again, and we got another 2km and it dies again. earlier that week I had upped my coverage with our RACV to total care ( your AAA) so called them and it eventually turned out that the alternator ( yes sorry it has one at the moment) wasnt putting enough back in so I had been running on the battery and it just said, "I'm out of here"

Now my total care gives me a free motel room if they cant get me going, so about midnight we booked in. I was pissed off, but hey, easy fix in the morning. I pulled the battery and used my jump pack by plugging it into the wall and putting the leads on the battery to charge thru the jump pack to battery over night.

in the morning we went to the auto elec across the road. After alot of stuffing around the changed the bushes and told me to touch my toes ( $75) and when I had fitted it the guy came to check it out and told me that it wasnt wired up properly coz it needed an external reg. I told him there wasnt one in the system. He didnt believe me, he told me it wouldnt last otherwise, I told him it had been that way for 5 years. Anyway, I wasnt going to let these clowns do any more work so we made tracks for Canberra.

The rest of the trip to Jimbobs was uneventful, ****ty goat track of a national highway, but we got there. Jimbob and I whizzed off and picked up another alternator with internal reg and put it on.

we then coaxed jamie to show us around his work ( I will upload pics of this tomorrow) he works for the Australian war memorial in their resto section and man his work is the best.

after this we grabbed food and fuel ( mans not a camel) and headed to the park to settle in for a few elbow bending sessions.

All was cool, we cruised the park, the run takes over the white ibis caravan park , which is nicely nestled in a valley and has a great cruising circuit. we did some cruising and drinking and fired up the bbq and generally sat around and B&S'd and caught up.

Friday was Australia day, we cruised to a tourist trap and parked, we wandered around the street rods, got nauseated and then hit the pub for pub grub for lunch. More BS, ribbing and paying out, it was great times.

in the pm we drove back to the park and enjoys the eating drinking and driving again. about 1100pm we decided to take the cars into the city and get some good photos of them at the memorial sights. so we all bundled into the vehicles and set off. I dived between two trees and onto the roadway and parked on the side waiting for rat and jimbob to cruise around. as they rounded the corner I put it into first and just putted off, all of a sudden the motor was making this gut wrenching knock, were talking sldeghammer inside the engine.

I pulled over and stopped. The decision was to put it in one of the pavilions and check it out. this was about midnight now. so about an hour latter I had the blower off and checking the valve lash. all was good. And my gut clenched. So...

I pulled the pan.

My heart sank.

there was enough silver in the bottom of the pan to make a jewelers eyes light up. and I found that the rod journal of 1/5 was blued from heat. number 5 rod nuts were finger tight I took them off and popper the shell out it was toast.

It was 2 am by now. I could nearly cry, all the h***les I have had. I'm 400+ miles away from home, I have spent months and $$ on this motor, and it looks like my crank 24+ hours of my hard earned time is gone.I think I went numb from my toes to whats left of my hair. I didnt know what I was going to do. but I couldnt do anything then. so I left it and locked up and went to bed.

In the morning I bolted it back together and pushed it out. we organised a trailer ( thanks QQmoon) and towed it to jimbobs and put it in his shed. To say I was devestated is an understatement. It was about as low as I have felt for a long time.

the rest of saturday was spent kicking back, I probably wasnt the chattiest of blokes for the rest of the weekend. So I had a few beers and contemplated in my head what I was going to do. My old man called greyhound and was going to jump a bus and get home and then get a trailer and come back and pick me up. My mother was going to try and navigate her way up with a trailer too. I told them not to worry, jimbob was happy for it to sit for a week or two so I wasnt too concerned as I knew that something would work out.

Jimbob was kind enough to take me cruising on Saturday night around the park and we developed a new game. Its like a version of "eye spy" but called 'thats gay' basically we drove around the park checking out the street rods and picking out what was gay about them. There must have been alot of streetrods, as I think it took us about 3 hours to get around the park.

Now my biggest problem was getting myself and the old man home. I was going to pay for a flight for him but we were more than lucky that another hotrodder from my home town was there. so the old man hitched a ride home with them. I came back with Rat in the coupe. We left a day early as we had planned on leaving on the monday, but I guess the magic of cruising together was gone so we made a beeline for melbourne early on sunday pm.

my brother rang just as we were about to leave and said he would be there tomorrow morning with a trailer to pick me up. I told him not to worry, but I appreciated it. As we were heading out of Canberra a mate of jimbobs rang and said his boss would give him the day off on monday and we could get a u haul and take it back. Sam doesnt even know me that well, but what an offer, and his wife is about to give birth! I couldnt take him up on that.

So when I got home last night I spent it kicking over in my mind what the hell I was going to do, both to get the car back, and to fix it. At one point I openly said that , this is how cars get found in barns in 50yrs time! I even nearly contemplated selling it and moving on with the luck I have had of late.

So today I dragged my sorry **** to work. I was meant to have a day off but went in thinking that if I need to go and get the car I will need the day down the track.

I decided to call the RACV and see if there was anything that they could do. They have this thing that is called 'retrieval' so as I type this my roadster is on the back of a bananna back on its way home. and all for zip. well I did have to pay for the total care, which is $165 a year. and any car I drive I am covered in. So, so far I have gotten a call out a $109 motel room and a tow of 400mi for $165. Hearing that was what I hope is a turn around in my hotrodding luck. I believe in hotrod karma, well I have had my dose of the bad, so it has to come my way soon.

so dont take this as a ***** or poor me, I love hotrodding, love the cars, the experiences and the people you get to enjoy it with. Regardless, it was an unforgetable weekend and that twilight cruise with my old man I wont forget ever. Something good always comes of these things. It could have happened at 70mph and the motor would be toast.

anyway after that novel, heres some photos. I will up load some more latter.

cheers flatoz.

I told drewfus that I would bring his tyres up, heres what I got in the back of the roadster.



Hers me and the old man about to leave. with the boot packed.




heres rat, more pics of his car as hard to take pics of your car when your driving!







stopped at the servo for petrol at that twilight period






rat at the motel, I thought that the paving , lighting and his coupe worked well together...



mine, rats and jimbobs pickmeup on the friday arvo


same pose different position, and just before we took off and it went bang.

 

Heres the motor damage...

 

Flatoz,
12 months fron now this will make a great story around a camp fire with a slab of VB. Thank God for the ultimate in travel/car insurance. I got stuck in Sydney last Oct when there was a big quake in Hawaii which shut down Air Canada flight. The Hilton Hotel overnite was great !! travel insurance paid for the taxis and Hotel/food/grog overnite > $525.00 ( luved every minute of it).
Keep yer chin up mate!!

 

That's bad luck in the extreme. What do you think may have caused it? Blocked oil holes in the crank, or just a bad shell? Not much compensation I know, but your pics are fantastic.

 

georgous pics. major bumma re the engine tho. More tech articles I guess....

 

Ouch!

Sorry to hear it. Sometimes it's best to just take a deep breath, move on and fix it. Then eat the heart of the enemy.

"that's gay" So you haven't heard about my roll of "?" stickers?

 

I gotta say that just plain ****s after all your hard work.
The turn around in Karma is gunna pay off for you in a big way soon.
By the way like the front number plate surround.

Binga

 

Corey what can I say! I was waiting to see how the trip went and this was not what I was expecting. But cars do that to you, they rip out your heart when you least expect it. It could have been far far worse though....

As for that moment just on dusk, I've been lucky enough to experience the same thing, only I shared it with my wife. It makes owning a roadster all the more enjoyable. I can't wait to get mine going and get out and enjoy the little things like that again! Which I'm sure you will to sooner rather than later.

 

Corey
Thats a real downer. I saw rat on my way home near Holbrook sunday arvo and kept my eye out looking for you. After a while i said to my girl im surprised i havent seen Corey and hoped every thing went ok, **** happens. I saw Dave about half an hour after i saw you guys. Anyway how was the ride home in a 32 with a roof.

 

So glad to hear she's on her way back, so sorry to hear about the troubles. We were wondering how you were going on sat as the Kardinals hit the Hot Rod show to play the "what's gay about that rod" game as well. (and see dan get owned by a 4 year old kid) Hilarious.

Good luck with everything....as Ryan said one of the nicest rides ever.

Cheers

Maiki

 

ahh the good old hume freeway.. sorry to hear bout your engine dude.

 

Thanks all,

I just have to be philosophical about it all.

rockabilly, I think it obviously has to be one of the two things you said. the bearings are clevite supposedly really good. so it could be something has blocked the oil p***age. I know I tightened the rod bolts, I double checked ( triple actually) before I ****oned up the bottom end.

two rods a set of bearing and hopefully the crank is ok, and a big clean and I should be all go again.

theres good in there somewhere, I know if I look hard enough I will find it.

 

Guys this trip was gonna e a fantastic one and it sure as hell started off that way.

Let me say there is NOTHING finer than cruising a highway with the sun going down on a warm Summers evening and looking at a 32 roadster in the next lane whilst driving another 32.

Its what I built this car for and Im sure Flatoz has for the same reason...good times and miles of smiles. Which is why when I first heard that fateful tapping noise I was kinda prayin' that it was in the valvetrain and NOT the bottom end..

Flatoz has been bustin' his *** on this thing for ages and to have this happen to him on this run was heartbreaking to say the least. I know how he feels. I really feel for the guy but I know he'll bounce back soon and that hopefully we can fix it soon enough..

So hopefully we can pull the mill this week and tear it down and suss out what has happened. After thinking about the problem today, Im guessing that the crank's oil galleries were blocked to that rod journal as the clearances had previously checked out and the rod bolts were properly torqued. The question is....why didnt the rod bearing **** itself SOONER if that was the case instead of after 500 miles of driving ???

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Binga sorry you had to miss out man....but my back was **** the day we left (in fact I wasnt even going to go the nite before) and I neded to stretch out in the coupe. Prob just as well as Flatoz came home in the coupe anyways and we managed a few laughs on the way home.

Maybe next time pal....

We'll get it fixed of that you can be sure...

Rat

 

Oh and BTW, thanx to Jimbob and Sam for their help and support. Thanx to Sam also for the framed pix of the Deuce's maiden voayage to CRAKK last year.

And Jimbob's Deuce pick me up is a real cream puff......its a primo ride for sure.

Rat

 

Really sorry for you. I know i've been there when i snapped a rod in my flatty so i can totally understand. It feels like its the end of the world. But don't give up... I had the problem with rod nuts coming undone tryed lock wire,split pins even lock tight never cured the problem used to have to check the bottom end on a monthly basis (that was running with 9psi boost). Then i fitted a set of **** rods and have never had the problem again.
Keep us informed of progress. The car looks so *****ing by the way.
Cheers Jim.

 

oh man , sorry to here it ! I hope it clean`s up , save all that metal in a little jar , it seemed like you did every thing perfect , must have had a piece of trash in the crank , come loose? that tripple aaa. is a must have . glad your still have a good outlook ! never give up ! good luck mate.

 

Corey
Gutted for you after all the hard work that has went into the engine

 

I feel for ya...I've been there, stuck on the side of the road 2,000 miles from home trying to determine the best co**** of action. Glad to hear things worked out and you and your pops made it home safely and the roadsters not far behind.

 

Thanks all,

This is just hotroddin' after all, if it wasnt we would all be driving the same cars we originally built as nothing would break or need changing. I really wish my motor hadnt broken, but then at one point in time I really wished I had a blown flathead.

the last lot of photos were taken by drewfus, cant say I was in the mood to take happy snaps.

I will aim for next hot rod season, as ours is getting close to finished now. I have missed most of the main events, but I did get up to Canberra, and thats pretty cool in my book, I had a great time with mates so what more can you ask for.

cheers.

 

Sorry to hear about the engine. Nice to hear people are tight down there and help a friend out .
You'll get her running again, no doubt there!

Flatman

 

On the positive side, I think one of the better memories of the weekend that will be permanantly etched in the back of my head was the thursday night 'midnight' drive (packed into Flatoz's roadster -pre 'bang')where Flatoz (shifting the gears, like a 'piggy in the middle') a drunken Jimbob on the LHS (navigating), and I (driving - no alck-y-hol ) cruised through the empty streets enjoying the cool night air, and the sounds of a blown flatty.

That will be a memory that will last longer than the other heartache....

Thanks for making the effort to come north.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

Sorry to hear about your motor corey, and even sorrier I didnt end up coming.. I love a good road trip.
wow that crank got farkin hot eh?
I guess thats the shortfall of running fifty year old rods with the original studs in em, you just cant tell when they might let go..Im ***uming the stud broke down in the rod? thats what the photo looks like, pretty hard to check for damage/stress down there.
Its not much, but as always my hoist and workshop are yours if you need em.

chin up, your on your way to becoming australias foremost Blown flathead expert! maybe thats the silver lining....

 

Mate, big thanks to you and Rat bastad for making the effort to travel up to Canberra, it was a battle from the get go. Sam and I really enjoy travelling down to Melbourne to visit you blokes for several reasons, the friendship, the nostalgia scene down there, and the cruise there and back. I hope you enjoyed your trip as much as we enjoy ours down south (all vehicle problems aside).

Great photos, and, as Drewfus has said, Thursday nights short tour around Canberra was a real blast, as was Saturday nights antics with Flatoz, the Buick being the last car running, upsetting a few of those trying to sleep I'm sure .

 

On a lighter note, I thought you car was lookin' good Corey, 'til I saw that GAY roll bar!!!!

(gas station shot is most obvious example.)

 

BWahahahahaha, LMFA. Yeah Corey, WTF is that , remove it before you got to my place to save face?????

 

geez I knew someone would spot that!

Thats my Ronald McDonald rollbar.

 

Ah bummer...

Sorry to hear about that, mate. Sure looked like fun for a little while.

The cars sure looked good, though.

 

And that's my fault cos I took those two shots at the Glenrowan fuel stop. I just don't have a "Drewfus" eye for those things.

 

Hey swifty good to see you made it home too.
And the pics looked ok to me.

Binga