Day 6, Thursday October 10th. Woke up at 5:30 and filled up in Tucumcari, then installed myself for the 100+ mile drive to Amarillo. by the time we got there, places were finally open, and I started calling around looking for a rocker or two. I finally made the call to Carter Machine, and they had them in stock. so with my GPS loaded I set off, now alone, with plans to meet up with the group for lunch later. It never happened. I replaced the rockers in the parking lot of Carter machine, and finally realized what had been spraying on my windshield this whole trip. My radiator had a hairline crack. So, I went to O'reilys to get some JB weld to smear on it, and while giving my car the once over, I found my motor mount had bit the dust. Luckily the top part was still there (I had removed it already when I took the above photo) So I bought a large tractor clevis, and a few ratchet straps, and I borrowed a couple big sticks from a strangers truck, and made stuff work. It paired well with my water bottle overflow. Once finally out of Amarillo, I started northeast on hwy 60, till I hit Pampa, there I double checked on some stuff and stopped at a Napa to replace my very unhappy spark plugs. When I turned around to get my phone out of my car this is what I saw. That new headlight, was gone. Along with the trim ring. So we dug up an old 7"sealed beam off the shelf, and bought it too. Electrical tape made a stylish seal and trim ring. After this I just tried to make tracks as much as I could. It wasn't running good, and it sounded wounded, but I trudged on. I tried to make an adjustment to the timing in Cleo Springs Oklahoma, and was blessed with a cracked distributor cap. @titus happened to text me about that time, and he told me the part number to look for. I taped it up and started to search options. A friendly local overheard my plight and offered to call the local O'reilys and see if they had it. The one in Enid had one, so I modified my route to accommodate. Unfortunately it was bright ford engine blue, but at least they had one. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I made it to Pawhuska. Since the Reliability run goes through there every year, I knew where I was. and roughly a half hour from my final destination. So as I cranked along the last few miles, I was feeling pretty good. and then It happened. rocker #4 exited stage right. Luckily it happened as I was topping the hill before the new casino/hotel right outside of bartlesville. I was able to keep the motor running long enough to get momentum to coast into the driveway and park under the lights. Right next too about 10 Rolling bones cars. Then I proceeded to install one of the extra rockers I bought in Amarillo, set lash, and fire it back up. I drove the final 3 miles into the host hotel and breathed a sigh of relief. I made it. I was swarmed by a bunch of people, and I had a great time, recounting the ridiculous nature of the trip, and all the stupid things that happened. I only took a couple pictures, but this was one of them. After awhile an actual parking spot opened up, and I swung my car into it for the night... I had to laugh when I saw this post by @titus I'm just dumb enough to take the trip, and too stubborn to give up. .
Okay, so the rockers I've already mentioned. Long slot and check the studs. Hopefully they are screw in. If not, machine work on the heads (or swap 'em). Motor mount is home welding, with an eye toward WHY it was the weak link. Don't want to have the side of the block be the next weak link! Maybe one of those u bars under the pan to each frame rail? Cracked cap? Is it touching anything besides the top of the housing? Check the shaft for a bend, and make sure you aren't loading the cap with air/fuel and poof! Some caps did come with little vents to prevent vapor buildup. Radiator, solid mount causing stress? At least it sounds like it was pissing before the engine mount went away and tugged on the hoses. Headlight, with rough roads, minimal suspension and vibration, I'd chalk that up to livin' on the edge. Overall, I'd say you built the car for you to fit in and DRIVE! The balls should have accommodations already handled. BTW, that truck looks great, then it draws you in, even at night in a picture!
Day 7, Friday October 11th. Reliability run day! Usually my favorite day, but I knew without it running better by some miracle, I wasn't gonna go. I had ridden to our hotel with @32fenderless , and when we got to the host hotel friday morning, My driver side tire was flat. That sealed it. I wasn't gonna fix it in the hour before the run, and I was frankly sick of working on the car constantly. So when I got an offer to be a passenger in a 32 roadster, with my good buddy Gary Brock, I jumped on it! After a fun relaxing morning I knew I was gonna have to do some work if I was gonna get to the show on Saturday (or home on Sunday) So well aware of my shortcomings as a engine tinkerer, I called in reinforcements. As we dug into the motor we found a bunch of carnage, in the form of some bent pushrods, and a broken valvespring. We fixed the pushrods (again, oddball 7.2 length means nobody has any) once we got them straightened, we took off to see If there was any valvesprings in town. As luck would have it, we found a valvespring compressor tool, but no valvesprings. but the kid working the counter 'knew a guy" and before we knew it we were headed towards an abandoned casino, and down a gravel, then dirt road, finally winding up in a sketchy driveway. what felt like the beginning of a bad news story, wound up being a guy that was super nice and gave us 2 valvesprings out of a stock 350 he had laying around. So we went back to town, this time 3 wide in the sedan. We used the rope trick to hold the valve up to replace the spring, and the only hiccup was when a corner of the rope got stuck in the valve, which we held pressure on and tapped the spring with a hammer, and it loosed itself. After getting it back together, we fired it up, and it finally sounded ok. We packed up and called it a night. the best part of the thrash, had to be that the people who had overhead drone shots of the show, caught us in mid-thrash. another trip back to the hotel with Jason, and I hit the sack. .
There's enough evidence that the filter material is too restrictive that I'm having to rethink that. Creates a rich condition.
Day 8, Saturday, October 12th Show Day! After walking up the street from our hotel to meet up with Colten, we took off for the host hotel, with a portable air compressor, and after we put wind in my tires, I took off for the show. In a turn of events, the Buffalos that usually bid you farewell, decided that they would welcome us in this year. I may have caused a small stampede as I went through, but that was the problem of the guy behind me. after turning the wrong way, I finally made it to a good spot under a tree. And after I got there, Andy pulled up on the other side. I had a fun day at the show, with one of the highlights being Henry from steadfast contorting himself to sit in my car. After I sat around waiting for the traffic to die down, I made the escape back to the host hotel. It didn't sound very happy as I was running back, and I decided that since I didn't know how much damage was done to the valve on #3 while the valve spring was broken, I would just run it on 7 cylinders the 300 miles back home the next morning. . A late night run with Jason back to our hotel, with a stop for Whataburger, and I was out for the night. .
Day 9. Sunday, October 13th. The final leg. I woke up and got a ride with Jason back to the host hotel, pumped my tires full of air, and determined I was gonna try and split the trip in half, 150ish miles, I would get gas, and fill the tire with more air. I got asked by a couple people If it was me, and yes. I did get a little oil on the bathroom door of the ritzy hotel on Friday night. V7 engaged. After getting all my stuff situated, I took off. I filled up with gas, and a burrito in Dewey, and turned the tires north. I was pretty stoked to be headed home, and it looked like i'd be home by 2. Just north of Independence KS, I slowed up to avoid a couple boxes in the road, and heard a POP. well... Ken Bentz stopped as I was digging in my trunk for my extra clevis. He nabbed a couple photos. Jason @32fenderless and another guy stopped and I explained it had nothing to do with any previous problems, Just yet another misfortune. But little did I know that was the easy part of the day. see that driver side tire? it has air in the above picture. Here it has significantly less. I might have been able to salvage the tire if I had stopped immediately, but as you can see behind me, it picked the spot where the traffic was one lane over a bridge, to remove the wind I had placed in it earlier. So I made a call to a buddy, and he started my way, with a wheel stolen off my Tamale wagon, but that was over 3 hours away. So I settled in. Lucky for me, hwy 75 is the road that all the guys from Omaha take to get home. and double lucky, they had a spare wheel/tire and an extra hub in Tom's trailer! They also brought me pancakes! So we stuck this giant tire on the front, and we were back in business. It's that dirt track stagger. But I was moving, and headed north towards Topeka. Eriks coupe isn't too bad to look at. and he got a shot of my goofy setup. It's nearly as big as the rear tire. But we were able to shave an hour or more off the time I would have waited, and I met with my buddy in the north end of Topeka, rather than way further south. We swapped wheels, and I was off again. After a couple hours of driving I saw what I was waiting for. finally home. Its in the garage, and now I have to have it running for a special date in November, So it's in a bunch of pieces. But it made it. 2800+ miles, 9 days, and a bunch of good friends. .
See, I was under this assumption, but what I found on this trip, is that unless you have a couple hours (to a couple days!) to wait, parts stores don't have much use. Seeing how I knew I was headed for higher altitude, I didn't run the filter. but I did use the solid plug he made me. ACTUALLY... It's pretty handy, that the car is all rustoleum products. I went to a Walmart in phoenix, bought paint (from a locked case?!) and sprayed it down in the dark on Tuesday night. We found rockers to have too short of a slot, and we are gonna solve it with roller rockers. The rest of the heads are really good, screw in studs, hardened pushrods, and comp springs. the rocker was just the weak point. The motor mount is mostly just a poor design. We went off some bridges on I40, that felt like it was a foot drop off. and the Cap was me trying to move it, I tried to force it, without loosening it. and it didn't like it. I made a couple orders for new parts, and we should have it up and rolling next week with any luck. .
Big Joe, I am also a long-mile,low-buck,homebuilt Model-T jockey. I really enjoy reading and appreciate the chronicles of your travels and build. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us! as "fun" as a road trip can be, the safe homecoming is just as sweet!
Yeah I forget sometimes that all the parts warehouses are in Kansas City so the store can almost always have it in an hour or two. Also been in the city a while when the spray paint being in the open is more surprising than it being locked lol Glad you made it home safe
Thanks for the recap, @BigJoeArt ! It was so smooth just sitting here reading it! I know what you mean about I40 being all kinds of rough and bumpy, even if I haven't gone the whole length. When you are in a 5000 pound truck and the road moves it a foot over and down hard at 80, you know it's bad! I have a few sections between here and Vegas memorized as slow down and hold tight. It's funny, I had mentioned just yesterday that while skinny stuff is always pointed out as not up to the task, your trip has shown that it can work. Then this comes out showing a flat! Glad you made it and I'd pack extra rockers when you change over. The zoomie stuff is not always as able to handle long trips and abuse.
I can finally take a breath! I was holding it for the whole 9 day read, hoping driver AND rod would both make it home safely. Thankfully driver was safe. The rod a little less so.
Great narration of the trip and the obstacles you worked through. Never saw the point of building something neat and trailering it to a run in a box. Driving them is what it's all about and road trips are the best.
Pic my son caught of you headed to the Roc. Good seeing you even if we didn't really get to talk much this year...
It should come as no surprise to my long time followers, that I'm behind. after taking a week off from driving the car, we determined the parts we needed, and made an order. I also decided the motor mount needed to be a little more solid. .. I decided I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so I'd just strengthen it. I V'd it out and put a couple passes in on it, inside and out. then bent up some 1/8 plate and welded it on, inside and out. It's not pretty, yet. I then spent a bunch of time smoothing edges, and making it ready for paint. should last for at least another 12,000 miles. And by the time I got done with that part of the project, we had gotten a couple deliveries. So, willy stopped by and we knocked out some work. that should solve that problem. On to the next problem. the vette covers don't clear. I ordered a set of spacers to try, but in the meantime I got a set of Edelbrock super thick gaskets, and put this old set of cal-customs on. they don't look too bad. buttoned back up and put a new heavy duty trans mount in , took it out for a drive... or tried too. It shook super violently. like the flywheel was unbalanced. We pondered on that for awhile, and finally decided to put the old trans mount back in. After cleaning up the threads and installing it, with a new nut, I took it back out and it was fine. dunno what that was all about. Drove up to the parts store, and when the manager walked out to look at it, he heard a hissing noise. didn't take long to find it. there was a drywall screw here. . . luckily I just stole the wheels of the car next to it. but $15 to our local tire shop and we were back in business. I also added something. can you find it? so Friday night I got packed up, and got ready to meet Tom at speedway on Saturday morning, for their cars and coffee. I put a packing blanket down on the decklid, and once again used my shock mounts as strap points for luggage. Saturday morning came, and I left out early. it was 35 degrees when I left my house at 6:30am . It ran fairly well for the trip, and once I swapped wheels with Tom @tdog , (he had my 12 spoke that was flat from the oklahoma trip) and chatted with @CoolForSchool58 for awhile, I got back on the road, at least, down the road, to the Popeyes. then it was just more of the same. Me and all my friends. . . and it seemed like only a couple minutes later, I was home. Another 260 miles down, no problem. I finally got to disassemble (the rest of the way) the tire I destroyed on the way home from the Roc. the tire has more wrinkles than a top fuel slick, and the tube has more holes than a slice of swiss cheese. oh, and there's a bunch of rubber... everywhere. I have a new tire and tube waiting to go on. (I still haven't installed them yet) But in the meantime, I decided I would drive my hot rod to church on Sunday. and then I decided to re-arrange my whole shop... again. After loading it in Sunday night, I decided I wasn't quite done driving it yet, so I hopped in it on Monday morning, for my first day back to work since we had Mary. There's still some little tuning stuff to sort out, and I really should fix the driver side motor mount... we'll see what happens before I have company come on the 15th. I can't be too sad as long as it keeps running and driving. Till next time...
Can you buzz by and take care of the pile of "little things" I have to sort out here as quickly as you did yours there? LOL
Haha if only you were closer buddy. All this happened in between rocking a baby, chasing a toddler, and tearing apart a Rambler station wagon. I find the hours from 9pm to 1am work the best for me...
I also added something. can you find it? I sent a PM with my guess, but no reply, so I'll guess in public. The license plate light. It's not in any of the trip pics.
The Jalopy Journal
