Leaving in the AM and we're almost all loaded. Just need to put in the computer bag with all the electronic gadgets and an extra pair of shoes - I hope! Unfortunately, I can't seem to load any pics .... tomorrow I hope!
Unfortunately Fatkoop(Nick) an I won't make the trip this year, but Petesjunk(Pete is in the black cap) will be meeting up with the circus in Cheyenne on tuesday for the trip out. Pete and little Bob Padilla will represent us Colorado boys on the salt. They will be in Lulu the 35 panel again so please say hello. We had a great time last year, and really are bummed not to be on the salt in 2013. Have a great time, and take pictures please. denverdave
Trip up to Leechburg was fantastic - weather was great, car ran great, and we hit a cruise night and met some great HAMB folks: Jeff, 54Sled here on the HAMB, his lovely wife and son, and Chris, solosketchstudios here on the HAMB with his son - we had a great time hanging out, talking cars, exchanging ideas and such - just what this trip is all about. My pics of the cruise night are coming .... it was a great day and a great start to our trip ....
nice to meet you guys,glad we hit the cruise tonite!,safe travels,give me a call if you need anything. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Wooo...Hoooo! Rolling now. Hope you get the picture posting thing solved. I'll be following your trip every day and wishing I was there. Travel safely, watch out for armadillos and pheasant in the roads out west. -Tom
Jeff - glad we were able to hang out a bit - really nice to meet you and your family. Everything went smooth as silk ..... Thanks!
Have a safe journey and I will meet you when you get to my place in Nebraska. You might want to have a light breakfast as the lunch we serve is KILLER. Just ask Ken & the boys about it. Mayor Dennis
I'm having a heck of a time posting pics - connection speeds are so bad it crashes before finishing! But, I will relate a really nice thing that happened the eve of Day 1 .... The B&B in Leechburg really only had on-street parking - definitely not to my liking - but there as a spot we could park in up close to the house on the one side so I accepted that. After the cruise night we got back rather late and were in the middle of covering up the car since it was supposed to rain when the owner of the B&B gets home from work driven by his next door neighbor. After a few minutes the next door neighbor comes over and says we can park the car in his garage right next door no problem. Of course I thanked him and accepted and the car was put away in his garage. He's a H---- mechanic and said he was glad to offer the help/space. Turns out it did rain and pretty hard at times so it really turned out OK all the way around! Nice guy and I will send him something from B-ville as a thank you ..... Who hoo - got pics to post - here are a few of day 1 ... just sticking to trad cars ...
Day 2 it rained pretty hard most of the morning.With that and so many detours to actually get onto the interstate to Erie to meet the Bones, we were half way there before getting on the interstate. It had stopped raining and we were on the i-state only about 10 secs when we hear a boom inder the car we were thinking that this is not good. We pull over and start checking everything when a motorist stops, says hes a hot rodder, and can he be of assistance. Come to find out hes a HAMB member, creepyguy I believe it is, John Holden from Pittsburgh. Well, were all looking checking everything possible and we see nothing wrong. Ive got oil pressure, no anti-freeze leaks, car is running great, no broken welds or parts. Go figure . John follows us to the next exit, of which the car ran perfectly, and gives us a blanket and we check more things underneath the car nothing. We never found anything wrong but we made a new HAMB acquaintance .. thank you John for your help! We met up with Steve, villageiidiot here on the HAMB, in Erie as he was the one I think that put the Erie gathering word out for the Erie guys and helped with the setup, waiting for the Bones to arrive. Quite a turnout of local cars I will get pics out somehow and the Bones showed up late with multiple vehicles, including the tow rig and Poteets car, having problems. I was running around 70 mph most of the time - not as fast as most but we all got to our destination at more or less the same time. We all finally made it here at the hotel in Perrysburg by around 7:30 PM. This is the first chance to meet everyone and Ive met so many HAMBers I cant keep them all straight. Most notable were Jim Flemming, the Bones flathead builder, Andy Kohler, thunderbirdesq, Scott, Mike via the HAMB most were already friends were just putting faces to the names . Tomorrow we run t Altoona, PA, around 550 miles - a long day as we gain an hour .... OK - more pics - up to the orange p-up, the pics were from Erie where we met up with everyone. With the orange p-up to the end, they were taken at the hotel in Perrysburg ...
Today was a long day - 550 miles and we gained an hour, starting at 6:30 and getting into Altoona @ 5:30, effectively 12 hours. Whew - car ran great - no runs, no hits, no errors. She just keeps on ticking like a fine watch. Scenery is just corn and soybean fields really - nothing else to write home about that way. Saw very few cars on the tour today - guess we were "out of sync" with everyone. I'm averaging around 15.5 mpg - not the best but not terrible either. and oil consumption is about 1/3 a qt per day. Very good compared to my last engine! When we got here to Altoona there was a pretty nice array of local cars already here. Ken had trouble with a tire on the Poteet car and had to have it trailered to the hotel. No worries though as they installed another set just to get them to the salt and they'll figure out the bad tire situation there. Tom McIntire's car is really something - the underneath is almost nicer than the rest with a louvered lumi belly pan, beautifully done around suspension and frame components. Once I can post pics (still can't) I will post - promise! Chuck and I have to pinch ourselves every once in a while to make sure we are not dreaming. It is a "car life" changing event already and I have not even got to the salt yet. From all that we've seen I'm starting to rethink my 5-window project, perhaps going back to a "hot" flattie instead. The whole thing is infectious as you are caught up in the start of a snowball now going down hill. It's a monster that can't be stopped and I don't want it to stop to be truthful. Responding to posts above: Seadog - wish you were here and Chuck and I hope all is well @ home Ol 55 - it's maddening that I can't get pics posted but I will. Flowmeister - yes, it is an epic journey that NEEDS to be done 383Deuce - looking forward to it! jackanddeuces - I appreciate all the support from all my buds back home. Ken's problems with the Poteet car the previous day were resolved from parts and tools I had along with me as their parts trailer/vehicle had not yet arrived. They were all amazed at the amount of stuff I brought along! Doing my Virginia boys proud I am! BTW, Jim Flemming and I got reacquainted yesterday- what a great guy and a flattie guru .... OK - pics of the meet and greet at the Altoona, IA hotel - the last few are of Tom MacIntyre's car showing off some RB handiwork - a really nice ride
Met ya guys in perrysburg. Thanks for the hospitality and thanks Richie Walens for letting my boy play woth your 32. He will for sure be a hot rodder now Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
TOM, Thanks for the updates,sounds like a lot of FUN. We will be leaving Mooresville N.C. Aug 17 with 10 32 hiboys heading to Goodguys Pleasonton . Remember, your never to old to have a happy childhood.HENRY
It was nice meeting you and Chuck in Cheyenne. My wife Sharon snapped this one of you guys, thanks for giving her your salad Chuck! Have fun, stay safe and enjoy your retirement Tom!
Sorry - I-net service at hotels is maddening! Day 4: We left Altoona, IA at around 9 am. A bit cloudy at first, it cleared up pretty nice for most of the morning. We were headed for Denniss shop, 383Deuce I believe, out in Marquette, NE. Literally between 2 water towers and a whole huge grain complex, Denniss shop was an old 1913 Model T Ford dealership still retaining its original cement floor and exterior metal shingles. A really cool place, there was a reception for us there and a wonderful lunch was served. My friend Rob was there who lives out in Nebraska but his son lives just a town over from me in Virginia. It was nice to catch up with him and his really nice 3-window. I also met up with Krylon32, Gary, and many others not on the HAMB. All nice folks and I thank you Dennis and friends for your hospitality. After hanging out at Denniss, we made our way to North Platte, NE, home of the Wild Bill Cody farm, and dinner @ Whiskey Creek steak house. It was really good but it was a very long couple days and we left there @ 10:30PM. Ive got to tell you that Im pretty pooped out and looking forward to a little more rest tonight. We did have some severe weather come through but it mostly missed us. Just a little wind and rain for a short time. Weve been lucky so far and we hope it continues.. Car was again stellar, never missing a beat .Still getting around 15.5 miles to the gallon on average. We are off to Wyoming tomorrow and they say the scenery changes and gets nicer. Pics are here ...
Day 5 Let me tell you Nebraska is WINDY but Wyoming is REALLY WINDY my car got buffeted left and right all day long. We left Nebraska and headed into Wyoming, stopping at Cheyenne for lunch and met up with a few more folks who are coming to B-ville.The Poteet car again had problems at the lunch stop, they did get it running and they went down the road with it but at some point had to be trailered to Rock Springs where we are tonight. Altitude was definitely an issue we were at 8300 ft at one point, driving the carbed cars nuts. We sputtered a bit and gas mileage really sucked going up the long grades but we made it. We also had our first real problem, although small and easy to fix. The bolts holding the T5 shifter down came loose we lost 2, another was ready to eject itself, leaving just one bolt holding it, not allowing you to get into any gear. Fortunately I had some bolts and we patched it back up in about 20 minutes. Scenery was really spectacular we expected to see John Wayne and the posse chasing the bad guys at any moment with the Indians looking on from the bluffs. We are presently at over 7000 ft now in altitude and we have a few more grades to go up before going back down. We changed the plugs out to a fresh set and we might build another main carb for my car its a 2 carb progressive setup and Chuck seems to think we can get better gas mileage by changing jets and doing a little tweaking. I hate to mess with it because it fires right up every time but its better now when we will have a few gurus at the salt to ask questions of if we need to. Tomorrow is finally a short driving day about 4 hours then were off to the Salt Flat Speed Shop partty and Thursday we hit the salt! Pics are here!
Day 6: Well, another beautiful day but there were car problems. The Poteet car still has some wiring and ignition issues. After swapping in another distributor that would not work, they decided to install the magneto out of the race car. Unfortunately that required swapping the distributor cover, not the easiest thing to do in normal circumstances. With the mag cover having to be modified and two holes drilled and tapped to hold the distributor from turning, and much more work needed to remove and install the cover, the mag worked but there was not enough belt clearance. So, the car remains on the trailer for now but the car can run on the salt - just off the battery. We also have a triumph TR3 in the group, Kevin and Robin, that cooked its alternator yesterday. A new one was sourced but a bit different than the original unit. An upper chrome arm to hold/adjust it with and a belt. That all worked out save for the arm it jammed into the alternator, not allowing enough adjustment to tighten the belt. Now, dont ask me why but I happened to have an old upper arm in my toolbox from my long gone Chevy days that actually worked perfectly in the triumph. Go figure! With both these fixes going on the day got pretty screwed up time wise. Then there was another breakdown with Dave and his 37 coupe we passed him having the car jacked up and no way of getting back to him. We hear hes OK but I do not know for sure at this time what happened or the fix that came about. The scenery today was absolutely spectacular. We went through the mountain pass route into Orem and I could not believe we were seeing what we were seeing just incredible. But, we were up pretty high and again had some steep climbs but a lot more downhill that yesterday. We hit 7500 ft elevation at one point today whew, no overheating, no problems. We havent done our carb rebuild as of yet but we did swap out tp new plugs which helped. Were off to the Salt Flats Speed Shop tonight as soon as were all together I will try and post pics later on for each of the days. The I-net connection is S-L-O-W! More on Salt Flats party later ...
The Jalopy Journal
