Art & Inspiration Sailing Down the Hill

Sailing Down the Hill



Reading Steve32's post on leaving the car show got me to thinking about last Sunday.


The last couple of months my black 32 roadster has been so dirty that I'm ashamed to take it out . . . but I do anyway.


Rain, mud, dust, you know the drill.



Nothing like the local kids who take their 4x4's out and play in the mud.


A totally mud covered 4x4 seems to be a badge of honor for them, but I note that most of them get mudded up cuz they play in some of the large vacant lots when it rains.
The guys with "real" 4x4's actually get out in the wilds, get off-road, get dirty, but the mud/dirt patterns aren't so artificial looking.


Nuff about the 4x4's though, interesting, but I'm here to talk about roadsters and the simple pleasure of driving them with no particular destination in mind.



Sunday was nice and warm.
In the 80's predicted for later in the afternoon here and the low 60's in the morning..


Finally got the car out and washed it.


One of the problems with washing any of our cars is finding enough shade to do it it.
Early mornings are ok, lots of shade in the driveway, but I'm generally inside drinking coffee, writing or perusing the HAMB and a few other interesting places.


Late afternoons work well, the sun drops over the hill pretty fast and once the shade's on you have to get with the program cuz you don't have long till full dark.
Not to mention, since I get up at 0430-0530 most mornings, by late afternoon I'm all through for the day.

Anyway, got the roadster washed and squared away by 1100.


Did make an interesting discovery.
I’ve been using Eagle 1's Wash and Dry when I wipe the water off.
Last time I had to buy some, it was not to be found so I bought a similar product from Turtle Wax.
Aside from having a nice smell to it, it did well, but where it really shined - yeah, I know, a pun - was in knocking off the water spots where water drops had dried on the trunk lid.


Since the car is black, water drops are a pain in the aft.



Geez, the car looked so good, there was nothing else to do except drive it.
And the truth is, I would have driven it anyway.
Been kinda busy lately so it was time to get out and run around a bit.



As silly as this sounds, cuz it’s a bitch getting fresh bread here I decided to head down to Laughlin for lunch and see if the River Run (for bikes) was getting geared up.
I’d heard there was a bakery in the big 7-11 type quickie mart/gas station and decided to give it a try on the way back.


Laughlin’s about 35 miles from the house and a nice drive on good roads.
Another good test for the new 3.00 gears although I still haven’t done a sorta, mostly flat cross-country run to check mileage, but a trip a few months back did show an improvement.
The usual head winds and long grades going to and from Laughlin impinge on the mileage a bit. Regardless it’s a good indicator of mpg since I know about what the 32's mpg ran when driving that road with the 3.70's.


Gotta watch it with the new gears, the speed limit is 75 on part of the trip and a max of 65 for most of it.
With the 55 mph limit through Golden Valley - and past all the F-100's in the big sale/salvage yard, getting to be a lot more of them there - it’s hard to keep the car under or at the limit.
And even on the 65 per limit areas, the roadster wanted to settle out at 75+.


The top was on for this trip and in fact it’s on most of the time.
I like the looks of the car with the top and a little shade is a definite plus.


Interesting sights on the way down, a bright bronze colored three window Deuce coming up the grade on the summit right before Kingman.
A sweet looking car it was.
My favorite coupe is the five window, but a three window ain’t far behind.

Going down the hill, a pickup and car trailer with what looked like a Pontiac Catalina hardtop parked on the shoulder.
Looked like his buds were coming up the hill so I’m pretty sure he got rescued since he was gone on the return trip.



Hit Laughlin after a pleasant run in 70-80* F temps and rolled into the Colorado Belle parking lot.
Quite a few bikes in town even though the run doesn’t open until tomorrow - Wednesday - and quite a few vendor tents up.
Sales at some of them were already going on.


My pals (five of us) and I are planning to hit the run on Friday.
Driving Cks Durango and wandering on foot.
We’re a bunch of ex dirt riders and run hot rods.


Nice thing about going to a destination/party for Harley’s is viewing some great motorcycles, skimpily dressed wimmin and going through the vendor tents.
Some neat T-shirts although we seldom buy those.
What we do look at are the bike accessories with an eye as to how we can adapt some of them to the hot rods.
I’m hoping to find a somewhat trad looking pair of turn signals for my 31 on 32 rails roadster.


Nevada, especially Laughlin is a helluva place.
Where else are you gonna find a bar on wheels out in a sun-baked parking lot mixing up Bloody Mary’s along with selling beer at 0800 in the morning?



Anyhoo, I went into the casino to see if their Micro-Brewery was open for lunch. It’s been closed on weekdays lately.
The slow economy is hitting everyone, no surprise for most of us I would guess.
They serve pretty good wings and things along with some interesting brews.
It is a long, warm and thirsty ride down the hill so I was ready.


Hit the ATM for some cash, washed up and went to the brewery only to find one heckuva long line.
Kinda funny, no one was there when I went in.


Said to heck with it, left, drove across the street to the Tropicana Express, got lunch at their Mexican restaurant, drank a Corona and left for Harrah’s at the other end of town.


Played Keno for a short while and left for home.



The roadster was sitting in the sun, a touch hotter inside than it had been in the well ventilated parking garage at the Tropicana, but it wasn’t bad.


It’s a dependable little car, starts easy due to the MSD ignition amplifier and general good state of tune.


In fact, the only bring-it-to-a-halt problems I’ve had with it over a 15 year period was a stuck metering rod on the rear carb of the dual quad setup and a Holley red pump that died.
My fault cuz I supplied the pump with a long wire which only delivered 11 volts when the battery was at 12.2 volts.
There’s a relay on it now and the new pump is doing fine.


Ran through moderate traffic going back through town, the big ol Buick engine got up to 192* F and that was about it.
Not too bad for a 22 year old Walker 4-core that was purchased new in 1985 and put in service 15 years ago.


The long and fairly steep 12 mile grade out of Laughlin had the engine running at 200* F and that’s about as hot as it gets on the long grades in summer.
The T-400 trans hit 190* F which is good for it cuz it seldom gets over 170-180 * F.



I did stop at the quickie mart only to find their home-made bread was just French bread and hot dog buns.
Bought some Gatorade - couldn’t hardly find it due to the new labels and all the other wanna-bee Gatorade style drinks - and a loaf of generic bread.


A beer after getting home along with a tuna salad and that was it for a pleasant and simple day in the roadster.



Sweetie usually comes along, but she drags her feet on Sunday mornings so I took off on my own.


As C-Word said once upon a time, “The view of the world through the windshield of a roadster is an entirely different thing.”


Time for a bit of introspection, thinking about how the book rewrite is going, what’s coming up next in the writing game as well as thinking about which project to finish/start with the 31 on 32 rails roadster.
I’ve been collecting more parts for it and am hoping to have it up and running this summer.
Got to looking it over this morning and it doesn’t need a whole lot.


Best thing about having a running roadster is simply driving it.


And like an old friend once said, “If you have a roadster, the next one takes a long time to build cuz you’re having fun with the old one.
If you don’t have one, it’s a long and sad time to be without one.”



Sums it up kinda neat-like methinks....

 

Ahhhhhh, very nice read
Reminds me of Ryans post "Past the Tube" or something like that. That one really stuck with me. Get in and drive them! Even for no real reason other than freedom.

Thanks for sharing this