Thursday

We woke up this morning to rain....forecast said cleared out by noon. We were at the fairgrounds by 6:45, found a nice grassy spot for three cars by the fence next to the road. Put up the two canopies. The rain stopped by the time we left the hotel. It was cloudy but warm.
We headed for the swap meet to check out the treasures.....found nothing. About 9:30 it started to rain again so we headed to the BIG vendor building. So many vendors, everyone that is anyone comes here to sell.
There were so many friends here it was hard to walk the aisle without seeing someone I knew, not a bad thing!
It cleared off by noon or so to nice clear blue skies, warm but no rain.
We left the canopy frame s at the parking spots but will still be at the fairgrounds by 6:45 in the morning.
There were 8500 preregistered cars, they registered 1,000 more by Wednesday night and more are coming in, it might be off a little but still will be a BIG 4 day show.
Time for bed, gotta be up by 5:00 for breakfast.

Here we are in Louisville!

An easy drive to Louisville, "world's largest hot rod show". We woke up to clouds and some rain, just enough to dirty the car. No big deal. Stopped at another antique store, went to registration, visited with friends from FL MO and WI.
Tonight we met with Paula and Larry from Mass at the hotel. The hotel has free drinks from 5:30 to 7 PM, we were there by 5!! Limit 3 drinks per person, there were several people that gave us their drink tickets so we were set!! What a place.
Visited with Josh and his family from TN, Josh rode with me for a week in the 06 Topless Tour. It was good to see him again.
Tomorrow we meet for breakfast at 6AM and then head for the fairgrounds for the first day.
Nothing else to write about tonight.

Dale

Made it to Indy

Here we are in Indy tonight. All went well. Several stops at Antique stores and still made it 300 miles. The Wild Turkey runs and drives so nice. We did have to get the AC charged...it was ZIP and it was getting warm out. I must have a very slow leak, at least I hope it is slow.
We were at a little antique store, this guy came up to me at the car and was talking about his cars....(anyone want to buy a 51 Ford 4 door custom with a 302 ford for $5,000?)Anyway I say to him, since you live here is there some one who could charge my AC. He gives me this guys name and number, a street rodder no less, I call him, he says bring it in. He evac'd it, charged it and good to go, blowing really cool air now. I asked for the bill and he says go have fun in Louisville, just give me your cell number so I can find you there and use your canopy shade!! What a deal!
I will be sending him something in the mail when we return.
Tomorrow will be a long day.......65 miles to the party at T&T body shop, starts at 5PM. There is a BIG antique store the next exit down from it...we will spend a big part of the day there. I will be looking for 2 friends there, they called Sunday, should be a good time.
Dale

Wild Turkey goes to Louisville

Sunday, July 27th we leave for Louisville, Ky for the Street Rod Nationals....biggest street rod show on earth. We will be driving the 46 Chevy, "The Wild Turkey Delivery", its her time to go.
I clayed and waxed the body, checked all the nuts and bolts, greased and oiled it up, should be ready for a good trip. The last time it was out of the garage for any distance was for the Nats in 06, I took the Deuce Delivery last year.
We are taking our time, doing some antique shopping on the way.
We will meet woith Larry and Paula from Mass when we get there. The first night will be in Rockford, IL at the favorite hotel, the Baymont Inn. We are scheduled to arrive in Louisville Wednesday afternoon.Tuesday night is a party at T&T body shop in Seymour, IN, we got within 5 miles of it last year when Ralph's motor mount broke. This year I hope to make it!
Will write again Sunday from Rockford.

Monday

Well Goodguys Nationals are history, a great show, almost 6000 rods and customs, all very high quality.
Friday morning I put a 180 degree thermostat in the car, that fixed the problem, all day today on the highway it was just under 200. It was nice not to watch the gauge all of the time.
Saturday at the show we were "picked" for the "Smooth and Slick" award.....cool. This is our first Goodguys award. It was a blast to drive thru the awards area in the building on Sunday to pickup our plaque.
Tonight we are in Madison. We will be home tomorrow evening. Ralph and Barb are driving with us. It has been a fun trip, the car has 2200 plus miles on it and still have about 400 to go, we left with 500 miles on it, she got a good shake down run.

Columbus!!

I'm not sure how much I mentioned the heat problem with the car......it runs hot, at least the gauge says it does. We were discussing this in the parking lot while drinking beer last night. At midnight a couple of us decided to pull the thermostat, it was a 195 degree. At 1 AM I decided it was time for bed.
This morning at 6 I got up, filled the radiator with coolant, went to the car wash. At 8:30 we left for Spitzer Customs, the car ran at 190 the whole way, a short trip of 40 miles or so...all is good. The next stop was Brookville Roadsters about 140 miles away, still ran below 200...good. At 2 PM we headed for Columbus, another short 140 miles, the car started running hotter, got up to 230, we made a quick pit stop at a rest area, and set off to finish the trip, the temp went down to 210 and stayed there till the end. Its driving me nuts. It doesn't puke over, doesn't steam, or feel really hot, or tick like a hot engine does. In the morning I am putting a 180 degree thermostat in and see what happens. I wish I had an infra red heat gun with me. I think maybe the gauge is wacky.
Brookville was cool, tons of 3 windows and roadster bodies ready to ship and under construction. Still a 2 yr wait for a 3 window. If I order one now,.......hmmmm.
Tonight we were at the kickoff party at Hdqs hotel, fed us free food and drink, had special parking set up, a good time.

Made it to Indy

We left about 30 minutes late this morning because I had another power steering leak. This time it took me only 45 minutes to fix it, the same thing as it was in Des Moines......a leaking o ring. The first time took us over 2 hours.
About an hour into the trip we lost Dennis and Becky in the 58 chevy to a bad carrier bearing on the drive shaft, they found help and caught up tonight. Also tonight Wes and Vivian Rydell drove in with the 54 chevy, they sent the 40 Caddy home to ND on a flat bed, and brought the 54 down on the same truck...nice to have spare hotrods!
Taylor, a young son of Lonnie from IA had to replace an idler arm and buy 2 new tires, but all better now. This has been a rough trip.
We just came back from a wonderful dinner with 1/2 price marqueritas ( I don't know how to spell that, even if I drank several). Anyway they were GOOD!!
We will leave at 8AM for the next stop, Spitzer Automotive.....makers of fiberglas and carbon fiber bodies
It was about 325 miles today, not bad.
I have my friend Jake in Columbus getting some parts picked up for me for a little repair on Friday, pays to have friends all over, I call the order in, he finds and picks up, we go to his place and do a quick repair. I am still running a little too hot. Will swap out the thermostat, repair leaking gas tank, and hopefully lower the temp of the engine.
It still has been a FUN time!!

http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/news/cars_9927___article.html/chevy_right.html

http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/news/cars_9927___article.html/chevy_right.html

Check the Sedalia, MO newspaper article...we were at the diner having ice cream today, when 30 rods and customs roll into town it really stirs them up.

Deuce Guy drives Buick to Ohio

Sorry about the lack of blogs. The DeMoines trip was GREAT ! About 100 miles into the trip, the carb got a chunk of dirt stuck in the idle circuit, finally we got that cleared out and we charged on to registration. On the fair grounds we discovered a massive power steering leak. A new o ring fixed that, but it took about 2 hours to change.
The weekend was fantastic!! Over 3000 cars, all very high quality, and temps in the low 80's with NO humidity.
Sunday I had the Buick lettered on the rear deck with "Fine Wine" in a real sc'olly font, looks really nice.
Monday we met with the Good guys group to cruise to Columbus. There are 30 rods and customs with 16 repeat entries. Our first stop was Lincoln, NE to the Speedway Museum, a fine fine museum. Speedy Bill gave us a welcoming talk and fed us a very nice BBQ catered lunch, there was also a $100 gift certificate given away. We spent the night in St Joe, MO. We all had a nice dinner at a quaint little Italian place.
This morning it was off to Pete & Jake's in Peculair, MO and then onto Hannibal, MO for the night. We drove in rain for the afternoon, but we all are here.
Wes Rydell was with us in his new 40 Cadillac, Gary Meadors and Marylin in their 40 coupe, Rich Guassco in his 32 high boy 5window from CA,(Rich is the owner of the AMBR 1961 roadster, and drove the fuel altered car named "Pure Hell" in the 60's. ) others from WA, OR, IN, MO, IA, MN, FL, We are all here tonight except the Rydell's. They lost a trans today and had to ship the car home. It was new, left home with 20 miles on the clock. So sad. Oh yes, I got meet Orv Elgie from OR, he had a green 37 Ford sedan delivery on the cover of Rod&Custom in the late 70's, and several other cars later. Really cool to shake his hand. He lives in Bend, OR, not far from "Deuce Daddy Don" that I met last month.
Last night our tour leader broke a valve spring, that was repaired in the parking lot about 11 PM, one reason there was no blog.
We all are having a good time, met more new friends, renewed friendships with some others. These trips are all about the people with the cars, I highly reccommend you all trying this some time. This is our fifth time!
See ya tomorrow. Dale
Tomorrow we are off to Indy to Indy Head Service for a free BBQ and will spend the night in Indianapolis.