Arrived in Salina !!

We woke up to cloudy skies and a little rain. We just had another cup of coffee and waited for it to stop. The rain didn't seem to cool anything off. It was a good drive, uneventful. The Vintage Air works well. The two vents that I changed around really helped the cooling. The motor ran 195 to 200 all day, so she was cool too.

We arrived in Salina about 5:30. Steve and Deb had just pulled in a few minutes before. They drove 13 hours straight thru to get here, we stopped for lunch and a few breaks and drove about seven hours.

When we arrived the temp was 114 degrees, not heat index but the real deal....it was HOT !! Today, Thursday is to cool down to a 100. Its going to be hot, but all the cool cars will help us make it thru the heat.

Tonight is a shop party at Brite Built Hot Rods with "free food" and then a cruise up and down Santa Fe St. The street will be blocked off so only the show cars will be allowed to cruise. Should be fun.

Stay tuned for more details later.

On the road again......KKOA in the Buick

We meet Doris and Jerry Johnson this morning to drive to Salina, KS to the KKOA Leadsled Spetacular.
As we got in and hit the keys, Jerry's car did nothing. We traced the neutral safety wires from the ignition to the switch, no juice, after wiggling the wire on the ignition plug, we got juice to the switch, but still no fire, next I stuck the test prob on the purple wire on the solenoid and hit the key, bingo it fired. At the first rest stop, the same thing, no fire, used the probe and bingo. Its like the solenoid sticks. From there on it has worked fine.
Other than that we had a great leisurely cruise down highway 23 to Sioux Falls, south on I29 to Vermillion, SD for the night. We arrived about 5PM, found a nice place to eat and have a cold beer.
In the morning we continue south and west to Highway 81. That will be a straight shot south to Salina. Today was a mere 300 miles, tomorrow about the same. Its been a good trip so far. It was hot and humid in SD and have severe thunder warnings tonight until 4AM.

Home again

We got home yesterday about 3 PM. It was a good trip, almost 2200 miles and only a couple of hiccups. Not bad for a brand new car with only 200 miles on it when we left.
Sorry about no posts for few days, I could not get the laptop to connect after Wednesday. Not sure what the deal is, it works fine here at home.

The show was outstanding, 7000 cars, a nice indoor swap meet, large vendor building with AC and a ton of outdoor vendors. The car quality is outstanding. Pros pick area had so many beautiful cars.
This show runs autocross for 3 days, they really pound the cars around the course. The muscle car of the year is crowned here and they have to run the course, some go all out.
A new 3W by master builder Dave Lane won the street rod of the year, a beautiful car. Mustard yellow, it beat out several nice cars including the Dale Boesch built
5W that was at Des Moines, I would hate to choose between the two.
We won the "You Gotta Drive 'em" award...that was a way cool honor!! To drive thru the awards building at the Nats is a great time. We did it a couple of years ago with the Buick too, always nice.
The Ridler winning 56 Ford was there, the 59 Imperial Speedster was really neat to see in person, check this months Hot Rod mag for details, just so many knock out cars.
I was invited to tour the Richard Munz collection in Madison at noon on Monday, just could not get there by then without some real early starts and long days....darn!! That would be a real neat tour, maybe next time. He has many beautiful cars.

Today I cleaned the 3W inside and out, top and bottom, looks better now. I put a spacer under the carb so it will start when hot easier, adjusted the turn signals (had them hooked up backwards in the front!! LOL ). Replaced the coil wire with a red one, used a gray one for the roadside fix.
Tomorrow it is "get the Buick ready time" She is going to Salina,KS in a week or so. "KKOA Lead sled Spectacular"..... needs a oil change, repack the bearings, grease the joints, move the AC vents, and clean it real good.

more pics of the 50's town

Such a neat place.....................

Wednesday

We drove to Pontiac, Ill today. A very neat town, the Pontiac museum, lots of neat little shops and murals painted on the building sides. We got the grand tour of the museum, greeted by the mayor, the museum opens in two weeks, not even done yet asnd they still let us tour it.
We had a great lunch, took the scenic trolley ride around town, visited the war museum, Rte 66 museum, some antiques shops...fun time.
Next it was off to Indiana to visit a Private collection and an 50's style town built in this guys back yard, pretty cool. They served us burgers and fries and banana splits. wow! He had a very cool place and several neat old cars. Tonight we are in Gas City IN.Not any excitement today, no one broke down,but we had several detours and u turns to spice up the day. LOL
Some photos to enjoy....Pontiac museum, murals, 50's town

photos from Monday Tuesday

Some photos of Yogis store and the collection in Peoria

Monday/Tuesday

Monday, July 4th, we drove to Monticello, IA to visit Yogi's. He built a new building this past year, very nice. We had a great lunch (free food) and a nice tour of the new store and warehouse. He bought Tanks a few months ago, you ought to see the inventory of gas tanks....hundreds of them.
Monday nights stop was at Clinton, IA. The local Culvers and car club hosted a car show in our honor. Free drinks and 25% off of food....almost like free. It was a great day and a beautiful drive.

Tuesday was an easy short drive day. 115 miles. We left at 9:30 and headed for East Peoria, Ill. We were to visit a private collection of cars there. About 45 miles from Peoria, we hit a really bad bumpy road. My car was shaking with a bad case of "death wobble" That's when the front wheels start wobbling wildly out of control.
I finally found a place to pull over to check it out. After a quick check of the front suspension, we found the steering arm that bolts to the spindle was loose.
We borrowed a jack and went to work. Had it fixed in no time, the other side was coming loose also.Both sides tight and we were back on the road. Three cars stopped with me, the others went on, we caught up with the rest in about 30 minutes at the stop.
The collection was very nice, many Fords a couple of Chevys. Gary our host had a great BBQ lunch all prepared for us too....more free food!

I went for a quick oil change, the odometer has just shy off 1000 miles on it, time for some fresh oil. As I hit the key to start it and drive to the oil change place, there was nothing...no power at all, no lights, nothing. OK, start checking the system. Checked the battery...good, take the trunk panels out and check the cutoff switch....good. Next, under the dash to check the maxi fuse, as I opened the plastic case, I could hear the radio click on....found it....the maxi fuse connection had rattled loose. A quick tightening job on the nuts and it was fixed.
Hey, it's a new build, with a 1000 miles on it, things happen!!
After the oil change it was off to the Pair a Dice Casino to a big car show, again in our honor. Several hundred cars showed up at the casino...pretty cool. We all got tickets for buy one get one free buffet dinners......cool.

sorry...no photos tonight.

Thursday...off to Des Moines

We left for the Goodguys show in Des Moines Thursday morning about 8 AM. Jerry and Doris Johnson drove with us. We took highway 15 south to Albert Lea, missed all of the traffic in the cities that way. We met Barb and Ralph in Albert Lea. We enjoyed a nice breakfast/lunch there as always.
About 9 miles north of Ames the little coupe quit running. I coasted to the side of the road, just a few dozen feet from the rest area but could not get there. I opened the hood and figured out there was no spark. I opened the right side of the hood and there it was....the coil had burned itself to death. The tower was gone, looked like charcoal, the coil wire was burnt too. I grabbed the cell and dialed AAA. Told Elvis to go with Jerry and Doris and Ralph and Barb and continue on to get us all registered.
The flatbed was there within 30 minutes, loaded her up and headed for Ames. The driver stopped at a O'Riley's to let me go in to find a new coil...... they had one. I needed a MSD Blaster2 #8202. He then drove us to his station, unloaded us in the shade (it was 100 degrees). I switched the coil, replaced the wire and was back on the road in less than 2 hours.

Friday................We were at the Fair grounds by 7:30 and found a place to park. It was HOT.....100 degrees again. I spent a lot of time inside the vendor building in the AC visiting with friends.

Saturday..................Back to the Fair grounds about 7:30 again. We had reserved parking in the Deuce Doins lot....nice. So many nice deuces. The most awesome one was a beautiful 5W just finished by Dale Boesch. He builds some spectacular cars. This one was an 8 year project. You cannot see any fender fasteners, has air bags and a straight axle, a wrap around dash, beautiful dark green paint...awesome. He won the "Deuce Pick" from the Midwest Deuce club....right choice. The weather was much cooler, high was 82 and low humidity...nice.

Sunday...........It was even cooler, a beautiful day....high 70's, very nice. Looked at more cars and saw more friends. Sunday night was the kick off party at Daves's shop. Twenty three cars were there. Dave served us all pork chop sandwiches cooked on his new Snap on grill.