My box of hubcaps were at the front desk when I checked into the hotel, thanks to my wife Elvis.l....Barry was waiting there for me. I now have my nuts covered...one side has Ford caps the other side has the cast Aluminum V8 caps.
Greg's girl friend Cindi brought a spare wheel with her on the airplane...good thing because its leaking again.I was ntr yet happy with my brakes so after we went to a car wash, I found a little repair shop and talked them into letting me use some ramps so I could get under the car and re bleed them again...success. They are now real good. Greg went back to the same shop and had his wheel switched and then shipped the bad wheel back to CA for repair. The wheel was leaking again before the change out.We figured out what probably happened.....when he was on the drag strip and chirpped the tires, the sticky track surface held the tire and the spoke let loose.....another reason not to do burn outs...at least not when you are 1000 miles from home.
We went to the kick off party Thursday night at Fells Point. That is right downtown Baltimore on the street by the pier. A beautiful setting. We were there by 2PM, got a nice parking place and had dinner at a great little bar. I cannot describe the beautiful setting, especially after dark when the street lights lit up the cars. Check my face book page for some neat photos. I still can't get photos to load here.
Friday morning was a 55 mile cruise ti Havre de Grace thru the back roads, what fun. We had lunch and drove back. There were probably cruise 100 cars...that's a cruise!!
Today at the show was awesome Some fabulous cars, mostly hot rods....some customs, nothing newer than 60 and mostly 30 and 40's...real hot rods. My kind of cars, most were traditional. black steel wheels were the favorite wheel. I think there were 3 rods with big billet wheels...really my kind of rods.
I saw so many friends....a great time.
Sorry about the photos, when I get home on Wednesday I will post pictures from my other laptop.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Wednesday
Well the short 200 miles and arriving by noon today did not quite work out. I discovered a brake fluid leak in the rear right side...I checked it out and found the line was loose. I tightened it up but the brakes were not too good...again!!
Also Greg's rear tire started to slow leak last night, we use some silicone that I had on the spoke that was leaking but that did not work. We aired his tire, bought me some brake fluid and off we went. We had to stop in 50 miles and air up his tire. We used a can of fix a flat but that did not help...in fact it made it worse. I stopped at a muffler shop and borrowed a jack to get under my car and top off the fluid.
We stopped somewher,e found a Mr Tire store......thought we were going find a tube...no luck. I decided I had to bleed the brakes again...they would not let me do it and wanted 100.00 for them to do it and they had to drive it on the lift not me.......I declined and left. We called a guy in the fellow pages and went to his house....Bleed the brakes and aired the tire again and away we went.
We could hear the air leak now...its getting worse!!
About 50 miles down the road we stopped and checked the tire...it was still 35 lbs!! it sealed!!
We had lunch and away we went. As we hit close to Baltimore there was a 18 wheeler wreck that had traffic stopped for miles...took forever. We hit the belt way at 4PM...rush hour...crawled for the next hour...stop and go. Now I know why I don't miss the east. We arrived at the hotel at 5 PM. Checked in and had dinner. I will clean the car in the morning and bleed the brakes one more time. No pictures again....camera is in the car not in the room. Last nights would not load, sorry I will get a bunch on here hopefully tomorrow.
Also Greg's rear tire started to slow leak last night, we use some silicone that I had on the spoke that was leaking but that did not work. We aired his tire, bought me some brake fluid and off we went. We had to stop in 50 miles and air up his tire. We used a can of fix a flat but that did not help...in fact it made it worse. I stopped at a muffler shop and borrowed a jack to get under my car and top off the fluid.
We stopped somewher,e found a Mr Tire store......thought we were going find a tube...no luck. I decided I had to bleed the brakes again...they would not let me do it and wanted 100.00 for them to do it and they had to drive it on the lift not me.......I declined and left. We called a guy in the fellow pages and went to his house....Bleed the brakes and aired the tire again and away we went.
We could hear the air leak now...its getting worse!!
About 50 miles down the road we stopped and checked the tire...it was still 35 lbs!! it sealed!!
We had lunch and away we went. As we hit close to Baltimore there was a 18 wheeler wreck that had traffic stopped for miles...took forever. We hit the belt way at 4PM...rush hour...crawled for the next hour...stop and go. Now I know why I don't miss the east. We arrived at the hotel at 5 PM. Checked in and had dinner. I will clean the car in the morning and bleed the brakes one more time. No pictures again....camera is in the car not in the room. Last nights would not load, sorry I will get a bunch on here hopefully tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Monday/Tuesday
Monday.....we drove about 150 miles total today. We ended up north of Cincinnati....by the way of Kentucky!! We stopped at Cook Fabrication in KY. A great machine shop and auto restoration shop. The make all kinds of one off medallions, name plates, valve covers or what ever you want. They also build hot rods and restore Pebble Beach cars. Right now they are building a 37 Ford woodie...a Riddler or at least a Great 8 car. I could not take any pictures because it is a Riddler contender so you will have to take my word for it. It is hand made everything. They were working on the headlight bezels in the CNC machine...unbelievable. The pair will cost 5 or 6 thousand dollars. The lens will be made in China and will cost $400 each.....wow!! We spent about 3 hours there and then went to lunch.
The next stop was Richcraft...a private home. Some neat stuff. He owns the F100 and the Pierson coupe tribute car that was in my last post. He is building on a 40 Ford coupe right now. He gave us Tshirts and a nice black hoodie...cool!
The next stop was Dan Shaw...a well know pinstriper and race car guy. I know his deuce pickup from years ago...the patina ed one with the small block chevy with injectors bolted down in the bed..it is used for a push truck for sprint cars. This guy has STUFF....signs, oil cans, a room full of magnesium wheels and 6 or 8 SBC with injectors lined up in the back room...midgets, sprint cars, moresigns, posters, pumps.....unreal!! About a mile away is his son in law's place...more neat stuff...ramp truck complete with a sprint car on it, a Mobil tanker truck with a sbc power plant. more oil cans, a 36 coupe that he drives...quite the place.
We had problems finding a hotel...everything close was booked...finally found one north of the city on the way to Columbus at least.
Tuesday...................................a short 120 mile drive to a beautiful place in the country, just west of Columbus. This guy does fabulous work. He is building a model coupe right now for a customer in Washington state. It has a highly modified 4 banger Ford with an OHV conversion...beautiful. His deuce roadster with torsen bar suspension is out of sight also. We spent a couple of hours there nor maybe it was three.
We left about noon a headed east.......tonight we finally landed in Morgantown, West Virgina. That was not the planned stop but again had problems finding a room...everything was booked. We called from a rest area and finally found this hotel with 4 rooms left, we took 2, the other 2 were booked before we got off the phone. There is a huge boom going on...something like North Dakota....but gas exploration....all the workers are staying in the hotels.
Tomorrow we have only 200 miles to go...should be in Baltimore by noon....time to clean the cars before the kickoff party Thursday night.
The next stop was Richcraft...a private home. Some neat stuff. He owns the F100 and the Pierson coupe tribute car that was in my last post. He is building on a 40 Ford coupe right now. He gave us Tshirts and a nice black hoodie...cool!
The next stop was Dan Shaw...a well know pinstriper and race car guy. I know his deuce pickup from years ago...the patina ed one with the small block chevy with injectors bolted down in the bed..it is used for a push truck for sprint cars. This guy has STUFF....signs, oil cans, a room full of magnesium wheels and 6 or 8 SBC with injectors lined up in the back room...midgets, sprint cars, moresigns, posters, pumps.....unreal!! About a mile away is his son in law's place...more neat stuff...ramp truck complete with a sprint car on it, a Mobil tanker truck with a sbc power plant. more oil cans, a 36 coupe that he drives...quite the place.
We had problems finding a hotel...everything close was booked...finally found one north of the city on the way to Columbus at least.
Tuesday...................................a short 120 mile drive to a beautiful place in the country, just west of Columbus. This guy does fabulous work. He is building a model coupe right now for a customer in Washington state. It has a highly modified 4 banger Ford with an OHV conversion...beautiful. His deuce roadster with torsen bar suspension is out of sight also. We spent a couple of hours there nor maybe it was three.
We left about noon a headed east.......tonight we finally landed in Morgantown, West Virgina. That was not the planned stop but again had problems finding a room...everything was booked. We called from a rest area and finally found this hotel with 4 rooms left, we took 2, the other 2 were booked before we got off the phone. There is a huge boom going on...something like North Dakota....but gas exploration....all the workers are staying in the hotels.
Tomorrow we have only 200 miles to go...should be in Baltimore by noon....time to clean the cars before the kickoff party Thursday night.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Saturday/Sunday pictures
Saturda/Sundayy
A beautiful cool day at the Indy 500 track. We parked in the special parking of the Hot Rod of the Year cars....lots of fun. I saw many friends from all over...a great fun day. The weather was cool..like 70ish...really nice and no rain. At 5 PM I lined up for the track cruise again. I had my friend Adam Bateman from Wizards products riding as co pilot. I had fun, He said he did also. I saw my young friend Josh Bolles from Tennessee. Josh rode with me one year to Bonneville a few years back, it was great to see him again.
Greg was awarded the Magnum Axle award and Kevin won the Young Guys pick...congrats to both of them.
After the track cruise Adam and I headed out to in the rpu with Greg, Dave, Kevin and Gary Heidts to Jokerr's Fabrication open house , movie night and free food party. Wow...what a cool place. Sprint cars, rails, hot rods, he does it all. A great meal, cool t shirts and an outdoor movie showing of Deuce of Spades. So much fun.It just never ends. His place is in an industrial complex and all the neighbors are hot rod or race car shops.....cool.
We finished the night at the Library having some late night snacks and adult beverages. A fun day.
This morning it was back to the 500 track, or at least that was my plan. As I left the hotel parking lot I hit the brake pedal to stop at the corner and right to the floor it went...no brakes at all. I first thought I would limp it to the track and fix it there...but as i hit the next red light i could not stop at all so I parked in an empty lot, told Greg to go ahead, he had to be there by 10 AM for the winner parking area. I thought for a few minutes then remember Jokerr Fab shop...I had his number...called him, told him my problem and he said he would be there with his trailer within an hour Friend Don from Rockford, IL drove up and waited with me.. We loaded the rpu on the trailer...kicking and screaming but she did roll onto it and off to his shop a few miles away.
There were no leaks to be found so pulled the master cylinder and headed to O'Riley's. I thought it came from a Pinto but that did not match up so after a few minutes of searching we found a 69 Falcon for drum with manual brakes...looked good. Not stocked at the store, but the warehouse had three and it was only 5 minutes away and open on Sunday. Off to the warehouse Don and I went. They had it pulled for us, opened the box and was not the right one. A little more searching then decided to pull another one, same part number, opened the box and bingo...that was it. I guess they made different shape ones with the same part number. Any way back to Jokerrs and get it back together. Got it on, bleed the brakes and no have great brakes again. All that messing around pretty much shot the day, we got to the show at 2:25 PM just in time to watch most of the awards.
As I have said before...with all the hard luck I have had, I have great good luck....if it had to break that was the best time and place for it to happen It could have happened Friday during the rain or tomorrow a hundred miles down the road.
Oh yes...I almost forgot, The Hot Rod of the Year was won by George Poteet's 34 coupe built by Dave Lane.....nise car is an understatement. I didn't feel bad with that kind of competion!! I had a blast.
Greg was awarded the Magnum Axle award and Kevin won the Young Guys pick...congrats to both of them.
After the track cruise Adam and I headed out to in the rpu with Greg, Dave, Kevin and Gary Heidts to Jokerr's Fabrication open house , movie night and free food party. Wow...what a cool place. Sprint cars, rails, hot rods, he does it all. A great meal, cool t shirts and an outdoor movie showing of Deuce of Spades. So much fun.It just never ends. His place is in an industrial complex and all the neighbors are hot rod or race car shops.....cool.
We finished the night at the Library having some late night snacks and adult beverages. A fun day.
This morning it was back to the 500 track, or at least that was my plan. As I left the hotel parking lot I hit the brake pedal to stop at the corner and right to the floor it went...no brakes at all. I first thought I would limp it to the track and fix it there...but as i hit the next red light i could not stop at all so I parked in an empty lot, told Greg to go ahead, he had to be there by 10 AM for the winner parking area. I thought for a few minutes then remember Jokerr Fab shop...I had his number...called him, told him my problem and he said he would be there with his trailer within an hour Friend Don from Rockford, IL drove up and waited with me.. We loaded the rpu on the trailer...kicking and screaming but she did roll onto it and off to his shop a few miles away.
There were no leaks to be found so pulled the master cylinder and headed to O'Riley's. I thought it came from a Pinto but that did not match up so after a few minutes of searching we found a 69 Falcon for drum with manual brakes...looked good. Not stocked at the store, but the warehouse had three and it was only 5 minutes away and open on Sunday. Off to the warehouse Don and I went. They had it pulled for us, opened the box and was not the right one. A little more searching then decided to pull another one, same part number, opened the box and bingo...that was it. I guess they made different shape ones with the same part number. Any way back to Jokerrs and get it back together. Got it on, bleed the brakes and no have great brakes again. All that messing around pretty much shot the day, we got to the show at 2:25 PM just in time to watch most of the awards.
As I have said before...with all the hard luck I have had, I have great good luck....if it had to break that was the best time and place for it to happen It could have happened Friday during the rain or tomorrow a hundred miles down the road.
Oh yes...I almost forgot, The Hot Rod of the Year was won by George Poteet's 34 coupe built by Dave Lane.....nise car is an understatement. I didn't feel bad with that kind of competion!! I had a blast.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Friday at Goodguys
Greg and I decided to enter our cars in the Goodguys Hot Rod of the Year event. Wow...what a fun time. We all meet at the show and drove out at 10 AM. We were headed to "A summer place" a 50's style little town in a guys back yard about 50 miles from the show. There were over 40 rods entered in the event. At the summers place we were fed hamburger, fries and a banana split.Some great photo ops and got meet a bunch of people.
The next stop was about 40 miles away at the Muncie drag strip...every entrant had to take a run down the strip. That was fun. I had not been on a drag strip since 1961 with my 5W coupe. No flag man this time...a tree start line like now days drags. It was an 1/8 mile run...my time was 10.4 and 68mph...I didn't go nuts , didn't want to break something, many miles more to go this next few days.
I was up against a t bucket...he did a great burn out but smoked his tires all the way....I beat him by several car lengths.
The next stop was back to the Indy track for the track cruise. We arrived there at 4:30. It was over 70 miles from the drag strip. The rain came as we were driving..it was predicted 80%...they were right. Down the Interstate in the blinding rain.....I tried to watch the tail lights in front of me...some times could not see anything. The car would just disappear for a while...kind of nerve racking but still a good time!! The Indy track cruise was fun, they do make you hold down the speed tho. It was still raining lightly as we did the cruise.
The event was closing at 5 PM so we left and headed over Bubba's open house. Its an ignition shop specializing in hot rods. They were serving...get this....SPAM. Some were cooked in hot sauce, some in Dr Pepper, beans, slaw, stuffed jalapenos...what good food....oh yes and free beer. What a place. It drizzled the whole time but no one cared.
We have to be at the track by 9 AM in the morning to park in the special place for the final judging of the hot rods. They will pick 5 finalists and then the winner is picked on Sunday. I do not expect to get any farther than the display tomorrow but sure was a fun time.....and we got a cool window sticker and a great place to park on Saturday!! Both of our two cars could hold our own in all of the competition, so we were happy. A great fun day...better than sitting in a lawn chair all day.
The next stop was about 40 miles away at the Muncie drag strip...every entrant had to take a run down the strip. That was fun. I had not been on a drag strip since 1961 with my 5W coupe. No flag man this time...a tree start line like now days drags. It was an 1/8 mile run...my time was 10.4 and 68mph...I didn't go nuts , didn't want to break something, many miles more to go this next few days.
I was up against a t bucket...he did a great burn out but smoked his tires all the way....I beat him by several car lengths.
The next stop was back to the Indy track for the track cruise. We arrived there at 4:30. It was over 70 miles from the drag strip. The rain came as we were driving..it was predicted 80%...they were right. Down the Interstate in the blinding rain.....I tried to watch the tail lights in front of me...some times could not see anything. The car would just disappear for a while...kind of nerve racking but still a good time!! The Indy track cruise was fun, they do make you hold down the speed tho. It was still raining lightly as we did the cruise.
The event was closing at 5 PM so we left and headed over Bubba's open house. Its an ignition shop specializing in hot rods. They were serving...get this....SPAM. Some were cooked in hot sauce, some in Dr Pepper, beans, slaw, stuffed jalapenos...what good food....oh yes and free beer. What a place. It drizzled the whole time but no one cared.
We have to be at the track by 9 AM in the morning to park in the special place for the final judging of the hot rods. They will pick 5 finalists and then the winner is picked on Sunday. I do not expect to get any farther than the display tomorrow but sure was a fun time.....and we got a cool window sticker and a great place to park on Saturday!! Both of our two cars could hold our own in all of the competition, so we were happy. A great fun day...better than sitting in a lawn chair all day.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Made it to Indy
I had a wonderful homemade dinner last night at Greg and Cindi's, all of the kids and grandkids were there too. A truly nice evening.
We left this morning about 7AM in the mist. Highway 53 was closed because of a wreck so we had to detour thru town, that killed about 40 minutes. We finally got on I94 and headed for Madison. The rain started about 40 miles from Madison...came down fairly hard for a while, I was getting wet but we kept going and we drove out of it. The sun came out and iot was warm...very warm. The sweatshirt came off and the t shirt was just right.
We met about 2:20 in Le Roy, Ill with Dave and Barry. Gassed up, had lunch and back on the road again. We just missed a shower, the roads were still wet
. Somewhere around Crawfordville I lost a rear hubcap...damn!! I changed caps for this trip. I took the cast aluminum ones from the B400, repainted the V8 black...looked really nice on the black RPU. At least this time I didn't loose the car over the cliff. LOL!! I didn't stop, I heard a funny noise, looked in the mirror, saw nothing. I found it missing at the next gas stop. Oh well, just part of driving the hot rod...it could be in a trailer and have no fun at all.
We missed registration cut off at 6PM so will register in the morning. We made it to the LaQuinta, checked in and had dinner across the street. A great meal...shrimp scampi.
Total miles today was about 560 miles...a good day. The forcast says rain tomorrow so we will see...might get a free car wash. No pictures today...sorry. I did post a few on facebook from my phone......you can check those out on my page.
We left this morning about 7AM in the mist. Highway 53 was closed because of a wreck so we had to detour thru town, that killed about 40 minutes. We finally got on I94 and headed for Madison. The rain started about 40 miles from Madison...came down fairly hard for a while, I was getting wet but we kept going and we drove out of it. The sun came out and iot was warm...very warm. The sweatshirt came off and the t shirt was just right.
We met about 2:20 in Le Roy, Ill with Dave and Barry. Gassed up, had lunch and back on the road again. We just missed a shower, the roads were still wet
. Somewhere around Crawfordville I lost a rear hubcap...damn!! I changed caps for this trip. I took the cast aluminum ones from the B400, repainted the V8 black...looked really nice on the black RPU. At least this time I didn't loose the car over the cliff. LOL!! I didn't stop, I heard a funny noise, looked in the mirror, saw nothing. I found it missing at the next gas stop. Oh well, just part of driving the hot rod...it could be in a trailer and have no fun at all.
We missed registration cut off at 6PM so will register in the morning. We made it to the LaQuinta, checked in and had dinner across the street. A great meal...shrimp scampi.
Total miles today was about 560 miles...a good day. The forcast says rain tomorrow so we will see...might get a free car wash. No pictures today...sorry. I did post a few on facebook from my phone......you can check those out on my page.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
on the road again.....................
I am leaving in a couple of hours to meet buddy Greg in Bloomer, WI, spending the night at his house and then leaving for Indy in the morning. We are planning to meet Des Moines Dave and Barry from Omaha outside of Bloomington IL. We should arrive in Indy late afternoon. The plan is to attend Indy and then on Monday AM Greg, me and deuce buddy Don from Rockford will head for the Rodders Journal Revival in Baltimore. MD. That should be a great weekend too. I will blog most every night, follow along with me if you want. Its going to be a blast. Sad to say but this will be the last roadster trip of the season. Next will be shop time on the panel. fordor (both of them) and what ever else I may find to do.
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