Friday

Got the car home from Wally's shop at 9 PM last night. Trans gone thru, fixed a couple of things , re installed the trans, heat shield by the exhaust and the slave cylinder, new bearing instead of a bushing on the main shaft to the engine crank, fixed a leak in a heater hose, and now all is ready to go.
I changed oil this morning at 7AM, repacked the trunk (bed) took out the lawn chairs to make our stuff fit. Rodney and I left at 9 AM. Tonight we are in Pierre, SD as planned, just a short 400 miles. An easy day to start with, need to get back in the "roadster mode", my rear is tired tonight.!! The car ran great, we hit a couple of light showers in SD, but nothing bad.
We got a room at the Super 8, next door to a Mexican place, so we had tacos and margaritas to night!! Tasted good.
In the morning we will wash the car and head for the Black Hills, see Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse and stay in Lusk, WY.
A great first day of the 2 week trip.

Almost time to leave

Today is Wednesday, the plan is to leave for LA Friday morning. Right now the RPU is at Walts Rod and Custom on jack stands and the 5 speed is at the tranny shop. I could not get it to shift into reverse when it was hot. Also wanted to "crunch" into 2cd. After we readjusted the clutch several times, we decided to jack the body back up and remove the tranny. In our conversion, I mentioned the oillite bushing that I put in the crank end, Wally says it is supposed to be a bearing on a T5. That was part of the decision to pull the tranny also. The bushing fit a little loose, that might be part of the problem, the tranny shop says heat from the exhaust could also causing the slave not to work right, that could be part of the problem too. Since the tranny was out, it was decided to have them look inside. Wally pulled some strings and got it in the shop right away, like at noon today. I am waiting for a phone call with an update. Hopefully it will go back to Wally's tonight and we can put it back in tomorrow morning.
Last year, the blue roadster's 350 automatic came out about 4 days before we left too, Lumpy and I did that, and the shop squeezed us in at once too. Different shop, but both guys are great. This shop does only manual gearboxes and are real good at it. The bearing is to be at O'Rileys this afternoon. stay tuned for updates. We'll make it yet!!

Countdown for LARS trip

My son Rodney and I leave for the LARS in CA on June 10th. As of now I have less than 20 miles on the RPU. I spent the better part of two days last week at Walt's Rod & Custom fixing little things. Thanks Wally for the help!! The big thing was the wrong throw out bearing, the clutch was slipping like crazy. Easy to fix....except we could not get the tranny out without raising the body up 3 inches or pulling the engine. We opted to raise the body. After removal of the floorboards, all the body bolts,and steering column, the body could be raised up enough to move the tranny back. After a few adjustments on the linkage and walaa............the thing shifts and drives like new. We fixed a few more brake leaks, a steering shaft adjustment, re shimmed the body to get the doors to fit again, added a vac advance to the dizzy, replaced the dizzy with a new one, reset the timing, modified the shifter (because it broke off), replaced the exhaust manifold gaskets with some new super ones......thanks again Wally FOR ALL THE HELP!!
Now the plan is to get some miles on it.....like a few hundred in the next 10 days. Oh yea, gotta program the speedo too. So far I have used the GPS to check speed. At 70 the tach shows 2000 in 5th gear, that's good. The 4.11's should be just fine. I have been wondering about the gears.
Tomorrow I am going to drive it to the show at Jack and Jims, a few miles there. Tuesday it will just be cruising everywhere.
Tune in again soon.....June 10, it is off to CA. We will be driving across SD on state 14, into the Black Hills, then onto Denver, visit a friend of Rodney's and Monday meet with 8 other rods at Rocky Mtn Street Rods for the drive. I can't believe its almost time to go. I'm getting excited.

tonneau covers done

Took the RPU back to Rapids Upholstery for the tonneau covers. They came out great. Should keep the luggage safe and dry. The cockpit covers zips down the middle, so when I am alone half can stay snapped on. It snaps to a tube frame I made and attaches to the door with heavy magnets. Al did another great job sewing them up out of Haartz cloth.

another fun weekend

Took the new RPU to the GSTA show in St Paul this past weekend.It is always a great show. This year was the 55th. I had the 5w at the 50th. This year again was a nonjudged show. The sixteen clubs in the Association picked there "favorite" car. I was luckily enough to score the "Scavengers Care Club Pick" That was a great honor and a wonderful surprise.
I really enjoyed the whole weekend. Friday I saw so many friends from the cities that i don't get to see and visit with very often. It was a very fun day, actually a very fun weekend.
The trophy was a Hemi valve coves lettered and pinstriped., mounted on a very heavy marble vase.It is a vey cool trophy.

Fun weekend in Fargo

Had a fun weekend in Fargo. The weather was good,no snow or floods, the show was a great time. There was 100 entries in the show, about 25 or so were "Hoodlums" from MN. We took home 5 of the Top Ten awards and best club display. We were pleased receiving one of the top 10 awards with the new 3W coupe. The 29 A Model pickup had a ton a great comments. It was one of the crowd pleasers for sure. The new wheel color, new headlights really looked good.

Interior is done !!

The interior is done. The seat, door panels and rear panel came out great, just how I envisioned them. The seat feels real good. The seat heaters are all wired in for those chilly mornings in the mountains. I have just a couple of little things to do before it goes to the GSTA Rod and Custom Spectacular this weekend. It should be a fun weekend, lots of friends to visit with, cool hot rods to look at and a new hot rod to show off.