Topless Tour starts Thursday AM

The Buick is at Fat Joe's race shop being repaired, new axle, brakes,repair the housing...will be all good soon. In the morning I leave here at 6AM ' pick up son Rodney in Mpls, and meet friend Greg in his roadster in Lakeville about 8AM and then it is off to Des Moines for lunch with friend Dave and onto KC for the night. The fun is about to begin!!

near disaster for the Buick

After a good breakfast at a neat little cafe in  town we headed for Mitchell SD. We made a reservation at the Holiday Inn there. Our schedule showed we would arrive about 5PM. Just 10 miles west of Mitchell while driving in a single lane construction zone, the left rear axle broke. We were driving east about 70 mph, when it broke we went skidding sideways down the lane vering towards the oncoming lane and doing a full 180 degree turn before coming to a stop in the opposite lane facing west!! Wow what a ride!! I cought my breathe, opened the door and got out. A car pulled up right behind us, sure glad he was not there 2 minutes ago. Two kids and a man helped me push the car to the side so the lane would not be blocked any longer. I can't believe we skidded like that and spun around 180 degrees and did no other damage to the car. I called AAA and ordered a flatbed, then called 911 for assistance from the law, we were just inches off of thr far right line, big trucks were whizzing by us just inches away, we could not get the car any farther off of the lane. The sherriff arrived in a few minutes then finally the flatbead got there. Seemed like an hour but was only about 35 minutes. We got it drug up on the flat bed and headed for thre hotel. I called my good friend Lumpy and asked him if he could come in the morning with his trailer and truck. He should be here about noon. Hopefully we can wench it onto his trailer and head for home. 400 miles to go.  The small rear wheel well opening kept the tire inside the well, otherwise it would have flown somewhere out in the ditch. The right rear hubcap flew off and landed in the ditch, I retrived it and tossed it into the trunk.
My good luck continues......yes a problem, but could have been so much worse!!  If those west bound cars were just seconds closer we would have crashed head on into them, if the axle would have broken a few miles earlier when we were crusing at 80, who knows what would have happened. If it broke earlier this morning when we were driving across the Indian Reservation...we would still be there waiting for help.....no phone service and very little traffic.  Never a dull momment on a trip.

Pics for the Buick trip

Some pics for the Buick trip...............................

The Deuceguy takes a Buick trip

We left Wednesday about noon to drive to my old home town of Alliance, NE. My 50th high school reuninon is happening May 31 and June 1. The local car club is also having their 13th annual car show...how convenient. Since I drove my high school 32 coupe to the 40th reunion I thought it was fitting to drive the 50 Buick to the 50th.
We got no more than 20 miles from home when the skies opened up and piured rain for the next half hour or so. Oh well the car wont melt and its been wet before. As we drove into Pipestone, MN the Buick developed a terrible miss, would hardly run, black smoke, shaking....what the heck?? I pulled the plugs, all black off course...its running very rich. I thought it might be a speck of dirt in the carb, that happened before as few years back. I tried to suck it thru by reving it up and then choking it off with my hands till it almost dies......no luck. It was just about 5 o'clock, I decided I needed help before everything is closed up. I found a small repair shop just a block away. I approached the guy there, told him of my problem. He came out to the car to check it out. I pulled the plugs, he went inside and blasted them all clean, put them back in and no change. After about an hour ans a half we discovered the secondaries were stuck open. No wonder it was burning rich!! Not sure why they stuck but sure runs better when closed!! We were off again by 6PM on tne way to Mitchell, SD.
We arrived in Mitchell by 8:30 at the hotel just minutes before the skies opened again.
The next morning we headed for hometown.
Just out of town is an unique rest area, I hope to attach a photo. We also checked out the famous Car Henge.
The class reunion was fun. Nice to see old classmates. Many I have not seen for 50 years.
Saturday/Sunday was the car show...lots of fu, lots of nice comments on the "Fine Wine" Buick. We won first in class, and Long Distance...bought me a full tank of gas!! I was told our car received the most votes of any car of all of the last 13 shows...that was pretty cool. We are on the way home in the morning...I leave Thursday AM for LARS in California in the RPU.

Fordor has a heart

I located a 270 Dodge Baby Hemi for the fordor. I found it in Oregon, all rebuilt ready to go. It is being shipped, should have it here in a couple of weeks. I have been busy and Have not touched the fordor. It is to be next winters project anyway
. I sold my 29A pickup a couple of weeks ago. That is the first hot rod that I have sold. No I did not lose my mind, what little I have, I replaced the A with a deuce panel truck. It came with a 327/350 57 chev rear, lots of patina and needs lots of TLC.
The previous owner was up front with me and told me the king pins and steering box were shot. He was right! I replaced the king pins already. It has a F! steering box, i decidec to go with a Vega, I have a Vega box, pitman arm, bracket on the parts shelf. Here is the kicker. To get the F1 box out, other than a cutting torch, the engine has to come out, well, it was mounted too low anyway, so that will be a 2 fix deal. The engine is out, tranny out, the rear mount was completely worn into two pieces. Now I will box the frame from the firewall forward, add front shocks, new column, n ew wheel, new front spring, which means new perche bolts, you know, one thing calls for another. I have cleaned and painted the engine, cleaned the trans, paint will follow. Tomorrow or Tuesday I plane to sand blast the frame rails, firewall, then weld the boxing plates in.
While I was replacing the king pins, I had the front drums turned, and the shoes relined.  When I was pulling the engine, I noticed the brake line was copper.....and singled flared!! That is being replced too.
The wiring is in dire need of repair, there are four glass fuses, and all the wire is yelo or white. The lights are not hooked up, I'm changing the rear lights out, so there is a complete wire harness on the list to go in. I really wanted to drive this thing for the "shop truck" this spring/summer...might be a push to do that. In two weeks I leave for a Buick trip to my 50th class reunion and then jump into the rpu and head to the LARS. My next two weeks will be busy. I think I should go to the shop now.................see ya later

New project

Since the B400 is done, I was getting nervous that I would have nothing to do. I can't stand to sit in the rocking chair on the porch, so I found another deuce to build. This time its a 32 fordor. Ebay is a dangerous place to hang out at.....found a body in TN, hit a bid and it said reserve met...you are the high bidder. Oops, I better look a little closer. LOL A few days latter my friend Terry and I was off to TN to pick the body up. It was a good buy. Already all blasted, so I could see everything. All the garnishes, firewall, two rear fenders, doors, regulators and most of the latches were there. They are a few bullet holes, dents, broken hinge pins and a little rust out in the lower cowl and the rear of the body. Sometime back someone lifted the body with a chain thru the door openings and bent both drip rails...thanks a lot !!
The  road trip went fine, 850 miles, arrived in the little town about 9 PM, arrived at the hot rod shop at 7ish the next morning, gave him a bag of hundreds, loaded the body and was gone by 9 AM on the road....arrived at home about 10 PM. We stopped for a Subway at lunch, gas  a few times, a drive thru burger, that was it.
A few days later I found a new chassis in WI for a good price, so another road trip to bring that home, that was just down and back in the same day. I found front fenders, running boards, rear fenders, floor boards, and rear frame horn covers.....ths time in GA ! That's 1300 miles one way.....wow. My friend Darrick called his buddy a trucker that goes to FL each way and got him to pick them up for me in his produce truck...that was a great deal, saved me lots of gas money and four days in the car. So now I most of the main parts, plenty of work to do for a while.
I am thinking of a Hemi for power, a friend found one of those for me in Hastings, MN, only 120 miles or so away, I will go check that out in a couple of weeks.

the striper came by today

I called Cliff Anderson, my favorite pinstriper last week to come by, He came today, he lives in the cities so it was a bit of a drive for him.  He laid down some AWESOME stripes. A neat dual line on the beltline, some on the dash and a real cool design on the rear deck area. He also made a really cool acetate show card sign for my lighted box, all just in time for the next two weekends of indoor car shows.
Tomorrow we will load the B400 into friend Doug's trailer. We leave for Fargo Friday morning. Should be a fun weekend. The next weekend it will  at the GSTA show in St Paul, that one is a "real car guy" show.