Friday

We got up at 5AM, breakfast at 6AM and on the road at 6:30. We had 500 miles to get to Monte Vista CO. It was chilly...mid 50's so the heater, heated seats and sweatshirts felt good. By the time we got to Brush, CO it was raining. Ron's top broke and blew apart, so he har to go topless too. He got no sympathy from me! LOL!! We gassed up in Brush, Ron borowwed raincoat from Dave and away we wnet. There is a sign at the junction of I76 and state 71...no gas stations for 75 miles. I knew that, that's why we topped off in Brush. 71 is a straight, flat 2 lane 166 miles to Rocky Ford. It rained quite hard and then would go to light rain then back tohard. It was hard to see sometimes. It was cold and the rain was getting old. Finally about 20 miles from Rocky Ford it stopped raining we pulled into a little cafe for lunch and to dry off. I almost had to eat my favorite saying..."don't need no stikin top " We had a good lunch and was off again to finish the trip. It rained lightly again for a while, but was a beautiful drive...up to 9600 feet over the pass and back down to 7600 in Monte Vista. We found our motel, checked in and washed the cars. We drove to a Mexican place for dinner. Good food, STRONG marquritas and HOT hot sauce. It was great..altho I was sick most of the night!! All and all it was a GREAT day!

LARS 2015

Wednesday morning I left about 8AM to drive to Mpls to pick up my son Rodney for the annual roadster trip. I have been driving to LA since 2004 and Rodney has been with me each year. It is a great father/son time. From Rodney's place we drove south to Lakeville to hook up with friend Greg from Wisconsin in his roadster and then it was off to Des Moines, IA. In Des Moines we met up with Dave, Don and Ron. Dave is from Iowa, Don from Ill and Ron from Florida. Our meeting spot was Bennigans Cruise night. A good start to the 18 day trip...a car show!! 6 AM this morning, Wednesday we hit the road with cloudy skies above us and headed west. The stopping spot was North Platte, NE. Within 30 miles it started to rain. Greg and me had the tops off...well Greg did, I don't have one to put up! It rained hard till we passed Omaha... a couple of hundred miles. Then it was on and off every few minutes. We had a lunch invitation at Dennis Saum's garage in Marquette. He and his wife had burgers, brats, fruit salad and drinks for us. Thanks!! Dennis is the mayor of Marquette, so we had a special holiday day! After lunch and back to the interstate for the night at North Platte. I had made reservations at my favorite hotel, LaQuinta. We checked in and proceeded to go to Whiskey Creek steak house. A couple of cold beers and a good steak was in order. In the morning it's up and out by 6:30 for a 500 mile jaunt to Monte Vista Co. Hopefully the rain will be over...if not we will just punt on the raincoats again and hammer down anyway. I wore for the first time a Cabelas windbreaker that worked well as a rain coat. I have had it for several years and used it for wind but this was the first time I used it for rain...worked well!

cell test

Test from my cell

GNRS 2015

We leave in the morning for the Grand National Roadster Show. Catch the plane at 11 AM and arrive in warm sunny CA about 4PM. I have eight shops on the visit list for Wednesday and eight more for Thursday. Two are official open houses the rest are just visits. There will be three couples and three or four guys in the group. I hope to post each night, hopefully some photos too. Sometimes I can't get this little notebook to work with pictures...if I can't the photos will go up when I get home. I will be posting on Facebook during the day too. My facebook page is just my name. Dale Grau If we aren't friends there yet...send me a request. Let the fun begin!!

Montana trip photos

Some pics of Dave's Mordor on the trip home from Montana

Montana trip

I just returned from a flying trip to Montana.....in a Dodge Ram! My good buddy Dave from Des Moines, found and bought a 32 fordor in Bozeman, I went along for the ride. I drove 300 miles to Des Moines to drive 1100+ miles to Bozeman and 1100+ back to Des Moines and then 300 miles to home. It was a great time...fun trip. A fast trip, I left home Monday and returned on Saturday. He bought a primered mordor, chopped, hiboy, sbc with a 5 speed, no interior,just a front saet cushion. It's finished in red oxide primer, has black steelies and bias ply tires. This is such a COOL car. I tried to buy it from him on the way home. We made it the first day to Billings and arrived in Bozeman the next day at noon. Finished the deal loaded it in the trailer and headed east by about 4 PM. As we hit the Wyoming state line, there was a nice parking area by the big "welcome" sign, we pulled over unloaded the car, took some photos and put it back in the trailer. In Wall SD we did the same thing...unloaded it drove up and down main street, took some photos and then drove out the two lane towards the badlands about 5 miles, turned around and he let me drive it back to town. A great driving, riding car. At that time I upped my offer to buy it....he still said NO! We got some neat photos in front of Wall Drug. I'm still working on the phaeton, kind of slow progress. My lift broke again. The cable jumped off of the pully, I did not notice or hear anything until I was under it working and looked over and saw the 3/8 inch cable all shredded and only as thick as lead pencil lead!! I got out from under it real quick. Dave had a new set of cables that he traded to me for some parts he wanted....that was good. Today I started to put the cable on and noticed the pulley bushings were shot and the spacer between the two pullies was worn thru as was the pulley axle. I called the lift mfg.....they want $400.00 for two pullies and a spacer and the 3/4 inch bolt that is the axle!! WOW! I guess I'm cheap but I think that is way too much. I re inspected the pulles and the only thing wrong with them was the bushings.....I went to my machinist neighbor, had him press the bushings out, went to the shop in town, bought two new bushings, (1.60 for both), had the neighbor press them back in, he made a new spacer while I was in town, paid him what he wanted...plus a $5 tip and I'm back in business. Tomorrow I will put it together and get back on the phaeton project.

Update...................finally.

I have been very lax on blogging. I will try to to recap the high lights of the past few weeks. After leaving Wendover on Saturday, Barry and I drove to Salt Lake City to visit some friends. First it was Dick Rodwell, the maker of the cool windshields that we both run on our roadsters. Dick is cool old hot rodder....he has done it all. Has a killer roadster, a bonneville roadster and a 34. He makes the windshields in his basement shop....a one man show. Pretty amazing. Next is was off to see Stanley Wanlas, he is an artist and specializes in bronze sculptures of cars and people. He designed the windshield that Dick now makes. Stan also makes some awesome bronzes of 32 Ford hot rods. Google his name and find his web and checkout his art. Joy, his wife and him had a great lunch all waiting for us...what a nice thing. We ate, talked, checked out his art gallery and his garage....always a fun time there. Sunday morning it was on the road again, Barry headed north to Idaho and then Yellowstone, I headed east to Cheyenne for the night and then on towards home. I spent Monday night in Pierre SD. Tuesday I left early on Rte 14. About 40 miles out I decided to stop and take of my coat, as I pushed on the clutch it slapped to the floor....oh oh.....that's not right. I pulled to the side of the rod in this little tow, don't remember the name...I felt under the car and could feel the slave cylinder hanging in two pieces. There was a repair shop about two blocks back, so I started the car in first and drove there. It was a nice, clean spacious shop, two lifts and both were empty. I went in and told the guy my problem. I drove the car in and we put it on the lift. Raised it up, I screwed the slave back together, we had to rebleed and adjust it and it all worked. I had no brake lights in Salt Lake, changed the switch and still no lights except for a flicker, we tried to bleed the brakes in the hotel lot but could not get a wrench on the bleeder....so I said heck with it. Since it was on the lift I could reach the bleeder. So I asked the guy to help me bleed the brakes as long as it was in the air...he did and the lights worked....fixed two things in one stop. I was back on the road and headed for home. ****************************************************************************** At home we had the "Topless Tour Completion Celebration" at my house........just a big party...lots of people, something like 180 showed up, had hot rods parked all over the neighborhood....a fun day. ******************************************************************************* Just a few days after the party, I got a lead on a real nice deuce tudor body in Missouri....long story short, I bought it and did a quick road trip to pick it up. Real nice, no rust, decent paint, complete interior....80 years old but complete...all glass, garnishes, dash, good top insert...plans are to order a new Cornhusker chassis, sbc, 5 speed, pop the body on that, add steel fenders that I have and drive it! ****************************************************************************** A few weeks later we went to The Race of Gentlemen in Wildwood NJ. On the way we stopped at Steadfast hot rod shop in Ohio, then the big swap meet in Carlise, PA, the Hot Rod Garage in Denton MD then finally the race. It is a race, 1/8th mile drags on the beach, right by the Atlantic ocean....and only three classes....motocycles, flatheads and fourbangers....thats it. It was a GREAT time!! I think I need to get that flathead running, put it in the Modified lakester and go racing next year...that's the plan anyway. **************************************************************************************************** On the drive home Greg and I heard about an auction in Ohio coming up in a few weeks. We got a pickup with a topped and turned back around and headed for the auction. Its a good thing we did not take a bigger truck,( we did discuss that,) because the truck we brought was FULL, that sort of held us in control!! I brought home firewalls, gas tank, grille, tires and a bunch of small parts.We had a great time...meant some new friends too. **************************************************************************************************** I have been working on the phaeton, got the body on, fitted the floor boards, shifter, fenders and going to start the wiring in a day or so. Oh yes, made steering column bracket, and orderd a ton of more parts, like wheels,steering parts and so on. THis next two weeks should really get it close to being done. The fordor will be next, unless I get side tracked on the new tudor....or finish the paint on the panel,,,,or put the fttie in the lakester.....all I know is that I will be busy in the shop!!