Hot Rods Winter Driving

I go out for a ride anytime the sun is out and the roads are clear. How about you guys?

 

Nope, there's salt on the streets here til April rains wash it away. Then they work on the pot holes.

 

Sorry, that sounds great until you realize how damaging the salt is.
I'll drive a couple of them in the rain but draw the line at winter.
In Ohio I'm done 'til April.
Not even my car trailer goes out in the brine.

 

If the roads are dry I can't see a problem with salt. My car does not have a 10 point paint job. Now the truck I am currently building probably won't be out in the snow.

 

In Ohio they start spraying brine in November and it seems to stick around even if it rains on it. Plus my county makes sure it uses the full allotment of salt so they can get the same money next year.
Just like every government department in existence...but I digress.

 

Mine is a trailer queen street rod

.a pile of picture proof below;





^^^ I kinda drifted over the center lines where they pile pure road salt...I was trying to get a better look at the chick with purple hair on the left...

^^^ ...and I also abide by the rules & signs...always...

^^^^ a little mud splashing on the windshield ...the next rain will make it all better.

 

F&J...
I think that it probably just doesn't happen as much these days as it might have decades ago. And I think for that reason, seeing you take your beautiful teal rod down a path less traveled...in inclement weather even...was somehow very gratifying.
Lol...thanks for that.

 

Again...F&J...it just felt like a scene from yesteryear.

I drove my '47 Ford business coupe all one winter cuz my truck died. Not a street rod...a bone stock pos. Rubber rake. Open exhaust. Drafty. Vacuum wipers. Already rusty.
It was fun, but a pain in the ass too.
It was a pain in the ass, but fun too...lol.

 

One snowy, slippery, winter morning, heading down the expressway in the '47, approaching my exit. I see a state police car half-way down the exit, pulled to the left side with lights blinking, but no signs or cones or anything. I thought he had someone pulled over. As I get closer, a trooper steps out of his car and walks toward me, motioning for me to stop. The exit ramp was pure ice, and unbeknownst to me, he was trying to keep cars from exiting there. I pulled over, and rolled my window down to see what he wanted. Oh...and I shut the engine off to maybe keep from getting a ticket for the loud exhaust. But he was mad about something else. He started yelling..."Why did you come down this exit?!! Don't you see us here?!! It's too icy!!!" I apologized. Other cars were coming down the ramp now. He saw this and got even more frustrated. "Look at what you started!!! Now everybody's coming!!!" I apologized again.
This is the funny part. Now don't get me wrong...I respect cops. But it was surreal.
He actually said to me...
"Now get this...this...THING outa here!!!
Those words made it feel to me as if we were suddenly in an old B hot rod movie.
I kinda liked it...lol.

 

And to top it off...perils of driving a pos old car in the winter...
I had shut off the engine. The 6-volt charging system was not 100%. When I went to "get this thing outa here" it wouldn't crank much. Luckily, the ramp was slightly downhill and I just barely managed to push and get 'er rolling a little and started again...but I was huffin' and puffin'.
Fun stuff...lol.

 

I drive it in rain or snow...in fact it hasn't been inside a garage in over 2 years.

Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

They don't use salt here, no matter how much it snows. There are no "snow emergencies" either. The highways may get shut down in sections, but not very often.

 

I haven’t had anything running in the winter in years, so no, no driving for me in the winter months.

If and when I’m not fixing anything on very dry days I would take it for a rip around the neighbourhood.

 

I drive my Ford all winter if the roads are dry. If they brine or salt the roads, I wait for a good rain to wash it off. I don't drive the Ocean Parkway unless it is really dry. Big puddles... hard to tell if they are fresh or salt water. I took it to work a few real cold Saturdays, low as 3*.... good thing I have a great heater. The air-gap intake makes it slow to warm up otherwise it drives fine.

 

Anything that I have that I want to keep nice goes in Grandpa's barn mid-November. My dad on the other hand drove classic pickups year round.

 

YES WINTER SUCKS..HERE IN SO CAL LAST WEEK I HAD TO PUT ON A LONG SLEEVE SHIRT..

 

Same here. We get lots of snow but they never name the snow storms like they do on the east coast hahaha. It's just called winter here.

 

I've used my banger powered Model A pickup as a daily driver for about 18 years and it shows. I have rust coming thru on both rear fenders above the running boards and the paint is failing. Sold a car and a bike in the last year and will have room for it in the garage as soon as I paint the fenders for my V8 A, going to semi-retire it. The plan is to find another beater pickup and blow it apart and repair and repaint it this summer.

 

Winter here in The Sonoran Desert lasts about an hour and a half.

 

Glad you "get it".... but I'm not surprised as you too, have gone through some difficult & life changing trauma..

No, I don't normally take it out in slush, I just got caught in a early February snow squall that was not on the weather radar when I left to get birthday cards signed by dozens of people for my son! It was worth it.

But I do drive in rain, as it is my daily, and I'd never known to enjoy that "Ssssshhh ~ Clack" of the vacuum wipers if I was "afraid" to use the car...as a car!

Why wait to live a totally fearless fun life? "Get out there" is my message to anyone, as you will meet thousands of nice people if you do...like I have in 2018...me nearing 67 years of "life count"....the "best year" of my life...so far

I don't have a cell, nor carry phone numbers with me, no Triple A towing, no tools, no spare, and 45 year old bias on the front.. why worry?..Why? Why live life in fear? You will have ''Missed a Million miles of fun", as an old song says...

My pics below have absolutely nothing to do with winter driving, but I hope it stirs some thoughts...?


^^^^ This is a railroad tunnel near my home that used to say: Free yourself from This"...but earlier in 2018 somebody changed the "This" to "fear". It hit home.


just go out and see the beauty of the world out there...I threw my TV away 8 years ago to stop hearing only negative news... I am a "life coach"...we can indeed, create our own reality..if we believe..


Below is the abandoned Colonial road that starts at Rev War hero Nathan Hale homestead...he gave his life at 23... I didn't get through as there was a huge "sippy hole" up further. but had fun ...yet again..

Got to go box some parts for a hamber and go to the post office with the 32.. hey, it just stopped raining!..I wonder what I will experience today ..i'll take the camera just in case.... lol

.

 

Yes Ohio roads suck in winter. Although the brine does a good job of keeping them clear, it’s hell on cars.
Another thing I’d never do.
Take a vehicle on the salt flats.
I’ve seen guys clean and clean afterwards only to find areas rusting that you can’t access.

 

Frank, I was with you a 100%, till you got to 45 year old tires and no spare and no tools. Dude that’s just asking for trouble.
Myself, I do have a cell phone, but just have it around, don’t carry it religiously, just when I’m out on the road but since my road is the whole nation, I take it with me along with my AAA.
I do understand your post though, just get out there and do it before it’s too late.




Bones

 

With the ice and snow, and salt all over the roads, I think I'll just leave it in the garage.

 

it's good to see a few guys out driving around...

We have to wait for summer for harsh driving conditions. A couple years ago, in an Edsel...

 

I'd bet I picked up some of my lack of fear from your adventures...long mileage ones at that...in an untested heap. (the LaSalle hearse 5k mile side trip) <LMAO

No sense in a spare, it's 40 Front drums, and 55 Olds rear pattern...let's run this out a bit...let's say I get I get a cell, Triple A, etc...what will be the next worry then? 35-36 rear trailing arms that don't have the MUST HAVE torque arm?...or the welded pitman arm, heated-dropped steering arms, self dropped axle, single circuit brakes.. something on the Early Olds Rocket crapping out on the road and Autozone doesn't stock it? The list just plain grows to those that make excuses in life.

Keep rolling here...if we get hit "head on" by a texter, it ain't going to be good in our tiny hotrods... Somebody stealing it at the grocery store?, I hope you get my only point in all this....we were brainwashed since childhood to be fearful of far too many things...

but...i'm NOT quite ready to parachute-jump out of a perfectly good airplane

If something takes me out today? ...at least I had a grand "Milner style" rock & roll f'n time. How many of you ever wondered what it would be like to drive a traditional hotrod as a true daily? Scary, eh? oh, and yes, I do stop for hitch hikers, even the iffy looking ones..and women too...

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A bit before my time but from some of the family stories I've heard I'm thinking roll up windows and secluded spots in the woods for neck'n were why Cabriolets' were invented.

 

Frank, to bad we live so far apart.... I think we would get along just fine!



Bones

 

x2

 

I'm not in a hurry to mix it up with idiot drivers on slippery roads. I'm not much for it even in good weather. But I live in the country. Lots of 2-lane and gravel roads. Less traffic. All of my cars have been driver-quality only...nothing fancy. I'd too, hesitate to take a real nice car out in shitty conditions. The salt is a bitch, no doubt. And there's always a chance of something happening. We need to respect that. But as F&J alluded to, life is short. And in spite of tragedy, setbacks, sorrows or fears...life is to be lived...life is to be experienced. As I heard my dad sometimes say to friends and family who might've hesitated involving themselves in certain experiences...
"Awwww...c'mon...live a little!"
Lol.

 

I just got back from the trip to the post office 8 minutes away...um...gone two and a half hours. I took a pile of pics of my route...I'll put up a "are you shitting me!!" post here later

We have plenty of homes for sale around here LOL... my last stop on my way back home today, was to try to track down the exact home of a hamber "Adam" who just moved to my town from Rhode Island.. tee hee, I sure as shit found it..I knew I would.... I don't think Adam was home but I'll post later, of Adam's neighbor & his On Topic "hotrod" in his garage, that Adam has not seen yet ..

I do create my own reality.

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