Features 26 COOP's Trip to the Salt....High Sodium Diet IV

I should have did some reading last night, I would have seen you were coming to Ames. I’m 7 miles away, and would have loved to have met you two.
Quick Performance are good people, glad they helped.
Drive safe.

 

Quick Performance is where I bought my axles from. My dealings with them have all been positive and they have been helpfull in helping me decide on what I need and what I will need.

Hope the car holds up and the rest of the trip goes good

 

Have you tried swapping the driver and passenger front wheels/tires to see if the problem follows the wheels or stays on the passenger side? That should eliminate one variable.

 

August 19

Hello from the road to home...

Correction: It turned out that Danville IL was not the town of my wife's forebears......make that Danville, IN.

Well I called Tom Lusch in the morning, he said they were bowing out of going to the car show in Columbus because of the chance of rain....Make that the Rods-n-Wusses of Ohio car club. What's a little rain???

So we went directly to Siler's where I was going to stay overnight before heading to Maryland. We got there about 1:30 PM yesterday, Jim's wife Cedi fed me a nice lunch, and I was aware of a strange smell in the air. It turned out that I could smell the homefires burning...all the way from Maryland!

So instead of hanging around, I started for home at about 3:00. I ended up in Washington, PA for the night and headed out about 7:00 AM this morning.

I'd like to interrupt this discourse to put in an opinion:

The infrastructure in this country needs help, especially the roads (to say nothing of the condition of the bridges, which we cannot see but only fear for their condition). On our way out, I bottomed out many times something terrible in Indiana on the interstate highways. After that, we classified bumps in terms of Indianas....on a scale from 0 to 3, 3 being a bottoming-out, or "3 Indianas". We all know that the way to avoid most breakdowns or deterioration, is through preventative maintenance. Unfortunately, many authorities give only lip service to a good PM program and quite often reduce it to save money (pay me now or pay me more later).

I think more politicians need to take rides in street rods on those same roads that go across their states. I think that might get them off their fat arses and do something about passing meaningful infrastructure spending. Dump the tax cuts for the rich that only benefit them and that constuency and spend the money that went to the tax cuts to benefit all Americans.

Now I'll get off my soapbox.....

It was good going from Washington, PA, through Morgantown, WV and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Kent Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore, my adopted state for the last 30 years.



26 COOP and TRAILER did well by me. Sure there were some bumps in the road (literally and figuratively) but they got worked out as part of the adventure. Yeah, I still have some issues to attend to, but that's part of the rodding experience. The 354 used a little oil initially, but as rings seated, it performed exceptionally well. And I must add another correction: When I tallied all the gas receipts, I was wrong about the mileage (15 to 16). We travelled 5426 miles and I got just shy of 19 miles-per-gallon!

So 26 COOP is home in its stable with 33 COOP, 40 COOP, and 53 COOP, along with another mechanical means of motivation, 70 SLOOP (1970 Pearson 26):



Maybe now I'll have time to take her out, since I'm not in panicsville anymore.......

Now, before I end this journal of my journey, I'd like to thank Jim Siler for joining me, his wife Cedi for letting him get a little crazy with his long-time buddy, and especially my wife of 53 years, Judy, who not only puts up with me, but is the Enabler-In-Chief for my car builds and journeys to the Salt. Love, ya!

And I hope you all have enjoyed this thread. If so, when will you make a journey in your rod to Bonneville and start a thread of the experience? Some day I want to read where you close with.....

Talk to you again from the Salt.....

Regards,

Jim Ireland, AKA Irish Jr.

 

Excellent storytelling-I love a road trip!

 

Went through Indiana on our way to Detroit in 2014. Worst roads from Oregon to Michigan was in Indiana, except for some potholes in Detroit that were so big we found a couple smart cars in the bottom of them! One fella bent a wheel on his Dodge Brothers and another hit so hard it broke his vent window. I was driving my truck and camper pulling a car trailer and my '36 Dodge pickup. Thought the truck was gonna break in half on Indiana's freeways.

Dave

 

Excellent really enjoyed being able to travel with you on your journey. Glad to see you made it home safe and sound.

 

Really enjoyed your whole trip! Thank you for taking us along!

 

Jim that's a trip wow 5000+ miles in that vintage Coupe it's funny just thinking about the name Coupe and how tiny they are inside now I get it having the Ole Model A. I'm surprised you fellas aren't joined at the shoulder...

You have in your 4 wheeled fleet you a couple of extremes the wider roomier Stude and Forty and the narrow body primitive. Your comfortable in both it seems...good for you and thanks for sharing the journey to the land of extremes.

 

Thanks for sharing, it was fun to tag along with you.

-W

 

Wow 19 MPG, would never of thought that was possible. Great trip and story Jim, you kinda fixed my Bob K road trip need for the moment, thanks.

 

Thanks for sharing Jim.
Be grateful you didn't have to drive on Colorado roads.

 

Your adventure proves it’s possible to have “too much fun”

 

Washingtons only 7 miles away, you coulda slept in my garage and got a free garage tour in the morning. sorry i missed you.

 

Thanks for the ride along Jim.

 

I spotted Jim in Kent Island late last year. He was in 40 COOP. The car he drove on his previous trip to the salt.

 

Thanks for posting your travels, I made it to Bonneville this year for the first time, what a great experience! I did see your car there and some other great hotrods their. I thought it would be great to drive my car out from Connecticut.

The burning questions are with all the salt that gets everywhere in and out of the car.

Are you concerned about future rust?
Do you do anything to prevent the salt affecting your car?

Regards

Tony






Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Glad you're back to the right coast. And thanks for sharing your adventures.
Regarding our roads, remember the Highway Trust Fund. Takes in 18.4 cents per gallon, $34 billon annually. Not enough but you have to wonder what an tight audit would turn up.
Happy trails.

 

I better not make a commit about the shovel ready jobs....

 

Thanks for taking us along with you! Awesome reading...

 

I was prepared to wash my car every day, but the salt was so dry this year that I let it stay on the car the whole time. In past years (as you can see on my avatar), the salt was a lot wetter and there was sometimes standing water at the entrance road.

In 2006, with 33 COOP, I sprayed WD-40 on the underside before I left. It seemed to help some. Same in 2009 with 33 COOP. However, when I went back (from Denver) to run the 130 Club, we waited from Monday until Thursday to get on the salt after a Sunday rain. Had to drive about 2-1/2 miles in 2-4 inches of water that was blown to the entrance end. My brother-in-law drove his Viper through that as well and his wife was not too happy. He cleaned it up as soon as he got back to Phoenix and it suffered no ill effects.

In 2012, I brought 40 COOP out and the salt was pretty dry. However, I washed it as well as I could underneath at the car wash. The worst damage was to the exhaust system, which was powder coated steel tubing. There is no powder coating left on the outside.

26 COOP has stainless exhaust tubing. I found virtually no salt underneath this year, so I anticipate no damage.

However, on this build, I put down only rubber matting on the floor. It was very easy to take it out, shake it off, and brush out the salt that had sifted underneath around the edges. Now that I am home, I have some Mercedes Benz-type carpet and padding to finish it off. That is one thing I wish I had done on previous trips.

 

I read on another thread of a guy who put his car on jacks and ran a sprinkler underneath for a bit.

 

Thanks for letting me tag along for the journey

 

All's well that ends well. Great reporting and welcome home!

 

My son went 201 mph on the short coarse, and upgraded his license. Since returning home I have been cleaning salt off everything I own. Oh the joys of Bonneville...

 

August 24

A new true-running brake drum ($30) to replace the wobbler fixed the imbalance on the front passenger-side wheel.

Thanks for all your suggestions and especially thanks to John at Quick Performance for spotting the wobbling drum (Now I know why I didn't put fenders on 26 COOP).

For a hot rod it runs down the road really smooooooooth!

Later,

Jim Ireland, AKA Irish Jr.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

 

Best ride I've had cross-country...Thanks Jim...I didn't even break a sweat!

 

@Dan Greenberg got a great shot of your coupe on the salt!

 

WOW!