Projects Fly in, Drive home in my late Dads car. Attempting 2000 miles

yes happened to us near Jackpot Nevada, over a rise and round a corner,work zone ,could not slow in time,
police car coming other way, we pulled over as he turned around, $180 fine,could have been double
but he let us off cos we were from Aussie

 

Everything went fine today, no problems other than a little bit of vapor lock after the car would sit for about 10 minutes or so. But I got to the point where I would pre-empt that by pouring a little cold water on the fuel pump before I attempted to start it after a gas stop.
The car started fine this morning at the Bel Air motel in Vaughn New Mexico, and I steered the old Corvair northeast on 54, then headed north on 219 and 84 up to Las Vegas New Mexico where I hopped on I-25 North all the way up to Castle Rock.
I sure do enjoy driving the Corvair on the sparsely populated back roads.
Other than fuel, I didn't make any stops. I didn't have time for sightseeing as I had told my friend Mark Clayton that I would stop at his restoration shop this afternoon for a visit. Mark is the guy who used to own my 1929 Cord L29 and who did the spectacular restoration on it. I ended up spending about 4 and 1/2 hours there, just talking old cars and restorations and politics and everything else in between. It was definitely a fun visit. Mark's shop is absolutely amazing, hands down the most well equipped, well organized, most capable of restoration shop I have ever seen. You guys need to check out this video here:


After that I drove up to Parker Colorado to my cousin's place and we had a late dinner together. Tomorrow I'm heading over to my uncle's in Denver. I probably won't have much to report tomorrow, as I'll be spending most of the day just visiting with relatives. Here's a few pictures for you from today:

 

Lordy, that resto shop is MIND BLOWING!

 

What a great adventure Joel, Thank you. That shop is incredible.

 

Wow ! Nice shop. Thanks for the ride along.

 

That resto shop is WOW

 

Good to hear everything is still going good on the trip! And, yea, that shop in NICE! Enjoy the time with family today.

 

What a shop! I'm guessing he doesn't use much Krylon or Rustoleum. Be neat to know what paints and chemicals they do prefer.

 

Glad your trip is going well
I was following Mark Claytons YouTube channel which was quite interesting, then all of a sudden no new videos for over a year
Was wondering what happened
Haven’t seen any updates on his model A Victoria, hope all is well there
Good luck on the rest of your trip

 

That shop is like a hospital. hell even the body shop floor shines.
wow. Quite a tour. Thx.

 

Yeah, I had to laugh as he was walking to the body shop and said it was a separate building because the body shop was "dirty".

 

Another Wow! What a shop! A lot of exotic, rare, high dollar stuff being worked on.

 

It would be nice to see some new videos on Mark Clayton's YouTube channel,
(A road less traveled with restore cars) that one is 4 years old. The last one was a year ago, maybe just stopped doing them?

 

My old Chevy Stovebolt truck had the same vapor lock problems with corn squezzin's gas. One of the things I did at roadtrip fuel stops is open the hood as soon as I arrive to let the hot underhood air out and when starting, ten minutes later, hitting the ignition and starter without pressing the gas pedal at all. Sometimes, it was just enough.

 

Very cool trip to follow! Love all the pics!

 

Now when I get on HAMB, I look for this thread....
I've added a electric fuel pump I can switch on as needed for vapor lock and try to use non-ethanol fuel unless I can't find it if I'm away from my home area.

 

I lost my Pop two weeks ago, so I send my heart felt condolences... I'll wager your Dad is smiling down on you guys and his car. Ain't nothin' like a road trip to wipe your blues away! Happy tails!!

 

@Bbdakota you can find nonethanol gas in the U.S. and Canada on this site:
www.pure-gas.org

 

Life time of memories. ENJOY EVERY MILE.

 

That's just amazing. I'm sorry for the circumstances that brought you to all of this, but I envy you for what you're doing. And when you said that your dad was there in the passenger seat, I couldn't help but shed a tear. Be careful out there, and have a great trip.

 

WOW! Glad things are going well so far.

 

Awesome story! Sorry for your loss. Smooth sailing all the way home. Love me some Corvairs.

 

Thanks for the ridealong, much appreciated. Safe travels to you!

I don't know but there is a bit of foreshadowing on this YT issue at the begging of Mark's Victoria Build episode 6. He admits he has over 100 terabytes of video shot, but no time to edit it. He comments how badly he needs an editor. I'm guessing the restoration part took priority over the YT part and it's on the back burner for now. Too bad, it's a great channel. That he only has 17k subs is a bit of a catch-22. He needs lots more subs to hire an editor from the channel's proceeds; BUT he needs more videos to build subscriber base.

 

Thanks for posting your travels, makes me long for a road trip and an important part of any trip is good food. Happy pie hunting

 

I'm amazed and humbled by how my story and my little adventure is touching so many people. Thanks for all the well wishes and advice and the stories that people have been sharing with me.

I feel very fortunate and blessed that I'm able to make this trip, and that so far, it has gone very well with no serious problems.

I had a very pleasant day today visiting with relatives in Denver. My uncle is retired and basically spends full time on genealogy research. He has our ancestors traced all the way back into the 1500s in Sweden and has come up with a lot of stories about some of them, with some great history on their lives. We spent some time going over that stuff.
Also I got copies of a bunch of old pictures, includingding one of Dad clowning around making a face when he was a young man, probably in high school. Also an autographed picture of Jayne Mansfield that my uncle received from her when he attended her movie premiere had a theater in Minneapolis back in the early '60s. What a glamor puss! And 60 years later he still has the picture, haha.
Around 5:00 I fired up the Corvair and headed north east. It was all freeway driving at that point. I was cruising along at about 70 to 75 with the little flat six happily spinning 3800 RPM. Squirrel was absolutely right, this little short stroke motor is not bothered one bit by some RPM. I now have over 1200 mi in on this trip. It used about 3/4 of a quart of oil in the first couple hundred miles, and used less than half a quart in the next 1,000 mi.
Last night at cousin Bobbie's, I slept in one of the most comfortable beds ever, and we were up late, so I slept in late this morning. Thus, I drove a little later than usual tonight and made it to North Platte Nebraska. Tomorrow I'll be heading north out of here. On a previous trip, when stopped at a gas station north of here, I got a lead from a guy on a three-door early '60s Ford pickup in a farmyard. I'm going to do a little snooping around tomorrow and see if I can find it.
Then I'm thinking I'll take mostly back roads heading back towards home.

That picture above by the fancy gate is the entrance to Clayton restorations. Regarding his videos, Mark told me that he had a lady with a production company who was trying to create a cable TV show at his shop. But they have to get the cable TV company to buy it for that to happen and so far no takers. Mark himself is doing a lot of the hands-on work, plus managing everything, and dealing with customers, he's putting in over a hundred hours a week. So there's no way he has time to sit and edit video.
When your nickname is Hemi Joel, and you get room number 426, that's good luck!
Here's some pictures from today:

 

Sounds like it is turning out to be a great trip.

 

Too Cool For School "Mr. 426"...and Jane...Hot Hot Hot...

Happy Travels an incredible time of year for stunning colors...

 

Now that you made it out of Colorado ,was it that bad?

 

Today's special H.A.M.B. recognition custom, " dictionary " is brought to you and highly approved by Professor " Bob Will's "
Keep scanning that functioning AM Radio dial Joel !


C = COOL
O = OLD
R = RELIABLE
V = VEHICLE
A = AMAZING
I = INTREPID
R = RAGTOP

 

Jayne Mansfield, that woman never took a bad picture! Glad your having fun connecting to your roots.