Can't wait to see ya dude! You set for a place to stay down here yet? If ya need to you can flop here 'till you've got a place...
Hey Chip! Thanks for the offer man. I think I may head back to the Soviet Arms until I find something longer term. Should only take me a week or so to find a good place. I've just been waiting until I can check them out in person. Well, here's another teaser all. The old pickup is pretty loaded down. Just have to toss a few things in come morning, and I'll be hitting the road. Slow and steady, slow and steady. If any of you guys see me along the way, don't hesitate to flag me down. I'm not nearly as creepy as I look.
Finished loading up this morning and hit the road: Let me say at the beginning here, the first days photos are just driving. I need to get south to get out of the way of a storm that's moving in, so, today was not that entertaining. Just a lot of driving. I saw a bit of vintage steel that I wanted to stop and look at, but, I needed to keep moving. I promise things will get better tomorrow, and Friday though. Here's me in the driveway. A few last shots of the truck loaded up. Pretty darn loaded down. I took the SR20 pass from Concrete over to Winthrop, figured it would be a good initial test. Trial by fire if you will, or in this case steep hills and some snow. Just a little bit of bad road conditions at the top of Rainy Pass. Clear roads, sunshine, and cold on the east side of the mountains. A beautiful day though. I took the following photos (along with MANY more) to show the scenery change on the drive. I may make a bunch of them in to a quick paced slide show later. All the gauges stayed like this all day. I'm pretty happy with the 292. Make that REALLY happy. Heading south towards Wenatchee along the Colombia River Then onward to I-90. That's the first sun I've seen in awhile. HAMMER DOWN. South to the Tri Cities. No photos of the Tri Cities, as I find them.... bland.
Instead here's a photo of the sunset as I was climbing up in to the Blue Mountains leaving Pendleton. Anyone who has ever driven through the Blues knows they are a climb. I was amazed at how well this truck did with its' stock drivetrain, and that load on it. It did surprisingly well on the freeway. Another gear and this thing would be set. Oh yeah, I averaged 15mpg with a 4bbl carb, 3.73 gears, and 30" tires. Not bad. Finally a few shots in the dark. Gotta love the glow of those old gauges. Better headlights than my newer rigs.... More to come... sometime soon.
thats one nice little truck.... looks good not all painted up, glad you kept the 6 in it... everyone has a SBC.. The pics hauling hay are calender quality! nice job!
Cool thread. Makes me have the urge to find an old pickup, clean her up and drive across the country with it. Very inspirational, looks fun.
Great looking truck and photos! Awesome to see another old rig getting used like it should be. Been driving me '64 short fleet every day for 3 years now...little squirely in the winter but nothing some studded tires didn't fix. Glad to see you kept the 6, it looks killer. I was planning on fixing up the 230 in my truck, but a 327 fell into my lap, so I'm gonna go that route.
wow you traveled through some beautiful areas thank you for sharing the photos , and the lil truck seems to do well ,
This morning started in Bliss Idaho. Just south of Bliss I ran across some old steel. A cool old IH wrecker. I really liked the White. Then I dropped in to the Snake River Canyon headed for the Nevada border. The Snake River Canyon drive is a great one. I prefer it over heading over to Twin Falls. This morning was cold, and a storm was definitely moving in. Time to get south. Right around the Nevada state line the sun broke through. This was supposed to be a picture of the "Welcome to Nevada" sign.
Giving my approval for the sunshine. Rolled in to old town Ely about mid day Spotted a couple great pickups in the area..... Good thing I didn't have a trailer. Climbing out of Ely My disapproval of Central Nevada.... If you're coming this way, bring something fast. The entrance to the little valley near Hiko The sun dropped out on me just North of the interstate on Hwy 93
The lights of Las Vegas coming in to sight Cruising the freeway in Vegas out by the speedway Boulder City has a pretty good neon population in the historic district. I should have taken more. If you're in the area, take my word for it, it's worth a look. All tucked in for the night. Tomorrow will be a real short drive, hopefully with much more exploration. I know of one great boneyard in between here and Wittman that I'll try to take a bunch at. Should be a good day.
Have you ever been to Speedweek? I remember meeting sombody from Skagit County on a Honda 70 very much like the one you have in 2011.
Yes, both that ct70 and I were there this year. Just saw that you're a member of the Idlers. My family is part of J.J.s Cruisers.
Fantastic trip mate, My wife and I bought a 71 GMC in LA, CA. back in 2004 and drove it up to Fairbanks Alaska. took us four months round trip, had a ball ! I run a 65 C10 here at home as my work truck, bought it out of the States back in 2000, so sort of know where your at . Have a safe trip brother, your in the right truck. Speed Safely, Martin, Melbourne, Australia.
I got on the h.a.m.b. today to try to find inspiration to get back on my project. I found it. Good stuff man, i'm subscribing. But what's with the cyclops donkey on the hotel nevada?
Sorry for not responding folks, been a lot of driving, and stopping pretty late. Thanks for the well wishes/kind words. I was wondering if anyone would think the CyDonkey was a little funny. Hey John! Yeah, headed down a little earlier this year. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow night at the cruise in or one of these upcoming Thursdays.
Thanks again everyone for tuning in. This is pretty much the end of the trip, but, hopefully will be far from the end of the build thread. Had a nice short drive today. Just made a jaunt down from Boulder City Nevada to Wickenburg Arizona. I'll be headed to Wittman in the morning for the SouthWest Nostalgia Drags, so, the drive will be really short. I'll put some pictures up elsewhere from the Nostalgia Drags. I started the day in Boulder City at the Sands Motel where I got a thorough ass chewing at check out for having an "old oil leaking car". The lady at the counter told me that the old cars cause them problems by leaking oil everywhere on their nice cement. I told her that some of that $60 I gave her for the nights stay should help cover the damage. She got a little snippy with me, so, I had to ask her why she would have a business where she invited people to park their cars in her parking lot. She didn't have much of a response. So, if you have one of those "old oil leaking cars", stay away from The Sands Hotel in Boulder City Nevada. It would be a real shame to stain her cement. Anyways, ONWARD! First on the drive was to cross the new dam bypass and cross in to Nevada. Finally in Nevada! 'Murica! How about some random mural pictures? Yes, that's Harry with a blonde in a bikini MORE 'Murica
Next stop was the fenced off lot south of White Hills AZ. This is just off the road, and it is quite the site. Many of the cars have for sale signs in them, but, the signs are faded, and unreadable, or have obviously blown away. There's business for sale signs all over the place as well. I called every number I could, and the numbers don't work. Some of the locals can probably chime in and tell the real stories behind this place. Whatever the story is, it's full of a wide variety of cool steel, and you can't see the half of it from the fence out front. I was able to stand on the bed rail of my truck to see better, but, there is still so much stuff you can't see. This place always has cars pulled over at it with people jockeying around craning their necks to look through the fence. I'm sure the phone calls have gotten to be a bit much. Either way, I sure would like to get in and walk around.
Last leg south from Kingman to Wickenburg Had my first problem just out side of Wickenburg city limits. Heard a little clang, and then a sputtering exhaust leak. It didn't sound major so, I waited to get to the hotel to check it out. Once I got settled, I found this. My brass nuts backed off, and the clang was the clamp sliding down the exhaust tubing and hitting the glass pack. No brass nuts to be found here in Wickenburg. The leak isn't bad, so, I'll get it handled soon. So, this is where things stand. I'm just over 50 miles out side of Phoenix. I'll have done over 1500 miles by the time I get there. I'll have done the trip in 28 hours of driving and averaged nearly 55 mph. Don't trust the fuel price, that's set up for another vehicle. I spent quite a bit more than that, but, even with a few solid days of head wind I've averaged about 14mpg while being pretty loaded down.
Not much to add recently, other than that I love my truck. I made it to the Southwest Nostalgia Drags, and was by far the dirtiest vehicle in the car show. If you've never been to the Southwest Nostalgia Drags, put it on your list. It is an awesome event put on by an amazing group of people. Other than that the truck is being used almost every single day. Chip Quinn (NeedLouvers?) and I used it to haul a model A rear end not so long back. I was glad to be using the truck to help others get back on the road. It's been hauling furniture for my place. Here's a shot from the Industrial Chassis open house next to Steve's Mercury Pickup and HotRodRon's 5 window Deuce. High honors for an old farm truck to be in such company. And finally here it is at the Thanksgiving Day rod run down to South Mountain Park from Central
Dude! Thanks again for the haul and the help with "endlessearth's" Model "A" rear end. You put in a hell of a day's work for what amounted to gas money and a plate of Pete's shrimp&chips...Thanks!
Bodi, great thread and pics.I have some friends up in Kingman and am waiting on some info about the A-1 yard.We stopped on our way back from SEMA and probably spent a half hour walking around the outside fence and looking at what was there.
Great job so far!! Loved the photos, I felt like I was riding shotgun with you on your trip. I am reading this at work (shhh), so I felt like I had a little vacation too!
Got a little work in on the truck this morning. Managed to squeeze it in despite my hectic schedule. Here I have things torn down in my new "shop" space..... Don't have any jackstands with me, but, I made it work by pulling the spare out of the bed. Improvisation! My dad has always had sheets of plywood in the bed of his trucks. It helps to catch the oil, and other stuff to prevent a steel bed from getting slick. In this case it's helping save the finish of my wood bed, and it makes a damn handy place to work when you don't have a nice cement pad.... another slick trick learned from my dad. Thanks Dad! Here's what I was up to. I didn't have my torches, or any heating implements with me, and it didn't look absolutely critical to have an ultra flat bottom on this spring design, so, I just ground the fresh cuts, and made a little flat spot to sit in the pocket. Got the drivers side done in the morning sun, and on to the passenger side to duck the mid day heat. All buttoned up and "the shop" at the favela is cleaned up. I cut one full coil, and that gave me almost exactly 2" drop. I haven't measured again since driving it, I'm hoping it settled a hair more. It drives a bit stiffer, less rolley poley. I'm planning on doing a block drop in the rear, but, luckily it doesn't look ridiculously raked if I don't get to it for a little bit.
Just added a new little trinket to the pickup today. Something I've been wanting to do for awhile. Never mind the politics of it, and just enjoy it as a neat period piece to match the trucks era.
The Jalopy Journal
