didn't do the plane thing, but a couple of bus trips netted me a good time. In 61 I was stationed in Albany Ga, needed a car so went back to an area I knew, Selma Al. There was a 54 olds hardtop on the lot B&S auto parts. Paid 150 picked the best tires and away I drove. 3 miles from home I lost a rear tread, made it home ok. Next was in 01 with an O/T car in Arizona. I had the hi bid. Told the wife I was going to az. Got on the bus with basic tools in my kit bag. 2 days later I was there. drove the car, paid the man and had a really enjoyable trip back, no problems. Lots of snow, and no radio.
Had some teens buy a '59 Ford 4dr Towne Sedan from me off of C/L. I listed it as "a lot driver" and these screwballs flew in to St Louis and prepared to drive this sucker home to Chicago! I asked them when they got here how they were gonna take the extra parts with them (I had rust free replacement 1/4s, trunk floor and new rockers) and they said they didn't want them after trying to jam them into the pristine interior. They took the rockers 'cause they could stick out the window. I told them not to trust the car for such a long road trip, but they didn't seem to care. I told them not to call me for anything.....EVER! They left and I never saw or heard from them again. I don't know how far they made it. That was a few years ago....Maybe it's one of you guys?
Not much of a story, but it's my only "fly in, drive it home" experience; Let me start out by saying that I'm an idiot. So about 17 years ago, I bought a perfect '63 split-window Vette from out in Colorado. Of course it was winter. Flew in and finalized the deal. No insurance, no license plates, no brains. The owner didn't want me to drive it away knowing all this. But I managed to, lol. Drove it all the way home to NY through snowstorms from Colorado to NY. At the motel on my only overnight stop, I tied a string from the bumper, and ran it through the door into my room and tied it to my big toe.......that was my "security" system. LOL. I made it home in 1 piece, as well as the car. Good times!
This is great - well told, & more like reality than the other "I dunno - it sat for years, and I turned the key and drove it 2000 miles...": tall tales. Come one...and even if so...how? Those don't make any sense. What about old oil? Old gummy gas ruining sticking the lifters, etc.? carb? brakes? rusted solid water pumps?
OK, here's mine. I found a '36 3-window in the classifieds in the Early Ford V8 club magazine about 20 years ago. It was a completed restoration, but had a lot of incorrect parts (e.g. '34 engine), but that was OK, because I was going to put in a modified later flathead, etc., etc., etc. Made the proper arrangements, and bought a one-way ticket from Minneapolis to Dallas. I was going to rent a car in Dallas and drive to Longville where the car was. Everything was going fine until I got to the rental car counter. The clerk took one look at my DL and told me it was expired. My birthday was the 19th of June and this was on about the 27th or 28th; I had completely forgotten about it. After a little quick thinking, I explained to her that in Minnesota, if you renewed your license before it expired, you had a 30 day "grace period" after the date of expiration to receive your new one, and that during that period, your old license was still valid. This was a complete fabrication, but the clerk bought it. I got the rental car and got to Longville about 6 PM, went to the owners house, inspected the car, (it looked real nice, but it was a "put together" car), which was all right with me, so I made the deal. The next day, we finalized all of the paper work, and I took off. The car still had the Texas antique plates on it, which seemed to be OK. After I drove about 50 miles, the car started running sour, missing and bucking etc. I stopped and filled it up with gas, and added some diesel fuel, because I had heard it would help stop vapor lock, which I thought was my problem. I took off, and everything was great for about the next one hundred miles, when it started running rough again. Stopped, bought some tools and continued on. That afternoon, I got into Oklahoma and started north on the turnpike; (Indian Nation or something like that, I believe). More problems; running rough to the point it quit on me. Sitting on the side of the road, a couple of local boys stopped to see what was wrong, I told them what it was doing, and they figured that maybe I was out of gas. They had a 5 gallon of two-cycle mix which I bought from them. We put it in the tank, and the car started right up and ran, so I took of again. Twenty miles down the road, it happened again. This time an Oklahoma state trooper stopped to help. I explained what was going on, and he decided it was probably out of gas again. The patrol cars in Oklahoma have a unique feature; they have a "tee" between the fuel pump and the carburetor, with a valve and a coiled up hose. All they have to do is let the car idle, open the valve, and they can give you a gallon or two to get you going. He did this, but the car still wouldn't start. On a whim, I disconnected the flex line on the firewall, and asked him to listen at the gas filler while I blew into the line. At first, I couldn't get any thing through, but all of a sudden, something let go, and he said "Hey! I can hear bubbles!". I tried to start it again, and after some cranking, it started right up. After that, It was obvious that some thing was floating around in the gas tank that would drift around and clog the pickup after a while. I thanked him, and took off again. It was now about 4 or 5 PM, and it was getting hotter every minute. I got to Muskogee and the Bank thermometer read 104. The oil pressure gauge was showing 10 lbs, so I stopped at a service station and talked them into changing my oil to 10-40. They were about to close, but did it when I explained my plight and said I would buy a full tank of gas. I took off again, and got to the Kansas border before dark and decided to try to make it to Pittsburg (Kansas, that is) by dark. Well I missed that one, so here I am, driving in Kansas as night falls. I was trying to keep track of my oil pressure, but after dark, it was apparent that the light in the gauge wasn't working. In an attempt to see the gauge, I reached up and turned on the dome light. Poof! There goes the single 30 amp fuse for the entire lighting circuit. Now it's after dark and I have no lights. So I tuck myself in behind a semi and make the last 30 miles to Pittsburg. I find a motel and get a room. It's Friday night in Pittsburg and, of all things, it was cruise night. I parked the '36 on the street and watched all of the cars go by and talked to a bunch of nice people. The next morning, I bought a box of 30 amp fuses and take off. I made it to Kansas City and decided I should gas up again. I pull off the freeway and go to the nearest gas station and fill up and check the oil, adding a quart. While I'm doing this, I start looking around and realize that I'm probably in the absolute worst part of town. Had to pay through a 2 inch thick window with bars on it. I beat a hasty retreat, and am soon back on the freeway headed for Iowa. I start smelling oil and see some smoke. I pull over on the freeway, and lo and behold, in my hurry, I left my oil filler cap at the station in Kansas City. I stuffed a rag into the filler and proceeded onward. I stopped at the next station and topped off the oil and bought a couple of extra quarts. All during this, the car would stall out every 100 or so miles. By now, i had figured out the solution was to disconnect the flex line and blow back through the line to the tank to clear the blockage. After doing this a few times, I realized that whatever was in the tank was probably floating in the tank, because it never happened if I had more than a half a tank of gas. From that point on, I made it a point to stop for gas every 80 or so miles, and never experienced the problem the rest of the way home. I got back to Minnesota about 6 PM that same night. All of those troubles, and I still made it from Longville, Texas to Prior Lake, Minnesota in two days. Remarkable, I ended up putting in a "3/4 race" '50 Merc, a rebuilt '39 toploader, hydraulic brakes, and 4.11 gears. I now had the ultimate car I had lusted after for 40 years. Alas, it was not to be; the Merc had enough power to break any part of the drive train at will, but the worst part was that the car was so small inside, I was always cramped up when I drove it. It was very uncomfortable for anything but short trips. I sold it later to a local guy for about what I had in it. I heard later that it went to New Zealand for $45,000 US. The gas tank problem? I was going to fix it, but after I got it home, it never reared it's ugly head again. Never again did I have a problem, no matter how low on gas I ran it. Whatever was in there probably dissolved. Sorry to be so long winded, but after I saw how long this was going to be, I decided I'd finish it so I can print it out and add it to the albumn of photos I have of the car.
Guy flew in, vehicle that was "ready to go" had no glass, bad engine and on blocks, seller was beat bad, sucker ended up in jail.. Diabetes complications killed a-hole before legal actions completed. Karma strikes again.
this post caught my eye when i flew to LA years ago to get my Hawk i figured i better pack a bag with tools and every other thing i could think of I went to a garage sale found a Samsonite rolling suitcase for One Dollar my wife said i'm not using that thing, i said don't worry i bought it for my trip i'm not going to carry all the stuff through the airport i'll roll it So i loaded up the suitcase worked like a charm, when i checked it in i told the gal it has tools and lots of heavy stuff it weighed in at 70 pounds it was duct taped around both locks never had a problem If i would of had to do this in present day airport security i would of been up against the wall with the swat team pointing there weapons at me I have wire flashing warning lights with batteries & magnetic tail lights with a 20 foot cord plus all kind of tools and baling wire and a roll of duct tape your post brought back that memory
traded a bike for a truck with a HAMB er got there and everyting is a go on both ends, he tells me is got someting loose on front end head out on interstate and i shook the bejesus out of wheel if it took off got to buffalo NY and the lower a arm fell off and was draggin on roadway u bolt broke and it was still attached in one end called home and got referals and first one was non mechanical and a dud he sent me to a guy that called me and he really had the info on where to get stuff , so i could get all the parts i needed i fixed it in the motel lot bought tools at HF and this guy is a current poster on the HAMB had to have the U bolts made in truck shops and bought new wheel bearings did not get the toe too close but snow and slush coming down when working on it, bought a lot of parts bolts washers at the Home Depot got to think outside the box all was well then then hit a big snowstorm after getting rolling, had the breakdown over a weekend then got to Wisconsin and the truck had no heater and almost froze to death going to Northern MN had 17 in wheels and went through a lot of snow and slush after Chicago had another snow storm I am a little leary on driving any more home the Duramax and trailer seem to be cheeper and warmer
I bought an old Vista Cruiser wagon for $100 a few years ago and sold it quick on ebay for a decent profit. The guy who bought it flew his kid in and the kid drove it from Phoenix to LA with no problems. I saw it a few months later at Pomona and the kid had it cleaned up pretty well and threw some nice wheels on it and was asking $2500 for it.......Then I was pissed I sold it cuz it looked cool.
I just bought a truck in LA and have everything set up to recive it and drive it to Florida in april , planned stop in Viva Las Vegas and Lone Star Round Up ....... Wold like to hear what kind of trouble I will run in to running a fenderless hot rod thrugh our lovley country , west to east coast ..... Will post the roadtrip here ehen we get going . Also , this is the truck .....
Flying to Minneapolis on the 17th to pick up my new wagon. A buddy and I are going to attempt to drive back. Supposed to be able to make the trip no problem. We will see.
We did it the other way around. Loaded the finkosel up in a truck, Drove from Montana to Detroit for Autorama 08 , sold the finkosel and flew home empty handed. We took a cheap toolkit with us to set up at autorama, and just left it there. It was the trip of a lifetime!
The Jalopy Journal
