Going on a little road trip.

Tomorrow morning I am leaving to drive up to the Atlanta Ga area to meet with one of our members who is building a '46 Ford coupe. He is tricking it out with Chris Alston suspension, a 9 inch rear, and a turbocharged Chevy engine. The reason I am going is because I am getting all of his left over parts, like flathead, transmission, banjo rear, torque tube, front axle, brakes, etc. Pretty much everything but the frame. :D

We started talking about this way back in February and he has now gotten the car into the shop that is doing the suspension work, and has stripped all the unneeded parts off. He has proven to be a super nice guy and a true hot rodder who wasn't out to get rich off of the parts, just wanted to see another hot rodder on a budget benefit. We talked on the phone today for a long time, and it was as if I had known him for years. Rodders are really special people.

So, I am heading to the shop to pick up my utility trailer and some tools, and tomorrow am I will start out. It is 600 miles each way, and now that gas prices have dropped a little some of the sting of getting there and back will be out of the trip.

I'll be sure to take my camera and take lots of pictures of his '46 project and some of the other cars in the shop. He tells me they are very impressive and the shop does top notch work.

Plans for all of Pau'ls "cast offs' are to have Dan and I whip up a frame and build a little modified using Dan's old roadster pickup body. I haven't had a flathead powered car in years, so this will kind of nice to do. It will be a low buck, build what you need car, and I have already found one that I like a lot and will try to copy. I won't be getting started on this one till at least the Dodge is done, but with all the parts I am scoring from Paul I will have a good start when I do.

I did a few things to my Crown Vic to try to squeeze some better gas milage out of it for the trip, like inflating the tires a little more and substituting Mobil 1 synthetic oil. It isn't bad on the highway, but not sure what the trailer will do to the milage............especially loaded on the way home. :D

Here is the car that I want to pattern mine after when I get to it.

Don

I wonder if you can do it for around $3000.00..........No I think some one tried that already.
BradC

Well, be careful don't get any tickets and be home early :D
Papa Ken

Hey, YOU'RE BACK!!! :D :D Welcome back to the non-vacation world. Did everyone have a nice time?

Don

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BradC

I wonder if you can do it for around $3000.00..........No I think some one tried that already.
BradC

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Hehe, on this one I just might make it. :LOL: All I have to do is keep getting handmedowns and stuff I can get deals on. So far I have a free body and some very inexpensive parts, thanks to Paul. :)

Might have a chance to redeem myself here.:p

Don

We had a real nice time, I'm just not to good at relaxing. So after a week I'm ready to go, I miss my garage :D .
Ken

I bet 99 % of us guys are just like that. Only thing worse than going on vacation and relaxing is sitting in that stupid chair they put in the womens section so you can sit there and wait while they try on a hundred outfits. :( Every time I had to do that I would see some other poor schmo like me, sitting there bored out of his mind too. :LOL: :LOL:

Glad to see you back. :)

Don

Don,
The new project looks interesting, do you know what you are going to do for a frame?
Ken

Yep, we have two sticks of 2 x 3 x 3/16 tubing laying around, and I plan on using that. I will find a model a rear crossmember and do it just like I did my '23. I probably will also use a Total Performance front tube crossmember and perch, because for something like $ 75 you can't beat it, and it is a hard to find diameter.

BTW "Papa Ken", I need a raise in my allowance.;) :LOL: :LOL:

Don

Oh good, I was hoping you would build it. I have a extra model A rear cross member, but I want a lot for it. Let me know if you are interested :LOL:
Ken

Do you really? If so, when I do get started on it I'd like to talk with you about it. (and YES, they are worth "a lot" whatever the price is, I would be happy to pay that amount. (My best imitation of Arnie in "Christine" when he was telling the old guy he wasn't asking enough for the car. :LOL: )

Don

Im sure your headed up 75, but if for some reason you get by jville give me a call. Or if you need help on this side of the state.

O.K. just let me know, you know how unreasonable I can be :LOL: I was thinking I would give it to you but you would have to pick it up. :D I'll bet we could shoot the bull for days :LOL:
Ken

Thanks for the offer John, yep, heading straight up 75, but I do appreciate the thought.

Ken, I think you are right..........we could probably spend some time talking. I hope you visit down here sometime, Dan and Don would love to meet you too. You and Dan seem to have the same attitude toward how things have to be done perfectly and I bet you two would have a lot in common.

Don

I'm looking forward to it!
Ken

What will the new project be called? Project 3k was very catchy! Pretty soon you guys are going to have to get another garage for all the hot rods! Glad to hear of members helping members out, whether by inexpensive parts or just friendly advice. Have a safe trip Don.
Ken glad to hear your back. Looking foward to some updates on your threads, while I slowly inch foward on mine!:eek:
Seriously, Monday I'm starting on the rear end switch. Have never done that before, but it looks pretty simple(famous last words!:LOL: )

Well guys....... Don arrived at my house this morning & we "toured" my garage.... a bit messy & I refused to let Don take pix (top secret stuff inside) so..... we were off to Sheppard Race Cars to load all of the donor parts onto Don's trailer. (Which I will let him post those pix).

For all that have meet Don you already know this - this guy is a hot rodders hot rodder!

Like Don said I could have sold these parts a few times between when it actually got into the shop & when it arriived at the shop. But.... I'd seen Don & his son, Dan's, work & figured these two would put my cast off parts to good use.

After all the hard work Don insisted that he buy lunch (thanks Don!!) and we B.S.'d for a while. It was if I'd known him for years & we'd just not seen each other for a while.

We rechecked the packed trl. of"scored" items & he followed me to the on ramp towards Fla.

I don't think a better gentleman could have gotton these pieces & I know they will not go to waste.

I'm sure Don will have some progress story by the time I meet up with him at the TRR in November.

I'm sure Don will update us on the trip back in a day or two.

Ratty 46 aka/ Regs

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!! :D And am I beat!! 1200 miles in two days is further than I thought it would be. But thank God, the entire trip went well, no mechanical problems with my old Ford, or the trailer, which probably had 1500 pounds of '46 Ford on it.

Thanks Paul for the nice words, and I really have to say at least that much about how much I enjoyed meeting you and your beautiful Wife Donna. I really wish I could have stayed longer, but I had the long trip home facing me, so I had to get going. We will make up for it at Daytona. There are a bunch of people you know from the forums, like Gastrick, Hotroddaddy, JRobinson, and others, so we will all have to get together up there and swap some lies.

It has been one long day. I got up at 7:30 Sunday morning and just got home at 2:30 am Monday. I'm heading for 20 hours of being awake, but I think I am too tired to sleep.

As Paul mentioned, we got to tour the race shop that is doing his suspension work on the '46 coupe. From the work I saw on other cars in the shop, Paul is going to have one fantastic hot rod..............and turbocharged to boot.:D The car came from Kansas, and is as solid as they come. With the Alston stuff Paul is going to put under it, and discs all the way around, it will be a wolf in sheeps clothing. :)
I got to meet Jerry, one of his friends who works at the shop, and he went to lunch with us. As far as me paying for lunch, it was the VERY least I could do. Paul and Jerry gave up their Sunday to help load my trailer. Paul had some ideas how to pack it tight and tie it down, and it worked. Not one thing moved in the entire 630 miles coming home...........not one inch!!

I didn't know it, but Paul is involved with fabricating some motorcycle parts. I mentioned to him the Ken Thurm also has a company that builds bike parts. Paul showed me some of his parts that he tigged.............top notch all the way.

Well, before I fall asleep I better get some pictures posted. The first one is the sign on the shop where Pauls car is located, and then there are some pictures of his coupe (now all naked and missing lots of parts that are now living in Florida! :) ) Last picture is Paul and Jerry, that's Paul on the right.

Don

Here are some cars in the shop. The quality of their work is fantastic. When you see how pros do it you really realize what a hack you are.

Don

And this little baby is a Cadillac something or other (I don't know one new car from another :o ) , but it is a 2005, and the tab for them to do it is $180,000.00!!!!:eek: And that doesn't include the motor. Must be a lot of money in Georgia. :)

Don

And finally, here is my trailer, all loaded and ready to make the trip. Do you think we have enough straps on it??

Thanks again Paul for the nice time, and for spending your Saturday tearing all the stuff off of your car, and Sunday packing it all up. I really appreciate it.

BTW, everytime I stopped for gas people were asking me what the heck that stuff was on my trailer!! :LOL: :LOL:

Don

Don wow lots of old goodies . Even though you have tied it down like Gulliver , I would have rented a U-haul with sides . My nerves would have rattled all the way home . I do that though no matter what i haul .

I just woke up, and feel like a train hit me Bobby.:D The trip was pretty good, but had it's moments. For example, going up I was getting torrential rain most of the way from the tail end of Hurricane Fay. There were places on I 75 where everyone was going 35 mph with their flashers on.

Kind of a funny thing now that I think about it (but not funny at the time) I was driving along with rain so thick you couldn't see the car in front of you. All of a sudden the National Weather Service came on the radio with that loud alarm and advised that 8 toronados were traveling at 35 mph near Lake City Florida. Two seconds later I see a road sign and it reads "Lake City Exit?!!!!!!!!!! Never saw one, but I fought headwinds all the way up.

Then coming back it was white knuckle time most of the way because of the heavy load on the trailer, and my Ford is not used to hills, and Georgia has lots of hills. For the first 400 miles I didn't go over 55 mph, then when I got into flatter Florida I was able to get up to 60-65. I still stopped every hundred miles or so to check the load, but Paul tied her down so good it never budged the whole trip. Somehow we also got the front to rear weight ratio right on the money, the trailer tracked perfect over all kinds of road surfaces.

One last thing. I was thinking I was going to have to clean a spot in the shop when I got home so I could put the loaded trailer inside, but Dan went over Sunday when he got home and cleaned it and moved the two roadsters up so all I had to do was back in and unhitch. I really appreciated that after driving for 12 hours. Tonight we can go over and survey our new stuff. :D

Don

Don,
Wow, you are going to need a bigger shop :LOL: How are you going to keep yourself from at least mocking up your new build?
Sounds like you got pretty beat up with the weather, that must of been ugly.
Glad you made it safe, nice stuff.
Ken

Hello Don,

Glad you made it home without incident.

Again - I was MY pleasure & anytime your up my way.....please stop in.

Paul

Thanks Ken, yep, I did a lot of praying on the way back, and I'm not super religious. My knuckles were white most of the way because of all the weight on that little trailer of mine. You are right about me wanting to mock up the new parts. :LOL: Tonight Dan and I are going to go over and look at all we have. Paul fixed me up good on this one, that's for sure.

Paul, thanks again for one of the nicest weekends I have had. I really appreciate you taking your Saturday and Sunday to make this happen for me. When I get the car built from your parts I might even let you sit in it. :LOL: :LOL: I owe you one Bud.:)

Don

Drat!!! I just got a phone call. My friend who I worked with at the marina called and offered me a job, so now I start back to work Wednesday. :) The marine business is still slow, so he can only offer me part time right now, which is ok. There is another situation I am really holding out for and that excites me more, but that might not happen for a little while, so this will at least put food on the table and chrome parts on the car in the meantime.:)

Vacation is over.

Don

Good score Don. Glad you made it through the heavy weather. I know the feeling of those radio alerts and realizing your there! We drove through several tornados in Arkansas that had me feeling pretty religious too! Nice load of parts, looks like a fun shop to visit. Those engines in the photos look very zooped up! Also congrats on the part time work! In this economy every penny helps! Nice of Dan to clean a space for you, after the white knuckle drive, you probably just wanted to crawl into bed!

Yep Steve, Dan took care of the old man on that one, I was dreading having to move stuff around when I got home. He did something else pretty cool too. When I was about 2 hours underway toward Georgia he called me and told me to look under the armrest of my car seat. He had stuck an envelope in there with $400 in it because he was afraid I was short on money and might need it in case of an emergency. Of course I chewed him out and told him he would get it back as soon as I got home, but the thought was really nice on his part. He and Don look out for me pretty well, I gotta say.

Haha, Dan just called me with a funny story. You know that stray cat we feed at the shop? Well it always amazed me that he could eat so much. I would put out a big sized can of food plus a dish of dry food, and he would eat it all and still eat one more can of food per night. I figured he was just storing it up in case he didn't eat the next night.

Well, last night Dan stopped and bought 6 cans of food because we were out, and when he went to feed the cat there were TWO identical black cats sitting there!! :eek: Evidently, we have been feeding two of them but only seeing one at a time.:LOL: I also couldn't figure out their behavior, because one time the cat would come within 3 feet of me, or come in the shop, and the next time he would run like he was scared to death of me. Now I know why.

Dan said the little pigs ate 5 cans of food and lots of dry food too.:LOL: I'm going to have to claim them as dependents if this keeps up.

Don