One of the major highlights of building cars is to drive them to interesting places. I am very fortunate to have a group of friends with similar interests, I cant thank them enough for the help, inspiration, support and general hangout time with them. Building cars takes time. During this time is the perfect opportunity to cultivate frienships with people, when you travel with these people it can be either a positive or a negative experience. I, again, am very fortunate with my group of friends that it always turns out to be a positive experience and this post is about those experiences, some partying and some carshow action.
The crew! 8 cars ready to go, Before this picture was taking we were still working on Bretts car, we did a mad thrash and didnt get to bed untill 4:30 AM. Unfortunately, he wasnt comfortable bringing it on the trip and brought his daily driver pick up. We made a valiant effort, we worked on it for a few weeks and made alot of progress. I feell bad that it didnt work out for him.
The beautiful view on the way down, what a drive!
No roadtrip in antique cars would be complete without roadside fixes. Unfortunately for Cassie and Matt their old 331 started developing an excessive amount of blowby that was simlar to the batmobile smoke screen. These old engines do not have a PCV system on them and the blowby leaves to atmosphere through a road draft tube. Matt had the brilliant idea of purchasing some irrigation hose, duct taping it over the road draft tube and running the irrigation tube up, into the air cleaner. Similar to a modern PCV,
BANG! Clear air. They made it all the way to Spokane, but unfortunately the engine met its demise on the way home and spit a connecting rod through the block just outside of Calgary :(.
I had problems too. When we got Matt and Cassie all fixed up steam started coming up the window of the Edsel. I popped the hood and coolant was leaking out. So back to the parking lot. I at first though a frost plug had popped out. So off Lee went to the canadian tire to get a emergency repair plug. CLOSED. So we spent more time trouble shooting. This car does not have the heater hooked up. the heater core leaked and I spent more time concentrating on the paint than fixing the minor things. The by pass for the heater connections sprung a pinhole. I still had the heater hoses connected on the heater side so a short legth was cut and a new bypass was installed. 15 minutes and back on the road.
We drove untill very early in the morning. We stopped at a small town just accross the border with a casino, Bonners Ferry. The rates were reasonable $50 a night in brand new rooms. I slept very well. With a great breakfast in the Casino and a quick wipe and detail of the cars, we werre off again!
Just down the road from Bonners Ferry was a really interestig scrap yard. I couldnt believe the things in it, you dont see this in Canada.
A chopped 4 doorr shoebox Ford, What are you kidding!?!?!?!
A race car 53 Chev
An unknown Ford hood with scoops for strombergs or holley 94s. Cand someone ID this?
A Reo industrial truck, I have never seen one of these before. This was the company the dude that stated Oldsmobile made after he left Chevrolet, apparently on bad terms.......
The intake manifold reading, REO Gold Comet Power. There was a giant zenith Carb on this engine.
A really interesting boat speedometer, would look really cool in a hot rod!
We Drove to Spokane and went to our hotel rooms. After everyone was settled we met up and went on a little mini cruise to an italian restaurant and ate delicious pizza and drank locally crafted beer. After supper we went back to the hotel and drank a few more beer and went to bed. I woke up early in the morning to drive to Sandpoint, which is a 45 minute to hour long drive, to go to the lost in the 50s car show. It rained the whole way there....
Fortunately I brought my wool car club jacket. I was surprised how organised the show was. there was more than 500 cars, the streets were supervised and roadblocked. I had my paperwork and $40 ready, the first entrance I went to the nice man took my money and directed me to the next opening, who directed me to the next opening, who then sent me to the next opening who then sent me to the guy guiding people in where they wanted them to display and in less than 15 minutes I was parked!!! Jood job guys!
After I wiped down my car i was getting the hunger on and eeded to find a place to eat, STAT!!! At the end of the street was an old school diner (I wish I could remember the name) that was in Sandpoint since the 40's. Despite the slow service, moslty because the occupancy was reaching fire marshall shut down levels, the food was excellent and the portions were huge! After I decided to go back to my car for another quick wipe and walk around the show.
A convetible Pontiac, I have never seen one of these before now!
Pretty cool!
This is where I was set up, not on the main street, but still a nice spot!
A chevrolet cabover pick up???? WHA? I have never seen one of these before, I have only seen Dodge and Ford ones!!!!
One of the many streets, So many people, so many cars!!!!
Beautiful arcitecture
A 1940's cowboy Harley, Complete with a real Carbine. While I was admiring this bike an old grey beard chatted the owner up,
Grey beard, "is that a 30-30 in the scabbard?"
Owner, "No, its a 44 mag."
Grey beard, "I carry a 30-30 on mine, right on the front forks. You never know when you'll need a rifle."
Owner, "Correct sir, absolutely right."
Being a naive Canadian boy, I was absolutely astonidshed by this conversation! Wow, really!?!?! What kind of trouble are these people that they need to carry guns on their bikes? I guess maybe they just like guns....
And Bar-B-Que! May as well combine the two! YEEEHAAAAAWWWW!!!!
When I got tired of the car show, I started moseying around town. I went to a really cool antique store.
They sell Zombie babies there!
Looky here, MORE GUN STUFF!!!
Wandering the town I found this really cool alley.
Batman!!!!!!!
The first engine I rebuilt, when I was 12, was on a mini bike very similar to this one. I still have it tucked away somewhere.
Very nice glass roof Crown Vic
I had a huge car boner for this Cadillac Sedanette. I love Fleetlines but a cadillac is CRAZINESS!!!
A little bit of gasser madness.
The smallest bar in the world! I cant remember the name of this bar in Spokane but it was about 500 square feet. It had the best juke box in the world, as a group we put over $50 into it and had a freakin blast!!!!
Noted
My friends are cool dudes and dudettes. We were invited to a party where some of Thee Inland Emporers were hanging out. When we showed up Thee Inland Emporer guys pulled their cars off the lawn for us to park there. We were very welcomed and there were people yelling, "the Canadians are here!' And, "I wanna meet them!"
The party can best be described as one out of a movie. Punk rock was pulsating from the garage, people were drinking moonshine, there was a yard hearth and a huge fire, cool old cars, nice people. I was impressed they could have bands. Apparently there are no noise ordinances in Spokane and we partied untill the early morning jmming to punk rock!!!
The next morning we went for breakfast. We met a group that was staying at a different hotel. This is called the milk jug for obvious reasons and is a land mark of Spokane. Right beside it, which is where we ate is Fergusons, that has been there for about 60 years. My food was delishious, and had a nice homey feel to it. It also looked like a setting in a film noire. I expected to see Humphery Bogart Smoking a cigarette wearing a trench coat and a chrome snub nosed 38 boking out of the shoulder holster.
The view from the milk jug. Mine and Pauls cars.
Josh from Thee Inland Emporers was kind enough to open up his totally sweet shop for us.
The basement was filled with really cool vintage bikes, The upstairs was filled with records, hard to get magazines, old arcade games and toys from my childhood, I loved it!
The one and only Bob Grant chillin' on his T-bird outside of timebomb.
The scene accross the road, a line up of lowriders in fron of the bail bonds store.......
A really cool brick building we parked in front of on our way to another super good supper!!!
Some more cool arcitecture in spokane.
Getting ready to cruise Spokane!
Entering Cour D'lane on the way back to Canada
The group chattin'
Pegasus scrap yard, I love you!!!
Graham flapping from excitement, I think he would have bought the entire store!!!
DAYUM!!!!!
Yes, this was being parted out, I shoulda stripped this thing, but the Edsel has limited carrying capacity.
Sweet! I like candy!
64 valiant Barracuda, pristine giant rear window!!!!
Another gasser chevy!!! WTF!!!!
Piles and Piles of perfect bumpers
Note the quarters and rockers on this lincoln
Chrysler Imperial
Hudson Terraplane grill shell
Mint Pontiac Sombreros
I wanted to look under the hood of this car so bad! But the owner of the yard said we couldnt open the hoods, I guess its all to the imagination now.... I really wanted some vintage or rare speed parts.....
On the way back, there were no more signifigant problems. Just a minor boiling of the carb justpast the border from idling for a long time. We removed the air cleaner and let it sit for about 40 minutes, primed the carb and we were ready to go.
At least untill we came accross this..... I don't know how this happened, but the frame is hung up and one wheel is on the approach. There was an open rear end in this mustang so he was stuck! With a little shoreing of the wheel and a little pull with Bretts pickup he was free and we drove the rest of the way to Calgary with no problems!
What a good time! I cant wait untill the next one!!!!!
