As I mentioned in my build thread, I was rapidly approaching tear down time to get my car ready for repaint, and although I had many local drives around town, I had not taken it out for a long distance cruise. I was really getting antsy to get that long drive going. Once I got it apart for paint, I figured 6 weeks or so of down time, so I put my door glass back in, door handles back on and hit the road.
Back in March I had to cancel a cruise I had planned with '57 Imposter. Doug was coming to my house in Amarillo, and we were going to head out for Oklahoma for a few days with both the cars and wives. Then my accident, and worse, at that time, not knowing what the mechanical issues were, and Doug already on his way, I had to cancel. That was a real bummer for me, and I'm sure Doug as well.
Anyway, I did most of the trip Thursday and Friday that I was thinking about in March. Would have been cool seeing a yellow '57/'58 in my rear view mirror following along, or visa versa, and the wife along. This trip was alone, BUT IT WAS AWESOME!!. Car ran flawlessly for about 800 miles, got about 26 MPG with the A/C on all the time. Lots of hiway miles, but also lots of country roads that were hilly and somewhat curvy. Saw lots of beautiful country, got lots of thumbs ups....although those are noticeably down since 1/2 my car is primered and has that rat-rod look, lol. At one point on I 40, I saw this SUV coming up behind me pretty quick, then never passed. After a minute, I looked over to my left and they were riding along side of me, the woman in the passenger seat filming me with a video camera!
COOL!!!!!!
sounds like a nice trip you had.26 mpg,hope my wagon can get close to that
Awesome!
Great!!! Nothing better then a car that actually gets used on the road..
Nice, very nice! Now you know all those bad words and set backs were worth it!
Happy days. Had a day very similar recently.
57ford....I'm curious about what a similar road trip in England would be like. I've never been there, but I have this quaint image in my head of what rural England would be like, and although it's probably far from the truth of what modern day English highways are like, I imagine it would take a looooong time to put 800 miles on the speedometer? Got any pics of your trip? One of the guys on the Hamb 52-59 Ford forum I'm on recently posted some pics of his maiden voyage with a '53 2 dr wagon....enjoyed seeing his in front of an old castle in the country.
95* today, but I had to wash the car today. I think I've got a new name for my car....seems appropriate..."THE BUG COLLECTOR". I actually only got my camera out a few times...I'll post a pic of it later. I got one in the gas station in Shamrock that is a tall tower Conoco restored to it's 40's Route 66 glory days. Also got one in front of the Route66 museum in Elk City, OK.
That's great gas mileage. I assume that you have the body work all done? A picture of it before you paint it would be nice. You know how we like pictures.
Jay...yep, all the major dents and wrinkles are out. Still have some blocking to do in those areas though, but I think one final blocking should take care of things. I'll get pics posted in build thread as I move along with it.
A few pics I took last Thursday. First pic in in Shamrock, Tx...an old rt66 stop, first town in Texas for those headed west. Of course it is now a stop on I40.
Nice Rich, I love the old gas station. I've only traveled 66 through California and part of Arizona. Most of the California portion east of Barstow sucks, it's not maintained at all, Arizona is much better and I assume Texas is too..
Route 66 stuff in Texas is almost non existent quite frankly. To begin with, there's only a handful of towns along I40 which has replaced 66. I live a few blocks from the Amarillo historic district which is about 3/4 of a mile long. Lots of old buildings, but few of them restored....and nothing as classic as the gas station in Shamrock. A few bars and restaraunts in old 50's type gas stations and lots of trinket shops. New Mexico has promoted the rt66 theme a lot, and I have yet to do much 66 stuff in Arizona as many times as I'm in that area.
Good to hear you've finally got some proper miles under the tires at last and 26mpg is brilliant!
Rich
Thanks for the pictures from what I do see, it looks real nice. You must be real happy that you have it back to the condition that it's in right now. Jay
Thanks Jay...The pics above were taken to hide as much of the stuff going on as posible....only took a few pics on that drive,and intentionally, none were of the driver's side. all the shiney stuff you see in the above pics is going to be scuffed for repaint pretty soon. In contrast....the driver's side I posted on my build thread....
Outstanding sir! I imagine you couldnt be happier with your cars' performance. I had a little business in Albuquerque in October of '14. It has a nice Rt.66 strip. The only other picture I have has a '57 Chevy in it!
Good for you Mr. Muise :) Man, that must be something to see, awesome job Sir. Yeah, you gotta be careful out there, people always taking pictures... Make sure you don't get too frisky or you'll end up on the you tube. (appologies to the wife in advance). LOL You sure got a nice car there.
One of these trips to Albuquerque, I'm gonna do the rt66 thing there. I've been on portions of it east of Alb., but not in the downtown area.
Speaking of road trips....Alan from New Zealand just called. They are in Memphis (so I finally figured out he was saying, lol) and will be here Wednesday. I've been blocking my '57, but haven't taken it apart yet, so if he's got time I can take them in it to the local hot rod musuem here in town.
Just saw your post, Lucky....thanks. At my age, I'm too old to get too carried away, and I'm always flattered that someone wants to take a pic of my car. I just gives lots of waves and smiles.
Alan got here this morning as planned, and I got to tool him around town abit in my '57. We went to my friend's sspeed shop just a few blocks from my house where I found out he (Alan) was looking for a mid 60's Unibody pickup. My friend gave us a few leads so we drove around for a while looking at some of the old tin in my area. Unfortunatly, I found out the one my friend was refering to was not owned by the Charlie I thought he was talking about, but another Charlie who had a storage lot just a block away from where we were.
We then went over to Bill's Backyard Classics and drooled over their 168 cars on display. Then back to my yard where Alan, his son and friend got into their rental mini van and followed me to the Cadillac Ranch. His boys had a hell of a time climbing all over those cars and spray painting NEW ZEALANd on them (putting your John Hancock on these cars is encouraged....really!!).
From there they headed west on I40 with Albuquerque as their tonight's destination.
Alan had a bagfull of gifts for me and Connie from New Zealand...and two awesome 57 Fords International pins sent to me from Tom Drummond!! Thanks for thinking of me, Tom...they are really neat and really appreciated. I also got the y-block Ford badge...stuck a magnet on it and put it on my toolbox! Thanks again Tom.
:unitedstates:Congratulations..Arent these 1957 Fords fun.I just had my leaky radiator recored wednesday.It is reinstalled .I replaced the wires,plugs and points.(points are at 19 degrees so ill reset them in a while.Its raining in Cleveland this morning.
rich muise your car is first class. enjoy the day............racton
Got my second long cruise done, lol!! 600 mile round trip.....went to Santa Fe to do a 4th of July car show. Drove in Sunday as the cars were suppose to be there starting at 5am, no later than 7 if you wanted to enter your car. The show was held on a closed off street that runs of the old square / downtown art area. It's an annual July 4th event that the car show is just part of. It is a huge pancake breakfast and art/crafts show and sale. I'll bet at any one time there were 20,000 people in the area. I absolutly loved it....best show I've been to in 10 years as far as the setting and the quantity and quality of the attending crowds. I was absolutly amazed at how many people were seriously looking at the cars, and in particular how many women were taking more than casual looks at the engine compartments.
I was answering so many questions about my car, my voice was almost gone by 10am. I had people standing and waiting for me to get done with others!
I was parked between a 47 Packard owned by a man who was obviously a member of the Santa Fe establishment and a high dollar flawless 55 chev. Both of those guys got alot of well deserved attention, but almost always it was a good look, then maybe just a thumbs up to the owners. My car I think people saw as different. Many didn't know what it was, and most (even the hot roders) didn't have a clue what the engine was. I was getting so many compliments and so many wanting to know about the car' I really was overwhelmed. LOL, one guy, about 50ish, came up to me with a serious look on his face and said, "man, I gotta tell you I don't like your car......
I loooooove your car!!....what is it?"
No rat rods at the show...except mine, and I never saw any regulations about what was allowed and what was not. Mine was the only one being a project in the works. Anyway, I had a great time, this will always be on my to-do list.
The first three pics above were at 6 am. These two were what the crowds were like after about 8 or so. And a few OT cars I liked....sorry, I didn't get a pic of the 55 Chev next to me.
The Citroen is kinda interesting because it is a 1957 also! Talk about being behind the times in modern design. I like it. The closeup is a Dodge pickup.
Also...last week Allan was here from New Zealand.....I caught him and his son Louie, and friend Ben spray painting cars.....Yep, without pics it didn't happen right??..............
Hmmmm, not sure why I didn't get Louie in the 2nd pic...I think he was off to the right somewhere,.
ok ok....I confess, I gave them the spray paint.
If it wasn't for all the paint on those caddies they probably would have disappeared by now.
Zap- :unitedstates: