Got my first long cruise done!!

[RICH MUISE]

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!

[gasman826]

COOL!!!!!!

[canadian_ranchero]

sounds like a nice trip you had.26 mpg,hope my wagon can get close to that

[Marc]

Awesome!

[hiball3985]

Great!!! Nothing better then a car that actually gets used on the road..

[Ford Blue blood]

Nice, very nice!  Now you know all those bad words and set backs were worth it!

[57ford]

Happy days. Had a day very similar recently.

[RICH MUISE]

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.

[Ecode70D]

    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. 

[RICH MUISE]

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.

[hiball3985]

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..

[RICH MUISE]

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.

[Limey57]

Good to hear you've finally got some proper miles under the tires at last and 26mpg is brilliant!

[Ecode70D]

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   

[RICH MUISE]

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....