Here is a write up that I did a year ago about my trip from California to Texas
after buying
the roadster off of the internet. All the talk about long distance driving
reminded me that
I never posted it.
--------------------------------------------------
How I spent my vacation
or
How I bought a roadster on E-Bay and drove it 3000 miles home
This trip started on the 8th of April.
After loading our checked baggage with all manner of Roadster parts (including
a spare tire and wheel) we flew from Austin, Tx. to Los Angeles on Saturday.
Called
to see if the timing was good to drop over to pick up the Roadster. Nope,
because
of the on again/off again rain over the last two weeks he had received the top
(Thanks,
but he had not gotten them installed, but that he would get the car to the shop
so that
we could pick it up tomorrow.
Sunday we picked up the car in Simi Valley and drove it back to Whittier,
where, for
the next 3 days changed fluids, installed missing parts got the electrics
straightened
out and had the radiator cleaned out.
Figuring that even though this car was a total unknown as to its mechanical
condition, and
not knowing if it would get us 30 miles, or 3000 miles, we decided to head it
towards
Texas under the assumption that if it broke down on the way that shipping would
be less
the closer to Texas we got. Included in this "3000 miles" to Texas were some
side trips,
Vista (CDM), San Francisco, Sedona and any other locations that caught our
attention!
Wednesday we headed to Vista to see Les and Dennis at Classic Datsun to pick up
some more parts before heading up the coast (hwy 1), and then back to Texas.
The temperature
gauge was showing a bit of heating, but the engine was running fine and not
using
water. We changed out the temperature sender and the temperature readings
dropped
to what I had expected. Thanks for the visit and parts, Dennis and Les, you
have a
great shop there!
Stopped near San Clemente when antifreeze coated the windshield. Seems that one
of the short hoses that connect the carb pre-heat line to the head developed a
small
hole, not a big deal. To add insult to minor injury, as I was getting out of
the
car to check on the problem, a large semi came by and the air that it was
pushing
pulled the door out of my hand and shoved it out on the door retainer far
enough to
bend the retainer, allowing the front edge of the door to hit the body, causing
a
series of small (~3") dings down the door. RATS!
Heading up the coast Thursday and Friday on Hwy 1, we had a bit of trouble
keeping
the temperature down. We also seemed to be loosing water. By the time we
reached
Carmel we were having to stop every half hour to refill the radiator. We
stopped
at a shop in Santa Cruz, Quality Automotive to see if they could figure out what
the problem was. I had already cleaned out the radiator (3 row), replaced the
hoses and thermostat (twice), but still had problems keeping water in the
engine.
Diagnosis pointed to a blown head gasket. I already suspected the head gasket,
but
didn't "really" want to accept that I was in for some wrenching before we moved
on.
I really recommend Quality Automotive to anyone that is going through Santa Cruz
and needs some work done. Bill Diada and crew are antique nuts and even have a
few
much older american ars in their show room.
While driving out of Carmel we heard a yell. Looked over and saw another
roadster
driving the other direction. Don't recall the color though. Anyone on the
list?
Having relatives near Travis AFB, between San Francisco and Sacramento that are
into old cars was just what the doctor ordered. Stopping every 30 miles or so
to
top off the radiator, we made it to their house. The next two days were spent
visiting and doing a head gasket. The gasket looked like it had been leaking
for some time, but really let go while on the winding coast road. The machine
shop found that the head had already been cut 0.090", and cut another 0.007"
to get it flat. Valves looked good, and there were no cracks in the head.
A funny thing happened at the shop. About 30 minutes after I dropped the
head off at the shop someone else brought in an identical head. The guys
said that they hadn't seen a roadster head for over 5 years, then 2 show
up in the same day! Even better, both heads had been cut to 0.090" previously,
and both took 0.007" to flatten them up!
Back at the house I checked the head to see if I was going to have any clearance
problems because of the gross milling that the head had received. Inspection
of the pistons showed that one of the pistons had been hitting the head
slightly,
even before we took the 0.007" off. Well, this head is trash, all I need is for
it to get me back to Texas! Breaking out the die grinder I cut out the
combustion
chambers to the point where the pistons did not hit the head without a head
gasket
installed. This took several hours, but did the trick. I don't know for sure,
but
I suspect that I am still running over 12:1 compression, but, hey, it got us
home!
Oh, did I tell you that the pistons are domes?!
Another oil change, radiator flush, carb and ignition checks and we are on the
road
again. Time for an unplanned trip to San Francisco. My uncle died and we found
out only 2 hours before the funeral. Keeping more of an eye on the temperature
than on the road we head for S.F. and make it to the cemetery just before the
hearse.
The temperature ran a little warm, but we didn't loose any water! Yay!
Since we are already running a few days behind, we decided "what the heck,
let's go
back to Solvang for the Roadster get together tomorrow". So off we went. Got
to
Solvang mid afternoon, Friday and took it easy.
Saturday was wonderful. We met many of the folks whose names and advise appear
here
on the list. Had a great time, taking pictures of as many of the cars as
possible
and visiting with everyone. I will not go into what all took place there
because
others have already covered it.
The rest of the trip back through Sedona, Az., Silver City, N.M.,, El Paso, Tx.
and finally back to Austin was an uneventful trip. The only trouble I had was
the temperature running a bit higher than I expected. I expect this to be due
to
the high compression, but don't know. Another symptom of this is that the
engine runs on for about 1~2 seconds after the key is turned off, whether the
engine is hot or cold.
Mileage on this trip averaged 31 MPG, except for the last tank when it was a
little
less than 1 MPG! The odometer went out about 5 miles after fill up!
Gas prices weren't as bad as expected. The farther from the Left coast we got,
the
lower the price. On Hwy 1, on the coast we bought regular for $2.25, after
passing
up the station at Ragged Point that was charging $3.25!
Most of our driving was with the top down, except when it was too cool,
dropping into
Sedona in the late afternoon, as well as the stretch from El Paso to
Fredricksburg,
Tx. when we had the top up, but the zip out rear window open. This is a really
good
good design, (Thanks again, Stan!), that should be considered whenever a top
needs
to be replaced.
Now that we are home we will start to combine the 2 67.5, 1600's that we have
into
a real good, complete car. The body on the new car is almost perfect, and the
drive train in my old roadster is in great shape.
Oh, I put Redline MTL in the trans in L.A. The only seepage that I see is
around the
shifter shaft, but that is not a big deal. The trans shifted much better after
replacing the 90 wt.
As for the engine, I will probably keep the block that is now in the car and
just
move the head from my other car over. This is the only roadster that I have
seen
that did not leak oil at the rear seal! It also needs timing gears and chain, so
those are on my to order list.
All in all, it was a great trip. We spent 10 days away from home, but loved all
of it. We are thankful that we made it back without much trouble.
We expected the trip back to be rough on our old bods, but the roadster fit
both
of us like a glove. We both find long runs in a roadster to be quite relaxing.
Peace,
Pat
--
- Support Habitat for Humanity, A "hand up", not a "hand out" -
Pat Horne, Network Manager, Shop Supervisor, Hardware Guru
CS Dept, University of Texas, Austin, Tx. 78712 USA
voice (512)471-9517, fax (512)471-8885, UUCP:cs.utexas.edu!horne
|