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WPC or Bust


Merle Coggins

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With all of the starts and restarts on this tour I eventually had a couple guys come to me to “settle an argument”. Some were convinced that my truck was converted to 12 volts because of it’s cranking speed. Others believed it was still 6 volt. I assured them it was still a 6v system. When asked how it cranks so fast on 6 volts I replied, “Big battery cables, and clean connections.” They’re getting a kick out of my truck, and the fact that I’ve driven it down here from Wisconsin. 

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thanks for the pic and the feedback.....Dart and Polara...same body...Polara was the highest line in trim....the green car looked like it had the Polar lower trim panels above the bumper....not familiar with the Dart trim except to say its high line was a 440 and lower trim line the 330.....but I admit I did not have a close up to view......only year the Dart was a b-body and I like that body style in basically all trim...they even made a 4 door hardtop...the wagons were used as much for racing as the 2 door sedans...many of these cars were converted to race only vehicles.  My two are Polara 500's and both are factory big block cars.

Edited by Plymouthy Adams
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Day 7;

I skipped out on the morning event. They went to the Coker Tire museum. I heard it was pretty good, but small. I opted to stay at the hotel and give my truck a bath, to remove 6 days of road grime, in preparation for today’s car show. 

In the afternoon we drove over to the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway and rode the train up the mountain to the top. We then walked around Point Park to see the views, and a little more Civil War history. Then back down the mountain in the rail car. 

In the evening we were all invited out to a local club member’s home. They have a nice place with several garages full of Imperials and other misc. Chryslers and etc. 

 

A few pics from the day...

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Edited by Merle Coggins
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Day 8... Show Day!!

Nice hot humid day for a car show. I worked up a good sweat polishing up the truck this morning. My competition for the Truck and Comercial Vehicle class was a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Dodge Durango. 

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A few others that I liked...

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This show was run in conjunction with a local All Mopar Cruise-in. Some other nice ones from that side of the show...

 

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SUV’s get lumped in with the trucks. I believe it may be “Class 13 - Truck, SUV, and Commercial Vehicle, ALL”. So if you opt to drive to the national meet in your modern SUV, to have a nicer/cooler drive, and you decide to participate in the car show, this is what we get. I happen to be the only one with a vintage vehicle for that class this year. The other trucks at the show were part of the Cruise-in and were not judged with the WPC show. 

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This other Lil’ Red rolled in a little later and I immediately heard a Diesel engine.

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So after it got parked I went to have a look... Yup... Looks like it fit pretty well. 

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Apparently he purchased it this way and said it’s a nice running truck. It came out of Canada and still has the KPH speedo

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Day 9 update;

 

At the awards banquet last night I was awarded a 1st place ribbon for my class at the show, which I figured would happen based on the competition. But then when they got to the Longest Distance Driven for a classic vehicle they asked for some mileage’s from those that drove their vehicles. I offered up 800 miles and nobody could beat it. Many were either amused, shocked, or embarrassed  that someone with a truck took that award. Longest driven in a modern vehicle went to someone that came 2400+ miles. There seemed to be a lot of modern vehicles there this year. 

 

Today was leg one of the return trip. Chattanooga, TN to Tuscola, IL. We finally had some cooler weather to drive in. 70 degrees when we left and cooled off as the day went on. We got into some fog/clouds as we went up the mountain to Monteagle. The westbound grade was a bit easier. I was able to keep it at 55-60. And with the cooler weather the engine temp stayed in a good range. We got into some heavy rain at Nashville, TN that stayed with us through Paducah, KY. I found that my windshield still leaks a little bit in a couple of spots. Not enough to worry about. But I also found that the door seals between the door and the floor sill needs to be addressed. We had water coming up between the door and the floor at the front edge of the doors. It’s the first time I’ve driven in this heavy of rain in quite a while. Once through Paducah the rain ended, but we’d still age a small shower off and on the rest of the afternoon. 

 

One more travel day tomorrow. It’s looking like it’ll be sunny and dry with a high of around 70 degrees, so it should be nice for driving the Ol’ Dodge. 

 

No pics today. I had the GoPro running for a while this morning but I haven’t extracted any pics from it today. When I get home I’ll work on uploading more. 

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I'm a truck guy, but I'm still hoping to get a 1950 Dodge Wayfarer Convert someday.....for those sunny days with da wife. :D

Looks like you're having a great time Merle!

 

48D

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Pics from day 9 entry;

 

The awards banquet was at the Towing and Recovery Museum. There were many cool things to look at, including this ‘26 Graham Brothers unit. 

 

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Or this ‘29 Chrysler wrecker

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And a Big Boy too...

70 Ton Holmes Mechanical boom. The largest mechanical wrecker that they built.

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A little fog/low cloud in the mountians Sunday morning on the drive home. 

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Day 10, the finale...

We got on the road a little after 7:00 this morning. The sun was out but it was a bit cool at 57 degrees. The truck ran good and I didn’t push it as hard today. I kept it around 60-65 today instead of pushing 70 as I had been doing. By the time we got up around Madison, WI it was finally warm enough to roll down the windows, at least for a little while. At 70 degrees it was comfortable with the sun shining in the open window, but if you got into the shade at all it would be a little cool. 

 

Central Illinois scenery,

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We got within 100 miles from home and I started seeing things...

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If any of you have traveled I90/94/39 through Wisconsin you’ve probably seen this pink elephant too. She sits at a small gas station in DeForest. It’s been there since the mid 60’s.

 

Overall the truck ran great. But I did see this when I got out of the truck when I got home. ?

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It seems to still be holding air. I’ll have to pull it out one of these days and see how deep it goes. 

 

The odometer logged 1846.6 miles over the past 10 days and it went through 153.58 gallons of gas. That equates to a 12.03 MPG average. However, my speedo is a bit slow. I have compared it to my GPS and have calculated that it is 4% slow. So, if I factor in the 4% adjustment that would be 1921.5 miles @ 12.51 MPG. The worst tank full was at 10.49 MPG, whereas the best one was the last one today at 14.07 MPG. All in all not bad for a 68 year old retired farm truck. 

 

We had a wonderful trip, despite the sweltering heat through most of it. The WPC meets are always a good time with many great people. It’s a bummer to think that I have to go back to work tomorrow. It’s going to feel weird driving the 2013 F150 again. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Merle Coggins
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Also, for anyone that cares, next year’s WPC Annual Meet is planned to be back in the Detroit area (Auburn Hills) again. It is planned for August 13th - 17th in conjunction with the Woodward Dream Cruise. The plan is to have some tours setup for Wednesday, then do the car show on Thursday with an awards Breakfast on Friday morning. Other activities will be planned for Friday. Then on Saturday they are working on securing a parking area along Woodward Ave so that the club members can park there, hang out, watch the Cruise, or participate in the Cruise. 

 

They still have some details to work out, but that’s the basic plan at this time. Maybe we’ll see some of you there. 

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