The Long Road Home, Part II

[bamfordsgarage]

Hello all, Day 4, Minden LA to Texarkana AR, 126 miles today, 1,081 total this leg.

A welcome low-milage day and a chance to stay put and relax in the evening. Texarkana was a late addition to our route, on account of a fellow here who is the Durant Motors Automobile Club's recognized expert on Star Automobiles. I've been helping a local club member get his 1924 Star touring in shape for a long road trip this fall. It was only an hour or two out of our way and we had an enjoyable visit plus picked up some much-needed parts for our friend's car.

Don Skilling is also very involved with the Tex-Ark Antique Auto Museum in Texarkana, which is owned and operated on a (very) non-profit basis by the local antique car club. We had a special tour of the museum and Don arranged with the local paper to come by and do a little story on our road trip. The reporter expected the piece to run in tomorrow's paper and we're staying here tonight so as to buy a few copies in the morning.

The car has been trouble free since we left the Florida heat, although this may change when we head for Dallas tomorrow. This morning we tried cooking (heating actually) baked beans on the engine. Evidently the cylinder head is not warm enough be a decent heater — next try will be on the other side of the engine where the exhaust manifold is exposed behind the carburetor.

Pictures: Tex-Ark Museum is located in a 5,000 ft2 warehouse built in 1941 for the Texarkana Poultry Association; Interior view — 13 cars are on display and rotated regularly, there is an excellent reference library and the local club uses this space for meetings and special functions; Don spent three years restoring this '49 Dodge just like the one he bought for $60 in high school; The only US Courthouse and Post Office straddling a State line. At our backs the line runs down the old main street — bad guys running from, for instance, the Texas Law would just walk across the street and give their pursuers a friendly wave; Pork-N-Beans ala Mopar.

Edited April 13, 2011 by bamfordsgarage
Fix speling misteak

[silvernickel3]

silvernickel3 sure would like to have been with you guys.

thinking about my 46' D-23 B-Cpe that was recently put together.

would like to stress test it in a similar fashion.

one problem - mommy won't give me the money or time off from work.

she likes money so off to work I go.

silvernickel3

Advance, NC

[clay diggs]

By now you will have surpassed the 6336 mile trip we made in our Plymouth in March and April in 2005. Best trip we ever made. Clay

[greg g]

gotta get one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/Manifold-Destiny-Guide-Cooking-Engine/dp/0375751408#_

[bamfordsgarage]

gotta get one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/Manifold-Destiny-Guide-Cooking-Engine/dp/0375751408#_

Greg, you are absolutely right. Just found one on ebay, bought it now, and it'll be waiting when I get home. Thanks for the tip!

[bamfordsgarage]

Actually she only wants one and our picture is on Page 2 but it was still great fun to see our little writeup this morning. I've been interviewed a number of times over the years for work and car things, and the reporters generally screw up at least one or two key facts. Not today — the only hiccup in this piece is they have me buying parts for my Star, not for a friend's.

Nice way to start the day.

[1940plymouth]

Nice write up, congrats

[Plymouthy Adams]

Nice write up' date=' congrats[/quote']

believe these are now on a wanted poster in Wyoming...

[Don Coatney]

http://blog.vadaenergy.com/?p=1241

[55 Fargo]

Here is the link to the Texarkana Gazette article,

http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2011/04/13/lots-of-smiles-per-gallon-566086.php

[greg g]

Say kid, you want some monoxide with that buger????

[Plymouthy Adams]

bake your beans while you drive..whole new twist on Toxic Waste..

[james curl]

As I remember the street leading up to the post office on one end and the train station on the other was one half red brick and the other half black brick, lived there in 44 to 48. Watch the beans on the manifold, when I was in the Guard we had a 3/4 ton Dodge power wagon and my driver on one of our roadside breaks put the beans and franks on the manifold thinking we would stop in about 30 minutes for lunch at twelve noon. The convey rolled on down the highway and about an hour later we had a loud noise under the hood and a terrible smell as the can split the seam and spewed its contents all over the engine.

Edited April 13, 2011 by james curl
spelling

[greg g]

There was a fellow at a show I attended with a model T commercial truck. he had the hood opened and there was a sheet metal box attached to the manifold. It had too door on it held by clips, inside thee were a couple of small shelves. It was actually a aftermaket built oven. Even had a pressein raised manafacture's mark. I can;t remember what it called itself, but is was one of those quait names from back inthe 20's.

Kinda like this one, though his menu was different sausage.

[bamfordsgarage]

Hello All, Day 5, Texarcana AR to Dallas TX, 247 miles today, 1,328 this leg.

Another good day on the road, another day with no car trouble (everyone please knock on wood) — in our world, the two are very closely related.

I'm pecking out this report in near darkness, perched high on the driver's seat of a 1926 American LaFrance fire engine in the display hall of the Texas Fire Museum. The museum and restoration shop are located in the old Dallas Fire Department maintenance shops in west Dallas.

I know the curator and restoration chief from a previous visit and he graciously invited Jerry and me to crash in their bunkhouse for the night. Some of the equipment they display and/or restore is owned by departments in other cities, and when those guys come to work on their apparatus they too can stay right here on site.

Tomorrow AM we're going to rearrange our top load and lose the mattress we've been hauling around, unused, since Hershey. That alone will give us 6" less wind resistance. Then we head north into Oklahoma, with a couple interesting stops along the way.

Pictures:

Pleasant East Texas secondary highway. Lots of green and nice 50-mph roads.

Approaching downtown Dallas in the afternoon rush hour — it was good to arrive but the morning drive was much more relaxing.

Row of vintage fire trucks. In the back corner you can just see the seat (arrow pointing) of the truck I'm sitting in now.

A small portion of their very well equipped restoration/repair shop. Foreground is a restored American Lafrance V12 cradled in a massive engine rotisserie which is also used for running in fresh rebuilds.

Jerry in a very cool American LaFrance speedster that was built from, believe it or not, a late 'teens fire engine. Four cylinders, 570 in3, 3-speeds, chain drive. I have a similar project that has been languishing for over 10 years. This may just help me get motivated once again.

[1940plymouth]

Thanks for the update, good to hear that all is going well, looking forward to reading about your trip through Oklahoma, not to mention photos.

I would like to move out there, but my wife wants nothing to do with that idea, oh well. Anyway, I hope you both have a safe upcoming trip today

[P-12 Tommy]

Glad to hear everything's going as planned.

Tom

[Kevinb71]

Looks like you are having a good trip this time. Are you heading straight north from there? I-29 was closed at Fargo the last i knew due to flooding.

[TodFitch]

Looks like you are having a good trip this time. Are you heading straight north from there? I-29 was closed at Fargo the last i knew due to flooding.

Looks like it is open now: http://www.dot.nd.gov/travel-info/

The nice folks at the North Dakota department of transportation also give links to the highway condition pages for the surrounding states and provinces on this page: http://www.dot.nd.gov/roadreport/roadreport/roadreportinfo.asp

[Dennis_MN]

This is what it looked like on Sunday Morning, about 2 to 4 inches. They closed it at 6:00pm and didn't open it again until today. Now I-29 is closed north of Minto to Grafton.

[55 Fargo]

This is what it looked like on Sunday Morning, about 2 to 4 inches. They closed it at 6:00pm and didn't open it again until today. Now I-29 is closed north of Minto to Grafton.

This is super close to home, ND is having a hard time with all this Red River flooding, very nasty, Grafton is about an hour and a half from here...

[bamfordsgarage]

Hello All, Day 5, Dallas TX to Davis OK, 249 miles today, 1,577 this leg.

Everyone must have knocked wood after my last report as the car was once again flawless (looks aside) today. We left the Dallas area after noon amid several warnings about heavy weather and possible tornados up I35 toward Oklahoma City. That sounded like a possible adventure so off we went up I35. While we didn't see any sign of tornados, we were sidelined about 20 miles from here with heavy heavy rain, high winds and pea-sized hail. Not a job for vacuum wipers so we pulled off and had a snack break while the weather subsided.

We are still a day ahead of schedule with no commitments until Saturday in Oklahoma City so it will be a light day tomorrow and a chance to soak up some of the Okie culture.

I suspect many readers are getting a little tired of the scant Mopar coverage in these reports — there are two Plymouth pics following now and I expect you may be very interested in the ones posted later tonight after I return from the pool.

1, 2, 3: We spied this most unusual vehicle on our way to Arlington this morning and finally caught up with him at a convenience store. While we were visiting — and he was really taken with our heap — three people asked him if his rig was hybrid or electric. Turns out it was homebuilt by him some 31 years ago using a 1961 Oldsmobile F85 V-8 engine mated to a Porsche 356 transaxle. Only one seat, but when he got married about 6 years ago he configured the space under the canopy such that his wife could fit behind him. However, he said, she's so scared when she's in the car she won't ride in it anymore.

4, 5: Tired Plymouth coupe among other rusty hulks promoting a roadside antique store.

[bamfordsgarage]

Day 5 Part 2:

Leaving Dallas, we stopped at Antique Auto Supply in Arlington TX. I had heard of this outfit before, but last time I was in Dallas they were closed so I could only look through the window and marvel at the massive jumble of parts, accessories and who knows what all...

Owner Stacy Brown claims 51 years in the business and has multiple buildings full of mostly NOS parts for cars from the 1930s to '60s. There are more parts older and newer but most of what we saw was in this period. I bought a couple oil filters and a double action fuel pump for the D25. Prices are not real cheap but the selection is there and its pretty well all new stuff.

After Stacy came outside for a look at the Dodge he said "tell ya'll what Ah'll do — how 'bout I open up the Mopar building and ya'll can just poke around in there as long as you like". He didn't have to ask twice. We walked part way down the row of warehouse units and he opened up two bays for us. One was all Mopar and the other a mix, but with a considerable bit of NOS Mopar sheet metal — fenders, gas tanks, etc.

They don't do e-mail and have no real website so phone, fax or mail is the way to go: Antique Auto Supply, 1225 Colorado Lane, Arlington TX, 76015. Telephone 817-275-2381.

TV News feature: hhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VadAcb94GZE

Exceptionally lame website: www.antiqueautosupply.com

Pictures, Part 1: Building exterior, Mopar bays halfway down the side. Note the streamlined load atop the Dodge; Manuals and signs; NOS sheet metal; shelves a-brimming; NOS gauges

[bamfordsgarage]

Pictures, Part 2: More manuals; Pistons rings; wheel bearings and seals, the vertical box contains a set of NOS Plymouth rocker panel trim — anybody need something like this?; Set of four new Plymouth hubcaps, not bad for $150; Assorted small chrome parts.

[bamfordsgarage]

Pictures Part 3: Vintage sign and NOS Dodge rocker panel chrome; Rocker panel chrome details; Steering parts; Stone shields; Window regulators.