OT: Another Road Trip Adventure...

[bamfordsgarage]

Apologies in advance: Sorry, no Mopar content in the following story and pictures. Still, I thought some members might still be interested in hearing about a road trip friend Jerry and I are on at the moment...

We left Wednesday afternoon from Edmonton in my 1924 Ford Model T Speedster, destination Spokane WA for the Northwest Vintage Speedster's (www.nwvs.org) 29th Annual Speedster Endurance Run. NWVS recognizes pre-1934 4-cylinder speedsters and racers, and holds spring and fall endurance runs every year.

We'd just finished the re-restoration and freshening of my '24 T and a 1,300 mile return run to Spokane seemed like a fine idea. And you can probably imagine how happy the wives were not to have to be any part of this venture.

Pictures (2 more batches to come shortly): 1400 hours Wednesday, all saddled up and ready to go; Humming along at the 47 mph (1575 rpm) sweet spot; Dang head bolt unscrewed itself (!) despite all bolts being re-torqued the day before; I love my Auto Club membership; We had the car towed to a friend's place in Crossfield AB to do repairs in the morning — here is friend Roy showing off his custom 2-piece Model T crankshaft, which happened in June 30 years after building that engine.

[bamfordsgarage]

More pictures: Loose head bolt makes for very poor head gasket; Back on the road in the foothills of southern Alberta; Welcome to the USA! Our right rear tire got thoroughly discombobulated barely one mile into Idaho; The clincher rim needed a bit of help before it was usable again; We were so pleased with ourselves for finally making Spokane by Friday afternoon (643 miles plus a few on the tow truck) that we forgot to check the gas — these two strapping Dutch-Canadians kindly helped us push the beast two blocks to the Chevron.

[bamfordsgarage]

Last pictures: There are 35 cars registered for the run, and every one got a comprehensive safety check today. The '24 passed with flying colours; So did this one, the "2225 No Dollar Special" which was built entirely of spare and donated parts with not one penny cash outlay; There were car games this afternoon — this is Speedster Hockey (Team D25 did pretty well at this one but pretty much sucked at Speedster Golf and Basketball); We got to do a couple 30 mph demonstration laps this evening at the Spokane County Speedway, prior to the NASCAR (Junior) K & N Series race — we are waiting here to go on to the track; And away we go!

Tomorrow is the 200 mile endurance run somewhere NW of Spokane, the wrap-up banquet in the evening, and we leave early Monday for home.

[BobT-47P15]

Looks like fun so far.......glad you finally made it OK.

[1940plymouth]

Keep us posted, sounds like lots of fun

[Jim Yergin]

Chris,

Looks like a lot of fun. How many cars participated?

Jim Yergin

[Mark D]

"discombobulated" - most appropriate description for that tire. Love the story and pictures so far. Thanks for posting.

[oldodge41]

I love it, you guys are an inspiration. We all need more fun in our lives.

[PhilJohnson]

Awesome trip Someday I hope to get my hands on a Model T.

[greg g]

I guess my 350 mile round trip with , well nothing happened, road trip to western NY is a nonevent.

You guys have tooo much fun!!

[RobertKB]

Chris, glad you and Jerry are having fun and showing us all that we need to drive our old cars lots. Good luck while there and on the return trip. If you decide to come up through Lethbridge again on the way back, please stop in!

[55 Fargo]

looks like another great "memory", in the making Chris.

I relly envy your perseverance, and guts, wish I had a little more in that department.

I get paranoid sometimes just going to town 5 miles away, with the crazy drivers, at times I just head back home...

[Rodney Bullock]

I really enjoyed meeting these guy's and wished we could have spent more time with thwm. I would have liked to have taken them to "Roaring twenties" museum they would have appreiciated Martha and her antiques. When I think of how they are such good mechanics when it comes to the real old cars they could really get into the Reo's and early packards she has. If and when you guy's come back I want get you all in there. She is about 10 miles from Jim.

Edited September 5, 2011 by Rodney Bullock

[LAKOTA169]

I think the farthest I've gotten from home, in the '37, is 30 miles. Really enjoy your trips and pictures.

[Jerry De Jong]

hope you guys did well in the race today. have a safe trip home tomorrow

[bamfordsgarage]

Well, the big endurance run is over and we had a great time. The nominal distance without detours was 181 miles, we covered 194. The target time was 7:09 and ours was 7:28, not too shabby. Unfortunately for Team D25, the route organizer was a little diabolical and his maps, intentionally, required more create interpretation than we expected. So we missed one of the 10 checkpoints which set us back nine places in the finishing order. We came in 21st overall out of 35 starters minus the seven DNFs that came back on the vulture wagon (trouble trailer).

The car is lubed and ready to go and we plan to be on the road by 7 AM tomorrow — we're shooting for home by Tuesday evening but it will likely be sometime Wednesday. Thanks to all who posted for your comments and encouragement. I'll try to post a few more road pix before we get home.

Pictures(guess who's camera battery died less than an hour from the start — yes, the same guy who's back up camera was safely in the hotel room. Dang!): Drivers' meeting and distribution of map packages, winner of the car games yesterday had the honour of being first car out; Navigator gets his first look at the map; Dressed for the early morning chill... white overalls are popular duds and past-event patches are worn proudly. This rig has a plywood body from the firewall back; We had about six miles of gravel in total, even those with pristine cars took it in stride; First of 10 checkpoints.

[bamfordsgarage]

We're back in Alberta tonight, after a somewhat-grueling 390 miles in the Speedster starting at 0620 from Spokane and rolling into Turner Valley at 2350. That's a lot of miles to cover in one day in a Model T and is certainly a personal best for me.

The day started just fine, with a brisk run along I90 in the light Labour Day traffic, followed by a man sized breakfast at the White Pine Cafe on US95 south of Sandpoint ID. Spokane was the locale for an International Mustang Meet on the weekend and we were passed today by a great many Mustangs heading back to Canada.

Shortly after breakfast, however, I noticed the low speed pedal was a bit mushy and sure enough, removing the transmission cover revealed shredded band material caused by a cracked low speed drum (Model Ts have a 2-speed planetary transmission with three bands and three drums running in engine oil. One band/drum is the service brake, the other two are low speed and reverse).

Once a drum is cracked, they say it can break up almost anytime, particularly when in use. This is the rough equivalent of setting off a small grenade in the transmission. So the prudent choice would have been to ship the car home and not drive it until repaired. However, 600 miles away from home is an expensive tow and my car hauler is also 600 miles away and full of our daughter's family's stuff for another month. So we decided to baby it home using high gear only and hope for the best. So far, so good.

Pictures: Mustang guys getting a good look at a much older Ford; Shadetree mechanic at work; the Model Ts have three pedals, one for each drum (throttle is on the steering column); Middle drum is cracked across the face; Re-entering Canada on Labout Day Monday car be a 90 minute ordeal.

[1940plymouth]

Chris,

Hope the rest of the trip goes ok today. I had my first ride last month in a Model T, in fact it was a 1923 Model T pickup. We only went a couple of miles in it, I couldn't imagine going the distance you guys have done. It has to be one heck of an experience:)

Edited September 6, 2011 by '40Plymouth

[Jim Yergin]

Chris,

What is it about going home that your cars don't like? Is it that they don't want to end the trip?

Jim Yergin

[bamfordsgarage]

Hi Jim, yes we always seem to be limping home with some problem or another.. Fact is, we thought maybe the Speedster wanted to end the trip yesterday morning — and maybe take up residence in Idaho instead.

"40 Ply, nice that you got a chance to ride in a T. They are really a car like no other. The pickup you were in is a nice body style... kind of sporty with a touch of utility thrown in the mix.

[Don Coatney]

Hi Jim, yes we always seem to be limping home with some problem or another.. Fact is, we thought maybe the Speedster wanted to end the trip yesterday morning — and maybe take up residence in Idaho instead.

Look up my forum member buddy Blueskies if stranded in Idaho. He can and will offer top levels of assistance.

[TodFitch]

Look up my forum member buddy Blueskies if stranded in Idaho. He can and will offer top levels of assistance.

They are already north of the border...

[Don Coatney]

They are already north of the border...

Yea I know but these guys will return:D

[bamfordsgarage]

Home at last! Total 1,536 miles at a moving average of 37.7 mph (plus about 50 miles @ 70 mph on the Auto Club's flatdeck Wednesday evening).

Jim, you must be right about the car not wanting to come home... we rolled into Edmonton last night at dusk with a brake problem, high gear only, generator & magneto disconnected, missing badly from a very worn timer (like a low voltage distributor mounted on the end of the camshaft), and a top speed of 25 mph — on the level. Standing starts were not easy and dang near impossible up a grade. Many stop signs meant a bit of uphill grade onto the main road, so there were a few "rolling stops" involved, and we drove out of our way to use the gentlest grade out of the river valley.

But we made it back safe and the Auto Club will have to wait a while for their next rescue call.

Fortunately, things are not as bad as they sound. Only the cracked low-speed drum will be a pain to fix — enough else will be done today that Jerry and I can drive the machine to our car club meeting tonight for show-and-tell before it goes down for transmission repair.

And I am really, really looking forward to driving my quiet, comfortable, powerful, dependable, and luxurious D25 this morning!

Last day photos: Always looking for the road less travelled; We were mechanicing under this shade tree when the terminal broke off a commutator wire and we didn't have a replacement... not five minutes later this telephone service gal pulled over to look at the car and take some pictures; And, she had exactly what we needed in the back of her truck — talk about your angel from heaven; Hah! We finally passed someone; Trip stats.

[TodFitch]

Good to hear you made it back safe.