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What Have You Done With Your Car That Gives You Bragging Rights


larryconnors

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Longest round trip was 2000 miles through the UP of Michigan and down to Detroit. Detoured through Traverse City on the way south. That was with a group of a few others. Carmon and I did 1500 miles through WI on our honeymoon.

Equally as important to me are the rebuilt engine, new clutch, complete rewiring job, homemade door panels(it came with fresh seats), and repainted dash and window surrounds.

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This was my maiden trip. Elevation climb 500' to 6,000' in 30 miles. Destination the Sequoia Nat'l Park and the Redwood trees. Pulled the hill in 3rd without a murmur. 

 

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Well? What did you do? Drive up a mountain on an auto road? Cross a desert? Drive over the continental divide? Drive coast to coast? Lets hear about it. 

 

Hmm, lets see...

 

Drive up a mountain? Check — Pike's Peak road photo. Cross a desert? Check — Utah desert photo. Drive over the Continental Divide? Check — Sign photo. Drive coast to coast? Check — Alabama Gulf Coast photo and Beaufort Sea Coast photo 4,500 miles NNW.

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Hmm, lets see...

 

Drive up a mountain? Check — Pike's Peak road photo. Cross a desert? Check — Utah desert photo. Drive over the Continental Divide? Check — Sign photo. Drive coast to coast? Check — Alabama Gulf Coast photo and Beaufort Sea Coast photo 4,500 miles NNW.

 

Oh well. Nothing I've done in the old Plymouth matches that so I guess I should just sit quite. But I did drive it from Maryland to California "way back when" and more recently  did a 2100 mile round trip to the POC meet in Tucson.

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Back in 2007 my friend of many years and myself left central Texas in my 48 P-15 four door and drove to Reno for Hot August Nights, then on to Grass Valley Cal area to visit friends, then on to Bonneville for speed week where I met "Blue Skies", Pete Anderson then back home.  Only 4800 miles and 12 miles per gallon average, I do tend to push it a little, cruise 65/75 most of the time, about 3200 RPM and still going strong, who said old Plymouths had soft cranks.  I have close to 20,000 miles on the rebuild and at the last compression check it has 135 psi on all six cylinders.  I have changed the rear out to a 90 Dakota 3.55:1 ratio and the engine is a long way from stock.

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I have put almost 300 miles on it in the last two days just going to the wrench a wreck and coffee today.  All of it on I-35 as it would be way out of the way to go by two lane roads to the wrench a wreck and it is already close to 90 degrees when they open at 9:00 in the morning and unless you are working under the vehicle there is no shade out on the lot.  By 2:00 it is close to 100 degrees and 90 percent humid, and no air conditioning in the old Plymouth on the way home, but would not have it any other way.  If you have them you should drive them once in a while, they are just cars not works of art and it probably will no hurt them.

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My best journey was from fumbling with the unreliable English sports cars to a Volkswagen bug to two different unreliable VW vans, to a somewhat reliable 68 Ford to a restored 1950 Plymouth. I learned a lot about cars along the way. My little Plymouth has turned out to be a solid reliable car for many years now. I did not expect that I could do that.

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Wow - some of these stories seem fantastic. I wonder what people would have thought back in 1948? That's just what the car's supposed to do. Every year I drive from the LA area to the Sacramento state fair. Then I go to the San Francisco bay area. the whole trip is about 1200 miles. I'm not going to do it this year because my good friend can't get time off work and my wife won't go long distances at 55 with no air conditioner. This year I plan on going to Hot August Nights in Reno if anyone wants to hook up.

The other thing I've done(though it doesn't make the car run any better) I got a tach for it. The car doesn't go any faster but it makes me smile to see it through the steering wheel.

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Aw, sucks, haven't gone very far with my car.  Couple hundred miles, here and there.

 

But i did fix the radio!

Got some good information from an antique radio forum.  

Zapped the vibrator with 120 volts run through a light bulb, and burnt all the crud off the points.

Put in about $25 worth of condensers (capacitors, in modernspeak).

Ran through the house hooping and hollering for joy when the radio worked. 

 

And then there are the numerous ingenious repairs using stuff from the local hardware. 

I guess some of us get our bragging rights from fixing things.

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Round trip from Campbell River to West Yellowstone with 14 other cars last summer....2200 miles.

In the future going down the west coast of Washington and Oregon to Bend Oregon. 25 cars this time.

Round trip will bring in another 2500 miles....with lots of room left on the odometer yet.

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even todays radio that are not sirrus stream fed..picks up static and garbage in the way of DJ's, poor advertisements and the so called news...I could not tell you the frequency of any station in my area....radio is not important to me while in my car..tunes are however..alternate media is a blessing..

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