That's 3200 miles in approximatly 60 hours. Straight.
This story could be huge and detailed, but ill try to get to the meat and potatoes. Enjoy!
Day 1: Leave school early at 7PM thursday night. Arrive at SFO airport at 9:30PM, and leave for Florida at 10:30PM. Sleep on plane for 2 hours. Arrive in Atlanta in around 5 hours, then board a plane to West Palm Beach. (PIC)
Arrive in Florida around 9:30AM (630 to us californians) and spend the next few hours checking the car out and taking care of business.
After sealing the deal, we drive the car about 20 mins to the beach to get some lunch and check out the atlantic. After a walk and a few pics, we go back to the car to so we can go drive to a restaurant. It all starts...
The car is stuck in 2nd gear. After around an hour of waiting, with the weather threatening the worst (ive never heard thunder so loud in my life), the guy we bought the car from finally shows up with some tools, and gets us back in business (trans linkage problem, which I called before we even popped the hood). We drive a few hundred miles north and the sun sets. Time for a real florida thundestorm!!! yay! After driving in what might be the craziest storm ive ever driven in for about 30 mins, we have a problem... The headlights go out. Its pouring, windy, and thunder and lightning remind us that this isnt our typical CA storm. I attempt to drive this way for about another 15 mins before I realize that our chances of living through much more of it were pretty minimal. I somehow managaged to pull into a gas station and we got to work diagnosing the light issue. After about an hour, we got lucky and a passerby came up and said he knew how to fix our issue. Turns out the dimmer switch is notorious for going bad in these cars, and a quikc jumper wire to bypass the resistor was all that was needed to get us rolling again. The rain had finally stopped, and we drove the rest of the night.
DAY 2: By early saturday morning, we'd made it through florida and into alabama. We drove all day, stopping for nothing but gas and food. We thought the worst of it was behind us, with two pretty major problems and a huge storm behind us, things didnt seem like they could get any worse. Aside from a faulty fuel level gauge, a twitchy speedo, and no hvac of any kind, the car ran great and things were fine. We continued through mississippi and into louisiana. We were pretty far behind schedule from the first two issues, so we did our best to make up time. We had to stop for oil at walmart, and we picked up spare gas tanks as well.
This car managed to chew through 5 gallons of oil and pulled between 9-12 mpg throughout the trip. How it managed to swallow 20 quarts of oil in the average interval for ONE oil change I have no idea, but it made it and that's what counts.
We continued on our path through louisiana and into texas, where we stopped at a family members for a shower and a quick break.
4k @ 80MPH = LOUD
Two hours later we hit the road again. The sun was getting ready to set and we were ready to knock some miles off. Within ten minutes we were on the side of the road again. Our original SS gas cap managed to fall off when we hit a bump and fly into some tall grass. After a 45 minute search, we deemed it lost and tried to locate a store that had a replacement. With some help from our friends and family and the internet, we found an autozone (this is about 1 1/2 hours later) and found a cap that fit. We hit the road and drove through the night.
Giant TX locust thingy
DAY 3: We finally made it through the huge state of texas and into new mexico, where the weather seemed to finally get back to normal. After hours and hours of straight driving, we got through NM and into arizona, which was the last state we passed before getting back to CA. Again, luck wasnt with us, and our right front tire decided to warp into a rolling oval (manuf defect?). We were again on the side of the road.
We had a full size spare and figured this would only take 15-20 mins tops. No such luck. The 1967 original jack got stuck under the body (our fault, it was meant to jack from the front bumper). Another 30 mins passes and we cant get the car lowered. After waiving at everyone who drove by, we finally get someone to stop. He gives Mark a ride to the local parts store. They return about 45 mins later, with a fresh jack and stands. We're gone in another 15, finally back on the road. The sun is again getting ready to set, and we're still a solid 1000 miles from home. Time to get down to business. We stopped for gas, checked fluids as usual, filled the oil, aired the tires, and hit the road.
After hundreds of miles and minutes of sleep, we arrived at the CA boarder. We were finally making progress! By the end of the night, we were in LA and set to make it back in about 6 hours (2AM monday morning). Things were going well and we were stoked.
We drove and drove, but it took us hours to get away from LA. We finally go out and onto our route around 10PM, and things were looking good. Then our bad luck caught up with us again. All the lights on the car went out...
After about 30 mins of poking around under the hood in the freezing cold and complete darkness (flashlight died miles ago lol), some cops showed up to see what we were doing. After comments like "it'll pass anything but a gas station" and "I used to have one of these", I got them to lend me a flashlight and I got to work. The idiot who wired it decided to tbone the alternator power wire with B+ to the IGN circuit. He actually soldered it and left it this way. The whole harness was melted and corrosion ate away at the poor connection. The battery, in turn, was now dead. With no tools and horrible conditions, I managed to get the wires cleaned up and gave it a temporary rig to get us home. The cops gave us a jump and she struck right up. Lights were back and things were looking up. Another solid hour down the drain. We stopped for gas and the usual, then started the long trek north. After a few miles I took over for the rest of the trip. Mark had work at 7AM and I figured he could use the sleep. 300 miles later and we made it home. FINALLY!!! Craziest weekend ever. Now for the stuff you've all been waiting for.
1967 Chevy Camaro SS
502 GMPP big-block crate motor
M22 Muncey trans, with custom straight cut gears
3.73 rear end, built to handle 600 ft/lbs
5 leaf rear suspension, coil over up front
holley fuel pump (loud as shit)
Hooker equal length headers
Mallory ignition and wires
holley 850 carb with mech secondaries
centerforce race clutch setup
hurst shifter
line-locker setup
disc brakes all around
all orignal body and interior
1000watt sound system (alpine)
autometer tach, oil p, ect gauges.
original dash and speedo.
500whp/500wtq
.
Sam-I-Am
