Road trip thread

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acme66

acme66

Joined
May 6, 2016
Threads
6
Messages
69
Location
Overland Park, KS
Moved from Minnesota to Kansas on Sunday. Closed on the new house Tuesday. Took possession of our stuff from the movers yesterday. Currently I'm sitting in the Vegas airport waiting for the connecting flight to tucson (delayed of course ).

My buddy took my tundra and replacement rims down to tucson on monday.

We'll get it cleaned up, swap the rims, and pick up the trailer tomorrow. The local cruiser club is going to help us load it on the trailer Saturday. Then we'll head north.

I'll update when I can and hope to be in town by Monday at the latest.

Just my luck, I exploded my surgically repaired knee moving boxes so this will be interesting. Ibuprofen and beer is helping though.
 
De-packratted the engine compartment tonight.

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Here is a sampling of what you can look forward to when you get home and are ready to relax.

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And when those run dry we can visit this fridge.

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Some Hair of the Dog, Perfect Storm from before lawsuit now Mother of All Storms, DogFish Head, BigFoot Ale, Bourbon Barrel Quad, some canned Surly that needs to be drunk before it turns into BarleyWine, etc....
A few more cases of stuff in the cellar.

We can have a BBQ to reintroduce you to the whole TAC Family here.

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Just have to let us know when.

Safe Travels!
 
Got up bright and early to get it ready to load on the trailer. I swapped out front 2 wheels for ones that held air. Bob, my buddy, continued depackratting - best tools for the job are a shop vac and BBQ tongs it turns out. The little pests seemed to prefer to stuff anything with spikes (barbed of course ). Welding gloves were brought into service. We filled up many buckets with the stuff.

Then we moved to the interior. The eccentric lady (retired philosophy proffersor at the universty of arizona) that owned it used it for storage. The first item encountered was a book titled 'attacking faulty reasoning.

Hopefully that isn't an omen...

We hauled out so much junk, but did find it is complete - jump seats, rear heater, factory jack and all. We cleaned it up and it was time for a cancer screening: diagnosis is excellent - nothing other than surface rust where things were scratched.

I took a wet rag and scrubbed a rear quarter to see what the patina was like. Turns out the patina is mostly dust. It's that great green color underneath.

Next was the moment of truth - would it roll or is something seized? I got a strap and we hooked it up to the tundra and gave a tug. Sure enough, it rolled easy.

So we're set for tomorrow! Already have the trailer hooked up and now we're enjoying some hop knot ipa by four peaks out of Phoenix.

Only bad thing so far is that all plant life out here wants to harm you. Everything has thorns and they're everywhere.

I'll upload some pics.

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Wow!!!! That tub looks awesome! Great find.
 
Thanks!

The bumperettes are even straight.

I'm seriously considering running it through a self serve car wash tomorrow when we get to our overnight destination to see how much of the original color comes out.

And thanks for the BBQ invitation, that sounds great.

Perhaps we can arrange a viewing at my place this week once I get it in the garage. I plan on getting back sunday, taking it to the dmv or whatever to get it inspected since it's an out of state vehicle (because who knows how long until it can do it under its own power, plus I have the trailer until Tuesday and the tundra needs an inspection too).
 
Just pulled into our motel in Amarillo Texas - what a day! But we got it loaded this morning.

@Stepmurr from copper state cruisers agreed to drive the 1.5 hours down to help with the extraction and load the 40 on the trailer. I woke up nervous about how we were going to safely get the 40 out of its parking spot that consisted of many obstacles and into the loading zone.

First thing is I checked if the pack rat returned over night - she did. More treasures in the engine compartment. I left them hoping they'll bounce out on the trip home.

@Stepmurr showed up right on time after working all night (seriously a great individual ). We devised a plan that consisted of him towing me with his incredible Tacoma out of the parking spot, over some rocks, down a hill, up another hill to the staging area.

It went great. My first 'rock crawl' was under tow strap power. He deftly kept enough slack in the tow rope as I rolled, without brakes, down a gravel incline once through the rocks. The shocks are frozen so the ride was harsh. I should also mention the driver's seat is stuck in the closest position to the wheel (this is a problem when one is 6'-6")

Once at the bottom of the hill he towed me into the perfect spot to get it loaded on the trailer.

After a few tries in getting the trailer into position - embarrassing for a former wrecker driver- it was time to load. The plan was to position the trailer ramps right in front of the 40s wheels then jack knife my truck out of the way. This would give @Stepmurr a clear shot at the 40 with the winch cable running straight down the middle of the trailer while my truck is out of the way but still connected to the trailer.

Worked on the first try.

Get it on the trailer and see one of the trailer tires is flat. Try to air it up but there's a puncture. So I call u haul and they can't find our somewhat remote location. So they send me a text with a link to click on - it provides our GPS location via my phone. Within 45 minutes the tire and wheel are replaced. The mechanic thought my hitch was too low so he gave me one, for free, with more rise. He even helped disconnect and reconnect the trailer. Uhaul earned serious points.

Even with the delay, we were down the road in just a little over 2 hours.

The tundra has performed flawlessly, even outside Albuquerque at 7k feet.

Should be in town tomorrow afternoon.

Right now I'm drinking some of the beers I promised @Robkc .

Pictures:

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Good idea swapping the top down, lost a roof on 70 once, see ya soon. CLA works great with a scotch Brite to keep patina, then clear coat.
 
Of course I strapped the top down, I didn't want to be THAT guy.

Got in late yesterday afternoon after an uneventful but stormy trip. I had enough time to take it to the car wash and get all the decades of filth off and finish blasting out all the pack rat debris. Looks pretty good, but I did clog the drain of the wash with said debris.

This morning I took it and the tundra for their 'inspection' since they're both from out of state.

This afternoon and evening will be taking the doors and top off and getting it in the garage.

And next..most likely nothing until we get completely moved in.

Pics:

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That looks like the nicest unrestored rigs I have seen. Good luck with the old girl.
 
All I can say is WOW and :cheers: for a journey that will be memorable for a lifetime. You deserve a :beer: or :beer::beer::beer:. ;)
 
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