Is that sn-sn-sn-o-o-w on the ground?

No snow today there was yesterday

 Ken, let me know when you are getting close!!!!

There's snow right now but its supposed to be warm for the rest of the week so this might be the best chance to do this.  I just have to fix an axle seal on the borrowed dolly, scrounge up a couple more tires, figure out how to hook the trailer wiring to my borrowed SUV and put a license plate on the dolly, (oh yeah and keep my wife in a good mood so she doesn't realize how crazy this trip is)

Forecast is nice for here, 15 tomorrow. Should be fun!

Looking forward to it!

November 7th,  a new day and some new energy, Thank God!  Couldn't beat the weather for November 7th.  Topped out at about 13 degrees C with a nice west breeze.  We saw lots of farmers cleaning up the crops which I have never seen in November.

By about 1000 we had touched base with Vince and set up a meet just out of Foam Lake.  Sure enough  there he was waving frantically and we formated into town where he led us down a bunch of twisty streets (in Saskatchewan?) to his great shop and yard.

We slid off the 67 and it joined the other 67 he had gotten from me as some of his less distingished parts cars.  (I thought  they were pretty good  qualiy until I got a look at his inventory of these things.)  Man that guy has got some great stuff!  Typical small town weekend too as a couple of neighbours sauntered by to see the biggest show in town.

I spent as much time as I could until I ran out of drool looking at his collection of mostly 67's but some other neat stuff too.  (a 67 two door sedan!)

My head was still spinning from over stimulation as we pulled out which why I left it in 4 low to try and turn around on the street.  Almost ripped the guts out of my borrowed SUV until Vince came over and clued me in. (I had put it in 4 low to give the dolly a good  crisp snap so the car would unload itself)

So from that point on the SUV felt like it had wings!  That dolly was just a bouncing  back there as my wife tried to get up to her usual 120 kph on Saskatchewan pavement.   I chilled out a bit in the passenger seat and tried not to tell her to stop at every boneyard we passed and also tried not to succumb to her high pitched whining every time we passed a casino.  Vince had told us it was about a 5 hour drive to Gimli through the northern route but as 1500 hrs approached I could figure we weren't going to make it until  at least 1700 hrs.  Carl and I had chatted a while back and we was on his way from Winnipeg and would be in Gimli for 1600 hrs so I gave him a call and sort of hinted we'd be arriving around 1700 hrs as vaguely as I could.  He was  cool and just figured it would give him more time to look over the mysterious half AC installation.

We pounded on her to get it there for 1700 hrs and finally pulled up to see Carl and Warren wiping their sweaty brows as they had just finished pounding to pieces the back brake drums so they could actually get the back axles free to turn. 

I worked on jacking up the front and switching tires to the set of msmatched beauties I had scrounged up.  I had the dolly kind of in place and was trying to pull all the dangling stuff off the car when it became apparent there was a snag in the back.  All the studs but one had snapped off and it was pretty clear to us all that you shouldn't really tow a car on a dolly for 1300 klicks with only one lug nut holding on the rim.  We put our heads together and figured with  the drum off we might be able to get a couple of 3/8's bolts with nuts to hold at  three spots at least.  The rim centre was snug on the axle so that would take most of the rolling strain.  Warren managed to scrounge up a few nuts and bolts and actually get his hand up behind the rim to get them  started.

We hacked off what was left of the exhaust and I checked to see if there was actually any oil in the disappointing but expected 10 bolt.  I hooked up the lights and after some toing and froing I managed to turn the rig around.

We stopped at Warren's garage and rigged up a electric impact to snug up the bolts that we couldn't quite get any other way.  We also had a chance to look at the heartbreakingly lovely 67 GP he has for a few brief minutes although it deserved so much more time. I  have to say those Amercian Ponchos are pretty sexy!

Time was still pressing so we started on the long haul back.  Carl followed for a while in his sinister Impala SS hoping to find a coffee shop but in a couple of blocks we were out of town and out of luck. Rats! Next Time!

Made it all the way to Lake Winnipeg and never even saw it. Bizarre or what?

I'll post a few more pics here and pick up the return tomorrow.  



 

This shot describes your trip to me.
It's a total classic...



Imagine someone looking at this..say 30, 40 years from now.

Like Vern said, a great story and adventure.

Great story. Look forward to hearing the rest. Looks like Vincent has some neat cars too - love the 2 door post. I think I know why he moved out west.

So for anyone who doesn't believe that 1 original wheel stud and a few more Grade 5 hardware store bolts with nuts and lockwashers will hold a back wheel on a B body that distance, you're WRONG!!!

Great adventure Ken. Next time you have to allow a bit more time so we can slip in to the city and have coffee with the Manitoba gang.

great story, just goes to show how nuts we really are for the old car hobby!! LOL