Reviving a 1962 Strato Chief for a drive home - Edmonton to Toronto

Morty · Veteran Member

Reviving a 1962 Strato Chief for a drive home - Edmonton to Toronto

Morty · Veteran Member

Shes picked up.

-- Edited by Morty on Friday 3rd of June 2022 11:55:22 PM

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Morty wrote:
Shes picked up.

-- Edited by Morty on Friday 3rd of June 2022 11:55:22 PM

This is the original one? Or do you mean the other one you were hoping to buy?

67Poncho · Uber Guru

Off and running... was a real pain to get up there. He must have tried 9 times. Didn't know a 3-a-la-tree at all and was worrying me with his clutch action. When it was up there, the engine wasn't strong enough to prevent it from rolling back. I had to run into the shop for 3 large blocks. The X frames are not the nicest to try and find areas to attach straps to lash them down either. He was not thoroughly impressed... although he didn't say it, it showed! haha. You have to be nimble to do that job and part ape doesn't hurt! Dangerous climbing and hanging off in may areas.

'60 Strato.png

'60 Strato-1.png

'60 Strato-2.png

'60 Strato-3.png

'60 Strato-4.png

oshawacliff · Poncho Master!

Midnight hauler with a full moon. What is arrival date?

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

This reminds me of when I sold my 59 Dodge Royal D500.The guy who picked it up (buyer arranged) was clueless. It was raining and the car had no brakes. His winch wasn't working so he decided to drive the car up onto his trailer (in reverse). He put blocks on the trailer to "stop" the car. Well the trailer was wet and when the tires hit the blocks they just flew out of the way. The car rolled off the trailer and into the back of his pickup. Suprisingly the only damage to the car was a broken taillight. The big corner of the Dodge's bumper smacked dead center into the tailgate of his truck destroying it (he started to turn when he lost control!). After I was done snapping and cursing I called the towing company and they got the car safely on his trailer. I took video and photos and sent them to the buyer right away. He was remarkably calm about the situation (probably because he was remarkably rich).

I'm glad carnage did not occur with the Strato Chief!

Howmac · Guru

Morty wrote:
Shes picked up.

-- Edited by Morty on Friday 3rd of June 2022 11:55:22 PM

Morty ... What company did you end up using ?

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Thanks for the great transporter shots. Sorry for the poor reception with the driver. What a miserable .... What does he friggin expect? Is he hauling new cars or what?

Sorry.

67Poncho · Uber Guru

cdnpont wrote:
Thanks for the great transporter shots. Sorry for the poor reception with the driver. What a miserable .... What does he friggin expect? Is he hauling new cars or what?
Sorry.

He actually wasn't bad... maybe because I was there... I am sure if he was alone, he would have thrown a rod or at minimal, blew a headgasket. I had to bring out my CP flashlight and assist in loading, it was near 21:30 by the the time he got here. The car would always bog going up the ramps so he actually took a good run at them. I was afraid the clutch would blow apart before loading or that there would be issues if he missed the ramps altogether! It is actually quite daunting driving up there as I did that when I loaded my cars on a carrier in Labrador... ESPECIALLY a standard. All I could see was sky! This was the issue at hand for him.

Labrador Car Carrier.jpg

Labrador Car Carrier-1.jpg

I was told by his employer that I may have trouble understanding him... He is from either Australia or New Zealand. I laughed at the guy and told him there wouldn't be an issue since I was from Newfoundland originally. I told this guy what was said and he laughed. Then we got talking about the Holden cars and told/showed him my GTO. Quite interesting as he went on a little and that he loaded cars back there as well.

It was almost 23:00 when he finally got on his way...

I was lucky enough to get in a truck on top of the carrier one trip I made to do some work on a car in Churchill Falls.

Labrador Car Carrier-2.jpg

-- Edited by 67Poncho on Sunday 5th of June 2022 09:40:42 AM

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Now thats a cool picture from Labrador, what year? Road from Lab City to Churchill Falls? Had to keep your vehicle running to stay warm too?

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

A fellow I know sold dental equipment to graduating dentists, he sold some to a dentist setting up a clinic in Goose Bay, I cant exactly remember the year but around 1995? He has a Passat diesel and decided to drive to Goose Bay via Labrador City. He drove from sept isles to Labrador city on a gravel road, then to Goose. He said the Goose road had 2 wide wood beams over some streams, open between them. The road bed was small rocks, he drove about 30 mph for the 500+km drive. He regretted doing the drive, the road was so rough and slow.

-- Edited by DonSSDD on Sunday 5th of June 2022 10:25:38 AM

Pearl · Member

Wouldn't hurt to check a few wheel nuts too - just to make sure that whatever rims are on there, have enough thread engagement and torqued right. Trust me, it SUCKS to have a wheel fall off while driving...

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

we've really ventured off the topic here.

67Poncho · Uber Guru

seventy2plus2 wrote:
we've really ventured off the topic here.

It's called filler.... till the car arrives in Ontario. lolol. Not the first time a thread has literally fallen off the rails here. But, to slip it back onto the rails, I will delete a couple of my posts.

-- Edited by 67Poncho on Tuesday 7th of June 2022 08:16:04 AM

Morty · Veteran Member

Hey guys I used a company called Professional Car Carriers - they are now trying to charge me $500 more because the E brake doesn't work and the car isn't "road worthy" going to fight with them once they have gotten on the road and can't possibly take it back. Good to know that the guy rode the clutch and was flooring it to get it on the trailer. Might bring that up too. I haven't gotten a date yet for delivery but I'm going to email them today and ask. Thanks for posting the pics Vincent and all your help!

Morty · Veteran Member

Shes home. Grabbed it in Vaughn and took it to my brothers in north Toronto - put a bit of wind in the tires for good measure, took at 3L of water in the rad and that was that. She gets hot for sure, barfed out of The overflow tube when I got her parked. Fingers crossed the picture car company wants her because I would love to get some bucks back out of this deal

I will keep ya posted and when I recoup what i can chances are Ill be back lookin for another. Too bad she is really pretty.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Morty wrote:
Shes home. Grabbed it in Vaughn and took it to my brothers in north Toronto - put a bit of wind in the tires for good measure, took at 3L of water in the rad and that was that. She gets hot for sure, barfed out of The overflow tube when I got her parked. Fingers crossed the picture car company wants her because I would love to get some bucks back out of this deal
I will keep ya posted and when I recoup what i can chances are Ill be back lookin for another. Too bad she is really pretty.

Has the thermostat been removed completely or a new one tried to see if that helps?

Morty · Veteran Member

I would say at best its stuck open. Ill investigate as I get time.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

If it's stuck open and overheating that's not a good sign...

Morty · Veteran Member

I agree - if the rad leaks bad- and it likely does based on the fact that it was empty, Ill say that maybe the pump ran dry for at least a few of the moves on and off the carrier/in transport. Could be a bad pump. I left the cap loose and she did about 25 mins on the highway dropped about .25L and none in the oil. I took a slice on the finger from the fan in the dark for my troubles. Battery is disconnected and its next weeks problem for now.

ABC123 · Uber Guru

Morty wrote:
Shes home. Grabbed it in Vaughn and took it to my brothers in north Toronto - put a bit of wind in the tires for good measure, took at 3L of water in the rad and that was that. She gets hot for sure, barfed out of The overflow tube when I got her parked. Fingers crossed the picture car company wants her because I would love to get some bucks back out of this deal
I will keep ya posted and when I recoup what i can chances are Ill be back lookin for another. Too bad she is really pretty.

So, what did you think of this shipper ?

Thanks, in advance.

Morty · Veteran Member

He was pretty quick for sure. All in it was $2K - its hard to find a shipper that does old cars, most of them completely avoid classics because they can have issues. He had a hard time loading it and then tried to charge me an extra $500 after he had picked the car up because the e brake didn't work. Not sure why that would matter because they were strapping it down like crazy. I put up a stink and they eventually held to the agreed price. My guess is they often look for any reason to jack the price on you because they know finding a good fast car shipper is hard.

Anyway waiting to have the film ppl come look at the car, fingers crossed they take it.

oshawacliff · Poncho Master!

Morty

Did you find the source of the coolant leak.

You indicated it was steaming when you made the trip from the hauler.

Glenn Musgrave · Addicted!

I remember my Dad's 62 Biscayne, 235 with 3 on the tree. He bought it new and nothing but grief. When it was about 3 - 3 1/2 yrs old had to do a motor job. No power, over heating and using oil. To address the over heating he ran 2 cans of Gillet's Lye through it in an attempt to flush it out. That's potent stuff but didn't do the trick. In the end he took the tank off the rad and used a dip stick to rod out the rad cores and used a bent coat hanger to poke around in the water journals of block and head to get the crud out of them. You're hoping to dump this car so I'd just remove the thermostat and consider only tightening the rad cap to the first notch and not all the way. If it dumps too much water you'll have to put it on all the way but hopefully it will keep it from building up pressure and not stressing the system. Hopefully that will work. Check the heater core to see if it's a possible source of your leak, if so by-pass it. GOOD LUCK!

Morty · Veteran Member

So yah the rad does leak, pretty badly too! I do keep the rad cap loose so it doesn't have as much pressure but for example in a 30 Km trip the rad is down about 1/8th so its not great. I'm waiting to hear from the film company and trying to figure out what Im going to do with this thing if I don't sell it....Oh yea heater core does also leak a bit I've found water on the passenger side floor.