Road Trip Stories

[jgarverick]

So Jons cross country trip thread made me start thinking of past roadtrips and some of the crazy things that happened on them.

The first trip I took my 64 on was down to my uncles in SC when I was at Fort Bragg NC in 2003 or so. I was driving down I95 with my buddy Frank. About half way there and we're just cruising along. I had my hand on the shifter (4 spd floor shift) when the stupid thing just fell over. Apparently whoever installed the handle hadn't bothered to use locknuts, lock washers or loctite. So my buddy pulled out a leatherman and took the shifter boot off and then shoved the two ends of the leathermans needle nose pliers into the two mounting holes and held them there until i got off the highway and into a hardware store parking lot. Ended well, but I was sure nervous for a second doing 75 down I95 with the shifter laying on the floorboard. I've had other things go wrong, but I'd have to say that one was the most unique.

Anyone else have something strange happen to them on a roadtrip?

[markeb01]

Not in my truck, but in my 67 Chevelle. We went on a journey from the California bay area to the Worlds Fair in Canada, then South Dakota and back, somewhere around 3,000 miles round trip.

We were within a few hundred miles from home when the engine suddenly backfired violently and the engine went dead. I pulled over, popped the hood and found the distributor had been jerked out of position by about 90 degrees and the cap was broken into multiple large pieces. I loosened the distributor, yanked it around to about where it needed to be, and tightened it back down. All the cap pieces were still there because they were hanging on the plug wires. After a thorough search of the car, the only adhesive I came up with was a brand new box of Band-Aids. So I taped all the parts together with the entire box of Band-Aids. It ran very rough and missed like crazy. The strips were too stretchy and didn’t appreciate the engine heat, but held together long enough to get us all the way home.

Once we got home I installed a new cap, set the timing, and it was like nothing ever happened. Never did figure out what caused the problem, but I thought the field repair was somewhat resourceful.

[jgarverick]

hahaha, that's genius. I can just imagine that cobbled together mess, bandaids all over... I don't suppose you took a picture of that handiwork did you?

[markeb01]

I'm sorry to say I didn't, I wish I had. I was just so glad to the car running again and get home it never occurred to me at the time!

But here’s another road trip adventure where I do have a picture, and learned a person should never stop at a gas station when a gasoline truck is filling the underground tanks. It stirs up the sediment in the tanks which can be pumped right into your car.

This photo was taken about 10 miles out of some small town in the Sonora mountains on a 100 degree day. I had a hard time even getting to the pumps because of the tanker, and made it this far before the engine choked to a stop on mud and water. The electric fuel pump was packed with crud which completely stopped the fuel flow. My older son took this picture while I disconnected the fuel line to clear the pump, and pulled the drain plug out of the bottom of the gas tank. It rained mud and water for over a minute before gasoline started coming out. Although the photo looks like its on flat ground, the car was actually uphill quite a bit. That's me on the ground under the back with gas splashing and running all over. It took over an hour to get the engine restarted, and my clothes reeked of gas the rest of the day.

[LeftCoast32]

I have a pretty good story from picking up my 1966 Chevrolet K15

I live just North of San Diego, CA (Southern California). The 66 was located up by San Francisco (Northern California). I drove my 2008 HD2500 4WD with Duramax and Allison up to get her. I stopped and grabbed a couple of friends that wanted to make the trip with me. I had reserved a long wide trailer with U-Haul that I would pick up just a few miles from the truck.

All went well on the trip up. When we got to the truck I was pretty impressed by the overall condition. The brakes were marginal at best, the radiator was leaking, the power steering conversion was a mess and there were alot of other small issues like the points getting a full 12 volts (this will burn through a set of points in a hurry).

I was told by the previous owner that he had owned her for over 10 years. He had only put about 50 miles on her the whole time and that was done around his neighborhood 1 block at a time. The owner before him had it for over 14 years and left it in a storage unit the whole time.

I was able to play with a few of the major issues like the points and carb adjustment. Then I hopped in to make the trip of about 10 miles to the location of the reserved trailer.

We got to the location leaking power steering fluid everywhere and the brakes were a bit scary to say the least. They were the original non power drums and trying to stop the 35" tires proved to be a real chore on the leg.

I patched what I could and made a few adjustments to be able to drive it right up on the trailer.

I went in with my reservation paperwork to get the trailer and here is where it starts to get good. They had no idea what I was talking about. They said that headquarters U-Haul does this all the time. The only trailers that they had could fit in the bed of the truck at best.

We spent the next 2 hours with U-Haul on the phone contacting every other location within 50 miles for the size trailer we needed. Nothing came up anywhere even with other carriers.

I was not about to leave the truck after driving almost 10 hours to get her. So work began to patch everything I could to make her road worthy. The trip back was an experience I will not soon forget.

It was over 100 degrees driving the Grapevine (5 Freeway) from Northern California down to Southern California. We stopped for gas every 1/2 tank to let here cool down and do a few maintenance checks along the way.

The floor vents were full of rats nests, I made the mistake of opening them when I was dripping in sweat. You can use your imagination on what happened there.

She made the whole trip under her own power. She has been driven by me just about every day since. As things break I fix them. It has been 2 years and she is still driven almost every day. The best part is she has not left me stranded even once. She has put me on the side of the road a few times because of the old points and a leaking carb but that is it.

It was a great trip that really made the purchase and ownership that much better! I finally started on all the parts to give her a proper restoration (signature below on her build).

[PGSigns]

Many years ago when my wife and I were dating (married 25 years now)we went to see some friends we took my 66 truck. Still all stock with the 6 banger. On the way home it just quit while going down the road. First thing she said was we were out of gas. I said no, we had a foot of gas. With a real bad look on her face she said "a foot, what the hell is a foot of gas" so I pulled the wooden dowel from behind the seat I used to check the fuel level and popped the cap and stuck the stick in the tank and showed her the gas was about a foot up the stick so we had a foot of gas. Ended up needing a new fuel pump but we were not out of gas. We had a foot. First thing she asked when I got the 65 was if the fuel gauge was going to work or if I needed a new stick for this truck. Some things they never forget.
Jimmy

[66redw/white]

when i was in high school i had an 83 chevy and a 93 mustang. right after graduation both of them died on me. the motor blew on the chevy because of my hot rodding a motor with 250 thousand plus miles on it. and the tranny blew on the mustang from 4 years of power shiftin. plus its a ford... anyway at the time it seemed like a good idea to get rid of both of them and buy a saturn. young and dumb. what can i say. so i moved to austin but still made tons and tons of trips to hawkins tx. one time leavin a gas station i get on it and go to slam it into second and i break the shifter linkage! now im stuck in first. of course with a nice new econo car why would anybody keep tools in vehicle with them? so i have nothing to fix it with. i just happed to see a army surplus store so i limp it on over there. they had the esentials. duck tape. bailing wire. needless to say i repaired my little saturn and headed on down the road. drove it that way for the next 5 years.

[andyh1956]

back in '72 i was trying to date my future wife but her parents wouldn't let me (we have been married 36 years now & they still don't like me) so one of my buddies said "no problem" and went to pick her up for a date in his '56 chevy. after depositing her in my '57 chevy we went our separate ways until the agreed upon rendezvous time at the grocery store. of course i was late as i slid into the parking lot on two wheels, only to find the hood up on his '56. the generator had fell off! holy crap! it didn't take me 5 min to get mine off & swap it over to his car! if generator swapping had been an Olympic event that night i would have won the gold!
andy

[66redw/white]

gotta get her home ontime! lol.

[andyh1956]

hey markeb01 i remember another one similar to your dizzy cap problem. in high school i had taken a perfectly good '56 chevy 210 2 door & pulled the body off & shortened it 30". 265 iron glide- what a bomb! anyway we found an 850 fiat spider body in the woods & we mounted it on my '56 chassis, it was a perfect fit! the trunk wouldn't fit now with the engine sticking up through the hole but was it cool or what! any way one day i was showing off getting some air over the railroad tracks when the body came lose & slid forward & busted the dizzy cap in three pieces. after diagnosing the problem & getting the body back where it belonged i took the purple shoe laces outta my converse all star sneakers & tied the cap back together & made it home! only in america! is this a great country or what?!
andy

[jgarverick]

OK I have one more. Somehow I forgot about this. This was sometime after 9/11 and I was the proud new owner of a 1969 AMC Javelin that I bought off an officer at Fort Bragg. I could tell the brakes were going out on it, really spongy and had to pump them a bit. I had a new master on order but it would be a few days. So there's this girl I've been wanting to date forever and she finally said yes. So I picked her up and we're heading down the hill away from her apartment complex, at the bottom of which is a stop sign. So I'm pulling up to the stop sign and put my foot to the pedal and the damn thing goes all the way to the floor. Slid her sideways out into the highway traffic and managed to get it pulled over to the side without anyone dying. She has no idea what just happened and jumps out of the car screaming at me and telling me what a crazy $^&#$ a-hole I am. Limped home using the parking brake. She was really cute too.

[andyh1956]

my wife would have laughed & asked for me to do it again, she wasn't ready!
andy

[66redw/white]

reminds me of my 66 (darlenne). when i first got her it had a bad exhaust leak and would backfire all the time. i blew out a hard line on it like the 2nd or 3rd day i owned it. slowin down when like this.
let off the gas in 3rd. bow! down shift into second. ba bow bow! jam it down into first back tires locked up just a bit cuz of how short the gears are then BRRAAAAAAAAP BOW! then just alittle bit of e brake. it was fun.

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by andyh1956

it didn't take me 5 min to get mine off & swap it over to his car! if generator swapping had been an Olympic event that night i would have won the gold!
andy

What a crack up! Amazing what a little enthusiasm can do when you're trying not to get caught!!

[geezer#99]

Many moons ago when I was a young lad I worked for a land surveying company. In the early 70's. WE were out in Resume Speed Saskatchewan 50 miles from the nearest citizen when chunka! chunka! the fan belt explodes into tiny pieces.
Easy fix. We used some orange survey flagging tape. Stretched it around the pulleys and made our own belt. Got us back to the nearest service station about 20 miles away. We were driving a 70 Impala. Always parts available for them.
Better than sleeping in the car and living on sardines for a couple days. LOL!!!

[andyh1956]

ok one more & i will quit hoggin the thread. back about '70 or so my budd's brother came home from viet nam & bought a new 3/4 ton big block 4x4 ford. i got invited to go hog hunting with them in Arkansas. we were traveling at night across the mississippi delta pullin an old m38 jeep & my budd asks his bro "how fast ya goin?" he said "'bout 80, why?" budd says "what if you lose that jeep?" bro replied "what if i lose it at 60?" rock on another couple hours & got time for a fuel stop close to the river at greenville. there were no service stations back then open in the middle of the night so we were doing our fueling with jerry cans. 1st thing we noticed was that jeep was GONE! they thought about going back to look for it, then thought about fighting about it, then decided to press on & drink some MORE beer! the good old days. i am SO GLAD i lived through them!
andy

always wondered where that jeep landed at 80 mph!

[markeb01]

Okay I’ve got one more too, and then I’ll stop hogging the thread as well. I had just been stationed at MCAS Yuma, bought what appeared to be a very clean 1960 Plymouth Valiant and headed out of town on a picnic. We were a considerable distance out of town when I noticed the temp gauge was pegged over beyond hot. We pulled into a gas station and topped off the radiator. Thinking we might have trouble, we turned around and headed back for town. A few miles later the engine started chugging and spewing coolant out the overflow. I pulled over to top it off again, but the only liquid we had available was a 6 pack of Mug Root Beer we were going to have for lunch. The radiator drank all of it.

As we descended a long hill I ran the car up to over 100 mph, hoping we would get home faster before it totally overheated, or at least could coast farther if it did. Just as we leveled at the bottom of the hill – BAM! There was a loud explosion and the windshield was covered in brown crap so thick I couldn’t see where I was going. I got the car to a stop safely, expecting to find the cylinder head laying off to one side, or a big hole in the block.

The only thing that happened was the lower radiator hose exploded, spewing coolant out through the radiator and onto the windshield. There were some shreds of hose on both ends and the clamps, the rest was gone. In what seemed like 10 seconds, a state trooper pulled up behind us. I figured I was going to get a ticket, but either he didn’t see how fast I was going (doubtful) or he just felt sorry for a couple of young idiots. He gave us a ride into town where we picked up a hose and got a ride back to the car. Not sure of the lesson here, other than carbonated root beer probably doesn’t make very good engine coolant!

[GOPAPA]

Man these are some good stories ,,one can just close your eyes and feel like you are there ..

I told this one before ,but it's a pretty unusual one also , and just like before not a lot of guys knew this could be done ..My daddy taught me ..

I owned a 56 Chevy PickUp at the time and while at work the battery went dead so for me to get into town and buy a lunch this is what I had to do to get it started.

I jacked up left rear wheel and put the truck in high gear .. I turned the ignition key on and then went back to the wheel and turned the wheel by hand until the truck started ..

I then of course scurried and took it out of gear ,,unjacked the truck and went to town .

[andyh1956]

i can't stand it! one more! larry, it's your fault, your story brought back this memory! it didn't happen to me, but i was indirectly involved. my school mate's dad had a '54 stude 3/4 ton pickup. now we kids all used that truck to hunt in. it was lwb & would hold all of our dogs & all we could catch around the neighborhood. one day while we were at school my bud's dad needed to haul some lumber home from the sawmill & the stude wouldn't start. the jumper cables were misplaced (they were in my bud's trunk of his mustang at school) so he jacked the truck up & was gonna spin the wheel to crank it like larry described. well, he couldn't turn it by himself. so what follows is a prime example of mississippi "use whatcha got" to get the job done. he wrapped a length of rubber hose around the rear tire & tied the end to his '69 datsun pickup. switch on, choke out, contact! away the little datsun went. what happened next almost defies description. the old stude fired up & jumped the jack it was perched on the left side & proceeds to change zip codes! it took off across the drive, hit the shop & knocked the air compressor over, changed directions a little & ran over a brand new picknik table making tooth picks outta it & shot outta the yard like a greased cucumber & dove head first into the pond. when we got outta school that day & headed for the shop bud's dad was sitting on the back porch looking at the carnage & asked us to help him get the tractor started so we could pull the stude outta the pond. we spent all weekend getting the stude roadworthy again, re-plumbing the air compressor & building a new picknik table before his wife got home.
we never had the nerve to tell him that the previous year we had welded the diff gears together to give the old stude better traction!
andy

[firenuttz]

Originally Posted by andyh1956

i can't stand it! one more! larry, it's your fault, your story brought back this memory! it didn't happen to me, but i was indirectly involved. my school mate's dad had a '54 stude 3/4 ton pickup. now we kids all used that truck to hunt in. it was lwb & would hold all of our dogs & all we could catch around the neighborhood. one day while we were at school my bud's dad needed to haul some lumber home from the sawmill & the stude wouldn't start. the jumper cables were misplaced (they were in my bud's trunk of his mustang at school) so he jacked the truck up & was gonna spin the wheel to crank it like larry described. well, he couldn't turn it by himself. so what follows is a prime example of mississippi "use whatcha got" to get the job done. he wrapped a length of rubber hose around the rear tire & tied the end to his '69 datsun pickup. switch on, choke out, contact! away the little datsun went. what happened next almost defies description. the old stude fired up & jumped the jack it was perched on the left side & proceeds to change zip codes! it took off across the drive, hit the shop & knocked the air compressor over, changed directions a little & ran over a brand new picknik table making tooth picks outta it & shot outta the yard like a greased cucumber & dove head first into the pond. when we got outta school that day & headed for the shop bud's dad was sitting on the back porch looking at the carnage & asked us to help him get the tractor started so we could pull the stude outta the pond. we spent all weekend getting the stude roadworthy again, re-plumbing the air compressor & building a new picknik table before his wife got home.
we never had the nerve to tell him that the previous year we had welded the diff gears together to give the old stude better traction!
andy

win

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by andyh1956

i can't stand it! one more! larry, it's your fault, your story brought back this memory! it didn't happen to me, but i was indirectly involved. my school mate's dad had a '54 stude 3/4 ton pickup. now we kids all used that truck to hunt in. it was lwb & would hold all of our dogs & all we could catch around the neighborhood. one day while we were at school my bud's dad needed to haul some lumber home from the sawmill & the stude wouldn't start. the jumper cables were misplaced (they were in my bud's trunk of his mustang at school) so he jacked the truck up & was gonna spin the wheel to crank it like larry described. well, he couldn't turn it by himself. so what follows is a prime example of mississippi "use whatcha got" to get the job done. he wrapped a length of rubber hose around the rear tire & tied the end to his '69 datsun pickup. switch on, choke out, contact! away the little datsun went. what happened next almost defies description. the old stude fired up & jumped the jack it was perched on the left side & proceeds to change zip codes! it took off across the drive, hit the shop & knocked the air compressor over, changed directions a little & ran over a brand new picknik table making tooth picks outta it & shot outta the yard like a greased cucumber & dove head first into the pond. when we got outta school that day & headed for the shop bud's dad was sitting on the back porch looking at the carnage & asked us to help him get the tractor started so we could pull the stude outta the pond. we spent all weekend getting the stude roadworthy again, re-plumbing the air compressor & building a new picknik table before his wife got home.
we never had the nerve to tell him that the previous year we had welded the diff gears together to give the old stude better traction!
andy

Andy ,,yours has gotta take the cake ..funny ,,and it's sad at the same time..

The rest of my story goes like this ..

After getting the truck started and off the jack ,,I drove to town and got a burger . I left the truck running while eating the burger then headed back out of town towards the little saw mill I was working at.

I came upon a little ol lady driving a Chrysler New Yorker who had her right turning signal on . She was edging off the road to the right so I darted around her passing when she changed her mind and turned left into me as I got beside her . Her big old car knocked me into a spin and there I sit ,,in the middle of the road with a dead battery wondering how all this happened..

The town fuzz shows up with shaving cream still on telling me I was in the wrong because I passed in an intersection .. and also because the little ol lady owned the laundry mat and some other bussiness and I owned none.

She got out of her car and begin telling me how I ruined the best car she ever owned . I mentioned that she hit me and she had her right blinker on . she went over to her car and turned the blinker off and that was the end of the story .. I got a jump and took my truck with the front of the right fender dented in and went back to work..

[GmtGmt]

More i love reading road trip stories i have a few my self but time to write them is hard to find

[andyh1956]

yeah we had a lot of fun growing up, a lot more fun than the rich kids have now. i can relate to your story about the fuzz & little old lady. high school was my 1st wake up to rich folks get treated a whole lot different than poor folks.
any way the feller that owned the stude was like my step dad, since mine wasn't around. sadly, he ain't around any more either.
that old stude was missing the pass side door glass. we had a red bone hound named stormy. he wasn't good for anything other than to wipe your feet on before you went into the house, he wouldn't hunt. so he was just a big 'ole pet & went almost every where with us. stormy slept in the old stude. the stude stayed parked by the barn, always facing east & stormy would jump through the open pass window to get inside. one day the stude was parked facing west for some reason & it came up a thunder shower & stormy headed for his refuge. one big jump and BAM! stormy hit the glass on the driver side! he shook his head, turned around, jumped again & BAM! hit it again! that dog musta hit that glass half a dozen times before he staggered off to the barn! sure miss stormy and that old stude!
andy

[CG]

Sure are a lot of really short "road trip" stories here

(still enjoyed em)

[GOPAPA]

How about a longer short trip story CG ..lol

This story was years ago when a 39 chevy was just an old car that one could find in a lot ol guys back yards for a little of nothing..

I had a job that took me over 10 miles of new highway construction and at the time I owned a 57 Chevy 2 door HT. The 57 was only 5 years old and real nice so I looked for a older car that I could use as a beater to drive over the rough road to work and back..

I found one for $50 bucks (39 Chevy master 2 door) and it had set for 7-8 years and needed a new clutch and radiator hose and battery and it was good to go .. but after a couple days it needed new points and plugs so I bought it all and put it in..

It wouldnt start so I had my brother in law pull me to get er going ..We pulled it about 5 miles and down the road I lived on some 3-4 times and still nothing. Took the distributor apart and found that I didnt put the rotor back in..Wanted to blame my BIL but he said no way ..LOL so we left the 39 and went back to the house and looked all over for it and decided it must be in the car somewhere..

Drove back and looked the car all over again and gave up and headed back to the house and looked some more .. Then decided to just go buy another and on the way to town I reached for a smoke and ,,guess what ? It was in my pocket all the time .. went back to the 39 put it in and it ran like anyother old Chevy 6 banger did and that how it happened ,,

I will go now and find a picture for ya ..