Car Gods On The Hill

2006-12-31T18:46:00.000-08:00

2006-11-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share this picture with you. This is my favorite picture off our internal web site for the Nursery.

2006-09-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Evan!!!

2006-09-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while...our life is just sooo exciting. But, here is the reason we bought the Flying brick to take to Montana.

This used to be a 34 ford sedan. The back of the car was cut off and the back and roof of a 37 chevy truck was welded on. They put steel on the frame to extend the rear to create the bed. Even though we removed the front and rear bumpers it still was 3 inches too long! We were going to shorten the bed anyway, so we cut about 2 feet off the flatbed - not the frame but the steel extensions. This was parked inside since 1957. There's hardly any surface rust. The bolts just needed to be started and they came off easy. The seat disintigrated and all that was left was the frame and cushion pieces. One of the tires acually had air in it. Only one wheel had to be changed and all four wheels held air for the complete trip. After we got home did one of the tires go flat. Not bad for 50 year old tires!

I'll keep you up on the progress of this project - it's not going to be quick....

2006-08-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

We made it back !!!!

We finally made it back from Montana. It took us 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back. We didn't leave until around 3 pm on the first day and ended up getting towed into Winnemucca that night. We had the tow truck driver drop us off at the Kragens store. We slept in the truck and waited for them to open at 8 that morning. After replacing the voltage regulator and buying another new battery (we just bought this one the day before we left) we were on the road again at 10:30. Around Wells we were running extremely hot and the truck was having problems restarting at gas stations. We had to keep letting the truck cool down before we could start. We ended up staying over at Jackpot NV the second day. At 3:30 am we left Jackpot and continued with our adventure. The truck kept getting hot and we ended up parking next to gas stations and while leaving the truck running with the hood up, began filling the tank with the 4 jerry cans and walking the jerry cans over and filling those up. It was a long journey. We arrived at his uncles at 9:30 that night - minus a power steering hose and the radiator boiling over. What an entrance!! We ended up buying another starter and new belts during our stay.

All in all the visit went well and we left on Wednesday morning around 2am. We stopped in Livingston for lunch and decided we should get a room and fix somemore problems we were having - the sidemarker lights and tailights had gone out, the rear differential was leaking and we needed to buy more gear oil, and the truck continues to get hot. At one point I think I was driving about 40 mph on the freeway! Oh yea, the speedometer doesn't work so we really didn't know how fast (slow) we were going. We were guessing by timing ourselves with the milemarkers, unless we were going exactly 60 seconds a mile we could only guess the speed.

We decided we would drive at night and sleep during the day. We left Livingston at midnight and headed towards West Yellowstone. The only problem with travelling at night is that most gas stations are closed. The good thing is I could use a card at the pump. Just think if we were travelling 20 years ago! We made it to Elko, NV the second night and decided to add new sealant to the rear differential to stop the leaking. We were adding 1-2 quarts every hour. It only holds about 3 quarts!

We were on the road again at midnight and found that the temp gauge was reading hot already in the middle of the night. I proceeded to limp into Winnemucca where we were expecting to see a boiling over radiator. When we lifted the hood we couldn't see or feel any signs of the motor melting! We figured that we probably messed up the gauge when we overheated at his uncles and decided to ignore that gauge. Back on the road we picked up our speed and headed to Boomtown for breakfast. It was nice to be going our top speed again 60 mph!

Anyway, we finally made it home at 10:30 that morning and had the truck unloaded in an hour.

It's good to be home!!!

2006-08-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

It's alive!!!!!!!

We took the flying brick for a test run last night! Drove down into Cool and back. Needs to have the carb adjusted and some leaks fixed, including some exhaust leaks. One more weekend to work on it. We leave on the 9th!! So close!! Unfortunately, we probably won't have any money to spend when we get there since we've put so much into the brick. Just last Saturday we had to make a run up to Summit to get an intake manifold and electronic ignition and other things - $500 later. We were trying to calculate how much gas we'll need to buy for this trip - 500 gallons one way! We're almost thinking of calling this the money pit!! I almost can't wait for this trip to get over so we can stop putting money into this truck. This is going to be a really nice truck when it's all done tho.

2006-07-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

We are running out of time....

We've got 3 weekends left before we leave to Montana. We're not going to have enough time to paint the cab. We're only going to primer it, so at least it will be one color. Later on we'll take it down to metal and primer and paint it. Just a bunch of little things left. Except for the rear differential. The guys started to work on it this morning but found they had the wrong part. So maybe they'll put it together after work this week. We still need to go get ramp material and build a ramp to get the '34 in the back of the truck.

At least the inside of the cab is now clean. We have the seat in and 3 sets of seatbelts hooked up. The stereo is in and the dash is put back together. All that's left in the cab to paint the ceiling black. We need to find one more door panel and paint that black also. Pretty much all we got done today was install the radiator support and radiator and hoses, sand the bondo on the fenders and doors, and then sand the doors and fenders to prep for the primer. It was extremely hot today which made it hard to work. Tommorrow is supposed to be really hot too! Hopefully it will cool off a little by the weekend.

2006-06-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Ran into a new obstacle last weekend. Found out that the ring and pinion gear in the rearend are ready to grenade. We now have to fix that at probaby another $500. We've decided that we have to keep the dodge now. We wouldn't be able to get our money back that we've put into this. We're progressing right along though. The seat has a new seat cover, the floor of the cab has been painted with Por15 then herculiner was brushed on, the dash has been painted and will go back in, got the radiator back and will put back in. Been spending most of all our free time on this thing. Hopefully this weekend won't be as hot and humid as last weekend. Real miserable!!!

On a different note....We got Deja's stone yesterday. It looks real nice. Total time from ordering (including shipping) was 3 weeks. Now that we got it we can match the slate and then finish her grave. The light was wired and looks pretty cool at night reflecting off the fence.

2006-06-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Flying Brick....

Almost everything exept the motor and trans is being replaced on the dodge. Pretty much the mechanical stuff is almost done - just need the radiator, some tranny lines, a couple of belts, a new battery and a couple more things. A little body work on the front, spray on some paint, finish cleaning the cab, put the seat cover on the new seat, buy 4 tires for the rear, finish putting the exterior cab lights on, new windshield wiper motor,,,, okay, just a few more things to do.

You can see why we call it the Flying Brick. It should be real aerodynamic.

Picture this in that rootbeer colored paint with the metal flakes.

When it's put back together we are going to go on a trial run up to Boomtown. Have some breakfast, deposit some money and come home. The ride over Donner Summit should be a good test for the old Brick.

2006-06-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Flying Brick

We bought a 72 Dodge 1ton dually with a 14' box on the back. We're pretty much rebuilding this thing so we can take it back to Montana this summer. I only have a few photos to show right now. Unfortunatly, I don't have any of the whole truck yet. Here are the photos we do have. We bought this thing in North San Juan and broke down in Auburn and had to have it towed home. We started home at 7:30 and finally got home around 1 in the morning. LONG NIGHT!!

This photo shows the special racing parts on the fuel line. That's plastic wrap held on with a rubberband.Here's the inside of the cab after we took the seat out. It is full of rat crap and blackberries and vines.

You can see the special air conditioned seating for your comfort.

We figured it was a good thing we couldn't get the engine started when we stopped for gas. This tire wouldn't have made it home. It didn't look like this when we started.