Route 66 Fun Run 2009

[C9]

2009 Route 66 Fun Run

Three days of fun the first days of May, a small misadventure and a few pics.


Friday

Friday, ran the 25 miles to Hackberry to see hot rods and customs pass by on their way to Kingman from Seligman.

Seligman is about 70 miles south of Hackberry.

Hackberry, which I've posted about before is a good destination just for the heck of it.
Runnin' the 25 miles takes just about the right amount of time in hot weather to get ready for an ice cream or Route 66 Root Beer - a local brand.

This pic of my 32 and shows the front tires flopped so the WW's are to the inside.


I'd gotten used to the WW's on the outside, ran that way since last summer when I did the WW experiment all the way round.
Still dinking around with the 4 ½" x 15 slot mags for the front and have new BW's for those, but have been getting a little wear from the WW's which are on 5 ½" x 14" wheels.
Anyway, I came to the realization that the WW's up front made the car look shorter in that area.
An area on the Deuces, especially so the roadsters where shortness doesn't look right.


Here's a couple of interesting cars found at Hackberry.
This first one, a six-wheeler.


The owner builds some interesting stuff along these lines and this car is as well done as the others.

An old Dodge that's up for sale.


They were asking 10K for it although I'm guessing it may go for less.
Neat old car, all there far as I could tell and it's supposed to be a good runner.
Got the largest speedometer I ever saw in a car . . . inclding cop cars.


Shown here, about 25-30 miles out of Seligman headed south.


And a shot of the dash et al showing where things settle out running 70 mph on a 90* F day.


This shot is a little closer to the east/west ridge line and shows part of the rather majestic landscape just north of Seligman.


The area is accessible for the public, all you have to do is sign in at the ranch headquarters.
Arizona game and fish works hard with the big ranches so the public does have access.
We hear there is a large ground squirrel population that needs thinning out so we need to get in there with the 4x4's.
The area is so huge that taking two 4x4's is a decidedly good idea.

Last time I made the Seligman run in the roadster - tail end of last summer if I remember right - I wrote it up in a little missive titled Days of Whine and Roadsters.
I ran down to Seligman on Route 66 (95 miles from Kingman going that route) and came back on I-40 (70 miles from Kingman going that way).

This time I rolled through town, saw quite a few cars with perhaps eight of them lined up to get their Fun Run packages.
I think most may have signed in and made the Seligman-Kingman run on Saturday.

I ran back to Hackberry on Route 66, had a Polish dog and root beer, then back to Kingman.

Open carry is legal in Arizona and it was interesting to watch some of the Europeans reactions when they spotted the store owner's 9mm auto he had on his side.

A lot of folks from other countries tour Arizona, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Skywalk etc. and if it's not a tour bus pulled in for a break, it's folks in rental cars or an organized bike tour.
Rent a Harley if you will.


Saturday

The day started out innocently enough.
Plans were to run to Hackberry, meet some folks from Prescott then back to Kingman for the car show.

CK's 46 conked out about halfway there and we didn't know it till we saw a roadster belonging to one of the guys in our little group headed back to Kingman.

I didn't realize the passenger was CK until we spotted a big white blob up the two laner a ways.
We spotted the 46 with CK's sweetie sitting patiently and she told us what was going on.
The guys had run back to get CK's car trailer.



As you can see, she wasn't too bothered by it all.

Another view, looking north cuz it was a *' day to be runnin' the Dez.


The skies here are most beautiful and clouds bring in cooler weather.
The weather was just about perfect for all three days.

CK got back with his open tandem trailer and big Dodge pickup and was a touch worried that the 46 wouldn't run good enough to drive on the trailer.
A reasonable worry since the car was running so rough when he slowed down to pull a U-turn, the engine quit and he had just enough speed on to get off the highway.

Looked to be a carb problem, but with some of the weird things the previous owner had done to it, thinking was to get it off the road and take it back to CK's shop where we could work on it in a safe manner.

The engine lit off, but ran rough.
CK ran it up on the trailer, tied it down and we took off for Kingman.

Him, headed for home and shop.
Us headed to my house to grab a Carter 750 - known to be a good one - that we could stick on the 302 SBF in place of the Edelbrock 600 that was giving us problems.

The swap took the two of us about 20 minutes, the engine lit off, idle speed was adjusted and we were in business.

Granted, the 750 was jetted/rodded for 350' altitude and a 462" engine, but it worked well on the little Ford with it's moderate cam, headers and aluminum intake.

My guess was that the pump was putting out too much pressure, but that idea was shelved - albeit temporarily - since the 750 wasn't flooding the engine at idle like the 600 did.


The run to the car show went off without a hitch and we enjoyed the day.

Surprising to me, there were just under 600 cars there.
Thinking back on Hackberry and the few cars that went by in a two hour period on Friday as well as Seligman not being as loaded with cars as it usually was, I figured the car show count would be down.

Not to be though.
A lot of locals do the Saturday only car show . . . which is a shame since there's a lot fun in making a partial or full run to Seligman on Friday, Car show on Saturday and the run to Oatman and Topock on Sunday.


A few pics of cars - and a truck - that I liked.





This last one, a sweet little 54 Ford coupe.
Started life as a business coupe, but got the trim, back seats etc. from the more expensive model.
I think the mileage total on the car was well under 100K including all the driving the long-time owner had done with it.
302 SBF fwiw.

I had one of these in the early 60's.
239 Y-block, auto trans and power steering which was a bit of a rarity on the 54's.
Sky Blue in color, I got it for $90. from a co-worker who'd bought it for his daughter for $125.
The front end had a shimmy in it when it reached highway speeds and he deemed it too expensive to have it fixed.
All it took was a new idler arm which cost $9.00 and a few days later a set of new blackwalls had the sky blue coupe looking good.

Since I was still building my Rocket powered Shoebox coupe, I let my bother-in-law talk me out of it.
Made sense because Sweetie had her 11,000 mile 53 Ford 4-door her grandparents had give her and the 50 wasn't too far from running.

I made a small profit on the car and two days later bother-in-law slid sideways into a rock wall in front of the Ventura School for Girls out on the Avenue.
The car was totaled and dragged off to the junkyard.



Sunday


I think CK was a little worried about breaking down on Sunday doing the Oatmn/Topock bit.
And for good reason perhaps, it's a narrow and winding road headed to Oatman and no place to have a breakdown so he elected to stay home.

And to answer your wondering about what was wrong with the carb, I went up to his shop Monday with my pressure tester and it showed exactly 5#.
Within limits for pump and carb.

My next thought was gunk holding the needle off the seat.
The fuel filter looked clean, but since he and another pal had rebuilt the carb a few weeks back, I was thinking the float setting could be off, but kinda doubted it cuz the guy wielding the screwdrivers and wrenches knows his way around a carb pretty good.
He's patient and does good work.

Anyhoo, they took it apart a few days later and found a drowned float.
I thought they coulda drained it and soldered it back up, done that a few times my own self, but CK elected to buy new floats which were cheap enough at $16.


Everyone seemed to be burned out and turned down the Sunday stuff, but I'd been enjoying the now long-legged roadster with its 3.00 diff so much that I decided to do the last part of the run on my own.

Got off to a late start so I missed the big parade and start at the car show site near locomotive park, but that was ok.
Last year running the twisty's up the hill got a bit slow and crowded, but traffic kept rolling - 15-25 per - so no big deal, but this year I kinda had the road to myself.

First stop before it got windy was at Cool Springs.
Found this neat 55 Ford wagon out front when I stopped in to see how the tourist oriented store was doing with it's new building.
Lots of good stuff and Sweetie missed some good shopping.



Next stop was just down from the summit on the Oatman side.
Quite a view of the winding downhill and the desert & mountains off to the S/W.

Couple of pics.


My roadster and a local roadster run by a guy who volunteers for a lot of hot rod stuff in town.
The roadsters nice, but his kickass 38 Chevy panel with - I think - built 383 small block is a hard runner.
He'd been there since 0830 and I stopped in at 1:00 PM or so.


Another view showing some of the cars that stopped in.


The stocker belongs to the local paper's photographer and you can see it's a great place to grab some on the road pics of the Fun Run.

Shown here is the red roadsters good looking wheel.
I think it's from a late Explorer or similar.
What's different is the center hub.


Never seen one like it and it sets the wheel off pretty good.

Here's a roadster I know you're gonna like.


The owner is reputed to be quite the flathead builder and if the sounds from the engine are any indication, I agree.

A view of the engine.


Neat, neat car.


When things slowed down a bit and most of the folks had come by, the red roadster owner and I took off.
Him for Kingman and me for Oatman.
Gettin' kinda thirsty out and the next stop was Oatman just a few miles down the road.
The 32 in it's on Main Street parking which can be a rarity.


Last year we ended up parking my 32 part way up a dirt mound.
Sorta 4x4 like, ya know?

I hit the small and old hotel after finding there was an ATM inside.
After that, a few steps to the bar next door and you can see the . . . umm . . . decorations.



Note the old and yellowed with age bills on the ceiling and the newer stuff is stapled on top of them and hangs down in the breeze.
The bar ceiling, all the walls, the doorways and bannisters down the steps into the adjacent restaurant are covered with bills.
I'll bet there's five grand in ones covering everything.

Still can't find Lone Star so I had a Stella Artois which wasn't bad at all.

Kinda hard to judge a beer when it's so hot and dry out.
Any old beer works then.

Weather, as noted was pretty ideal for the run.

Summer is coming on, but it's only running in the low 90's and it's not a big deal if you're somewhat acclimated to it.
The low humidity helps as well.

Went rocking down the hill to Topock, perhaps another 30 miles or so.
Once out of town the sweeping, but not overly sharp curves were fun.
I started out leading maybe ten cars and when we rolled into Topock there was one yellow sporty type car behind me and the others were way back.

We weren't pushing it that hard, but the 32 corners pretty good and it's fun to push it a little bit.
Safe stuff on the mostly deserted road.

Shown here is a nice 32 that is based in either Laughlin or Lake Havasu.


Nice little car and it's near the front of the Community Center parking lot where the run ends, burgers, dogs, beer, soda and ice cream is served and the award plaques passed out.

I shot the pics to show the narrow radials up front.
Not meant to start a radials vs bias argument/war/discussion, but just to show that you can find narrow radials.
The little roadster has a nice stance and I like his tires better than the slightly fatter ones on the front of my 32.

A close-up of the tire size.



This roadster also photographed to show its narrow tires, although not quite as narrow as the 32's.


A close-up of its tire size.


I don't know why the drivers side fender is off, it was on at the Saturday show.

After a burger, a Bud and some ice cream, that was enough for me.
About 4:00 PM and they were still handing out awards and most of the raffle was over.

On the way from Topock to the river.
You can see a pipe line crossing and some of the railroad river crossing bridge.


On the small grade up to the frontage road and on to the I-40 freeway overpass.



This area hasn't changed much since we crossed it in dad's new 50 Ford sedan.
And before that, his 47 and 42 Fords.
In summer . . . running a flathead . . . they'll do it, just gotta keep em running right.

Running the frontage road on the left side of the freeway.


Shown is the Arizona State sign although the border is in the center of the river.

A shot of the river turning away from the crossing - which is between Needles, about 15-20 miles up the road and Kingman, about 60 miles down the road.


Running for home at 75 per with the 75 mph speed limit sign up the road a bit.


The roadster used to have some speeds it liked to settle out at when it ran 3.70's.
With the 3.00's it just keeps gaining speed unless you watch it.
It seems now that it settles out in a smooth run at just about any speed.

For the most part, all about balance.
Balanced engine, balanced driveshaft, balanced and true running wheels.

Not to mention a good balance of activities spread over three days and about 370 miles all told.

Way better than hanging out at the Saturday night rod run.

The Saturday night runs are fun, but gimme a few hundred miles any time over just standing around at a run that's about 4 miles from the house.
In fact, I had so much fun, that a few days later, I did a 130 mile round trip for a cheeseburger at Rosie's which is about 20 miles south of Hoover Dam on Hwy 93.

Good trip, good cheeseburger and all in all another good day....

[zzford]

Jay, thanks for the post. Between the photos and the story, I felt like I was there. I always enjoy your coverage of stuff like that. It makes you feel like, even when your car is down, you can still enjoy the lifestyle. Thanks again, Fred

[Crosley.In.AZ]

kool  report

[kb426]

Very good.

[58Apache]

Thanks for the ride! Enjoyed.

[Norm Old paint]

That white Jaguar rod's fender is missing because he took it off on the road between Oatman and Topoc.  We saw him stopped on the side of the road futzing around with it, so we stopped and loaned him a crescent wrench. One of the two bolts holding the fender on was gone and the fender was acting scary.  We haven't seen our truck in anyone's photos, but we were in the blue 67 F-250 4X4 with stock wheels.  Big tires are not cool, especially when you have no power steering.  We like the skinny tire rods we saw. And especially the flatties.  This was our second Fun Run, having done it in 2006.We are me, Norman (52), my daughter Molly (11) and son Mark (9). Hope to see you guys next year !

[C9]

Norm, here's the Website to a bunch of pics a local photog took.

http://www.route66wingsandwheels.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2412

A local forum.


He tries hard to catch every car/truck and you may be in them.

Either at the show or on the road to Oatman and lots of times at Seligman as well.

You might check on the pics from last years run as well.


I hear you on the big truck/no poer steering bit.

A few years back my 77 Ford F-250 with big tires and little steering wheel lost the power steering in wine country north of San Francisco.

The loss wasn't complete, but those winding roads....