Or distant relative maybe?



Took the bird to work today - yes, I was brave! Ok - I waited until rush hour traffic was done and over with before I left the house. And I made sure the car would start and restart, and checked a couple other major components. Then I took the old girl for a little cruise. Drove very conservatively - longest drive she's been on in the past 6 months. 25 miles each way... you know what? That *really* chews up a lot of gas!

Tomorrow is supposed to be an even NICER day - but I think I'll leave the bird at home. Looks like someone else felt the need to take their cruiser out for a spin on a weekday. Didn't get a chance to talk to the guy, but I saw him come out of the store and take a look at my car before driving off. His has Z/28 badging on it - and looked very nice - for a Chebby that is.

Lookin' sharp Steve! Nice pic.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me about your "driver" quality vehicle.

Some friend you are. :p


LOL! Bastage.

Smitty - they do engine swaps on those tv car shows in like 3 hours. What's taking so long???? That thing had better be gold plated, and running 9's by the time you get her on the road again! :p

Most guys here could have installed a new engine and blown in up already in the amount of time it's taking you. Which, ironically, would put them in the same situation, but they would have spent $$ on the replacement engine - so maybe the tortoise wins the race?

Ashtray , sounds like my trip to theupholstery shop 3 yrs ago.... took the bird to the office so i couls sneak out early ,take it to the shop.... I came up on a 2 lane piece of road saw something blue up ahead , came up next to him , a blue /white Camaro, colors just like in your pics, he had a convertible though like I do,,, we cruised side by side for a little bit , nodding to ea other ,saying "nice car" etc... suddenly we get stoipped at an intersection where cops were...they get out in front of both of us , as were driving side by side... walk slowly around both cars, then :
" thanks , you can go now, we just wanted to stop you to look over the cars! nice cars!"

yesterday driving out from my street , I saw an AMG (Mercedes) SL 650 convertible(very nice and very new with paper plates) slow down as he crossed in front of me , thumbs up , and : "great car!"
you DO get noticed in these!

Darn! Mine is still in boxes and scattered througout my downstair's den. Once I park the computer, I'm going down and finish up fabricating the exaust system. Recall the last time I attempted to fabricate the tailpipes, and I was less than pleased. The problem was that without a welder, it was impossible to make the preformed peices fit properly. Now that I have a welder, it's coming out fairly civilized, but I did spend the better part of yesterday devoted cutting/mock fitting the parts.

The mickey mouse welder goes pretty slow, and to make sure that I don't burn the pos up, I give it a lot of cool down time.

Amervo,

I feel your pain. I have parts everywhere in the house except on the car. And no end in sight, so you're way ahead of me.

Steve, you can't complain about gas use. You've not even gone through one tank full this year!

Your car looks great, nicer than the blue with skunk trips next to it and they both look the best on the lot.

68 - well, you got me there! Totally busted. I'm still trying to burn up that gas I put in last fall. Ooops! I *did* put in like 6-7 gallons a month ago or so - Merv was there, he saw me do it!

Down to about 1/3 tank on the dial - which means 1/4 tank if I'm lucky. It's right around this point when the gauge starts to read empty and then back up to 1/4 tank depending on how the car is sitting, or if I'm on the gas or not!

Trying to burn up some oil as well to make room for the monkey pee I bought to add to the oil. "Restore" - we'll see if it does anything. Actually, the car has been running *really* smooth lately! No hot start problems - only that sputtering issue, which goes away (mostly) when the car warms up.

Drove the bird tonight 2 miles to the local store to pick up some things. Probably used 2 gallons the way I was driving it like a jerk - hitting the gas hard, then immediately letting off. Vrrooom-idle idle idle - Vrooom - idle idle idle... etc.

Btw - ask me how nervous I was backing into that parking space with a new Mercedes E class right behind me! Ugh. I made sure to give it some space - but I also wanted to line up the 2 cars as best as possible. hehehe

Ol' Blue made a friend this evening. After a cruise in the countryside with the kids I went to the bank to pay some bills and as I was walking up to the machine I looked over at the Starbuck's parking lot across the road and a 69 GTO convertible was pulling in. Payed the bills as quick as I could, Hopped in blue and went over to take a look and parked with the goat. Met up with the owners. They just purchased the car (their second GTO) today in Victoria which is 40 miles south of us and were driving it home to Fort St. John, BC which is about an 870 mile trip from here - Awsome drive. Sorry, no camera for a photo but it was a nice way to end the day here.

Camera phones are good for some things, even if quality is low. 870 mile trip in a vintage car they just bought? Whew! Good luck to them!!

You're right Ash.... maybe I should follow them in the Firebird just to make sure they get there ok I'm still mastering dialing a cell phone never mind taking pictures with one!

No biggie....my old Studebaker I had and sold 7 yrs ago was purchased last summer by people I now have met, also got to see my old car...they drove that old 57 a 6700 mile round trip to Spokane last summer...

I'd be cautious about taking a 1,000 mile trip in ANY car I just purchased - even a brand new car (though, I guess I'd feel pretty comfortable if it was a quality car...). If you buy a used car, chances are it needs work - stuff that you don't notice on the test drive, or stuff that develops during the next couple hundred miles - perhaps something was fixed "quickly" and not properly. Or perhaps it's a new ailment. Either way - it's a crapshoot.

When I bought my Firebird, I drove it 120 miles back to my house. Luckily, I had no problems. And also, within 100 miles, I'd get free towing back to my place with AAA if I broke down - PLUS I had my wife in the "chase car" just in case as well, along with having my cell phone on me. Can't say I wasn't a little nervous about the drive - even though I had test driven the car, and had a mechanic inspect it before driving it home.

Now that I've had my car a while... uh, I now have reason to be nervous on a 120 mile trip! Hahaha - before it was fear of the unknown. Now it's fear of the known! hahahaha

When looking at one of the birds I DIDNT buy , I hesitated because of the way it ran,= not too well...it was up in St Louis, and I was worried about driving it back, plus it wasnt quite what I wanted...
when I bough my car , this one, I drove it 260 mi back from Bedford , Dallas/Ft Worth area....a hot August day...temps were creeping up towards 235 F ea up-hill, and as it had no gas gauge, and I didnt know what mpg I was getting I stopped 3 times to fill up....made it , but 2 days later ran out of gas 1 mi from my house...

I drove my '66 Le Mans home from northern Wisconsin last summer, solo trip, 500+ miles...no problems. It's a quality car, just all 40 year old parts!

I bought a $350 '72 Cutlass in '83 in St. Louis and drove it to Detroit. It made it fine, but the chase/tow vehicle dropped a driveshaft in East St. Louis at dusk...shifted into 4 high, tossed the driveshaft in the back, and got out of there fast...

I had a two week old Chevy crack the exhaust manifold on its first road trip, which put it out of commission, and had a transmission fail on a vehicle under warranty, and the differential fail on another vehicle under warranty. New or old, it's the quality of the parts that make it a good or bad trip.