Hawk's Cross Country 70 Road Runner Trip

Day 1 and Day 2

OK, so here is a picture dump. Sorry for all the pictures, but hopefully people enjoy seeing a few.

So I uploaded some pictures from Day 1 that I missed in yesterday's post (they were on the "good" camera):

Here is some of the crew to send us off on our trip! It was fun to have some folks stop by and wish us well!


We stopped at a scenic view (the panoramic picture from my last post), and a Shelby Cobra kit car pulled in too. Nice guy - he was heading towards the shore with his wife.


Up in the finger lakes region, we stopped at a local craft brewery for a beer. The parking attendant gave us the first spot up front to park, and quite a few people stopped to check the car out.


On to Day 2:

Today we drove to Niagara Falls. We elected to just get there quickly and hit the highway. We parked at Seneca Casino (we stayed on the US side), and checked out the falls area. We then headed to a small museum for the Erie canal in Lockport. It was actually really cool. We ended the day in a hotel in Amherst. Tomorrow we drop off the Dads in Buffalo so they can head home. Here are some pictures of the day:

Here is an early morning shot of Barry with the car at Seneca lake before we left.


Here is a panoramic shot of the US falls facing away from the horseshoe falls.


Sorry about the rotation here, it got messed up on the upload. This is Barry's dad enjoying the falls.


One of the Canadian "Maid of the Mist" boats. I think just the US ones are called "Maid of the Mist", but you get the idea...
By the way, we noticed that all the Canadian tourists have red rain covers, and all the US tourists have blue. I guess that is so if they have to pick someone out of the drink they know which side they came from!


Another of the falls.


Here was one of the major locks in Lockport. The paddle boat was heading towards East. Note the fixed bridge near the bow.


Here are the locks opening up. Note the position of the fixed bridge. It was pretty cool to see. The Erie canal connected Buffalo with New York City. It made New York City the major financial center it is today - this was cool to learn!


Tomorrow we head towards Detroit...

hsorman said:

However, today Barry and I drove EAST to Stone Harbor, NJ so we could get the critically important shot of the car with the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Of course, the bookend shot will be a picture with the Pacific Ocean.

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Congrats on the trip Kick Off Hawk !!!

I know i'ts been a long hard slog and you have done a fantastic job with the car and posting the udpates and how-to's. I'm hoping to get to meet you and see the Lime Green RR on your way through STL and this area if possible .. if not I just hope all goes well with your journey and you have a blast

Great idea on the ocean to ocean shots and a great start to a memorable trip

Good Luck on the trip, and give me a shout when you come through Chicago! Watch for those Super Troupers in Illinois!

Those panoramic shots are great. The green background compliments the Runner. There will be none of that out here. How does the car feel? Any surprises? We want the nitty-gritty.

tallhair said:

Congrats on the trip Kick Off Hawk !!!

I know i'ts been a long hard slog and you have done a fantastic job with the car and posting the udpates and how-to's. I'm hoping to get to meet you and see the Lime Green RR on your way through STL and this area if possible .. if not I just hope all goes well with your journey and you have a blast

Great idea on the ocean to ocean shots and a great start to a memorable trip

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Thanks Bryan! We'll try to look you up - we'd love to check out your car - too...

zyzzyx said:

Good Luck on the trip, and give me a shout when you come through Chicago! Watch for those Super Troupers in Illinois!

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Chicago plans are still up in the air a bit, but we are happy to get all the local expertise we can!

Dennis H said:

Those panoramic shots are great. The green background compliments the Runner. There will be none of that out here. How does the car feel? Any surprises? We want the nitty-gritty.

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Thanks. The panoramic shots are just from my iPhone - they actually turned out pretty good!

So the ^%$#! car fell apart on the first day! In all seriousness, here are some details:
Overall the car is running fantastic. The bigger issue I still have is my clutch. I thought I had it 100%, but I think I had too little end play, so it seemed to get hot once on the trip and give us fits with actual clutch chatter (and not from the linkage as before). So I crawled under the car and loosened the fork rod adjustment.


This took care of the heat, but the clutch does not fully return back up. It stops about an inch or so from its fully released position, so we use our toe to flick it back up. After some brief investigation, this seems to be the gorilla spring that is causing the issue? Crap - I guess I am just an idiot with this clutch setup. Maybe it is self inflicted stupidity???? So it works OK with the "toe flick", but it is certainly not right.

Only other very minor annoyances are that the A/C belt has squealed a couple of times on startup. Overall, it has worked well, but we have had to turn off the A/C a couple of times in the first minute or two after starting. Also, the A/C works great for front seat passengers. The rear passengers always seemed to have the sun at their backs, and very little air gets back there with the under dash vents, so they were a bit warm at times.

Finally, something inside the passenger door has started to rattle. I HATE RATTLING!!! I may have to tear the door apart to see what it is... :angryfire:

So bottom line: Everything really is OK except for the clutch. We need to spend some time on that to get that working crisply like it should. We are mobile and fine, but I want it right...

Westward Ho! We're in it now, so no safety nets anymore!

<update>
Hopefully this fixes the picture - Grrrr.

The Coronet has had a clutch-toe episode. It is over now that the stars are in alignment and John Cross wrenches on my car. It takes a surgeon. I have an established habit - on the highway when cruising in fifth for an extended time to toe back both the clutch and brake pedal. Just to be sure. Besides distribution, the AC is cold right? My door rattle was a piece found in the bottom. Turned out to be the stopper. Try adjusting the window, sure that you have. I now travel with the door panel removal tool. My ac belt chirps (sometimes) on initial start up only. When hot it is staying on, don't care if the car melts. Tune up the Valentine 1 Radar, you will need it. I think I'll lube the clutch before my next trip...like the electric fuel pump it has been working too good for too long. ;)

All I can say is you've got balls....... I've been fine tuning everything from the motor to the suspension ever since I put mine on the road last year and just now am finally happy with everything. I know I would have never attempted such a big task right off the git go so kudos for you, enjoy the trip and don't be afraid to hit up a member for a garage session to tune that clutch up.

Hawk, have you checked your milage yet? Curious to know what you are getting with the overdrive. Have a safe trip in your awesome car.

Great pictures & it sounds like a blast. Hopefully, you'll have no more mechanical problems.

Hope your trip is going well, am really looking forward to the photos. Makes me want to do another trip, bring on summer .
Go the Roadrunner, safe travels.

Hawk & Barry made it as far as Monroe Michigan today (Monday) and booked into an air conditioned motel to get a good nights sleep. It was 93 degrees today. They did not have internet access to post pictures. Stay tuned for a double dose of pictures tomorrow.

My Great Uncle was the police chief of Niagara Falls is late 60's early 70's and there is a picture of wee me with him and the family during a visit about the time your car was born..

Rock n Roll boys! You have a splendid journey ahead of you. Enjoy and we all look forward to the pics you're sending...... Thx for the thread!

Lookin' forward to all the updates. Have a safe & wonderful trip.

Day 3 and Day 4

Redhorse719 said:

Hawk, have you checked your milage yet? Curious to know what you are getting with the overdrive. Have a safe trip in your awesome car.

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We measure MPG every time we get gas. It has ranged between a low of 14.6 and high of 17.7 MPG. It is not as high as I had expected, but this is real world driving that includes idling, stop and go, etc. I did lean out the fuel injection a little bit (to 14.5 air fuel ratio) so we will see if that improves it.

roadrunnerron said:

Hawk & Barry made it as far as Monroe Michigan today (Monday) and booked into an air conditioned motel to get a good nights sleep. It was 93 degrees today. They did not have internet access to post pictures. Stay tuned for a double dose of pictures tomorrow.

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So on Day 3 we met Ron (roadrunnerron) and his friend Vince. Vince has a 68 Cougar drop top with a 390, but we won't hold that against him. Ron drove his stealth black 1975 Cordoba (named Morticia). He plans to do a similar trip like mine with it next year, but I'll let him tell you about his trip in responses to this thread! It was really cool of Ron and Vince to drive down from Toronto and meet us. After we met, we had a really nice scenic drive on Route 5 South of Buffalo. We bought sandwiches and ate lunch on Presque Isle in Erie region, Pennsylvania. Then things got a bit rougher as it was H O T and we drove to Sandusky for a nice meal. Sandusky was DEAD, so we decided to just plow forward and get closer to Detroit. We ended up spending the night in Monroe, MI, which is just North of Toledo. We had a great meal and sat around chatting and sharing a couple of beers and stories.

Today we had a fantastic day. We started off the day with a personalized tour of the closed to the public Chrysler Museum. I have to give extra special thanks to Jeff, who contacted me due to FBBO and had a relative arrange to get us in. Also, a special thanks to Steve, who came in especially for us and gave us a personalized tour. This tour was absolutely AWESOME!!! We have so many cool pictures from this tour, and the number of cool cars was off the charts! All I can say is WOW, what a fantastic opportunity!!!

After the Chrysler Museum tour, we drove to the Henry Ford Museum. This museum is not just dedicated to Ford products, and has so many interesting items to review, from cars, to steam engines, agriculture, airplanes, trains, and more. You could easily spend two full days in the Ford museum complex - maybe more. Well worth the stop for any car or even history enthusiasts.

I have a S L O W hotel internet connection, so I will upload this text first and then start to upload pictures in a separate posting. I could probably upload over 50 pictures, but I don't think that will be possible...

Thanks again to Ron and Vince for a cool couple of days sharing in our road trip!

Hawk

hsorman said:

Tomorrow we head towards Detroit...

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Hey Hawk . . . one suggestion . . . When in Detroit, keep your head low ! ! ! ( smile )

Pictures

I know that is what you all want - NOT my boring text!!! These pictures take forever to load, so unfortunately I will just have to do a few pictures to give you a taste...

Hawk and Ron meeting at a old fashioned Texaco station.


Meant actually to load this one. Here is a better shot of both Hawk-Rod and Morticia:


One more in my collection of pictures with a cop car having "pulled me over".


Morticia at night.


From Day 4 - The Museums:
In front of the museum...


General shot of some of the earlier cars - what a fantastic place! It was cool to learn how many innovations Chrysler came up with - downdraft carburetors, hydraulic brakes, awesome engine power, etc.


Ghia bodied Chrysler


A12. Need I say more?
...OK, maybe I do. For those of you following this thread who are not car buffs, the A12 Road Runner was a mid year 1969 Road Runner with the famous 440 "Six Pack". In Plymouth speak, it was called a 6 barrel (6 BBL), but everyone refers to them by the Dodge name of "Six Pack". A super cool car...


An original Chrysler Turbine car. It used a turbine engine to power the car. Cool concept, but a bit ahead of its time, and hard to make them really work well...


Beautiful T/A Challenger. I'll take one...


The basement - in the back is a 68 Charger R/T. I'll take either :grin:


There were cool engines everywhere. Yes, Hemis too. I tried to tell Steve I would relieve him of one, but he declined...


The museum recognizes other cars that have become Chrysler owned. This one is for Mark...


Two cool concept vehicles



A beautiful Power Wagon.


So this is just a sampling of the cars at the Chrysler Museum. What a great opportunity to view these cool cars. I will have to post the Ford Museum pictures at a later date - too much to post and too slow of an internet connection to stay up much later!

Tomorrow we head towards Chicago, but plan to camp prior to reaching Chicago at a neat park. It may be a couple of days before I can post again.

Hawk

dude you're killing me....... and that was before the AMX :notworthy:

Great pics Hawk, thanks for the ride along!

747mopar said:

All I can say is you've got balls....... I've been fine tuning everything from the motor to the suspension ever since I put mine on the road last year and just now am finally happy with everything. I know I would have never attempted such a big task right off the git go so kudos for you, enjoy the trip and don't be afraid to hit up a member for a garage session to tune that clutch up.

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You got that - Right on!!!

I had the pleasure of chasing these guys for two days. South of Lake Erie is a dead zone. Most businesses have closed and those that were still operating were closed on labor day. Detroit has the worst freeways (potholes connected by concrete) I've ever driven on. It is easy to break something or be stranded where there is no immediate help.

There are many readers to this blog. If you haven't done so as yet and you are on his travel route, PM Hawk your contact info so that he has someone to call in the event of an emergency.