Road Trip to Key West

[taxspeaker]

Ernie my son, sorry but you are not a legitimate offspring

The date should say June 18 Tuesday

[moparstuart]

you in the market for another son? my mom still offers me up for adoption to this day.

(i am not making that up, lol)

not surprised at all    

[held1823]

you in the market for another son? my mom still offers me up for adoption to this day.

(i am not making that up, lol)

not surprised at all    

me either. i was hoping to hoodwink bob

[gtx6970]

Cool trip. Im really jealous.
Should be lots of fun. not sure I would want to do it alone though.


I'm in process of buying a car. And the thought of driving it home ( right at 2,000 miles one way ) keeps tickling my brain.
Although My gas card , not to mention my insurance man,,, would surely have a meltdown though. But with an 11-1 compression Hemi , auto, and a 3.54 dana  ,,,pretty much anything over 5- 6 miles per gallon is a pipe dream..

[Birdflu]

Bob,
Good luck on your trip! I'm jealous to say the least! My wife and I have no problems driving our old Mopars any amount of distance, but we're always held back by work, family, etc. You know, those necessary responsibilities that are required in order to have the lives we have. The only part of a multi-state trip that would make me nervous is the overnight parking at hotels. How are you dealing with that? I'd prolly have to have a chase vehicle with an enclosed trailer or else I wouldn't be able to sleep!  
Gary

[426HemiChick]

Hola Taxspeaker,                       15 June 2019

Wishing you and your companions a safe and enjoyable trip to KW. I think you will find it a very interesting place to visit.

Spent 9 months there 63 - 64 during the Cuban missile crises. Went back 25 years later (1989) could hardly find much that I remembered. The only place that seemed to have stood still all those years was the Key West Airport. Everything except the airlines flying there remained the same.

Duval Street seemed narrower but in reality it was as it had been. Truman's summer home is on what used to be the Naval Base. There is an old fort that was covered over with sand that had been dredged out of the bay where ships and subs used to tie up. After the Historical society or whomever, took the fort over for preservation they started removing the sand. They found live ammunition and other armaments inside the fort. We used to stand watch on top of all that unknown explosive ordinance.

Most of the base has been redeveloped for civilian use. There are two fairly large concrete buildings that used to be the Naval Hospital and the Naval Admin building. I believe they were built to withstand any hurricane then and in the future. Both were redeveloped as condos.

There's a very nice pier where the Naval Ships and Subs tied up. It is now used by the lucky residents of the redeveloped Naval Base, with one caveat, the US Navy still owns the pier and can take it back whenever they decide they need it.

If you follow the pier to the north end (I think North) you will find the old Seaplane Base. It's most likely where boats are launched in that area.

When you are crossing the 6 mile bridge heading north, look over to your left and you will see a skinny old bridge that we used to drive on weekends when we wanted go to Miami. Just imagine a young 23 year old snot nosed sailor driving a 64 Caddy convert across that bridge at 110 mph. The car belonged to my buddy who was too mellowed out to drive. Obviously we didn't have a blowout, else I wouldn't be typing this.

About the only advice I can give you about taking your lovely Bird to KW is when you get away from the keys and the state of Florida, stop at a do it yourself high pressure car wash and give her a double going over with fresh clean water. The salt is carried in the air from ocean breezes that whip up the ocean. When you get home it would be worth doing again.

Enjoy your trip; Stay safe.

Best Always,

426 Hemi Chicks

[taxspeaker]

700 miles done-driving rain for 90% of drive, hot. Lots of water leaks as expected in it but car did fine other than running poorly. Oil consumption-none, average gas mileage about 12.4 but drove faster than in Alaska. Water temp hit 200-210 in traffic a couple of times. Leaving early morning for next leg.

Secret to hotel parking-right out front and slip the night clerk a $20

2 shots at Wellborn museum between heavy storms. No one was there

[b5blue]

God speed! 

[held1823]

so very epic.

can't imagine the looks you got for driving it in the rain.

[hemi68charger]

700 miles done-driving rain for 90% of drive, hot. Lots of water leaks as expected in it but car did fine other than running poorly. Oil consumption-none, average gas mileage about 12.4 but drove faster than in Alaska. Water temp hit 200-210 in traffic a couple of times. Leaving early morning for next leg.

Secret to hotel parking-right out front and slip the night clerk a $20

2 shots at Wellborn museum between heavy storms. No one was there

Full Steam ahead......... Awesome.....

[garner7555]

I sent an email to the guys in the Mopar club, asking them to let Tim know that you were coming by but they never responded.   Sorry, I still think that if Tim had known about it he would have made an attempt to be there.    Awesome trip!  Can't wait to see more.   

[billssuperbird]

 

[WINGIN IT]

Looking good Bob.
Love the pic at the museum with the stormy clouds in the background.

Just curious, but where were the water leaks?

[moparstuart]

 

[Mytur Binsdirti]

Just curious, but where were the water leaks?

Let me guess; wiper pivots and window/vent window seals. Hopefully not the windshield gasket.

[billssuperbird]

That's where mine leaks when I get caught in the rain

[taxspeaker]

Sorry for the delay. Got to Key West yesterday June 20, 2019 at 2:00pm. Pictures to follow. Let me bring up to date:

Tuesday June 21, 2019 left Indiana at 7:00am in heavy rain. No driving issues. Engine running rough (see below) once very warm. Lots and lots of water leaks. Wipers ran for 90% of day in heavy rain, thank goodness for RainX. Mileage averaged 12.4 but average speed 72mph. Stopped at Wellborn Museum in Alexander City,AL about 2:30 in afternoon for pictures in rare break in storms. Pictures posted Tuesday night also showing dark clouds that opened up within 5 minutes of leaving. My original plan was to stop for the night there but the weather looked so bad I decided to drive on. Stopped for the night in Tifton, GA leaving car parked under awning at checkin, and asked night clerk to look the other way but keep an eye on it. I always pull 1 wire and put it in my pocket too for safety. Posted update that night.

Wednesday June 22, 2019 left Tifton at 5:30am to avoid some of the heat. Windows badly fogged inside from condensation but no other issues. Oil down about 1/2 quart-it is a new engine so that is expected because of breakin period on engine. Had absolutely no driving issues, averaging 75 mph for the day, with only light showers once or twice. Arrived in Bradenton, Florida 11:15am. Opened trunk to standing water and found floorboards all fully soaked, so opened the car up, mopped up the trunk opened the doors and ran a fan for 4 hours in the blazing sun. I do not know where the leaks are from. Checked all fluids, putting in 1 quart of Brad Penn oil, but no other issues except a fried laptop from the high humidity in the trunk. I also thought quite a bit about the running rough issues. Car is fine in the morning and around town, but after long drives it runs very rough and idles very high. These long trips with higher engine speeds really point out some issues not considered by most of us.

From my Alaska trip I learned NOT to mount the ECM on the firewall because of heat-mount it elsewhere (mine is under nose) to avoid heat of long drives.Here is what I learned on this trip. The running issues were clearly fuel related, but the carb is freshly rebuilt with a new fuel line. The only unusual issues is the steady high heat of driving in 90 degree temps and the symptoms are kind of like a vacuum leak without the whistle. I got the bright idea that it reminded me of the old days of vapor locking, so I got online and sure enough ethanol lowers the vapor locking temperature substantially while also raising octane. I had been putting high octane fuel in the tank, but there is a Wawa within 1 mile of my Florida place that has ethanol free gas, so I filled up there, and when I left Thursday morning the car ran fine. The bad news was that at my first fuel stop in Naples, Florida I went ahead and filled up with high octane fuel and the car vapor locked and died when I left. After a 15 minute cool down I got it restarted and drove on. At my next stop I got low octane ethanol and added a can of octane booster-it still ran rough but did not vapor lock. I continued that until my last fill up late last night. My last tank was plain old 89 octane with ethanol and it still ran rough.Summary-ethanol fuel is horrible in high heat, the octane booster helped a bit, but high octane ethanol fuel makes it worse in the heat.

Thursday June 20, 2019. I left Bradenton Florida at 5:04am heading to Key West for what I thought would be 12 hours round trip according to Google. Never did I expect 17 and 1/2 hours of seat-time in temps well over 100 degrees and 80% humidity. The car ran fine all the way down but at stops it was very high heat (not overheating, just no air flow) and even the triple core radiator could not overcome sitting in traffic. People in Florida, particularly around Miami are car nuts, and the interest in the car was 5-10 times greater than on my Alaska trip. The traffic on the overseas highway south of Miami was heavy and slow, and as I enteredd Ley West around 1:30 I was worried about overheating the car (and myself). At one fuel stop they were measuring pavement temps over 130 degrees and the humidity was beyond belief. Finally about 2 miles from mile zero the temp gauge hit 230 while sitting in traffic and I pulled over for 30 minutes to some slight boil over and a cool down. The police came to check on me and the car as I sat on the curb in the shade, and both were fine, just overheated. Several car nuts took pictures and talked and gave me a back way to mile zero. I snapped a 1/2 dozen pictures in overheating conditions and decided to get the heck out of there. The car continued to toy with overheating until I finally got back up to speed 5 miles outside of town, but it made it. Unfortunately I was a casualty and did not yet know it-my vision started to go black at the edges and I realized the bathtub interior and high temps might be causing me heat stroke. I stopped at Marathon Key and went into an ice cream store and sat for an hour drinking water and cooling down. Finally felt better, got in the car and resumed the trip. To give you an idea of the heat, I drank 5 bottles of water, 2 big diet cokes and 1 big lemonade and never had to go to the bathroom.

Finally about 10:45pm last night I got back to the house in Bradenton. The car was magnificent-1 quart of oil so far the entire trip, some water leaks that don't matter in the driving, and it ran great with no break downs. Radio sound wasn't good because of wind noise, but that's it. The car will need a thorough cleaning today to get ready for the Bradenton Hooters car show tomorrow night, but it looks 99% as good as when restored. There was no rain on the Key West day so everything is now thoroughly dried out-17 hours of vented air on the carpet will do that.Strangely,I think yesterdays drive was worse than any day on the Alaska trip. It gets 2 weeks rest before driving home.

So, Superbird 177569 now has unique provenance, with pictures, of being driven to the furthest north legally drivable ground north of Fairbanks and the furthest south drivable part at Mile Zero in Key West. As the lucky chauffer of the car on both trips, I got to enjoy everyone's literal excitement, pure pleasure, exclamations, and even once or twice the tears of the people viewing the ride. But as I have said before, the car is the star, I am just a hanger-on the sidelines. They don't ask for pictures of the driver. The Key Dodge dealer yesterday in Key West asked me why I would drive such a beautiful restored car on a trip like this and my answer was the same as it was 4 years ago in Alaska-it doesn't bring me any joy looking at it sitting in the garage, the joy is seeing the reactions of people when they look at this incredible piece of American history.

The GoPro ran the entire trip, but until I can get a computer going I can't post anything off of it or my cell phone-maybe by the weekend. The pictures from the 7 mile bridge should be excellent, and maybe I can get the motorcycle guy in Miami that flew past, slowed up, got out his cell phone, gave me a thumbs up and then proceeded in heavy 70mph traffic to take a video from the left, the rear, the right and the front of the car before speeding off again! Or maybe the father and son taking visible delight at the gas station last night, or the young lady that pulled in front of me at the pump and exclaimed "you can't leave without me getting a picture" or the hundreds of other videos, honks, thumbs up and followers. The best memory was yesterday somewhere in the keys where I stopped for gas and a young couple with his 60+ year old Dad begged for pictures, sat in the car, talked, took more pictures, left and then came back for more, all to visible, emotional excitement.

See you on the road

Bob

[PettyMower]

Bob, I'm enjoying your trip updates.

I have a stock 440+6 in mine, and have only used 92-93 octane unleaded for many years. The car has been driven on long trips in over-90 degree temps. I have never had a single vapor lock, or fuel delivery issue. (Other than when the original tank was in dire need of replacement and plugged the fuel filter. But that had nothing to do with fuel or carburetion.)

I think there may be another issue causing it to not run well in warmer temps.

Have fun and SAFE TRAVELS!

Jay

[b5blue]

You nailed a dry weather window inside of weeks of rain! I hope you enjoy Florida for the rest of your stay. 

[taxspeaker]

Pics

[ACUDANUT]

Hope you have a Trunk Monkey.

[ACUDANUT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW8iAVwt_Yc

[Mytur Binsdirti]

Nice!

[TheAutoArchaeologist]

Damn, I was traveling for this entire thread!  Wow!  I wish I had known, I could have called Tim and had the Museum manager open it up for you.

Safe travels back!

[WINGIN IT]

More power to you Bob, bringing the bird to the people.
Please take care of yourself though, especially in that heat !

Couldn't hurt to have a trunk monkey ...