Arctic Ocean Trip to Tuktoyaktuk in a Superbird

[Charger_Dart]

What an amazing trip!

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

received email earlier today from Bob new picture & info   

That Top of the World road can be rough for sure.
But a beautiful drive. And all you see from horizon to horizon is trees.

[taxspeaker]

Pictures unbelievable 7688 round trip miles in 13 days. Dempster highway is past the top of the world highway, mud and gravel, 500+ miles and primarily tundra-too far north for trees.

[b5blue]

Your amazing, so much respect to you! 

[426HemiChick]

Way to go Bob. Keep going and never stop. We only pass through life once, you're making it a great and unique trip.

Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas

Best Always
Chris

[taxspeaker]

And to you too! I know that dog in your signature!
Article on trip coming in Wall Street journal in the next few days-just finished interview.
Probable heading "Elderly Mopar guy with Dementia Escapes institution, drives to Arctic in 55 year old car"

[taxspeaker]

There have been lots of questions about how Black Ice held up.

Even with all of my advance planning, the roads were 10 times worse than both of my 2 prior trips.

The brakes failed at Edmonton, Alberta before we even hit the Alaska Hwy. We bled them at the Western Mopar Madness car show and that seemed to fix the issue until the next day about 60 miles into the AK Hwy the front brakes failed completely. I did not have a master cylinder with me (of course) and decided to press on anyway. I just replaced it today finally.

About 600 miles north of Edmonton, or 300 miles into the AK Hwy we had an electrical failure and had to load the car on the trailer for the rest of that day. Fixed it early the next morning in Ft Nelson BC, and then about 300 miles north it began smoking out of the steering column in the middle of a landslide at Muncho Lake. I thought about it, bypassed the ignition switch like an idiot and pushed on. By the time we hit the Dempster Hwy final 580 miles of dirt road it was smoking and arcing constantly so I drove with the window down in 37 degree rain in case it caught on fire and I had to bail. By God, I wasn't stopping 500 miles south of the Arctic after driving nearly 4,000 miles to get there.

By 250 miles into the Dempster the cast iron steering gear had cracked at the top and we kept going with stop leak, power steer fluid and eventually just engine oil in the box-it was ruined anyway and I was down to a few hundred miles to go.

The car still ran great and shifted fine and now the rear end was whining pretty bad, but we could literally see the Arctic 25-30 miles away and somehow the old Bird limped, wheezed and leaked the rest of the way, at which point it was time to put it on the trailer and haul it home. It had several inches of caked on calcium chloride from the roads and we have pressure washed it 1/2 dozen times, clay barred the exterior and cleaned many undercarriage areas. It has been on the lift pretty much since the return.

On the return trip Jason (our videographer who went with me and my son too) was visibly sick from Covid or something, and outside Minneapolis some idiot stopped in a construction zone in a driving rainstorm and I had to drive off of the side of the interstate, somehow avoiding a jack-knife. Put the truck in 4-wheel drive and dragged that trailer back on the interstate and went on.

The paint looks fantastic still, with 5-10 more minor chips and the car is drivetrain sound, never having used even 1/2 quart of oil.

Since getting home I have had to:
1. Rewired the entire dash
2. Replaced dash limiter based on STeve Cutler's advice-the gauges were fluctuating all over and that road, that road
3. Replaced the master cylinder and 1 brake hose
4. Have bought a new steering gearbox and pitman arm and will replace this week
5. Replaced broken heater hose clamp
6. Relocated water temp sending unit that had snapped off on the Dempster Hwy
7. The guys posted a teaser video with some great shots on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw4m5e7rhxE&t=89s
8. The 164 page book with over 200 pictures has been finished and is now in hand, and will be posted on the JenningsWIngCars.com home page in a couple of weeks-we are redoing that page this and next week.
9. I have asked Jason, our videographer at work, to produce a 30 minute video story of the Dempster. We recorded the entire trip on 3 GoPros, a drone, a 360 degree camera on a pole over the wing and a shoulder mounted TV camera-the guys have 5 Terrabytes of material and it is time to post some videos. They will also be on the JenningsWIngCars You Tube channel.
10. We will never get all of the mud and muck off of the underside of the car. We have pressure washed the underside and wiped down dozens of areas, but it will just never come fully clean.

As of right now we do not have any plans for 2025 car shows-we won't be making Carlisle for the first time in many years, but I am looking at 2 or 3 late summer options in August or early September. With 11 wing cars now in the shop and maybe a 12th after the first of the year, we are also considering opening it up for shop tours 1 Saturday a month this spring.

Work and age have kept me off of the board for many months, but work will finally slow down around mid January so hope to catch up on all of the good stories on here. Sadly, Facebook seems to have taken over and I don't do that much, so am starting to get out of touch.

Thanks guys-watch that video above the guys did a good lob and its free.

Bob

[held1823]

Great stuff, Bob. Thanks for sharing.

The annual aero gathering is in Evansville for 2025. We shall see how many of the twelve are ready for a great weekend. I may need to rent one of the cars, lol, as the odds of having mine back together by the event are not in my favor.

[taxspeaker]

Thanks Ernie. Will consider it. Looking at Moparfest in Ontario right now in August or going to Newfoundland for the Dartmouth Dodge Mopar Show.

[Dave Kanofsky]

"maybe a 12th after the first of the year" - you can't keep us hanging like that!

And MoparFest is a great time!  I went a few years ago and the crowd and selection  of cars is terrific!  With no classes and no trophies people bring all sorts of cars - wagons, 4 drs, malaise, etc.

Sounds like the Black Ice car took a beating of engineering validation level proportions.  Glad it and you "survived".

[DD]

Thanks Ernie. Will consider it. Looking at Moparfest in Ontario right now in August or going to Newfoundland for the Dartmouth Dodge Mopar Show.

Hope to see you at Moparfest!

[Unwind]

Good day everyone. 
Bob - thanks for sharing your trips.  Every time a wing unit goes out for a ride, seems that something goes down that is worth a memory.... you take it to another level. We all ride with you waiting for the next leak, crack, drip, smoke, fire, clunk, WTF?  Awesome...

Possible 12th wing....perfect.    My Dad used to say "this car thing, it's a disease.  I think the cure is to get one more...". And he drove his cars, if it rained, so what.  He went to a car gig ('38 Lincoln Zephyr) on a gravel road in the rain (=mud) Quote from Dad: "it's a go car, not a show car...". 

And Dartmouth is in Nova Scotia.  Newfoundland is a ferry ride.
Bob Urwin