I've been looking for a "new" shop truck for some time now and the stars finally aligned. July 3rd, I flew out of BWI about 8am with a layover in Denver. Then a connection up to Redmond Oregon.























The truck had some dry rot on the old tires, so rather than tempt fate, I sprung for some new tires and the two fellas I dealt with, Chuck and Robert, went above and beyond to help get the truck ready.. while one was picking me up from the airport, the other was picking up the wheels/new tires from the local Discount Tire.


















Upon arrival I find about the most solid, original 1966 I have ever seen. About 90% original paint, zero rust. It had 13X,XXX miles on it, and the upcoming cross-country venture would be adding a few more. We looked over a few things and installed the wheels/new tires on the truck. My departure was the first test drive. Got to have faith in the old 66..










I drove south of Terrebonne to Redmond, stopped at the local Walmart for some essentials. A cooler, drinks, ice, a fire extinguisher, and a suction cup phone mount for map navigation.



Heading east out of Oregon towards Idaho. 4-65 AC at its finest.











I wanted to drive past Boise the first day to get an early start around SLC the next day. So I drove halfway between Boise and the Utah border, and stopped at a local rest stop. Set the alarm for about 4 in the morning. Just about had the rest area to myself.











Utah here we come...























I had reached out to Mike to stop by his place for a shop tour, but alas, he had to work the 4th, and with me facing 40+ hours of driving, it wasn't a sit and wait kind of day. I'll have to make time to visit the next time through..



Wyoming. A lot of wide open, with mountains of all shapes and sizes. They even have some that look like someone's been playing Jenga on a grand scale, flat rocks with rounded edges stacked one on the other. The pyramids have nothing on these Jenga mountains of Wyoming. They have plenty of exits off I-80, but most go nowhere. There are exits to put on tire chains, exits to take off tire chains, exits for trucks to park and sleep, and for the messy truck drivers, exits to park and sleep WITH dumpsters to clean out your trucks. Then the exits that go nowhere, but open up to the gravel wide open.











Then there's the entertainment. It's a stock truck.... So I had to sing to myself.. For 3-1/2 days... It was painful to listen to. I may now be a well practiced singer, but not one anybody would care to listen to..

















One thing Chuck was not able to get fixed, the gas gauge. He had installed a new sending unit to no avail. Given the 18 gallon tank and an estimated 12 mpg, I should have a safe range of about 200 miles per tank without fear of running out. Just in case, Robert had fixed me up with a couple 5 gallon gas cans so I would have a reserve.











So at every fill-up, I would observe the mileage, bump it by 200, and note it for when I needed fuel.

















Knock on wood, this process served well, and I wasn't forced to use the back-up supply of fuel the entire trip. I checked the mileage the second tank and was getting about 12.5 per gallon. About what I expected with a 352 with 3.50 gears and a granny gear 4 speed.











I was chastised by my wife and daughter with the accommodations I was using, so Thursday evening I made it into Nebraska and found a motel for a shower and more comfy bed (over a 1966 front seat)

 

Nice truck, and nice road trip.

 

The truck was performing better than expected, but I was losing a touch of oil. Travelling the interstates at ~70 mph, and given tire size and gearing, the old truck was revving about 2850 rpms. Perhaps some oil loss was expected. The transmission housing did have some oil on the outside, so I suspected valve covers. A rear main seal was ruled out as there was no clutch slippage or drips at the front of the bell housing. We were in Nebraska and heading to Hastings. Scenery a bit flatter than the neighboring Wyoming.











I've always considered 3 my lucky number, so I had to capture this....











My stop in Hastings on Friday was at the World Headquarters of Imperial Wheeling Machines. My good friend Pat Brubaker, the owner, dug up a ratchet, extension, and socket so I could snug up the valve cover bolts. The rear bolt on the drivers side proved to be the (a) culprit, with a good two turns to snug up the bolt. After talking shop with Pat, he suggested (as did others) that I stop at the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, NE. Quite a bit to take in...























I did find an engine I could use for the new shop truck...











and what is likely the first ramp truck in existence.























Next we headed into Iowa, and a visit that has been on the bucket list for quite some time...



































Quite a step back in time.....and the visit would not be complete without a picture in front of the mural...









I could have stayed for a day or two, but didn't want to wear out Joe's hospitality. That, and there was a storm heading in and I wanted to stay in front of it..



I headed the more southerly route on I-74 to bypass Chicago and head towards Cincinnati for our next shop tour, set up for Saturday morning. I drove into Indiana and found a rest stop. And set the alarm for 430.

 

Saturday we had about a three hour drive to our next stop southeast of Cincinnati, at Cornfield Customs. Mike Wagner is among the premiere craftsmen in the country when it comes to metalshaping, it was nice to get to see his shop and some of the projects he has going on.











Mike's shop is a mix of both new and vintage equipment, here is an early Pettingel power hammer that came out of a local warehouse. If only it could tell stories of it's past life...











One of the projects, an all aluminum fabricated hood for a Galaxie, complete with tear drop hood scoop.











Before leaving I had to get a picture next to his 61 Unibody Salt Flats push truck.











Mike, thanks for the hospitality!! From there I had about a 9-1/2 hour ride home. Here's what 11 states worth of bugs looks like...











I had noticed that the fuel economy appeared to be getting better. Or more precisely, that it was taking less fuel to fill up at about the same mileage reading using the tape notation method. So I broke out the calculator again, the last tank was 14.1 mpg. My driving started at about 4 pm in Oregon on Wednesday evening and I was home all safe and sound back in Maryland Saturday night at 9 pm. Quite an adventure.

 

You got a good ern’! And the trip of a lifetime .

 

Fantastic write-up, Robert!! What a fun trip that had to have been - in part thanks to a trouble-free ride mechanically, I’m sure. I follow your Wagon Progress thread on the SPI forum so can’t wait to see what you do to make this truck “your own”. The things you’ve done building the wagon just blow me away…

 

Amazing truck and thanks for sharing your journey! Very inspiring

 

Sounds like a great trip and looks like a good solid truck.

 

Very well written up, just enough detail and pics. And you ended up with a great truck! Congrats.

 

Robert: Good to see you posting somewhere, I used to follow your projects on Metalmeet, and Bangshift, sadly Metalmeet is gone
Anyways, congrats on your purchase, you'd be hard pressed to find a better starting point for whatever you have planned for this one!

BTW: I'm sure I'm not alone when I ask you to tell us what you have planned for this truck.

Cheers!
James

 

Hey James!! Plans are to make it more "road trip" friendly. For safety, I plan on disc brakes on front at minimum. And I just ordered a T5 transmission with .59 final gear ratio. That should make 70 mph about 1680 rpm vs. the 2850 that it just had for 3-1/2 days. For more local stuff, it will make 50 mph about 1200 rpm, so should help fuel mileage considerably. I plan on leaving the paint alone except for the few spots that are bare will get touched up..

 

Congratulations, looks like a well cared for pickup from day one in '66. IMO, .59 is a way too high final ratio. Most people do not factor the weight of the vehicle and torque of the engine, that's because it's simply not in the RPM calculator. Most overdrives come in a .73, anything numerically lower is a flat land only gear with no head wind.

 

Thanks for the comments everyone!!

The carb on the truck had been seeping and losing the gas in the bowl, as evident by many more revolutions to get the engine started. Did a carb rebuild tonight. Now with just a momentary turn of the key the engine starts as it should. Another item checked off the list....








The cleanest part of the engine.. I also picked up some farm truck tags for it..

 

Just a hint, grill's originally had semi gloss black trim paint to float the design, and western mirrors were originally gloss light gray '61-'66. Details that are often lost when painters take short cuts.

 

I went to a men's yard sale in Delaware a few weeks back and picked up some trim rings and hubcaps..




I had picked up a used SUN tach to hold me over until I found a proper one.



A couple weeks later I found what I was looking for....



It came with a flat mount for installing on a dashboard, so I fabricated a new mount out of 16 ga stainless to put it on the column.









And the rear 235/75-15 tires just don't fill up the wheel well as they should. I had been searching for some 15 x 8 factory wheels, which always seemed to have the wrong offset. A local Jeep guy fixed me up with a pair of Jeep 15 x 8's and they are dead centered in the wheel well. Just what the doctor ordered. Wheels media blasted and at the powder coater's for some color, hope to have back this week..