Too Long Without a Post

It's been about a year since my last post to this blog. Crazy how time fly's when when we're having fun. 

A brief update concerning the 33: if you've been following this blog you know when I started my Speed 33 and right now it has 7200 miles on the odometer. These miles have been with good friends and some of those miles were very memorable. We have been to numerous car shows around the Pacific Northwest, in addition to the Yellowstone trip, in the past two years. Some small, 50 cars and some large, 2700 cars. We have seen rainy weather, windy weather, forest fire smoke, dust storms and some very nice sunny weather. And along the way we've met some very great American's who love cars and car shows, had a few margaritas and some really great food . We've also been lucky enough to pick up a few awards. Here are a few of the more notable awards.

Federal Way for the Lion's Club

Yelm Wa. for the Wounded Warriors.

Black Diamond Wa. Eagles

Orting Wa

Toledo Wa

Spokane Wa. 2015

Spokane Wa. 2014

Walla Walla Wa.

During the break last winter there were a few changes I felt were necessary. One of  the changes made included a new steering column.

There was about 1" of free play in the steering wheel which I thought I could get used to while driving. But, I guess after driving numerous years with rack and pinion steering with zero free play it's not to be. Therefore, I went to the top of the quality list and bought an Ididit Column. Handling improved to the level of Lonna's BMW. 

Another change that was made over the winter was the rework of my A/C unit. As much as I hated to dig into this, it had to be done. Especially, after that road trip through blistering hot Eastern Wa last summer. The first thing that needed to be done, after a number of conversations with Vintage Air, who by the way were very helpful and offered me a new capillary tube, was to remove my dash once again.  We assessed the problem to be a faulty capillary tube, after a number of function tests.

The function of this little tube is to act as a switch to internally control the on and off of the A/C unit. What was happening with our A/C was it would either be on 100% of the time or off 100% of the time. You might think on 100% is a good thing during hot weather but in reality what happens is that the evaporator will completely freeze up resulting in the total blockage of air through the evaporator fins on the coil, resulting in no cold air movement out of the cold air vents. What is supposed to happen is the capillary tube has an expanding gas sealed inside and when the gas expands or constricts, due to temperature changes within the evaporator it triggers a switch to cycle the compressor to turn on and off. This takes place behind the scenes within the A/C unit even though you might have set the A/C fan on the dash to hi, med or low. The air flow within the car stays where you have set it, but the compressor is temporarily signaled to be off for a short period of time which stops it from making cold, allowing the air flow through the evaporator to now melt any ice that has formed on the surface of the evaporator coils, thereby keeping the coils free from ice and ready for the next cold cycle to begin. These cycles can take place once every 15-30 sec. depending on the A/C unit and ambient air temp.

This is the 39 Ford that belongs to Nick. that went on the Yellowstone trip with us. He had a few problems so upon returning he decided to change out the entire running gear starting with the engine, a 700R4 transmission and ford 9" rearend,  all gauges, steering and cruise control. Talk about doing it the right way. 

Here is a picture of Nick's engine during assembly. 383ci SBC

Another picture with his rebuilt blower sitting on top

The Rodorama car show was held in the Puyallup Fair grounds in February. The  best indoor show in the Northwest. 

We had a great time, although no awards

A few of us headed over to Coeur de lane for the Car de lane car show this year

You might have noticed that we've picked up a new traveler. A 59 Chevy on a trailer. I'm sure it's soon to be a 59 Chevy driver. I remember my first trip to Walla Walla with Lola inside a trailer. That was enough for me to make it road worthy.

The Coeur de lane show had the best turn out of spectators of almost any show we have attended.

Dinner at "The Wolf Lodge" is always good.

Dinner at "The Floating"  Restaurant is also a favorite.

Hudson and Easton, my grand kids, with Dave Kindig at the Good Guys Puyallup show.

A small afternoon event at the Sunrise Mall. Ron S. entered his really nice looking 64 Tbird

What a day for a car show in Black Diamond Wa. But it did clear up in the afternoon for the awards ceremony. Take a look at who's sitting under the canopy in the rain. At this time, I'm not too sure Lonna is loving Lola. Thanks for going along.............it was fun after all.

Wheelin Walla Walla this year had about 370 cars. This red 2014 Super Snake Mustang is owned by my brother Ed. We can only speculate how fast this car is with it's 800+ hp, but from the sounds of it I'm sure it will leave a cloud layer of tire smoke.

A great day in Walla Walla

Not too bad little bro, first show and a Sponsers Award. I can tell the car show hook has been set.

Dennis K has finally broken his "no award" spell  at Walla Walla with the "Best Truck 1955-1959" award. Way to go Dennis.

Jerry P. also won one of the top three awards at Walla Walla.

As I said, a good day in Walla Walla. Six of us attended and we received 4 awards.

Almost home from the 2015 Walla Walla trip. We travel over Chinook Pass whenever possible because there's a lot less traffic than I-90 and the scenery is so much more stunning.