Hawk's Cross Country 70 Road Runner Trip

[CoronetDarter]

Thank you Hawk and Barry for allowing us to be a small part of your adventure. Maria and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with you two.
As incredible as the RR looks in pics they don't do justice to revealing the craftsmanship in your build. Congrats on the safe completion of your journey.

 

[HawkRod]

Bet I can guess what the first thing you'll do to the RR when you get it home is..........

HaHa - you bet: the whole transmission, clutch and flywheel are coming out. I am almost 100% sure that some of our clutch issues related to the fact that the lock nut on the fork rod was not staying put. I will now put a second jam nut on there to be sure it stays in place.
Of course, I also have a long list of gripes for things I want to improve. The windows do not go up and down well, so the whole window/door alignment needs to be improved - I just ran out of time before the trip to get those in their ideal places. I am hoping that will make the glass fit better and reduce wind noise. The car was pretty quiet on the road otherwise. At the same time, I have to fix that DAMNED RATTLE that appeared in the passenger door. I also have a leak around the passenger side of the windshield (I think). Finally, I need to improve the front/rear brake bias - there is to much rear brake bias currently. I am sure there are more items, but that is a start!

You achieved a trip of a lifetime and accomplished something most of us can only dream of.

Thanks, but there is really nothing special about what I did. Nothing will ever be 100% certain, but if you do some planning and park carefully, things will probably work out. I say go for it! Nothing is as great as blasting down the road in an old classic!

What size t-shirt do you and Barry wear? I will make my way to the In-n-out store and get you a shirt with a Road Runner on it.. I will post a link in a minute..

Those are really cool! I had no idea In-N-Out had cool T shirts with classic cars! It actually looks nice and easy to order them on-line. Is it much cheaper to buy them in the store? If so, get 2 large size shirts and I can send you a check...

Thank you Hawk and Barry for allowing us to be a small part of your adventure. Maria and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with you two.
As incredible as the RR looks in pics they don't do justice to revealing the craftsmanship in your build. Congrats on the safe completion of your journey.

You are certainly not a small part of the adventure - thanks for being the care taker of my car until the shipper arrives. :headbang:

Now we need to concentrate on helping you get your Cornet done by March so it is ready. I'll get going on some of those electrical things we discussed. Let us know what you need - we'll be here to help you get your dream done!

 

[Derwud]

Those are really cool! I had no idea In-N-Out had cool T shirts with classic cars! It actually looks nice and easy to order them on-line. Is it much cheaper to buy them in the store? If so, get 2 large size shirts and I can send you a check...

Sometimes they have overstock sales, but same price as on-line.. Once you get some, you will be part of out of the area cool kids and you will spot them at the next car show... To bad they don't have the old school stickers

 

[72Fourspeed]

Best burgers I have ever had. We hit them every time visiting the inlaws. Almost makes it worth it!
Hawk, what was the final take on the efi , as far as overall performance,driveability,and mpg ?

 

[Budnicks]

Cool venture & story thanks for sharing with all of US...

 

[HawkRod]

Hawk, what was the final take on the efi , as far as overall performance,driveability,and mpg ?

So once I get my head above water at work, I will cover this in more detail on my restoration thread - I will evaluate all my systems and let you know how I liked them: What worked well and what didn't.

In short with the EFI: It was absolutely worth it, while maybe not REQUIRED. At Pikes Peak, for example, we found out that there are a few tow trucks that regularly tow cars that sputter and can't make it all the way up. Most of these are old carbureted muscle cars from guys like us that want to drive Pikes Peak. I had no issues, and no drop off with performance due to altitude. I did do some fine adjusting of timing and did feel the affects of going from 93 to 91 octane gas, but all that was well handled by the EFI.

Due to some tank vent issues, I can only closely estimate my MPG, but overall average (including highway and city) was about 17 MPG. Not bad for a muscle car that was driven HARD (yeah, like 90MPH through Kansas).

No question, I would do the EFI again!

 

[tallhair]

You have set the bar very high Hawk but there is no competetion of course. I'm hoping this has motivated others to share their builds, experiences, trips, and whatever.

Your entire collection of build threads, trip thread, targeted updates, have certainly motivated me more than you can know.

Congrats on a safe trip and and great experience

Looking forward to more updates in your new posts and existing threads brother

 

[HT413]

Thanks for sharing, hawk, and thanks for making us part of it. Im glad that you were able to follow a dream, and I'm glad that old Bird got to follow her dream too.

 

[Midpenmopar]

Thanks for sharing, hawk, and thanks for making us part of it. I'm glad that you were able to follow a dream, and I'm glad that old Bird got to follow her dream too.

Could not have said that any better!! Even if i never get to do a trip like this i will always remember spending a few hours living it with the guys who did!

 

[HawkRod]

You have set the bar very high Hawk but there is no competetion of course. I'm hoping this has motivated others to share their builds, experiences, trips, and whatever.

Your entire collection of build threads, trip thread, targeted updates, have certainly motivated me more than you can know.

Congrats on a safe trip and and great experience

Looking forward to more updates in your new posts and existing threads brother

I'm very glad to hear that my threads may have helped motivate and/or help people - my goal has been to share my experiences, good or bad, so people can make educated decisions.

I am really sorry that we didn't get a chance to meet when we passed by the St. Louis area - it would have been great to meet you! One of the things I learned is that while the trip length seemed long, we were constantly moving West - not much time to hang out in any one place!

Thanks for sharing, hawk, and thanks for making us part of it. Im glad that you were able to follow a dream, and I'm glad that old Bird got to follow her dream too.

THANK YOU, to all the folk who followed along - that added to the fun. Also, special thanks to all the Mopar folks who reached out and helped us in some way, be it by having us stop by, helping us get into special museums, with advice, etc. All much appreciated!

Could not have said that any better!! Even if i never get to do a trip like this i will always remember spending a few hours living it with the guys who did!

Trust me, the pleasure was ours. Speaking of setting the bar high, your "man cave" is just absolutely awesome! What a great place to hang out, also with a fantastic view! Thank you again for hosting us!

 

[CoronetDarter]

The ole' gal is coming home

Already experiencing separation anxiety and it's not even my car. lol The auto transport came today to whisk your car back East. It was a bigun too, over 53'. Had a Rolls and a POS Ferrari already inside. Somebody threw a body wrap on the Ferrari, fake carbon fibre trim, pearl white body. Looked like it was applied by a HS kid at the local car wash.
BTW Hawk, I had pulled the car out of the garage around 8:00 to give the driver a landmark. By 8:10 Randy was circling the car, checking it out one more time. He stuck around thru the whole loading process. Now Randy is a dyed-in-the-wool Chevy guy, but he took a real liking to the Road Runner.

So the driver had to go through a whole series of monkey motions to balance the load but in the end your car went in without a hitch. The guy was a professional and I believe your cars' in good hands.




This angle makes the passenger side look tight, but there was plenty of room. The driver positioned the cars so that there was nothing directly above yours, no chance of drips ruining your paint.

 

[Dennis H]

Rich, did you save the time-slips for the green car from the passes you made at Sac Raceway the other night?

 

[Bunkle]

hey Hawk, Bunkle from Darwin Australia here hope trip is going great about to do same starting tomorrow bringing my 1970 three hundred coupe home from the other side of the country all up its about 4500 kilometres looking forward to it ill let you know in a weeks time how i went

 

[HT413]

hey Hawk, Bunkle from Darwin Australia here hope trip is going great about to do same starting tomorrow bringing my 1970 three hundred coupe home from the other side of the country all up its about 4500 kilometres looking forward to it ill let you know in a weeks time how i went

It would be awesome if you could keep us all up involved like ol' Hawk did. I for one would love to see pics of the Australian countryside from the perspective of a classic MOPAR.

 

[HawkRod]

Already experiencing separation anxiety and it's not even my car. lol The auto transport came today to whisk your car back East. It was a bigun too, over 53'. Had a Rolls and a POS Ferrari already inside. Somebody threw a body wrap on the Ferrari, fake carbon fibre trim, pearl white body. Looked like it was applied by a HS kid at the local car wash.
BTW Hawk, I had pulled the car out of the garage around 8:00 to give the driver a landmark. By 8:10 Randy was circling the car, checking it out one more time. He stuck around thru the whole loading process. Now Randy is a dyed-in-the-wool Chevy guy, but he took a real liking to the Road Runner.

So the driver had to go through a whole series of monkey motions to balance the load but in the end your car went in without a hitch. The guy was a professional and I believe your cars' in good hands.

This angle makes the passenger side look tight, but there was plenty of room. The driver positioned the cars so that there was nothing directly above yours, no chance of drips ruining your paint.

Thanks for taking good care of the 'ol girl - much appreciated! I saw the open floors - I wonder what they do if it is fully loaded? Maybe cover the cars in plastic?

Glad to see we are dragging Randy over to the dark side - now we have to work on Ron too!

- - - Updated - - -

Rich, did you save the time-slips for the green car from the passes you made at Sac Raceway the other night?

I would like to see those too! Heck, they probably wouldn't be so good with the O/D transmission. I'll have to start a thread like Bobtile to wake up my beast!

- - - Updated - - -

hey Hawk, Bunkle from Darwin Australia here hope trip is going great about to do same starting tomorrow bringing my 1970 three hundred coupe home from the other side of the country all up its about 4500 kilometres looking forward to it ill let you know in a weeks time how i went

It would be awesome if you could keep us all up involved like ol' Hawk did. I for one would love to see pics of the Australian countryside from the perspective of a classic MOPAR.

I'll second that! Take some pictures and start a thread - it would be really cool to see! Maybe we can get pictures from all continents!!

 

[747mopar]

It would be awesome if you could keep us all up involved like ol' Hawk did. I for one would love to see pics of the Australian countryside from the perspective of a classic MOPAR.

I agree 100%, Australia and New Zealand have been #1on my list of places to go for a long time but having young kids it always ends up being Disney or the Outer Banks..... maybe someday.

 

[Richard Cranium]

What, you're having it shipped back east? What kind of man are you?












I know, a smart one!

 

[HawkRod]

What, you're having it shipped back east? What kind of man are you?











I know, a smart one!

Hey, if my company gave me another 4 weeks of vacation I would be GLAD to drive it back and do a Southern loop to return. Alas, they actually want me to DO something for my pay...

 

[CoronetDarter]

Rich, did you save the time-slips for the green car from the passes you made at Sac Raceway the other night?

You blew my cover! Got it up to 125 but Hawk must have a 6500 rev limiter 'cause it wouldn't push any further....:headbang:

 

[Brandy]

Wow! What a great adventure you guys had! Thanks for sharing it all with us and thanks to FBBO for supporting them all the way. Memories involving our classics are the sweetest kind. Well done! Congrats!