The original River Run is back! That's right, the West Coast Nationals Truck Run & Show will return to the La Paz County Park in Parker, Arizona, September 25-27, 2009.

In the morning (9/25), I will be departing for the 278 mile journey from Southern California to Parker, Arizona. This should take 5ish hours or so. It is going to be a hot drive without air conditioning, but I'll live. The tradeoff is that I can pump air for my air ride super fast.

I am hoping to get out of town sometime in the AM - the earlier the better, in order to arrive during daylight to set up camp. That's right, I'm bringing a tent and some potato chips, because I'm camping. None of that hotel stuff!

A lot has to happen between now (or 7 tonight when I get home from work) and in the morning. I need to glance over the S10 to make sure we are somewhat ok to drive it out of state. No time for any major changes at this point! I need to shop for food, pack camping gear, charge the cameras, and fit in some sleep somewhere in there. Because of the tonneau cover, full tweed, step notch, 12 gallon tank, 3 amps, and 2 compressors, there is not enough room to fit everything in the bed of the S10. In fact, an ice chest might be too tall to fit. Because of this, I have a Silverado "support vehicle" making the journey, driven by my fearless partner in crime, Nick.

I will try to post from my Blackberry, depending on motivation and reception. Otherwise, definitely expect photos and video. You won't see my coverage include the same 20 previously featured trucks that get snapped at every show thereafter - my goal is to focus on the other 98% of the trucks in the scene.

Stay tuned for updates!

I've been offline for the past 36 hours or so and it's time to play catch up. I spent last Sunday night and Monday at my parent's house in Arkansas..

At 4am on Tuesday, I loaded up the Parts Racer and hit the road again, with a goal of reaching Flagstaff, Arizona that same day. Well, that didn't quite work out. About five hours away from my folks' house, I reached New Mexico and then trouble arose. In the middle of a construction zone, which had Interstate 40 narrowed into just one lane in either direction, the engine died. I coasted to a stop on the dirt shoulder and discovered there was no fuel pressure, according to the telltale Holley gauge under the hood. After making sure I had voltage to the electric fuel pump, and cracking open the inlet and outlet lines to verify there was no fuel being pumped from the full tank of gas, I decided to install my spare fuel pump.

It was a different brand of pump that required some re-plumbing and wiring and while I was at it, I cut a few zip ties from the fuel line running on the inside of the framerail to allow me to move the line to the outside of the rail, away from the exhaust. The LS327 engine roared to life and I was back on the road again. In the meantime, a storm front had moved in, which once again proved my old windshield wiper motor to be utterly useless. 15 miles later, smoked poured out from the right side of the truck. I pulled over again, jacked up the passenger side of the truck and found that I failed to resecure the trans cooler lines that were tied to the that fuel line I had just moved. In the darkeness of night, I could just barely see that a portion of the line was lying against the hot exhaust header and it burned a hole right through it.

Thank god for AAA. A tow truck showed up an hour later and towed me (for free!) the next 100 miles to Albuqurque, New Mexico, where I stayed the night with a some friends. The next morning I replaced the trans cooler line and also dropped the gas tank out of the truck to double check the plumbing because once again the fuel pump wasn't pumping fuel. I found a crack in the supply line and replaced it, confident that the truck was once again roadworthy. I hit the road at 2pm and got all of 20 miles down the road before the engine died again, ironically, in a construction zone. I had planned on being back in the office on Wednesday so I needed to act fast.

My last trip to the auto parts store had netted me a couple of 3/8-inch brass unions and some extra fuel line, which I had bought just in case something like this had happened. I had two five-gallon gas jugs sitting in the bed so I decided that rather than remove the stock gas tank again, I'd just replumb the fuel pump to siphon from my plastic gas jugs. I now had a truck that would run, but only for about 60 miles before running out of gas. I made it to Gallup, New Mexico and found a Walmart, where I purchased three more five gallon jugs. My McGyver mechanic skills paid off, the truck ran flawlessly the rest of the day and I made it all the way from New Mexico to Orange County, California by 4am today.

I grabbed a couple hours of rest and am now back in the office. What a trip! Oh and and as for that vibration, I'm not sure what's causing it. I'm too tired to figure that out right now. My next goal is to install a new pickup in the stock gas tank so I can drive a little further between fill ups.

Yesterday, the Parts Racer developed a mild vibration in the steering between 73-74 mph. Until that occurrence, the truck has been a dream to drive.

We started out the trip with a five inch drop up front and a six inch drop out back using Belltech suspension components. Two inch drop springs and three inch spindles lowered the front suspension. An axle flip kit dropped the rear suspension. Combined with Belltech shocks and front and rear sway bars, and 275/50R17 Nitto NT450 rubber on 17x9 Vintage Wheelworks V48 wheels, the truck is a friggin' slot car in the turns, with a tight, performance-oriented ride quality. Without a load in the bed, the back end is still pliable, even over rough road.

We filled the bed with tools, camera equipment, spare parts, and gear for this road trip. The rear suspension is hammered now, tucking about 1.5-inches of tire, with the rear axle sitting on the bumpstops. Thankfully, the rear bumpstops are the oem-type soft foam rubber ones and so the ride has only been rough over the occasional railroad crossing or expansion bridge transition.

When we reached Phoenix, Arizona, we added Baer brakes, which required switching from Belltech's three-inch spindles to CPP's two-inch spindles, raising the front of the truck up one inch. The ride quality was retained but the truck stops a whole lot better now.

As for the vibration, well, I'll crawl under the truck before I head home and see if anything has come loose.

I'm in Arkansas today. I got into town to visit my folks just in time for dinner last night, which was awesome. Nothin' like home cookin'.

On the way here I had a few milestones for this trip:

1. I saw my first Colt45 sign with Billy D. Williams on it.

2. The Parts Racer got 18.3 mpg on a stretch of I-40 that I averaged 68 mph on.

3.

After a great night in Tennessee, we are headed back to USA Stadium for day two of the Relaxed Atmosphere All-Star Event...

I found this picture of the Parts Racer at www.67-72chevytrucks.com, a site that has a section for '73-87 chevy trucks. Several of the site's members were at the show enjoying the scenery.

It's 7am and we are in Tennessee.....      

We even got about six hours of sleep, which is awesome considering the events of last week. Time to head over to the show. later!

We just finished putting the truck back together. No time to clean it or get rid of any paint residue, overspray etc.

At the rate we are going, we'll get to tennessee at about 1am in the morning, which is plenty of time to sleep before the show. Sorry, but I dont have time to post pics of the truck yet. Besides, its dirty. But it is blue and I'm very happy. Later!

Right now the truck is fully wetsanded, cleaned and taped off. It's ready to spray paint onto. But we are missing the new cowl induction hood.

Damn. Not only do we not have the hood, but with the luck I've had recently with freight companies smashing the parts, even if the hood does show up it probably won't be a "scuff it and spray it" kinda deal. It's 3pm and we are running out of time. As a backup plan, we are sanding the old hood, which has some low spots and dents in it, just in case we have to paint it and put it back onto the truck.

Now this truck isn't perfect, but we've worked hard to get it as straight as possible in just four days and it's gonna suck to go through all that and put a dented hood back onto it. That's the first thing people will notice when we show up to the truck show.

Cross your toes. I'm hoping the freight guy gets here soon.

We've got color! The bed is out of the booth and drying in the hot Texas sun. Actually, it's not that hot today and it's quite humid, so it's drying slowy.       

Thankfully, the paint kicked off quickly and is almost dry to the touch. We are still wet-sanding the guide coat off the cab but it's probably only an hour away from going into the booth to have the door jambs painted. The bed came out really nice for having limited time in the bodshop and only one session of block-sanding. Given more time we could probably make it perfect, but I'm not after perfection so it's perfect in my eyes. The Kustomwerx guys have kicked butt on this stage of the project.

We anticipate beginning the reassembly of the truck at about 5pm tonight. I plan on hitting the road at about 6am tomorrow, which will put us in Millington, Tennessee at about 6pm tomorrow night. Cross your fingers.

On Day 8 of the Pickup Fix-Up tour Kustomwerx laid down the primer on the Parts Racer. I can no longer call the truck The Brown Bomber and I'm stoked about that. Can't wait for tomorrow.

I spent the morning grinding the rest of the rust out of the ribbed bed floor and the sanding the walls with a d/a. I've breathed enough rust dust to last me a lifetime. Charlie, Brandon, and Calin were busy finishing the bodywork on the cab. The bed was primed inside and out by 1:30pm and then the cab was pushed into the booth and also sprayed. We got the bed wetsanded in preparation for paint right as the shop shut down at 5pm. Boy are these guys fast! The truck won't be perfect but after four days of work its a helluva lot straighter than it's ever been. The amount of work done to the doors, fenders and bed is pretty miraculous. Well, I need a shower and some food. I'll post again later.

-Mike

today was filled with hammering, lots of it, and sanding, lots of that, and tonight my nose is filled with bondo boogers.

wear a respirator kids. i didn't and after four plus hours of grinding rust off the floor of my bed, my nose is dyin'. Today the crew finished bodyworking the bed, and spent a ton of time fixing dents in the doors and tweaking the window frames to get them semi-lined up with the cab.

The plan is to prime the truck tomorrow and spray paint thursday morning. we are cutting it close. the hood and hood pins won't be here until thursday. we gotta get the truck put back together on thursday too because its a 10-12 hour drive to Millington, Tennesee for the show. Would like to be there Friday night. Keep your fingers crossed. Mine have no fingerprints! lol

Well that didn't take too long. We've been in Texas for less than four days and already the word "Y'all" has invaded my vocabulary on a regular basis.

My mom is from Arkansas but grew up in California. I grew up in California so it makes me wonder why after a short time of visiting the south I always end up coming home with a little twang in my voice and a hankerin' for BBQ. Must be in the genes, or the water, or the beer. It sure wasn't in the Tex-Mex I had for dinner last night.

The good news I haven't been "Fixin'" to do anything yet, so I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Three more days of bodywork to go and then it's off to Tennessee. I've got the horns and almost all the vocab. I just need a great hat now. 10 gallons ought to do it.

Later!

Today we are in Conroe, Texas, visiting our pal Corey at Kustomwerx. Although the Parts Racer is running like a champ, it looks the part of a chump and that's where Corey is going to help out on the Pickup Fix-up Tour.

We rolled into the parking lot bright and early at 8am, with the bull horns leading the way. No one seemed to get the joke, I think because Texans take their bull horns more seriously than I do. So the first thing I did was remove the horns and the hood from the '73. I'll put 'em up on the shop wall at home as a momento of this ridiculous road trip.

These guys do not mess around. By 10am they had removed the rusted out passenger side bedside and replaced it with an aftermarket piece that we got from Classic Industries. By 12pm, Corey and I had welded up most of the trim holes, bed hook holes and Calin was grinding everything down so it could get smoothed out with mud.

Unfortunately, much like our new doors, the bedside arrived with a few dents in it, which sucks, but we can thank the postal service for that. It didn't take too long for Kustomwerx to fix the dents. I figure by the end of the day the bed will be ready for primer.

Oh now we didn't! oh yes we did! Ok, I did. Calin wants no part of this one.

So we're in Texas and I'm soakin' up the culture. Indeed, everything is truly big here. We've got big speed limits (80+mph!!!!), big car dealers, bigass Walmart stores all over, and now, now I've got bigass horns on the hood of the '73. On the way back to a friend's house after having a bigass breakfast at the Firehouse in Granberry, I spotted this dude sellin these horns on the side of the road. I couldn't help myself.

After a mostly boring 15 hour drive from Phoenix to Ft. Worth the day before, I needed something to amuse myself during the next leg of our trip, a 6 hour jaunt to Conroe. So I unbolted the hood emblem and mounted the horns right above the grill where everyone could see them. Boss Hogg would be proud. I spent the next six hours on the road laughing my ass off at people's reactions on the highway while Calin wanted to slump down in his seat and hide.

What's the big deal? What's more Texan than bull horns on an old Chevy truck?

We got a flat in Odessa right after we stopped to check out the meteor crater site.

The crater was pretty much a let down and getting a flat was just the icing on the crap cake that was Odessa.  The valve stem broke, how often does that happen?. Spare is on and we are off again.

we just crossed into Texas 

El Paso is the first city well pass thru and so far the el paso saddleblanket store must own all the billboards because we have passed at least 15 of them.  We also passed a truck hauling a bad ass tank and I just had to snap a shot. This is the closest I've been to a tank since I got out of the Army....

Its a brand new day. The Parts Racer is runnin' like a champ. We motored through AZ and into NM doin' 75 mph.

Today we'll be lookin' for aliens and then headin' to Texas to go hang out with some friends before our Monday morning appointment at Kustomwerx. For now, enjoy the pics from dinner at the Heart Attack Grill last night. Calin is doin' pretty well considering he tried to shovel 2 pounds of grade A beef down his mouth. lol

we just crossed into New Mexico.  

and the first bussiness we passed was a huge fireworks stand. Stand may be an understatement it looked like a friggin warehouse. In a place that big we are bound to fine the good stuff like whistling kitty chasers. Dang, that's what I'm talkin about!!!!  

we stopped at the Shell station that has a huge sign sayin come see the THING 

the bummer was the place was closed so we didn't get to see this THING they are talkin about. We did fill up and adjusted the headlights. The lights were so out of whack we had to turn on the brights just to see 10 feet in front of us. While I was adjusting it mike was holding the flashlight so I took the opportunity to cropdust him. Needless to say when he got one whiff of my beefstew he dropped the light and took off. I'm sure he'll get me back at some point, but I got the first one.  

we are rollin down the 10 a little over the speed limit with Johnny Cash cranked up. 

we just passed a sign that said the 10 is closed wtf is that about? Anyway this portion of the drive has been pretty uneventfull except for mike singing along to "one piece at a time" and the foul odor of raw sewage. Its like an RV dumped its crap tank right in front of us.  

The new brakes work killer. We didn't do much bedding of the pads because we are running a bit behind schedule. We'll swing back by Baer on our way home to do the after-testing. The brakes will be fully bedded by then.

While at Baer we cured three small problems. The serpentine belt that drives the engine accessories had been shredding itself since we left Cali'. I spent 103 dollars on a new belt and three spares at the local Napa auto parts palace. I also reprogrammed the tranny computer because in the middle of our initial brake test it decided to stop shifting into second and fourth gear. Our Vintage Wheelworks centercaps wouldnt fit back onto the wheels with the new brakes so Calin did quite bit of filing on one to get it back on.

So now the tranny is working properly and we've got enough belts to get us at least 900 miles before i have to go shopping again. Yey! see yall later. We are on our way to the heart attack grille for a bigass burger, even though we just ate lunch a couple hours ago.

Well we are back at Baer Brakes this morning. We got a good night's sleep and are feeling good. The back end is all done and all that's left is to install the proportioning valve....

and bleed the system. Then we'll be testing, hopefully with working data acquisition equipment this time. We are about half a day behind schedule, which isn't a big deal. We might stay in Phoenix one more night and find the Heart Attach grille, a restaraunt that serves four pound hamburgers. Calin says he can finish one, I'm betting against him. Either way, I wanna see him try it, especially now that he just purchased a fake mustache out of a $.25 candy machine.

we just rolled into the brake shop here at Baer.  

after doing a few 60 to 0 stopping tests with the stock brakes on a deserted road we finally pulled into the shop. Time for some big binders.  

Just now caught word from the road trip guys!

"Gettin ready to test the stock brakes. Installing a radar gun and radar detector so the cops don't catch us!"

Check that out! They are in the middle of nowhere! Wonder how hot it is!

So very tired. It's 7am and we've gotten exactly 3.5 hours of sleep.

Our road trip began in Redondo Beach at 9pm last night. I picked up Calin in the '73 and we hit the road with the bed full of stuff. 20 miles later we stopped to fix an exhaust leak. Loose header bolts. 200 miles later we stopped because the tranny computer got too hot and shut off. It was mounted to the floorboard, which felt like it was on fire from the exhaust. So i zip tied the computer to the seat frame and its been fine ever since.

We stopped for gas in Ehrenberg, which is on the Arizona side of the Colorado River. We are getting about 16mpg, doing 80-85 mph with the A/C on, in 100 degree heat so she's running pretty damn good.

Now we meet Todd from Baer Brakes to do a little before-testing. The brakes on this truck suck. I'll be surprised if they even lockup! lol

anyway..see yall later!