Topic: Everyone make it home safe?

Limo is back in MN lowering property values.
Everyone have uneventful drives home?

That guy that likes the Oldsmobile Diesel for some reason.

2 (edited by EyeMWing 2017-02-09 08:51 AM)

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

Aside from Hotels.com asking me every 15 minutes to review all those hotels, pretty uneventful. Plopped the Legacy in the front lawn and haven't so much as thought about unpacking it yet. Will probably unpack and poke through the mechanicals to tally the damage this weekend, but I'm pretty sure:

1) Head gaskets are done
2) Front diff bearings done
3) Transmission done
4) Rear diff bearings done
5) Front CV joints questionable
6) Something untoward happened to the brakes (they were never the same after that pace lap)
7) The rust spots have opened up into gaping holes, possibly intruding into meaningful structures.

Car weren't too hooptie when I started, but it probably is now.

Driver, Pit Monkey, Rod Buster and Engine Fire Starter
Team FinalGear

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

Made it home fine in 2 days. The Passat now sucks down oil twice as quick since driving thru West Virginia and 1st gear is louder than before the rally. Already looking to buy an old heap for the west coast rally.

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

Red Fairmont is home and mostly unpacked. Deep cell battery still under hood. Trying to figure out how I am going to make West Coast Rally work this summer. Such a great time, thanks to all teams and to the organizers.

Brian Gomez
2018 Great Lakes Mistake Dune Buggy Thing - 2018 Retreat from Moscow: 1979 Lemons Chevette - 2017 Retreat from Moscow: 1978 Ford Fairmont Futura - 2016 Hell On Wheels Car Weeeeeaaaaaaaakkkk: 2003 Pontiac Aztek Breaking Bad!

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

Lowballers are all home. Lots of repair to be done and all the cars are getting rethemed before the next race.
Sounds like we are running a 1 car skeleton crew for CMP in spring, so maybe do a stand alone theme for the Geo.
And we gotta figure out what to do with the Missing Linc.

Knoxvegas Lowballers - Team Mom: unfortunately that is my circus and those are my monkeys.
www.facebook.com/KnoxvegasLowballers

6 (edited by gogmorgo 2017-02-09 07:15 PM)

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

The Niva made it... barely. I was so done with the drive I just rammed it into the 18" of snow in the back yard, shut it off, and walked away planning on not touching it again until the snow melts out from under it.
Things wrong with it:
Trans input seal. It's not pouring, but it's a pretty decent leak. Added a quart in Birmingham and again in Kansas City, likely should have again in Fargo but I spent more than enough time on this trip in Fargo for my taste and I just wanted to get home. Also that quart I added somewhere around Binghampton (I think) on the rally itself.
Fifth gear: Doesn't stay put. Suspect directly related to trans input seal. Probably either a bad bearing or synchro due to lack of lubrication... hurray for replacing brand-new transmission components.
Clutch: Slips above 1/2 throttle. It started happening somewhere between Kentucky and Illinois on the trip back if I put my foot to the floor going uphill, and got worse and worse to the point I wasn't sure I'd make it home. Suspect it has a lot to do with the 5000-mile bath in gear oil due to the trans input seal. $5 seals... they're important.
Brakes: became much worse after a panic stop just after crossing the border on the trip down. (I've never had a deer jump in front of the Niva, and that's saying something given I live in a National Park. Anyone in NoDak know why your deer are so stupid?) and got progressively worse after that. The handbrake also doesn't work as well as it did when I set off. I suspect it has a lot to do with the aluminum drums.
Other than that it seems to be doing mostly okay-ish. Trying to decided wether to continue with my plans of letting it sit until spring, allowing my wallet to recover a bit after the rally, or else get it back on the road now by removing most of the components I've installed in the last eight months. I'm also going to look at another Niva tomorrow... may God have mercy on my soul.

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

The Boss Wagon had an uneventful trip home, made it back to Maine on Monday. It is still sitting in the snow drift next to my shop. I unpacked just enough to get the tools that I needed back out of it, Yamaha is still hanging off the back.
Now I need to figure out if the west coast summer rally is possible for me or just get ready for next winter.

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

The "Traded for a bar tab" Legacy has been parked beside my house. It has traded rotting in a snowbank for rotting in the shade of a palm tree.

Hell On Wheels "Totally Not a Rental Car" Chrysler 300
Retreat From Moscow "Traded a Bar Tab for a Wagon" Subaru Legacy
Monterey Car Weeeeak -Dishonorable Mention- "Cocoa Beach A.S.S. Team" Oldsmobile Wagon
Fail Inc Motorsports Intergalactic Headquarters

9 (edited by EyeMWing 2017-02-13 12:02 PM)

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

Inspected the brown Legacy this weekend. All was as I expected (totally ruined) with one key deviation:

It grew a 3-inch wide rust hole in a unibody structural member. Which means before I can go on with my Excellent Plans, I need to learn to do rust repairs.

Driver, Pit Monkey, Rod Buster and Engine Fire Starter
Team FinalGear

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

The Chevette is back to sucking wind at high altitudes.  I may have even fixed the top end oil leak.  Time will tell after I change the oil tomorrow.

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

The Fox LTD wagon made it home in one piece, after sitting for two days while I raced, and finished in second, at Barber!

Only thing that went wrong on the rally was a smoking front caliper/rotor, which magically went away.  Gonna put it up for sale now.

Will be back next year with a crappier wagon.

COM ( Chief Operating Moron ) of Burnt Rubber Soul Racing
Current fleet: 95 Ford Probe, 81 Mazda 626.  Past: 81 Imperial
Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/burntrubbersoulracing

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

majo wrote:

The Fox LTD wagon made it home in one piece, after sitting for two days while I raced, and finished in second, at Barber!

Only thing that went wrong on the rally was a smoking front caliper/rotor, which magically went away.  Gonna put it up for sale now.

Will be back next year with a crappier wagon.

And the award for highest placing rally entrant at the Barber race goes to this guy!
Pretty impressive really after soloing the rally and then putting in a 3:25 stint to finish the race...and sleeping in the rally wagon all weekend!

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

majo wrote:

The Fox LTD wagon made it home in one piece, after sitting for two days while I raced, and finished in second, at Barber!

Only thing that went wrong on the rally was a smoking front caliper/rotor, which magically went away.  Gonna put it up for sale now.

Will be back next year with a crappier wagon.

I'd be interested in that.

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

The 944's starter was still dead, so everywhere was a push start. Other than that, though, all fine all the way back to PA.

(I never got my Wawa sammich, though.)

Re: Everyone make it home safe?

"Mo" the Morris has wandered the metro Atlanta area unexcitedly since its return...

got a 4th place car show trophy last weekend. We (apparently) plotted amongst ourselves- a Vega wagon, a Healy Bugeye, and a 1921 Model T- to outsmart the high-dollar entries in the fan trophy vote... a Ruf Porsche, a Lexus, a new yellow Camaro, 3 modern Corvettes, a Rousch Mustang, something with Lambo doors, and a Panoz, among others... average price easily 50k.

Had a fuse burn up on the wipers... had to ease back home and figure it out. RainX helps-

Applied some minimal clear coat to keep the new patina as developed after 36 hours in PA and Southern NY.

Now prepping it for a July 4th parade in small-town America.

Wishing we were heading to Laguna sad