{"id":37,"date":"2010-09-22T06:33:42","date_gmt":"2010-09-22T06:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=37"},"modified":"2010-09-23T07:09:01","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T07:09:01","slug":"the-long-strange-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=37","title":{"rendered":"The long strange trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up at 5am today, hit the airport for 6:40 Southwest 119 to Sacramento with perfect timing. \u00a0Caused a stir at the bank by trying to withdraw my own money (?), paid the fellow and left in this-<\/p>\n

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Yes, that is a red\/orange overspray on the left front tire. \u00a0Fellow was doing a quick fix-up and sell, and got a little rambunctious with the paint gun – the windows, engine compartment, license plates, door handles, radiator, etc., all got paint on them. \u00a0No big deal as most of those things will be replaced or repainted anyway.<\/p>\n

So with no speedo and no gas gauge I set off from Sacramento towards San Diego around 9:30am. \u00a0Car has a V8 out of an ’84 Camaro with an Edelbrock carb. \u00a0Transmission is a 4-speed, Muncie we think. \u00a0It’s not too whiny and first seems a little tall and close to second, so I’m hoping it’s an M21. \u00a0Rear end is a 10-bolt but very steep, thinking probably a 4.10.<\/p>\n

With this setup I’m expecting 13-14mpg, even at the guesstimated 55mph I’m traveling. \u00a0Car had about 30 miles since last fill-up, so I stop about 40 miles in to gauge consumption. \u00a0Never filled up one of these wacky rear-fill things before, the lack of evaporative emissions \u00a0gear readily apparent. \u00a0At about 3.2 gallons, fuel starts spilling out all over the back bumper. \u00a0That’s odd. \u00a0The fellow mentioned it leaks a little bit and to hold it tight, so I do, but after about 3.5 gallons, everything I dispense splashes on the ground. \u00a0Hmmm…<\/p>\n

Make it another 110 miles, and I can only fit in 5.2. \u00a0It is a new tank and the owner said something about the level and rake in the car, so I turn it around on a slight slope, and still can’t fit any more in the tank…<\/p>\n

(Can you see where this is going yet?)<\/p>\n

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The darn thing got 20-24mpg for every leg of the trip. \u00a0I still stopped every 110-130 miles to be safe, but I never fit in much over 5 gallons. \u00a0Since I was going to be taking the car apart at home and didn’t want too much gas in it, for the last leg went from the south side of the grapevine, all the way home, about 150 miles.<\/p>\n

Definitely plan to get a functional gas gauge going!<\/p>\n

So…how was the car on its first drive?<\/p>\n

It has manual everything – steering, brakes, etc. \u00a0The steering ratio feels like it’s 99:1 in parking lots – takes 2 turns to do anything and it’s still heavy. \u00a0There’s about 1\/8th turn of dead spot in the middle, monkeying around with 1\/8th turn in the Viper would get you spinning.<\/p>\n

The brakes are phenomenally…atrocious. \u00a0Manual drums at all four corners. \u00a0The worst brakes of any car I have ever driven. \u00a0There was a little pull to the left but I have to imagine they probably aren’t much worse than when the car was new. \u00a0Scary stuff!<\/p>\n

Speaking of scary, there were no seatbelts in the car. \u00a0It had seats from the ’84 Camaro, must have lost the belts in the translation. \u00a0I’m a big believer in seat belts and always wear mine – their absence is part of why I’m going right to work on this thing instead of tooling around with it for a bit.<\/p>\n

Side window vents rock! \u00a0They did a great job of making window-down a comfortable and quiet thing.<\/p>\n

The engine was pretty weak and sounded like it was full of exhaust leaks. \u00a0The gas pedal required huge force to press, that got really annoying. \u00a0Not going to miss this motor.<\/p>\n

Used the transmission\/engine to help deceleration on offramps. \u00a0It would pop out of third gear under decel. \u00a0Looks like the trans will for sure need a rebuild if kept.<\/p>\n

Got home around 8:15pm, tired, but excited to actually check out the car. \u00a0Had been in “get it and get it home” mode all day.<\/p>\n

Couple scary things – one missing and \u00a0one half-off lugnut on right front. \u00a0Other corners have all five. \u00a0Camaro Berlinetta 14″ wheels have too much offset for this suspension, the lower steering ball joint was rubbing the tires the whole way home.<\/p>\n

The wiring is a complete disaster, stuff going everywhere, lying on hot parts, tangled in steering, you name it. \u00a0Will have to be completely redone.<\/p>\n

The thing is SOLID! \u00a0No signs of rust anywhere with some extensive magnet testing. \u00a0Looked underneath, the original factory bump stops are there, all the suspension appears unmodified. \u00a0It even has the original sound deadening under the carpet. \u00a0This is a great place to start for an STX car, as so much of the original stuff is still there, and I won’t be stuck with the car in “paint\/body jail” for 6 months. \u00a0At least, I hope not.<\/p>\n

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Up at 5am today, hit the airport for 6:40 Southwest 119 to Sacramento with perfect timing. \u00a0Caused a stir at the bank by trying to withdraw my own money (?), paid the fellow and left in this- Yes, that is a red\/orange overspray on the left front tire. \u00a0Fellow was doing a quick fix-up and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}