The Wanderers build

superbuickguy

Explorer
Yesterday's update.... Today (said in a Paul Harvey voice)
a bit of metal bending (I really need a shrinker/stretcher)

and it fits

so when it comes to being lucky or good, I'll take lucky - these cages are for the dogs, they perfectly clear the roof.

they like looking out while we travel....


so my other stuff.... I have this great bench in the shape of a Corvette. The TRX 450r I finished fixing tonight (tomorrow there may be noise in the neighborhood)

To the toyota fans - don't look, it's broke (and we all know how impossible that is)

and there's the Denali parts truck
the 64 Buick GN Skylark

the fiat

2 of 3 dogs

the cruiser and the burb

someday, my precious, someday

​
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
THE WANDERERS #22





SEARCHING, WITH NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO

By Rick Sieman





When we least left Carl and Emma, they just finished racing The Whale in the Baja Safari, and due to the fact that Carl had knocked all the course markings off by accident, he had actually won the event when everyone else got lost. With the trophy on their hood, the wandering (what else?) duo headed north, with no particular place in mind. We join them as they drive through Arizona on Interstate 8, just sort of aimlessly driving in the general direction of the center of our great country.

***

Carl set the cruise control at 68 mph, then settled back in the comfortable captains chair. He had a plug of Red Man chewing tobacco in his left cheek and was munching on some beef jerky in his right cheek. Every time Emma watched him do this, she shuddered involuntarily. How any person could combine eating with chewing on a plug was beyond her. Carl pointed at the massive radio and said, "Heemuummmp, Ma. Hhoowosha bt trrrnking nda phrado?"
Emma set down her knitting and sighed. "Carl, I cannot understand one word you're saying. Now spit out one or another of those things, or I'm going to pretend that you're not even here!"
Carl thought about arguing with her for a moment, but dismissed that after some consideration. After all, when you've been married to a woman for over 30 years, you tend to pick up on the things that really bug them.

So Carl rolled the window down and waited until a sign was in sight. The sign said "KEEP ARIZONA BEAUTIFUL", which was the kind of sign that was Carl's favorite target. He took a deep breath, pursed his lips, slowed the Suburban down a bit and let fly.
A piece of beef jerky bounced off the center of the sign, and Carl gave silent thanks that he hadn't made the mistake of swallowing the plug of chew first. Something like that could ruin a man's whole day.

Another sign rolled into view. This one said "VEHICLES WITH TRAILERS STAY IN RIGHT LANE", and Carl took careful aim and planted the plug right on the 'L' in the word 'LANE'.
Emma sighed, "Good shot, Rambo."
Carl smiled. "Gee, thanks, Emma. I knew you'd grow to appreciate my skills. Maybe you'd like to try a plug yourself. It'd calm you down so you wouldn't have to knit so much."
"Carl, I'd rather sit on a hot waffle iron in a pit full of hungry snakes before I'd put that nasty stuff in my face!"
Got got a puzzled look on his face. "So, what are you trying to say, honey pot? Spit it out. Don't hold back."
Emma just sighed.

Carl pointed at the radio. "Say, now that you can hear me loud and clear, howsa 'bout dialing me in some tunes on the radio. There ain't much to see out here in Utah."
"We're in Arizona, dear."
"That's what I said. You got wax in your ears?"
Emma just looked up at the roof for a moment, and wisely said nothing. She spun the captains chair around and started fiddling with the radio.

SCRREEEEEECH... .SQUAUCK....

“ … another nice day here in Phoenix, with temperatures hovering right around 104 degrees, so it looks like the heat wave is over... “

…DIAL, DIAL, DIAL…
"...the answer to scrawny chickens and turkeys is right here in this red and white bag. Yessiree, Wonder Grow Number 26 makes those feathered suckers grow like Arnold Schwartznegger on steroids. Your poultry will grow so fast that..."

…DIAL, DIAL, DIAL…
"...so our charts show that investing in Bulgarian commemorative stamps are the way to building a real fortune. Why, a simple $5000 investment can easily turn into five times that money over...”

…DIAL, DIAL, DIAL…
"...this group goes all the way back to the early days of Oingo Boingo, so you can see they've got some rock and roll roots. Hang on to your ear rings as we light off 'Lick My Armpit', one of the fastest rising ..."

…DIAL, DIAL, DIAL…
"...bugs can drive you buggy, and that's why a call to Bugwhackers gets those pests out of your house. We come in with our Bug-O-Matic specialists and …”

…DIAL, DIAL, DIAL…
"...next up, we'll play a six pack of the best of Willy Nelson, followed by the Frog Hollow Banjo Pickers playing some serious bluegrass stuff from..."

"Hold it right there, Emma! We have just stumbled veritable gold mine of musical goodies. None of that Bruce Stingspring crap. This here will make the miles roll by."
Emma looked up from her knitting. "That's nice, dear. But just where are we headed? It would be sort of nice to have a goal."
"Honey pot, we're just rollin' with the wind. Sorta like a tumbleweed with no aim. Whatever catches our fancy, why that's what we'll do."
They drove in silence for a long time, listening to the mournful sounds that only Willy Nelson can make, all about good whiskey and bad women. Or was it bad whiskey and good women?
Carl stretched his arms and let out a deep breath. "You know, Emma. This ain't such a bad life. I mean, we just wander along, stop when we want to, do what we want to. I guess all those years of hard work paid off. And you know what? After that last thing I did, entering the Baja Safari and all, I think it's time for me sort of settle down. No more dumb stuff for me. Things like fishin' sound good right about now."
Emma smiled and gave Carl a gentle pinch on the cheek. She had rarely been happier, and it made her feel good to see Carl so calm and collected.

Then, as fate would have it, the music stopped and the announcer on the radio started talking: "... and you sure don't want to miss the Nebraska State Championship Mud Bogs. We'll have classes for everybody, and for the big truck classes, the winner is gonna get a new Ranger bass boat and five hunnert bucks. The Chevy dealers of Nebraska are sponsoring this one, so stop by a Chevy dealer and fill out a form and..."
Carl bolted straight up in his seat, his eyes bugging out. "Quick, Emma! Get out the road map and see how far we are from Nebraska. This could be great!!!"
Emma let out a low moan and started gently banging her forehead against the thickly padded dash of The Whale.
"Hey, whattsa matter with you, woman? You got one of those margarine headaches?"
"You mean migraine."
"Yeah. That's what I said. Anyway, get the big map out. We're headin' for Kansas to do some mud-boggin'!"
"You mean Nebraska. And, no, I do not have a migraine headache. You are just driving me nuts, but I guess it's too late to change you at this stage in your life."
Emma fumbled with the map for a minute, then said, "Head in to Phoenix and pick up Highway 10 heading east. We should hit Nebraska sooner or later."
Carl started whistling and humming badly out of tune, while Emma silently prayed that Carl would get lost on the way to the mud bog.

Hmmm. With Carl's track record, the odds are about 60/40 that he'll never find his way to Nebraska, but if he does, will he actually enter The Whale in a mud bog event? Is it possible that The Whale will sink from sight forever in a bottomless Nebraska mud-hole? Join us in the flat-lands next month to see.
 

NevadaLover

Forking Icehole
Buick.jpg


What the......? WHY is that awesome wagon sitting there rusting and being lonely??????????? Imagine that bad boy with a healthy 455, built 700R4 and a FITECH fuel injection setup on top!! That would be a SWEET ride baby!!!
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
View attachment 407639


What the......? WHY is that awesome wagon sitting there rusting and being lonely??????????? Imagine that bad boy with a healthy 455, built 700R4 and a FITECH fuel injection setup on top!! That would be a SWEET ride baby!!!

You don't know me very well ;) I've owned it for a month.... and I already have the GNX motor sourced and sitting in it. 455 (twin turbo, aluminum head belongs in a big car like my 50 Sedanet....)
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
I do have another gauge cluster - but before I put it in, I figured I'd put a mechanic temp gauge in... good news bad news. Good news is I know what's wrong, bad news is I have to change the panel. With that said, I've had this problem before - I used a gas temp sender in a former diesel truck and got the same issue.... which means I might have gotten the wrong sender (again)....


I don't even remember where I got all the diesel-spares.... but I'm glad I've kept them around
​
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
I also fixed some major, major rust issues.... I can't believe I saved this thing....


seriously, I don't get why I deal with such a terrible level of rust.
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
now that the rust is fixed, I learneded somethings. The turbo is not happy, that I knew, but I thought it'd not be a huge deal to get a turbo or repair. 'Twas 1/2 right, the turbo was easy - it's a Holset HX35. What wasn't easy was getting to where I learned that. I sent an email to ATS - and they responded (quite nicely) that ATS is not ATS but rather an ATS that was in Salt Lake City (they're in Colorado) and had went defunct in the early 00s. That sent me down the path to figure out what I actually had. It's was only through the A/R trim of .98 and .60 that I finally figured out what it was (with a T4 flange and 4 bolt exhaust for those recreating this later).... Makes sense, actually, the HX35 was the turbo for the 94-98 5.9 Cummins. As ATS probably didn't want to reinvent the wheel - they simply made a manifold and intake for the HX35. Of course, I have the right to ninja edit this later if it turns out I bought the wrong turbo - however, I'm about as confident as I can be that I ordered the right Chinese knockoff (you really didn't think I'd spend full dollars on an eduguess?)

Irritation first... I have a pair of GT28 turbos that still have no home (neither on this, nor on my 231 Buick I'm building)

there it is


there could be another V-band in the exhaust's future as well....
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
this was a waste of time and not really... I thought I had the springs on reversed - I didn't, but the pad was on incorrectly
P7060834_zpsqaucnxmc.jpg

I was supervised
P7060836_zpsqafix5iz.jpg

Stella was having none of this....
P7060837_zpsvwtw807v.jpg

so I took the springs completely off... only to put them back on and reverse the pads
P7060838_zps4sk6qj2b.jpg

and made a mess
P7060839_zpstjgvqnnk.jpg


In other news, I took the truck down and had the pump turned up... worked great, blew the turbo.... well, worked great, blew the line off, then the turbo wouldn't develop as much boost... ah well, good thing I already have the new turbo on order...
 

bknudtsen

Expedition Leader
That owl seems pretty comfy right there.

That last picture looks like my driveway last week. My NP241C is leaking from pretty much everywhere and it dumped a bunch out the tail cone. When I went to top it off, I knocked the ATF over on the driveway and ruined my favorite Carhartt jacket.

Come to think of it, my rig leaks from every seal...
 

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