cross continent adventure

[dinghyguy]

day 2 kent ohio to Columbus aand back

So today we decided to drive 2 hours south to visit Midwest Bayless and look at what they have for sale. Met Matt the owner and his wife (sorry I forget her name) and they were super people with nice dogs. Got lost 3oo yards from the shop and she came out and waved at us to get our attention. Too funny , but effective. They remembered my email threatening to come!

We wanted to get some specific connectors for the electrical system to make the headlight relay install truly a plug and play. No problem, and so we picked up some other bits as well. Came back to our hotel in Kent, spiced and soldered (everyone brings a soldering iron on trips, right?) the new (old) connectors together in our non smoking room without setting off the fire alarm. So tomorrow am we hopefully will install and see how many fuses blow. We have learned that no work on a hot fiat engine is possible!
Had another good dinner with my son and some of his colleagues.

Back on the road tomorrow heading west, all going well we will be west of Chicago. Thanks everybody for the route advice, sounds like all the votes are for 90.

Getting something around 24-26 MPG at 110 km/hr and we did find that regular gas (by mistake) really makes the idle rough, so back to the good stuff asap which will be tomorrow mid am I hope.

cheers

[nelsonj]

Thanks for the updates! Love reading them. If its any encouragement, about 20 years ago I shipped a 1979 Spider to Bremen, Germany, and picked it up at the docks. I drove all over Europe in it for three weeks (then sold it). The car performed flawlessly, sans a very small oil drip.

Headlight relays should help a lot - I have it my car. But the dash will likely still be dim - swapping in LEDs solves that problem.

Good luck tomorrow - sounds like a big driving day. (P.S. your ears take a lot less of a beating with the top up and wind wings open!)

Peace.

[dinghyguy]

day 3 Kent ohio to Des Moines Iowa 682 miles

The day started well, slept in, then installed the headlight relay upgrade and wow, now we have headlights (pointed oddly but bright) then left heading west.
no big troubles, the idle is low so have to adjust the carb tomorrow, hopefully a twist of the idle screw all and will be well.

added a quart of oil today, have gone about 2400 km so far and things seem still to be holding together.

restorations & upgrades to date include:
headlight relay install
new visors
radio antenna install
so we are holding at 1 a day as planned.

Tomorrow we will install the new door striker rubbers and aim the headlights better than they are currently.

Note to other travellers, check and see if the town you want to stay in is full because of the fair or back to school week, we ended up going an additional 2 hrs to find a room tonight......but at least was in the right direction!

In spite of all the advice we are sticking with 80 going west, it intersects the eclipse path sooner and longer so hopefully our chance of success will be better.

beginning to wonder if corn will ever end.....but there are cows interspersed for variety
had thundershowers to day near Chicago, we were trapped in a single lane of traffic for a while ,got slightly damp, then finally put the top up for the first time on the trip and the sky promptly cleared, so top up time is less than 15 min to date.

gnight from dinghyguy and mike

[dinghyguy]

Day 4 Des Moine to Agallah Nebraska

Another day of endless cornfields. We tried to see a train museum in Omaha, but it was closed, so on we went. but today was a lesser day, we stopped in daylight had a nice meal complete with beer brewed from corn. Today we completed three tasks on the car:
adjusted the idle
installed new rubber blocks on the doors
aim the headlights more or less at the road
So all in all a good day
We identified 6 more tapes for the rubbish bin. Friends gave us all their old cassettes and we listen a bit and then file as keepers or trash. So far 3 keepers, rest trash. We trashed our CB as well, it was doing nuthin' for us.

Tomorrow, off to Boulder Colorado to pick up some free fiat parts off the front porch of a kind fiat person, not sure we can get them all in our car, but we will try. then turn north and start heading for the eclipse. Maybe if all goes well we might be at the ocean by Monday, a real sea instead of a sea of corn.....

To all the people who wave at us, take photos and honk thanks and especially to all the kind people on this site who have offered assorted help and kindness, we appreciate the offers even if we don't actually take them up on it.
g'night again from
dinghyguy and mike.

[nelsonj]

Glad to hear things are going well so far! I'm interested in what tapes "made the cut". Thanks for the updates.
Since your in Ogallala NB, your only 169 miles from the Agate Fossil Beds. It's not too far out of the way - if you have a few extra hours (it's good for an hour of touring the museum, its worth checking out, and probably a 2 hour drive detour).

Peace.
Out.

[spider2081]

Great read. You are truly an adventurous and talented couple of guys. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

[spider2081]

Great read. You are truly an adventurous and talented couple of guys. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

I don't know how to delete this duplicate post. Sorry

[scrapironchef]

I hear you on the CB doing nothing, try the WAZE app on your phone, maps, GPS, routing in one place. The fact that it tells you where the police are is something no Spider driver would be concerned with. Real time traffic and road hazard warnings are useful though.

[dinghyguy]

Day 5 Ogallala to boulder to Cheyenne and then to Rock Springs

Yep we went the long way today, down to Boulder because one of the people on this forum offered us some free parts, so how could we refuse. Thanks Mike! And we think getting free shocks a muffler and an air cleaner qualifies as the rolling restoration of the day no matter what any of you say!

But the big news was we seem to have had our first breakdown (kinda) our speedometer is now starting to jump around and make a ticking noise. Now I know the previous owner replaced the cable so I am suspicious it could be more than that. Comments anyone?

Other than that, we have continued to be lucky with the car, it runs fine, had to adjust the idle for the altitude of Denver, but no big deal.

tomorrow our plan is to go through Ogden and up to Boise. we have two nights in Boise with the plan to drive mon am into the eclipse total darkness zone in time to view all. But our current problem is getting eclipse glasses, no one seems to have any anywhere. Oh well we shall continue to try.

Re the question of which tapes got dumped, they included Kansas, Nana mouskouri, Carol King, neil diamond, oak ridge boys, herb alpert, George Michaels plus probably 10 thers we have forgotten. Kept included tom Cochrane, Elvis, CCR, Bagpipes military tattoo, paul simon, Mozart and Beethoven. still at least 20 to review.

cheers and g'night
dinghyguy and Mike

[johndemar]

I would still suspect the speedo cable is binding, and as far as glasses go, find a welding supply shop. I would think that would work, and you will probably need them in the future anyway. Though I admit, I haven't been following the eclipse protocol.

Sounds like you're having fun. Last time I did a cross country in the spider was over 30 years ago.

[nelsonj]

Sounds like good music. I've had my speedo cable "half" pop off and the speedo started to bounce. I just had to access it through the dash, pop it back fully in place (I think it may have a small hook "washer" that locks it in place, I don't recall). But to do that you have to take the entire instrument cluster out...by now you should be able to gauge your speed by the tachometer.

I thought about you today - I took my spider to lunch, and it was such a nice day I decided I wanted to drive to the beach. I had to head home first to get sun screen. I returned to my car and luckily I noticed a puddle of fluid by the driver's rear tire. I was dripping gas! It turns out there is a hose that connects the gas filler pipe to the tank. I didn't even know this existed until today. I think this hose is original (40+ years old), and it cracked and started leaking. I used duct tape as a temporary patch, but now the tank is drained and I need a new hose.

I say this for two reasons: 1) If you don't have a roll of duct tape with you - get one! It can be a temporary help in a lot of situations. 2) Keep an eye out for fluid leaks before you start on any leg of the drive. As I say, my car is well sorted out, and on my drives last night and today I started think about "why not do a long road trip?", and then this unexpected gas hose "issue" snapped me out of it.

Looking forward to the update.

Peace.
God Speed.

[zachmac]

I would still suspect the speedo cable is binding, and as far as glasses go, find a welding supply shop. I would think that would work, and you will probably need them in the future anyway. Though I admit, I haven't been following the eclipse protocol.

Sounds like you're having fun. Last time I did a cross country in the spider was over 30 years ago.

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT use a welding mask. LOTS of warnings against this as they filter a completely different wavelength of light and you WILL PERMANENTLY damage your eyes. Worst case scenario go into the zone and beg someone to borrow theirs for a little bit of it. I'm right in the total eclipse of it and looking forward to tomorrow.

AGAIN, DO NOT use a welding mask, cannot stress it enough.

[dinghyguy]

day 6 and 7 rock springs to boise and then loafing in boise.

for some reason yesterdays post did not make it....so I will try and repeat

we left rock springs and had not a bad day except for CONSTRUCTION DELAYS, we must have lost at leat an hour, but hey good to see the work being done,

car continued to run well, we tossed a few more tapes and eventually arrived in Nampa for the night. stayed in a very low end place (manager talks to you through the grill) but had no problems. In fact with three auto parts stores within two block we figured we fit right in.
speedo cable did not seem to get any worse and in fact got a bit better, so the reno of the day was to do nothing!

Really not much to say (actually the post I made yesterday was better, sorry I lost it)

Today was shopping day, looking for all the things we wanted like mike needs a cowboy hat and I wanted to look at a train store. no luck with either, but other than that the shopping is almost done (except for the 12 pairs of flipflops the wife ordered which are in blaine.

The only bad thing today was some f###head keyed the side of the car when we were in a mall. I figured that would have happened back east somewhere not in boise but maybe that is the most excitement in their little lives. Sucks though. Makes me want to get back to Canada!

Restoration work today consisted of trying to get LED bulbs for the dash lights, no success at the three auto stores we parked by last night. Oh and we built a pinhole viewer to see the eclipse, does that count?

Tomorrow is eclipse day, our plan is get up early drive up the road, stake out a spot in the rest area and watch it through our camera screens and our pinhole viewer. Then on towards seattle until either the traffic or we get tired and stop for the night.

gnight and may the key a$$hole trip and break his arm during the eclipse tomorrow. grrrrr.

dinghyguy and mike.

[johndemar]

I would still suspect the speedo cable is binding, and as far as glasses go, find a welding supply shop. I would think that would work, and you will probably need them in the future anyway. Though I admit, I haven't been following the eclipse protocol.

Sounds like you're having fun. Last time I did a cross country in the spider was over 30 years ago.

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT use a welding mask. LOTS of warnings against this as they filter a completely different wavelength of light and you WILL PERMANENTLY damage your eyes. Worst case scenario go into the zone and beg someone to borrow theirs for a little bit of it. I'm right in the total eclipse of it and looking forward to tomorrow.

AGAIN, DO NOT use a welding mask, cannot stress it enough.

Thanks for the tip. That's what I get for assuming!

[RRoller123]

Why the hell does it need to be looked at anyway?