The Staff of Hot Rod Homepage Hit Power Tour 2004
updates daily from motels across the U.S.A

So the staff here at HotrodHomepage is getting ready to leave for the 2004 Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour. We plan on doing the whole trip, plus the 1500 mile drive to Texas and the 2000 mile drive home. This should be quite and experience. We look forward to meeting with other hotrodders and having a good time. If possible we will be updating the site from the road, but if not look for a review of the entire event when we get back.

Our Tour Day 1 - June 2nd
8:53pm Wed June 2nd - Indeo, California - 122 miles

Stopped for our first gas fill in Indeo, California. So far we have managed to travel about 170 miles on 11 gallons of gas. Not bad, but I think that the odometer is not really working correctly. The new gas gauge sender that I installed last week makes the gas gauge move, but not in the intended manner. Good thing the odometer works. We will take it easy for the next few gas stops until we can figure out the range per tank that we can safely travel. The car is in tip top shape so far, but with the 3.73 gears we are only able to go about 55-60 miles per hour. Hopefully this 40 year old car won't let us down.

It's early, I'm optimistic.

11:08pm Wed June 2nd - Quartzine, Arizona - 241 miles

We are now in Quartzine Arizona. Since about Blythe California it has been hotter then anyone should have to deal with. Fortunately it is nighttime, otherwise I am sure that this portion of the drive would be unbearable. Right next to the gas station was some sort of used car lot that was filled with jewels. Classics pilled 6 rows deep. A couple of 60's c-10s, 60 Buick Skylark, 67 Chevelle, 59 Impalla. Unfortunately it was late and the lot was fenced in so we were not able to get out and spend much time browsing for treasure.

Classics looking for a good home

Miles of Treasure

1:56am Thurs June 3rd - Phoenix, Arizona - 401 miles

Still Driving. We are just outside Phoenix, about 90 miles from Tucson. The lawn chairs in the truck have managed to shift in such a way as to jam the key mechanism. The engine could use about half a quart of oil, but with no access to the trunk it will have to wait till the next stop. Jesse is managing to get significantly more miles to the gallon then me, but I have always been a bit of a lead foot. Got to remember to adjust the headlamps. Since I lowered the front of the car they are projecting onto the ground only about 25 feet in front of the car. The gas gauge still does not work, but we have been keeping records of our gas consumption and using the odometer and now have pretty good ability to estimate our range between stops. The laptop has definitely come in handy.

2am in Casa Grande, not much happening

Updating the trip logs and calculating mpg and range

2:42am Thurs June 3rd - Tucson, Arizona - ??? miles

Rolling down the road I started to think about a few things that would be nice on future road trips. I don't think they are necessary as things are going quite well so far, but Jesse is driving and I'm a little bored so here it is.

vacuum gauge	increase mileage by trying to maintain the highest vacuum reading.
gps unit	navigation and location, other information like elevation and average miles per hour
cb radio	the road can get a little boring, some entertainment would be nice
correct odometer	maps and the computer work, but a working odometer would be nice.
working gas gauge	might help us to not get stranded, but so far so good.
weather strip	a windshield that doesn't leak would be nice.

Jesse getting the maximum mpg

5:07am Thurs June 3rd - Wilcox, Arizona - 567 miles

Remember that problem with the trunk. I guess it is a good thing that we didn't have time to weld in the rear firewall yet. After attempting to shift the chairs our of the way using the brakes it became obvious that we needed to take more hands on action. I pulled the seat out and snaked my way into the trunk (sorry no pictures of my contortionist act) and moved the the seats out of the way. Fortunately it worked and the trunk now opens. The problem with the latch stems from the incorrect bar between the key mechanism and the latch mechanism. It is too long and got caught up in the chairs. I bent the bar up out of the way and hopefully it will not get caught again.

6:15am Thurs June 3rd - Border, New Mexico - ??? miles

Just crossed the border into New Mexico, the sun is now up and it is light outside. Hopefully we will be able to make it to El Paso. Here is a picture of the sun peaking over the hills. Car is humming like a bird, good times.

Beautiful sunrise, this is going to be a good day.

The right front of the car started to make a strange noise as we encountered a grade just past the Arizona, New Mexico border. The noise only lasted for a few seconds, but we pulled off the road to take a closer look. A quick check of the cellular phone showed that we have no signal. Of course, technology will not be able to save us here, our wits and our wrenches are all that we have. To add a little bit of spice to our stop we managed to come to rest just shy of a gigantic dookie. This should be good.

Sunrise? This has to be a bad omen.

A quick survey of the oil, tires, transmission fluid, control arms showed no evidence of a problem, but a breakdown here would not be a good thing so the search continues. We figured that it could possibly be a problem with one of the rockers so after letting the car cool for a while we pulled of the valve cover on the passenger side.

We are so screwed.

Maybe we lost a rocker.

Nope, they all look good.

Closer inspection showed that the valvetrain is in top form so the search continues. The previous owned had some trouble with throwing belts so he came up with a belt tensioner made from an old skateboard wheel. I checked it out and it seemed to have a little play that could have caused the unidentified noises so I tightened it down. Not completely satisfied that we had found the problem we continued on.

Yep, even after I pointed it out for the picture.

9:00am Thurs June 3rd - Deming, New Mexico - 701 miles

We pulled into the Best Western off exit 81 in New Mexico. The little roadside adventure burned up some time and tired us out. Looks like El Paso will have to wait for tomorrow. We managed to drive for 14 hours last night, but now is time to sleep. It is rather hot outside today so sleeping through the heat and getting back on the road around 6pm should put us on a good pace for Ft. Worth.

Nice, the trunk still works.

Beautiful, but really hot.

[hit the road] [day 2] [day 3] [day 4] [day 5] [day 6] [day 7] [conclusion]