Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Reflection on the Classic Car Adventure

Sorry for the abrupt post today about the change in schedule. The truth is, we’ve had pressure to get moving all week. If we had time to burn we’d likely have just waited for parts for the Catalina. All along we’ve known that we wanted to drive back (no last minute flights for us) so each day that we delayed we were messing with the schedule. Truth be told we never intended to wait to Wednesday to leave. On Tuesday afternoon we all agreed that we needed to leave by noon on Wednesday. That’s why we took the risks we did when miraculously the brakes and carb/fuel issues were resolved late Tuesday night. The disappointment when the brakes were dead this morning was crushing. The story there is that the shop bled the brakes (as I asked them too) and called to say there were 3 problems. One was that the front right brake line was loose where it connected to the cylinder. The second was that the front left brake line was cracked and the third was that the master cylinder was leaking into the carb. This happened shortly after my Wednesday Morning update post. We immediately called all the auto parts stores in town and were able to get a master cylinder but no brake line. We took the master in to the brake shop about 30 minutes before noon and hoped for the best. I started the last blog post on my phone as we waited and just after noon we got the bad news. The consensus was that there is a blockage in the lines somewhere and we’d blown the last master cylinder trying to bleed it the last time around. Most likely (and I agree) the rubber lines were deteriorating on the inside. That would mean they would all need to be replaced with new ones and new ones were not available on our schedule. We left without a plan for the Javelin but had left a message with Chris in hopes he’d tow it back to his auto yard for us. He confirmed this later in the afternoon. We are undecided on the cars fate. We may ask him to sell it consignment or we may have it shipped to WI; we’ve been debating that all day. If anyone is interested in a slightly worn rust free 73 Javelin with a 304; let us know!

Of course we were sad to leave the car. We each had a private moment with it and then we hopped in our trusty 2014 Corolla and headed East without a look back. We have been driving almost non-stop and as I write this we are currently in Oklahoma and will be in Kansas before too long.



Stay tuned for updates on our speedy adventure back home.

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