34 trip

[Lawrie]

Cold start this morning from Cobar, fueled up at $1.97 ltr.
headed off and as we were only about 1/2 klm from the open road took it slow untill the eng got warmed up.
On this part of the trip,there are lots and lots of goats along the roads,lucky they have good road maners, unlike the Kangeroos and Emus.
We had an encounter witht the wildlife when a pair of birds took off from our side of the road and flew straight into an oncoming car, one spiralled out of control straight into the front of the 34,Arrh, the grill i thought,so stopped and looked,lucky it had hit the bumper right in the centre and only sprayed a few feathers into,the grill, not damageing it.
Later on, we thought we were whitnessing the death of a large emu who took off infront of us from our side right into,the path of an oncomming road train, missing the bull bar by a few feathers. it would not have been pretty.
There was some road damage by of all things out here ,flooding,as there was lots of water laying around.
At Broken Hill the fuel was cheaper at $1-96ltr.
There was quite a few locusts ,flys and butterflys in the radiator, and i spent time to clean them out.
washed the bugs off the front as well.
Checked the radiator , was good, eng oil down abit, took maybe 1/2 litre, 1000 klms since topping it up,last, not too bad ,as all the 1000 klms were at 50-55 mph.
took a fewdrone pics today and will,get more later.
Off to Peterborough tomorrow ,only a short drive of 283klms.
Lawrie

[sugarmaker]

Lawrie,
Thank you very much for taking us along on your trip. I am sure you mad GB's day with the hulk of the Jailbar along the highway!
Stay safe as possible with the animals along the way!
Interesting that there is not much traffic?
Also that your travel companion is Cheryl!
It sounds like the 34 is doing a very good job of moving you folks along ton your trip! Yes these must have been amazing cars in the mid thirties!
Thanks for the pictures!
Regards,
Chris and Cheryl

[glennpm]

Originally Posted by Lawrie

Cold start this morning from Cobar ...
Off to Peterborough tomorrow ,only a short drive of 283klms.
Lawrie

[pistonbroke]

I know they lived different lives, but it is interesting that your 34 was already 12 or so years old when that truck was new. And look at them now. Its sad to me that very very few 30's 40's big trucks were saved or cared for as they got older. Thank you for the ride along.Tim

[Lawrie]

Broken Hill,this town is the start of the mining giant BHP,and the buildings in town reflect the $$ the company bought in,also just out of town the Mad Max movies were made.
Another cool start today,I dont know how cool but we drove for a while with the car all shut up.
As we had a shorter drive today we took our time , and stopped often to look at stuff.
We also are not afraid to go off road to look at stuff.
A bit down the road stopping for smoko, we decided it was too cold in the shade so had smoko on the running board in the sun on the side of theBarrier hiway.
Some old cars were resting here also, they wernt going anywhere.
Further on after lunch we had an iccream at the Mannahill hotel.the owner took lots of photos of the 34.so did lots of passing travellers.
Later in the arvo we hit LOTS of grasshoppers, they loved the radiator and lots of them got cooked on it, took a good hr for two of us to clean them off .
we travelled a bit slower today around 48-50 ,nowhere as much wildlife,the usual dumb emus, no,goats.
Rest day tomorrow at Peterborough.
Petrol is getting cheaper.
2886 klms (1776 miles) to date
Lawrie

[mercman from oz]

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1954 Ford Customline - Last of the Side Valve V8 in Australia

[mercman from oz]

34 Ford outside the Mannahill Hotel, Manna Hill, South Australia

[mercman from oz]

Enjoying Smoko in the sun along the Barrier Highway heading into Broken Hill

[mercman from oz]

Grasshoppers galore. Massive job cleaning front of radiator

[Lawrie]

Today after a short drive of around350 klms we are at our destination , Victor Harbour, for the rally.
Once again a lovely drive down in the countryfrom Peterborough.
Lots of really old farm buildings along the way,from the 1880,s .
sometimes the nice sceenery was spoiled by those intermitant energy wind fans.
Cheapest fuel today was $1-77 per litre, no worries.
We have used 524 ltrs at an average cost of $2-13 per ltr.
2000 miles from home
A couple of small adjustments needed on the 34, noisy speedo cable will need some grease,and the right front wheel bearing needs a bit of tightening up,
Oh ,and a good wash of the car,
The last 30 kls were on a main road so we sat on 55-60 mph, no drama.
The 34 sure gets plenty of attention,at peterborough this morning at the servo ,the attendant asked were we were going,and were we came from,he asked if we trailered it down and was stunned that we drove down.
pics are , me , showing off what the well dressed man wears,��
old farm buildings
and guess whatthe thing is with all the bolts

[mercman from oz]

Old farm buildings along the way, dating back to the 1880's

[flatford8]

Is the thing with the bolts, part of the base of a wind turbine?……..Mark

[torpedo]

Originally Posted by Lawrie

and guess whatthe thing is with all the bolts

Hi Lawrie. Glad you made it to destination. Was great to read your adventure
I guess this the base of the mast of a wind fan

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Lawrie

pics are , me , showing off what the well dressed man wears,��
and guess whatthe thing is with all the bolts

[Lawrie]

the thing with all the bolts is end of the blade that bolts to the hub ,
checked the front wheel bearing this morning,its fine,a very small amount of play in the king pin bushes,greased them and its fine, they were all new about 3000 miles ago.
one thing,as i was under the car this morning ,its covered with grasshoppers,it will need a clean underwhen we get home,
I might go to a tyre shop and get the wheels swapped from the back to the front, the ones on the front both have a lot of weights on them.only afew on the back.
Lawrie

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Lawrie

the thing with all the bolts is end of the windmill blade that bolts to the hub ,
checked the front wheel bearing this morning,its fine,a very small amount of play in the king pin bushes,greased them and its fine, they were all new about 3000 miles ago.
one thing,as i was under the car this morning ,its covered with grasshoppers,it will need a clean underwhen we get home,
I might go to a tyre shop and get the wheels swapped from the back to the front, the ones on the front both have a lot of weights on them.only afew on the back.
Lawrie

[Lawrie]

Tyre shop visit this morning ,as the 34 was getting the shimmys around town on the bumps,got the wheels taken off and put on the balancer, front right first, it looks like it has about 3/4 in run out,(result of some big potholes), so swapped it out whith the spare, man the cover on the spare is quite 'an operation to remove and refit.
any way .swapped the other side front to back and balanced them all up.
This is the first time i have paid anyone to do work on the car.
Drive back to the motel- and its worse than before,I tell Cheryl that there must be something loose,
I jack it up in the motel ,and get under it, all looks good, but shaking the front wheel i see the drag link to steering arm is loose,I pull the split pin and take it up about 3 turns ,this looks like it has cured the shimmy.
We will see in the next day or so,
Took the car to the car wash, you should have seen us,what a team ,neither of us had used one before, at least we didn,t use their brush thing,just the spray thing,the 34 now looks like some one owns it.
I also adjusted the door latches as the rough roads must have shook the doors around a bit, they shut nicer now.
We are off to the check in for the Rally , will have some pics later.
We talked to a local in his 33 4cyl roadster,its quite a bit different to my 33.
Lawrie

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Lawrie

Tyre shop visit this morning ,as the 34 was getting the shimmys around town on the bumps,got the wheels taken off and put on the balancer, front right first, it looks like it has about 3/4 in run out,(result of some big potholes), so swapped it out whith the spare, man the cover on the spare is quite 'an operation to remove and refit.
any way .swapped the other side front to back and balanced them all up.
This is the first time i have paid anyone to do work on the car.
Drive back to the motel- and its worse than before,I tell Cheryl that there must be something loose,
I jack it up in the motel ,and get under it, all looks good, but shaking the front wheel i see the drag link to steering arm is loose,I pull the split pin and take it up about 3 turns ,this looks like it has cured the shimmy.
We will see in the next day or so,
Took the car to the car wash, you should have seen us,what a team ,neither of us had used one before, at least we didn,t use their brush thing,just the spray thing,the 34 now looks like some one owns it.
I also adjusted the door latches as the rough roads must have shook the doors around a bit, they shut nicer now.
We are off to the check in for the Rally , will have some pics later.
We talked to a local in his 33 4cyl roadster,its quite a bit different to my 33.
Lawrie

[Lawrie]

We start for home tomorrow,
Car fueled and greased ,oil checked, boot dried out as some rain got in.
we had a great time in the rally,got a prize for longest distance travelled,and also best 32-34 closed.
The next national is in Queensland in 2028 at Stanthorpe, it would be a nice holiday for some of you guys in the States.
One car had a small hickup yesterday, we were following then and noticed the right front wheel wobbling around, so we flagged them down, the pics tell the story.
The water got in the boot(trunk) driving in the real heavy rain yesterday.
Never mind, the mats and stuff went into the drier at the motel.
We have our stuff ready to put in the car in the morning,funny there looks like more than we had comming down👍.
taking the same route back , but will take our time.
Yesterday we looked at some nice car museum and the bigest 2nd hand shop i had seen and Strathalbyn.
The engine pick is an Aussie muscle car from the 70,s A Chrysler valiant.
These would have won Bathurst, but the wanted to use the Aussie 3 speed trans instead of an imported 4 speed.
They are very sought after.
Lawrie

[Brian]

poor bugger that got the broken stub axle. How did he get on after that?