To see if there are changes since you last looked at this page, click on revisions.
The reports as posted are still available at trip reports.
Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona
Illinois Route 66 Association
Historic Route 66
Apparently this link is gone: Largest Route 66 Resource
on the Web. Here's another one with lots of information (thanks to Gloria
Mitchell for bringing this to my attention):
Roots of Route
66
National Historic Route 66 Federation
Oklahoma Route 66 Association
Texas Route 66
The Route 66 Collection
Route 66 State Park - Missouri
Route 66 Museum
US Highway 66 - The Mother Road
Route 66 Enjoy the Ride!
Route 66 Association of Missouri
Route 66 Products
Route 66 Drive-Ins
Finally, there is a
Route 66 Webring with many links (78 last time I looked), including
many of those above.
Here is a useful website for those planning road trips:
Car Lover's Guide .... (Thanks to Ashley Henderson for this link.)
Since I live in Southern Oregon, there will be a non-trivial trip to the start of Highway 50, and from the end of Route 66. The trip from Talent, Oregon, to Sacramento may be over Highway 101 and Highway 1 to Timber Cove, CA, then to Sebastopol, and on to Benicia. There will be stops at those three places to see my "kids" and grandkids. Or, if we have already had our April birthday celebration, I'll just head to Benicia for a night. On the way back I will probably take Highway 1 to Monterey for a day or two, then to the usual stops in northern California before returning to Oregon.
Advance preparations (in addition to this website) include the most important
of all - the acquisition of a suitable piece of transportation for embarking
on such a journey. I believe I have found it. It is a 1964 Dodge Dart 270
convertible (very important to have a convertible, since I plan to go top
down most of the way). It has a 170 Slant Six engine, pushbutton automatic
transmission, and is in very roadworthing condition (I think). I'll be making
a few improvements to its mechanics and appearance over the next several months.
Fortunately, there are enough Mopar nuts that many reproduction parts are not too
difficult to find. Like many places, I think they cater to the muscle car trade
(fyi, a 170 Slant
Six is not a muscle car), but they have things for many models. I bought
window seals, carpets, defroster vents, kick panels, and a few other things at
Layson's Restorations
in Albany, WA.
To give an idea the car we are talking about, I've taken a number of pictures,
which I post here. Note the license plate has a vanity number on the special
Crater Lake plate. The 66 64 66 has special significance, of course. Anyone
has enough information now to know two-thirds of it. The remaining 66 is
my age when the trip begins (and ends). (Or, maybe the 666 is the devil's
number, and as I told Amelia the 466 is the deviless' number. Could be. Maybe
not.) To more important matters, here are some pictures of it: a
left front view,
a front view,
a closeup front
view, a right side
view, a right rear
quarter view, a
closeup right
rear quarter view, a
rear view, a
closeup left front
cabin view, and an
overhead rear
view. Enough already, I'm sure you agree.
The interior of the car is almost finished. New carpet, seat belts, relocate radio speakers out of the way of the ventilation doors, new kick panels, additional 12v outlet, new defroster vents and ductwork, and new window weatherstrip (well, actually, I await the backordered header seal before I can finish the window seals along the top side rails; soon I hope), and new trunk weatherstrip. Here's a shot of the interior during reassembly, with me inspecting the new rear window weatherstrip, and another of the new front weatherstrip. Finally, a shot after the rear is finished.
Next week I will start on the rebuilding the front suspension and changing the brakes. I have received all the parts from Rock Auto. They have brand name parts at what seem to be good prices, for lots of older cars, too. Because I am a valued customer, I get a 5% discount from now until April 15, 2003. So do you, since you are my friend, relative, or other person that works on their own or other's cars. Just give them discount code ALEFEB (just curious; let me know if you use this) in the "how you heard about us" line when ordering.
Putting the suspension and brake systems back together again proved to be slightly more complicated than I had been led to believe. Turns out the lower control arm is a little different on the '73-'76 Valiant/Dart, and along with this difference the lower ball joint (incorporated with the steering arm) has a lobe to limit the amount the steering will turn by bumping against the lower control arm. Well, with the standard '64 lower control arm this meant a turning radius of (estimated) 100 feet. Since I might want to turn shorter than this, I decided to grind off part of the lobe. No big problem, but it would have been easier before I had it all put together. Why do these things always take more time that they ought? Oh well.
Still have to install the windshield washer, decide on the electronic ignition, do some sewing repair on the rear window, and install a warning light for the brakes (lights on excessive pressure differential between front a back lines - not necesary, but useful). Still have some prettying up kinds of stuff to do. Wash and wax. Drive it around a bit and see if it's all right. Etc.
I will have them raise the front slightly, but leave it lowered an inch from normal. Part of the reason it rides somewhat roughly is that it has gas pressurized front shocks, and adjustable air shocks in the rear. Maybe stiffer than standard torsion bars, but I haven't checked that. And the air shocks in the rear are probably necessary with the wide tires and a heavy load in the trunk (haven't done that yet). It's OK, and likely all improves handling, but I probably would not have done it (big tires, either).
I located approximate TDC and made a new mark on the crank pulley. Then I checked the ignition timing with the "new" TDC mark. Appears to be set at about 10 degrees BTC. Doesn't knock, so I guess that is OK.
The front wheel cylinders have been replaced with new ones. I leaned the car over to bleed the front brakes since bleed hole is not quite at the top of the cylinder. Brake pedal is somewhat higher. Phoenix Auto Center took another look at the brakes and adjusted the shoes up a bit closer to the drums. Brake pedal is now acceptably high, and with a few miles on them, the shoes are wearing into the drums and the brakes are quite good, I think. We'll see coming down from Monarch Pass how well they resist fade, perhaps.
Discovered that water leaked in around the windshield when I took it out in the rain last week. I removed windshield moldings (but not the weatherseal!) and attempted to seal between the weatherseal and the body and the weatherseal and the windshield. Seems to have worked, although I haven't yet been in heavy rain.
I rebuilt the carburetor, and installed the electronic ignition. For the latter I relied mostly on the instructions by Lev Lowry given on allpar.com, originally printed in Slant Six News (which I believe to now be extinct). I didn't quite match up with all the wire colors noted there, but it works. Turns out the vacuum advance was just bleeding air into the carb, and the reluctor showed signs of having a bit too close of a relationship with the pickup, so I installed a new distributor. Just to be "new" about it, I installed a new control module I've had for many years, ditto a new coil, and put in a new ballast resistor. Of course, after all that I figured I might just as well go with new ignition wires, too, so there was another $20-30, with the cap. Here's the new ignition setup. I just installed the control module on the right inner wheel well, and relocated the coil there, too. According to some, electronic ignition requires an electronic voltage regulator (wow, are they pricey!) and a dual field alternator. Not sure why that makes any sense, and mine started and ran with the old setup. However, I had gotten the alternator off the electronic ignition donor car, so I went ahead and installed those things, too. Turns out the alternator didn't charge, even alternately, so I put the old one back on. Guess I should go back and trade it in at the recycling place (wrecking yard).
I also installed a matching right side rear view mirror (I got that off a 64 Dart I bought for the engine, which I installed in my (then) 61 Dodge Lancer about 1985, but that's another story), unsymmetrically, since otherwise I wouldn't be able to see out of it. Finally, I checked the valve clearances, some of which were just a bit close.
Our friend Linda stopped by on her way to Portland. So, she got the first ride in the completed vehicle.
There are some offshoots to visit family and friends along the way. This serves as a warning to them that I'm coming, and as the time gets closer and the schedule becomes more nearly known, they can plan their vacations, either to join me or to get out of town. Some of the rest of you along the route may want to think similarly. The first maps are now revised to include the driving instructions (ignore the times). They consist of the trip from Talent to Grand Junction, CO, Grand Junction to Ransomville, KS, Ransomville to Cincinnati, OH, and Cincinnati to Chicago, IL, the latter continuing Highway 50 to Chillicothe, on to Delaware, OH, and then mostly using "blue highways" to Chicago and the beginning of Route 66. Just because I haven't ruled out going all the way to Ocean City, here is the map and instructions if I decide to go to Ocean City, MD, and then return to Chicago, IL,
Route 66 was decommissioned many years ago, but some states have taken steps to identify its path. In certain cases the highway was a bit like a river, in that it wandered around from time to time, so it depends on what year's route one wants to take. Detailed (by state) instructions for Route 66 are available on Historic Route 66. This is an interesting site beyond that, but if you just want to get straight to the directions for the route in each state without having to fumble around or click a few times, then the following links are for you. These maps also point out nearby attractions.
Illinois
Missouri
Kansas
Oklahoma
Texas, but, it's so big it needs
another
New Mexico
Arizona
California
I've been using MS&T and trying to follow the directions given in the accounts above. In some instances I've found that difficult to do, and in others find that "old Route 66" is sometimes labeled in MS&T, but doesn't go quite where the directions in the accounts above lead one. I've tried to lay out what looks like a reasonable compromise to get an exact set of directions for the trip from Chicago to Santa Monica. Alas, some weird things happen sometimes. In one instance (near continental divide in New Mexico), I was simply unable to get the route planner to take a certain exit to old Route 66. MS&T seems to insist on going to the next freeway exit, returning along Route 66 to the prior exit, then returning either on Route 66 or on the freeway. Or, it returns on the freeway to take the exit in the opposite direction. Zooming in shows no barrier at the exit I think it ought to take, but .... Will be interesting to see whether I can physically take that exit in perfectly obvious fashion or not when I get there.
I have made up a set of maps for the Route 66 portion. Unfortunately, they have many-many markers needed to force the desired route, and this kind of obscures the display, but be that as it may, here are the maps, including the directions generated by MS&T appended to the bottom. Don't pay any attention to the times given for various landmarks. There are a number of maps, the first being from Chicago to St. Louis (more correctly, to the Chain of Rocks Bridge across the Mississippi from St. Louis). The next map covers the Missouri portion, from St. Louis to Kansas. Kansas only has about 11 miles of Route 66, so the next map includes Kansas and Oklahoma to Texas. While Texas rates two maps on the historic66 site, I'm only giving one map for Texas, and furthermore, I've put the map across New Mexico with it. The penultimate map covers Arizona from New Mexico to California. The final map, of course, covers California.
Uninteresting as it might be, I then have to get home. So, here's the map that matches the tentative schedule home. More later, perhaps.
And remember, email at Richard Franke. So far I've been underwhelmed.