Tour Car
New Member
The Triple Gray
by David & Elaine Pate
The year of 2000 and we wanted to go on theHot Rod Power Tour from Burbank, CA to Panama City, Florida drivingon some of Rt. 66. The plan was to buy a car on e-bay in California and drive the Tour. Missed on a1965 Dodge with an original 426 wedge. My boy Dan lives in San Diego and he looked at the car. It didneed brakes, (all drums).
We trailered a 1966 Charger to sell at thelast May Koller Dodge show on Odgen Ave. in Naperville.With one week to go and all the motels planed out at each day’s stop on theTour, we had no car to drive. Two spots behind us, this Triple Gray New Yorkerhad pulled in. A short time later Elaine said “I have the car! Its back here!”I did see the car earlier but dismissed it. Not the hot rod car I was lookingfor. There was a $3000.00 obo sign in the window and no one around for hours.We both took turns standing by the car until someone showed.
Larry, a Rockvalley Mopar chapter clubmember, had the car and we were negotiating when this idiot came out of nowhereand said “Hay, a big ol’ Chrysler”, “I’ve never owned a mopar before” “Hell,I’ll give you $-------- for it”. Elaine said you better get in line we are herefirst! We offered $2500.00 and Larry accepted. Joe Blow had no money anyway.
So, now we have a Tour car. The Triple Grayhad 52000 miles on a one owner Chrysler Corp. executive car. We changed thebelts, hoses, new radial tires and Elaine and I replaced the headliner. It’s acustom cut fiber cardboard with glued on gray felt from Joann Fabrics. We drove6024 miles that year and since been on 2001, 04, 05, 08 and 2010 racking up25000 miles of Power Tour. It’s like driving a couch with cruise, air and a lotof trunk space and a dog 400 motor.
We want to go on the 2008 Tour that is aroundthe mid-west. The motor is smoking and using a bit of oil. The trans slips alittle also. I asked Larry if he knew of a 400 motor around and put me in touchwith Brad Hedges last July. The block is in fine shape and cleaned up well.
The build up is a 500-inch stroker kit fromSource 440 with Indy aluminum heads, Comp extreme cam kit (lope idle),Edelbrock 383 intake & 750 carb. tri-y headers and a 2 ½” custom exhaustsystem to the back (by me) with Flowmaster 50 series mufflers. The trans. wasrebuilt. A three-core radiator replaced in the same shell. I took the stock 7”rear end and drive shaft to Strange Engineering and they built a custom S60Dana with 3.54 gears, disk brakes and a new drive shaft to fit. With threeweeks to 6/6/8 D-day to leave for Little Rock, AK. the thrashis on to assemble everything, break-in, test and fix any leaks. The test runhappened four days before we had to leave. We left for Memphis TN. for some BBQ and stayed thenight. That was 600 miles to brake in the motor and Dana. We adjusted nothingnor had to fix anything for the 2600 miles. Sounds great, runs quite well andsurprised a few brand X big boats.
The Power Tour was a great time. There were2500 to 3000 cars at each days stop. Not much rain as we followed The Stormthat went through Iowa & Wisconsin. Lots of water. Two detours wereshort, only 30 to 40 miles. The last day to Madison the Show/display trucks wentdown I 90 and had to detour. The Tourwent down US 14, a nice two lane drive.
Lots of nice folks and a great verity ofcars, trucks etc, well worth the effort to make the Power Tour and it starts inMadison WI.next year. I’d be cool to get a few 100 Chicagoland Mopar Club cars all in arow for a few stops. You know Mo-power Tour.
David & Elaine
