Davey Made it to Mooneyes!

After Davey’s failed countdown to Mooneyes last year, and to Winfield’s show earlier this fall…our 1960 Ford Falcon finally made it to a show! This past weekend was Mooneyes X’mas Show 2013 at Irwindale Speedway. Earlier in the month we were dealing with the transmission swap blues, but were able to get a new torque converter and successfully put the third transmission (second C4) in and it now shifts like a charm. During the 30 mile drive to Irwindale, Davey cruised at a sweet 60mph on the freeway without issue…

…but as we pulled off the freeway, there stood a long line to get into the car show. We spent the next 20 minutes in slow stop-and-go towards the entrance as our temperature gauge crept higher and higher. By the time we were through the gates and got someone who’d let us “cut” into the show area, the gauge was pegged and radiator fluid was overflowing to the ground below. We pulled into our spot, and enjoyed the show…even the at least half the day was covered in a light downpour of rain.

Meeting a couple other Falcon owners was cool, and having a number of people stop to check out Davey was also – with the most frequent comment being how much they liked the wheels and “What are they off of?”

But when it came time to leave, Falcon refused to start. One indicator of the issue is that our oil level was higher than before…revealing that the overheating may have caused our head gasket to blow, allowing radiator fluid into the oil compartments. We didn’t rebuild the 200 c.i. straight-six after we got it, and my Mister wanted to do the head gasket preemptively but was dissuaded from doing so. At least head gaskets are easy to replace on straight-sixes!

So the end of this story is Davey had to get a ride home via tow truck, but the sunlight after the rain is that PHASE ONE IS COMPLETE and now we’re just whittling away on issues that will make him run better!

Happy Trails,
Kristin