On season 3
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 We wanted Bill's car for the Hot Rod Homecoming.
00:06 And the easy way would have been just to
00:09 throw it in a transporter and have it shipped out,
00:10 but there's no fun in that.
00:12 So we tried to come up with something as fun
00:14 and stupid as we could.
00:16 And so driving it 2,000 miles in the dead of winter
00:19 from Bill's home in Nashville to the Hot Rod digs in LA
00:23 seemed like a really good and stupid idea.
00:26 And so that's what we've done.
00:27 (engine revving)
00:30 (explosion)
00:35 (upbeat music)
00:38 Well, this must be Hillbilly living
00:42 with all these junk cars back here.
00:45 Good to see you.
00:46 Yeah.
00:47 Doing great.
00:47 How are you?
00:48 I'm good, except it's icy out there.
00:50 Yeah, it is getting,
00:51 the weather is getting kind of crummy.
00:53 It's just been a car that I've had
00:54 since it was finished in early 1979.
00:57 And thankfully I never disposed of the car,
01:00 never updated it.
01:02 When I got some of the other cars done,
01:04 it kind of got to be something you'd take out
01:07 and drive every now and then,
01:08 but it wasn't your main deal.
01:10 This is Bill Aiken's channel 32 Roadster.
01:13 It's got a 37 tube front end,
01:16 327 Chevy that he just recently rebuilt.
01:19 It's got cast iron Corvette transmission
01:22 and a 57 Chevy rear end.
01:24 This is the car that was featured
01:25 in December, 1979 Hot Rod Magazine.
01:28 And it was used in the early eighties
01:30 at the Hot Rod Magazine Nationals.
01:32 And it's pretty much the way it was,
01:35 except for Bill's recent freshening.
01:37 He rebuilt the engine, new radiator.
01:40 Not new, it's just reconditioned.
01:42 It's had the leaks repaired.
01:43 Okay.
01:44 Packed the wheel bearings, like you say,
01:46 and put new spark plug wires on it.
01:48 I think it's good to go.
01:50 It's the middle of January.
01:52 So I suspect that we're going to have some rain
01:54 and maybe even some snow.
01:56 Tomorrow we'll be on the road.
02:00 We plan to be back in LA by Friday or Saturday.
02:02 (upbeat music)
02:10 This is Bill's other garage.
02:16 He's got a lot of projects.
02:18 So he's got that 61 Indy car to redo.
02:20 He's got that turbine engine over there.
02:22 And I think he should put that in a tea bucket.
02:24 What are you going to do with that?
02:25 - Well, I was going to get it cranked up
02:26 and probably cut my leg off.
02:28 Right now, it's one of them things you're wondering
02:31 why in the hell you ever bought that, you know?
02:34 I can give a thousand dollars for it.
02:36 - I'm going to take the seat out
02:40 and we're just going to put a little bit
02:41 of padding down there.
02:43 So the rain and sleet will go up over the windshield
02:45 and over my head.
02:46 This is a lot better.
02:48 (car engine revving)
02:51 Hope you have fun with the car.
02:55 I hope it's safe and reliable and you make it
02:57 and everything's cool.
02:59 - Very cool.
02:59 Thank you very much.
03:00 - Thank you.
03:01 - Thank you.
03:02 - All right.
03:03 See you guys later.
03:04 - All right.
03:05 - 2,000 miles, westward home.
03:12 Let's go.
03:13 (upbeat music)
03:17 (tires screeching)
03:20 - This will be one of the cars featured
03:22 at the Hot Rod Magazine Homecoming.
03:24 Homecoming is going to be our 65th anniversary celebration
03:28 at the Fairflex in Pomona in March.
03:30 We're assembling as many cover and feature cars
03:33 as we can find.
03:34 This is going to be kind of a once in a lifetime event.
03:37 - I've driven cars with no heaters,
03:40 but never a roadster in the winter.
03:43 Piece of cake.
03:45 (upbeat music)
03:48 - Let's see what I say in a hundred miles.
03:51 It's raining.
03:58 The front of the last few vehicles I've seen
04:02 have frozen water all over the fronts of their cars.
04:05 So I don't know how far we're going to get,
04:08 but we're going to keep going.
04:11 Hopefully make it to Memphis.
04:14 (upbeat music)
04:17, (upbeat music)
04:21 t's cold. (sighs)
04:26 (upbeat music)
04:29 Woo.
04:43 (laughs)
04:47 It's cold and slippery.
04:54 (laughs)
04:57 We're done for the day, unfortunately.
04:59 You could tell when it was getting colder out
05:01 because the windshield would start getting gray air.
05:04 So I had to start following white cars
05:06 'cause I can see white cars.
05:08 That way I could kind of stay in between the lines.
05:10 Then I'd peek up over the windshield
05:13 and I'd get blasted with ice
05:15 'cause it was kind of hailing out there.
05:18 Tomorrow's another day.
05:19 Should be clear.
05:20 This should clear out and we'll be good.
05:22 (upbeat music)
05:25 We're here in Memphis, Tennessee.
05:34 We had to stop here because of a winter storm Helen
05:37 that came in yesterday afternoon.
05:39 So we thought since we were in Memphis,
05:46 we would stop by one of the most legendary
05:49 recording studios in the world.
05:50 This is Sun Records and this is where rock and roll
05:53 got its start as far as I'm concerned.
05:56 It's where some of the biggest early rock and roll
05:58 legends came from.
05:59 Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis.
06:04 It's early and they're not open yet
06:06 but we've gotta make up for some lost time
06:09 and hopefully we'll make it to Oklahoma City tonight.
06:12 Rock and roll and hot rods,
06:13 it doesn't get any better than that.
06:14 (upbeat music)
06:17 (rock music)
06:19 It's amazing how much difference a few degrees makes.
06:43 Yesterday I had to absolutely stop.
06:46 Windshield iced up and cars sliding around.
06:49 I mean, I was done.
06:51 Today it's just a few degrees warmer
06:54 but with the sun out, dry, it's a lot better.
06:58 Just a little bit of oil pushing through the breather.
07:02 You know, so it sprinkles on.
07:03 After 200, 300 miles it's sprinkling all over the windshield
07:06 and then you can't see.
07:08 So we're cleaning it with Windex
07:10 and then we're gonna put a little bit of Rain-X on it
07:12 and see if that maybe helps a little bit.
07:14 Just over the border into Arkansas,
07:17 got a little rock chip there.
07:21 Thank God my head wasn't up there.
07:22 That's where the oil's coming from.
07:24 It's coming out of the breather.
07:26 I'm pretty sure, I don't see any other spots.
07:30 I'll tape it and then we'll see if that kinda cuts down
07:33 on it a little bit.
07:34 It's not pretty but I think it'll work.
07:36 (tool whirring)
07:44 And this is the foundation of Hot Rodding really,
07:47 is the Roadster, and specifically a 32 Roadster.
07:50 They were originally the cheapest and lightest cars
07:55 that the car companies offer.
07:57 They made them perfect for racing.
07:59 They're the simplest too.
08:02 They don't have a top, you don't have window mechanisms
08:05 'cause Roadsters only have a windshield.
08:09 No windows in the doors, no top.
08:12 They're a real simple car which makes 'em real easy
08:15 to work on and versatile.
08:17 They're lightweight and like I said,
08:19 they were also the cheapest.
08:21 So that's why over the years, Roadsters were so popular.
08:26 Once guys started getting into later model cars
08:31 as Roadsters became more old and obsolete,
08:35 they picked up a whole new following
08:37 because then they evoked that whole era
08:41 when they were popular.
08:42 You know, there's no cruise control, no air conditioning,
08:46 no windshield wipers, no turn signals.
08:49 In a lot of cases, there's no horn
08:51 but it's also what kinda makes 'em fun
08:54 because they are lacking all that stuff.
08:57 So it's just kinda you hang your balls out and you go
08:59 and that's what makes 'em fun.
09:01 (upbeat music)
09:04 (birds chirping)
09:07 - It's day four of our trip back to California.
09:27 We're just outside of Oklahoma City
09:29 and it's a lot colder here, believe it or not.
09:32 Colder than Memphis with the ice storm.
09:34 Bill said we could do anything with this car we wanted to
09:37 and so I'm gonna take him up on it.
09:38 We've got a long straightaway out here
09:41 in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma
09:43 and so we're gonna do a couple launches,
09:45 couple burnouts and we'll see what we can do.
09:47 (car engine roaring)
09:51 (car engine roaring)
09:54 (car engine roaring)
09:57 (upbeat music)
10:23 - Just cruising around Shamrock
10:24 which is kinda this abandoned town
10:27 and came across a nice boneyard.
10:30 (upbeat music)
10:31 A lot of times I need stuff in here.
10:32 This guy was obviously a '57, '56, '57 Chevy guy.
10:37 That's a '50 Studebaker Commander,
10:39 bullet nose, starlight coupe.
10:41 It's got that back wrapping window.
10:43 Those are the cars that you couldn't tell
10:44 whether they were coming or going.
10:46 That's a '57 Hudson.
10:47 That's a last year for Hudson
10:49 and they didn't make very many of 'em
10:51 'cause everybody knew it was going away, number one,
10:53 and number two, they were such
10:54 a incredibly horrible looking car.
10:57 I mean, Bill's Roadsters outlasted pretty much
11:02 all these cars with maybe the exception
11:04 of a couple of old pickups over there in this Model A.
11:07 That's a '28, '29 Sport Coupe.
11:10 Fairly complete although I wouldn't wanna
11:12 be the one to restore it.
11:15 (car engine roaring)
11:20 (upbeat music)
11:23 We're getting enough oil to where it's actually
11:37 going over the top of the windshield frame
11:40 and I don't wanna get splattered with oil.
11:42 So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna put
11:44 the diaper back on the blow by,
11:47 which actually works pretty good,
11:48 and we'll press on.
11:50 That cow's staring at me.
11:53 I can't pee when people are watching me.
11:57 I wonder what it's thinking or if it thinks at all.
12:03 (upbeat music)
12:16 The cool thing about this area right here is
12:18 we go from the desert floor to, I don't know,
12:23 8,000 feet, whatever it is, 9,000 feet,
12:26 in Flagstaff in about 20 or 25 miles.
12:31 But in Albuquerque where we just left
12:42 and Flagstaff, it's been getting down
12:45 to single digits at night.
12:47 You know, it gets really cold middle of the night,
12:50 first of the morning.
12:51 And you can see now just in the little bit of time,
12:54 we went from little shrubby green things out there
12:58 to now we're starting to get the taller pines.
13:01 So this change is very quick.
13:03 Just back there I saw a sign for the first time
13:05 for Los Angeles, 487 miles.
13:09 At this point I think I should just blitz it,
13:11 although I just got through saying I wouldn't
13:12 drive in the middle of the night,
13:13 but see if I can do it.
13:15 But no, I'm not going to.
13:18 (upbeat music)
13:21 Last night we pulled into Kingman, Arizona,
13:35 which is just on the border between Arizona and California.
13:38 The plan today was to go to Hoover Dam,
13:41 but on the way here I kept noticing
13:43 a kind of a light plume of smoke
13:46 off the back end of the car.
13:48 And so we pulled off and the engine's definitely leaking.
13:52 My suspicion is that it's the oil pan
13:56 that needs to be kind of tightened up.
13:58 It's a brand new rebuild engine
14:00 and things sometimes loosen up a little bit
14:02 after 500,000 miles.
14:08 After 2,000 miles, sub-freezing weather,
14:11 eight states and no top,
14:14 I enjoyed every minute of driving Bill's Roadster
14:17 and would do it again in a second.
14:18 Just not in the winter.
14:21 (upbeat music)
14:32 (wind blowing)
14:34 (upbeat music)
14:37 (wind blowing)
14:40 (upbeat music)
14:45 (wind blowing)
14:47 (upbeat music)
14:58 (upbeat music)
15:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]