HOT ROD Unlimited | Winter Road Trip in a Topless Deuce Roadster - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On season 3

Transcript

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]

HOT ROD Unlimited | Winter Road Trip in a Topless Deuce Roadster

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