The '82 Lincoln Mark VI Tudor

[sxcpotatoes]

Time to make a thread for Sly's old car I brought up from Texas a couple weeks back!

Here's a link to the history of the Mark VI while he had it, spread throughout his Sly's Panthers thread.

I should probably do that with my four cars eventually, but for now: The Trip. (TEXAS)

After bidding adieu to Sly and his family, I bummed around Lewisville, TX for a bit, stopping at the Whataburger for lunch. Then drove over and hit the Sam's Club/Walmart for supplies for the trip home (Case of Spring Water, Case of Redbull) and then further up the road to Kroger for some Dublin Dr. Pepper.

Dublin Bottling Company makes some good sugarcane sweetened soda, so I put two and a half cases worth in the trunk with the 3 twelve packs of beer to take home.

I learned you always park in the shade in Texas, no matter how far the walk, just for simple A/C expediency. In fact, every shade tree space in the parking lots were prime real estate. Anyway, I met up with a guy I know down there who has written a few books Shameless plug to his Author page on Amazon (1st book is a STEAL @ 99c) and we met around 5 at this shopping plaza called 'Chinatown' in Richardson, TX. We walked to the other end, had some PHO (first time actually using chopsticks, didn't do too bad) and then afterwards went out and showed off cars. He's got an early 80s Benz with the headlight wipers and double firewall and such.

Anyway, after that, I got on the road and took the GPS-instructions which put me on the George W? Bush toll road. They Jersey-barriered off all the actual toll booths and apparently they bill you in the mail using cameras/plate-readers if you don't have tollpass. Good thing Sly filled out that change-of-ownership form for the state!

I continued on and filled up the first time at a Love's in Oklahoma.

Had 185 miles on the trip odometer, and it took 9.075 gallons to fill it, for a 20.385 average.

(to be continued)

[sxcpotatoes]

OK & MO

I lucked out when I needed to stop for gas next 227 miles later it took 13.783 gallons for an average of 16.469 mpg. Now, I can't say what speeds I was running, but the whole trip I tried to keep the cruise control around 64 or so, but I can't say I didn't make runs up to 76 or so GPS-indicated mph to avoid being boxed in and to get past trucks on hills without slowing other drivers down too much.

Now I said I lucked out, because whatever nameless station I found in Oklahoma had PURE GAS. PURE GAS is a myth in most of the country! Sadly, I neglected to get a receipt, but I did write the above trip odometer miles and gallons purchased on the first receipt to keep track. I can tell you the ethanol-adulterated gas was priced at $3.059 and the PURE GAS was $3.199, NO contest. You get 10% better gas mileage on pure gasoline versus E-adulterated gas, so that's a 30-cent per gallon value for only 14-cents more.

My next stop was a Waffle House for breakfast in St. James, MO. with 242.7 indicated, it took 10.542 gallons to fill for a total of 23.022 mpg. I cleaned off the windows and checked the coolant, little low, so went across the street to an O'reilly's and got a gallon of pre-mix for like $11 and Lucas injector/whatever $10 bottle and dumped it in with my gas.

I cruised on into town and found the parking garage for the St. Louis Arch. There were some absolutely brutal brick streets I took at an absolute crawl and it was still BANG BANG BANG at every bump. I saw a Malibu (2000s) coming down the street on those roads and it was like a manufacturer's torture test on that front suspension, the entire front of the car was flexing and twisting as the wheels chattered up and down like they were feeding belts through a machine gun!

I took a nap in the car, to kill some time, but didn't get much sleep as some asshole kept locking his vehicle with his fob over and over and over, like 20 times as he and his g/f or wife walked away. I wanted to jump out of the car and politely offer to shove his horn up his ass.

So I went over to the arch a bit early and took some cool photos, especially the couple of ones with my shadows you can check out in my flickr stream here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sexcpotatoes/. I even took a couple pictures of my butt so y'all can see the glorious sights others were subjected to when I was leaning over and peeping out the viewing windows!

After going through the museum of western expansion and buying my mom a pair of overpriced earrings in the gift shop, I went to a St. Louis Design Week Mixer that had free hotdog bar with sausages, etc, and slaw, coney sauce, grilled onions, real chopped bacon bits, mac & cheese, almost everything you can think of to top with. I ended up having one sausage in a bun when I told the nice lady to "surprise me" and I topped it with grilled onions, bacon bits & coleslaw. The person who invited me to the shindig was a chick I knew from twitter, so we got to hang out (she has a boyfriend), and I had like 1 & 2/3 beer (they had to start short-pouring as they ran out of two kegs and brought two half kegs in later). The free beer was flowing so I had a Chocolate Milk Stout and then later a nutty something or other that almost felt like it bit your tongue (it was good, bright tasting). I had some water in between, I didn't want to drink heavily because I drove out again that night, headed for Columbus, OH.

[sxcpotatoes]

IL, IN, OH

This is where things get hazy. Sleep deprivation has set in. Half the time I'm stopping at rest stops overnight on this trip to get 2 hours to as little as 20 minutes of sleep at a time. I never really got to the point of falling asleep at the wheel. Not with sipping Redbulls. I did stop a lot to pee, as I didn't really modulate my water intake to be able to go for extended periods without having to stop, which would have upped my mileage. Some of the lower numbers on the trip odometer were from just needing to stop and drain the lizard, so I topped off.

I mistakenly stopped in Highland, IL with 143.2 mi & took 7.789 to fill for 18.384 mpg, but I needed the facilities. Most expensive gas of the trip at like $3.499.

Stopped in Clayton, IN, 189.1 trip odo 9.944 to fill, 19.016 mpg.

Now somewhere in here, my sleep deprived brain played a hell of a trick on me. You know those access roads that run parallel to the highway for a ways? Well there was a car or truck over there, as evidenced by the headlights. You know those mini corn-crib/short round corn silos with chickenwire/see-thru sides? Well that and a shed, and the sleep deprivation and speed and the motion of turning my head and other traffic going the opposite direction, and the speed of the vehicle way over there parallel to me combined to convinced my brain, for a few long seconds... THERE WAS AN ALIEN ZAMBONI SPACE SHIP THING (corn crib and minibarn/shed) running parallel to the corn field and it was swinging the ass end out to punt that poor guy on the access road (who had just come around a curve to run parallel to the highway) INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY FROM ME!

Blink. Blink. Shakes head.

No, the corn crib is not an Alien Zamboni space ship, nor is it moving at all.

I pulled over and took another nap at the next nearest rest stop.

[sxcpotatoes]

Finally, I ended up defiling the Ohio Welcome Center, and texted/pm'ed the people I was supposed to hang out with in Columbus, OH that it wasn't going to happen this trip.

The GPS told me I could be home in about 3 hours and that left me with enough time to hit home, and get to the BMV to take care of the paperwork to get an Ohio Title, and reactivate plates to bring registration for the car current. The lady at the BMV miscalculated the dates and printed me up a 2 year registration sticker, so I just paid the $102. Was around $200 total for all paperwork, fees, and registration to get the car legal here, and I get to keep the Texas Classic plates as a souvenir.

Anyway, on the last fuel stop necessary on my trip, I decided to run the car's fuel level down until the low fuel light came on. It finally came on solid, and I punched the GPS to give me the next closest filling station without turning around. 4.5 miles of backroads put me in Ashland, OH (later my dad told me I was nowhere near Ashland, but that was the address for the place. I had 280.8 mi on trip odo, took 14.784 gal to fill, for an average of 18.993 on that tank.

Now a few things (aside from my fat ass) that contributed to the somewhat poor mileage were my inconsistent speeds, jogs up from 64-70-76 to pass tractor trailers going up hills etc, the 4.10 gears, the 3 12-packs of beer & 2 1/2 cases of bottled soda in the trunk with various spare parts and driveshaft. Only the spare parts were in the trunk with my clothes and you can tell in the pic Sly posted of me leaving in the car that the rear springs are kind of tired in this beauty.

So I was not-quite dragging ass literally and figuratively on my trip home. The car goes in to my mechanic a week from Monday (but I took it by his place to show it off on the way home from the BMV!) and I'm about to order some new MOOG rear coils from Summit Racing, and pick them up when I head up to hang out with my buddy in the Akron area next Friday. Probably do the rear shocks as well, best price I've found is Amazon, $39.03 shipped per KG5521 KYB Gas-A-Just. Probably wouldn't hurt to have him do the front coils and springs as well, but I can get them done at a later date.

After this, I'll soon get the car in to the guy in Amish Country for an oil/diesel fuel bath underneath, in case it ever gets driven in the salt. Thanks if you made it through reading this rambly-mess-of-posts!

[sxcpotatoes]

Pics from my phone. Almost reverse chronological order. The headlight doors hold for 4 hours-ish I haven't timed them for certain.

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[88Vic]

Too bad you couldn't take I35 up to I70, could have stopped here in KC and got some awesome BBQ. Not as scenic of a drive as going through the Ozarks but I'm on vacation this week and I could have taken you around KC, shown you some of the sites and the hot rod shops. Maybe the next time you're over this way.

[sxcpotatoes]

Thanks man, I flew down to Texas on Tuesday Sept 23rd, did paperwork & travelled 24th, STL 25th, & had to be back at work the night of the 27th. I've just been slacking about making this thread.

I would have possibly swung out that way, but didn't think to make a post dedicated to the trip. But yeah, next time man. I have vacation enough each year to do some epic road trips in the eventual future.

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Whole trip distance 1,267.8 mi, 65.917 gal., 19.233 avg.

[87gtVIC]

Enjoyed the read Nick. Now you enjoy the ride. She is pretty.

[sly]

nice... I'll have to have my wife read this thread.

[slack]

Thanks for the trip story. I enjoyed the read as well! That car sure is pretty. I'm glad someone here finally picked it up.

[gabegt90]

Sounds like you had a really good trip glad you bought Jason's only mk6

[sxcpotatoes]

I heard a noise outside on Friday. Peek out the door and see a box UPS left.

I open the door a bit and look outside and the UPS guy is cupping his hands to peer into the '82, checking it out!

He was gone by the time I got shoes on, they keep pretty tight schedules. So I go outside to get the box, and it's for the neighbors next door! The car was so distracting he just delivered the package to the next house over so he could hurry up and check out the car on his way back to his truck!

I got a kick out of that. Took the package to the porch next door where it belonged, and went back home.

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[miamibob]

I heard a noise outside on Friday. Peek out the door and see a box UPS left.

I open the door a bit and look outside and the UPS guy is cupping his hands to peer into the '82, checking it out!

He was gone by the time I got shoes on, they keep pretty tight schedules. So I go outside to get the box, and it's for the neighbors next door! The car was so distracting he just delivered the package to the next house over so he could hurry up and check out the car on his way back to his truck!

I got a kick out of that. Took the package to the porch next door where it belonged, and went back home.

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Good thing it was only UPS and not a doctor doing a vasectomy!!

[pantera77]

Nice story, car trips are always fun.

[79lincolnlover]

Hopefully you can meet some single women on Twitter!