Posted: Saturday, April 1, 2006.  (2:10 AM HST)

Cruzin America in a Homegrown `32 Ford 2-dr Sedan.
By Ron Yamaguchi

Aloha! My name is Ron Yamaguchi and my wife's name is Evelyn and we are from Pearl City, Hawaii. We would like to share with you and the viewers of Honolulu Streets our Dream cruise across America in a street rod.

PEARL CITY HI. — We spent the summer of 2005 cruising on the Continental United States starting from the state of California to the state of New York and back to California in our 1932 Ford 2-dr Sedan.

Our 32 Ford drive train consists of a 350 small block Chevy, 350 turbo automatic and a 3.54 positraction Jaguar 3rd member.

The chassis is the original 1932 frame modified with independent front and rear suspensions donated from a Jaguar XKE with disk brakes all around. This car was 100% homebuilt by my wife and I and has been on the road in Hawaii for over 12 years of trouble free cruising until this summer. Due to daily long hot drives, (at higher speed than Hawaii) and rough road conditions on the highway we encounter car problems on this trip.

The start of our adventure began on May 30, 2005 when we drove our car to Horizon Lines office at the Sand Island Harbor for shipping to California. We received the car in Long Beach, California on Friday, June 17, 2005 and our cruise began at 10:00 AM.

FIRST WEEK
Our destination was to be at the NSRA ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONALS in Pueblo, Colorado the weekend of June 24, 25 & 26. Along the way we spent a couple of days in Las Vegas, NV, overnight stops in Beaver, UT. and Grand Junction, Colorado.

From Grand Junction, Co. it was only 357 miles to Pueblo, Co. however about 40 miles outside of Denver, we hit a pot-hole that destroyed one of the rear inner wheel bearing and was towed to a repair shop in Colorado Springs. The repairs took 1½ days and we were back on the road again. We were able to drive into the Colorado State Fairgrounds on Friday noon, June 24. Spent the weekend enjoying the Nationals and received the Long Distance award. Met some very nice people that weekend and special recognition to Dave & Elizabeth Draves of Colorado Springs, Colorado and Dale & Val Sump of Newton, Kansas.

SECOND WEEK
Our destination for this week was to be in Des Moines, Iowa. for the GOODGUYS HEARTLAND NATIONALS the weekend of July 1, 2 & 3. 

We left on Monday, June 27 and encountered a heavy thunderstorm and hailstones forcing us to spend an unexpected night in Sterling, Colorado. Our next stop was to Lincoln, Nebraska and the following day on to Des Moines, Iowa.

We arrived in Des Moines on Wednesday, and spent the next day visiting Farmlands of America. Another fun filled weekend at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and a cruise night at Porky’s Diner on Douglas Avenue. As we drove into Porky’s, one of the rocker arms in my engine tore off from the stud. Any engine problem is not good, however this was not a bad place for a break down as there were plenty of people there offering assistance.

A fellow street rodder by the name of Richard, sorry we didn’t get his last name, was a big help by taking me to an auto parts store and helped to install the rocker arm. Total cost for the part…$2.51. Received the Hard Luck award that evening from Porky’s. Thing would have been worst if we had car problems in the desert in no man’s land. We also received the Long Distance award that weekend at the Fairgrounds. We again met more nice people with special recognition to Philip & Jeannie Prater from Roselle, Illinois.

THIRD WEEK
Our destination this week was to be in Columbus, Ohio for the GOODGUYS NATIONALS the weekend of July 8, 9 & 10.

We left on Monday, July 4 and spent 2 nights in Joliet, Illinois. We spent the day with Bob & Harriet O’Connell from Tucson, Arizona at their son’s Tim, (O’Connell Specialties, Inc.), street rod shop. Tim O’Connell is the Riddler Award Car Builder of 2004.

One of the new rear wheel bearing and hub that was installed at the repair shop in Colorado Springs, CO. was making noises and needed to be replaced and Tim came to the rescue. Much Mahalo to Tim O’Connell. Also spent the evening with the O’Connells at the Plainfield Downtown cruise. There we met Jim Talaga with his beautiful 1932 Ford roadster. (Our travels would again meet Jim and his roadster at the Goodguys National in Columbus, Ohio and the NSRA Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky).

On our cruise to Columbus, we joined the Mooneyes Tom’s Fun Run group, led by Chico Kodama, at Indianapolis Raceway, Indiana for lunch and continued on to Englewood, Ohio for the night. We again met Phillip & Jennette Prater at Indianapolis Raceway for this portion of the cruise to Columbus. The next morning our group visited the Brookville Roadster Shop, Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum, and a lunch stop at Dayton Wheels.

On the way to Columbus, one of the front shock brackets broke and with no Hot Rod Repair Shop at the Goodguys National made it difficult to do any repairs. This is where I met Wayne Reece of Miller Welding and with his welding skills, did the repairs for me. Wayne is the builder for the Miller Welding 1929 roadster pickup built on the TV show "RIDES".

We enjoyed the weekend at the Ohio Expo Center and were again blessed to receive the "Long Distance" award for this event.

FOURTH WEEK
We left Columbus after the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon and spent the night at Dover, Ohio. The next couple of days were spent visiting the Amish Country in Dover and Berlin, the NFL Football Hall of Fame in Canton, and spent the night in Independence.

The next day we traveled through the North/East portion of Pennsylvania to Buffalo, New York and through the Canadian Border to spend a few days at Niagara Falls, Canada. It was a great experience seeing the Falls, (Canadian and American), visiting the Skylon Tower, the Maids of the Mist boat ride, went Behind the Falls and visited all the sites in Niagara Park.

On Thursday, July 14, we drove up to Hamilton, Canada to join Jim Pearsall, the Canadian representative of the Right Coast Association. Jim had organized a group of Canadian Rodders for a cruise to Syracuse, New York for the Right Coast Nationals. Gasoline in Niagara Falls was $0.99 PER LITER! Along the way we stopped at Stainless Steel Brakes for a tour of their facilities and lunch.

We arrived in Syracuse later that afternoon, checked into our Motel, registered for the Right Coast Nationals and that evening drove to Oneida Shores Park for a BBQ chicken dinner for the participants of the Cruise to Syracuse, however a severe thunderstorm at the park cut our dinner short. We spent a hot & humid weekend at the New York State Fairgrounds and on Sunday were recognized by the Right Coast Association as the Long Distance Participant from Hawaii. This was another enjoyable week. CONTINUED

1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page
page 1 of 3

TOP