Ah, the smell of the open road. Cargo packed to the ceiling, spare tire riding shotgun on the roof, and the whistle of wind over poorly-fit chrome trim. This is what Wagoneers were built for; taking you, and everything you require, anywhere you need to go. There is something to be said for the evocative rumble of a V8 as it stares down miles of open highway under a cloudless sky, drumming the tune of an era that has long since forgotten it. September 1st was one of those days.
Naturally, having only driven the Wagon on short trips close to home, I was trepidatious in light of the myriad of ways that long distance and heat can bring down an old V8 with ease. To counter this doubt, i opted to throw several jugs of rad fluid, oil, and tranny fluid in the back for the seemingly inevitable hiccups.
The Wagon was loaded with all the necessary equipment required to complete the bodywork, strip the paint, build the rest of the booth, and paint the entire truck twice over. Needless to say the back sat considerably closer to the road when I set out.
Having planned to spend 10 days up north, my family flanked me with our other 2 vehicles so that if anything happened I wouldnt end up taking out someone elses car. They would also play a critical role in helping finalize the booth, and run the air evacuation system while I sprayed the truck.
My sister managed to shoot a number of good "en route" pics; but the above proved to be my favourite of the bunch. Not only is the image sharp while taken from a car, the composition of the shot with the two generations of Jeep and the two generations of drivers is well laid out as well. If ever there was a shot that made the final edition grille look alright, this would have to be it (paired with that bumper as well).
I did stop about 3/4 of my way into the drive to grab dinner at the Subway in Marmora (another plug, they make the best subs of any Subway I've ever been to) and to gas up for the remainder of the drive. Here I was reminded of how picky a hot carburetor can be, taking a good 10 seconds of rolling before it finally atomized the right mixture to catch the spark.
I arrived at the farm with no mechanical troubles of any real nature. I knew my radiator was running sub par so I did have to run the heat to keep it normal, but it pulled as cleanly as possible for 40hp per ton, and never felt like it was about to fly apart when I hit 100 on the highway. I did enjoy the retro-stereo that pumped Led Zeppelin 4 through a single 1990's speaker, with all the clarity of a tax return form.
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