Thread: Road trip in the 76 Dodge

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Well over the last couple of days I put a bit over 1500 miles on the truck driving it back to Illinois to visit family.

I’ve gotten a lot of nice compliments about it at some of the places I stopped at which really kind of surprised me. I’m not trying to be modest here……if it was a Little Red Express or a Warlock I could understand it but unless you know what a True Spirit is (and hardly anybody does), it’s pretty much just a plain old white Dodge truck with some pin-striping.

For me this is the big payoff for building it. The truck is doing great, never missed a beat getting here. Gas mileage is about what I expected from the 440 (12-13 at 75-80). I’m having a ball driving it and I really love going cross country this time of year.

Im up here near Chicago mike put a few more gallons in it and come on up i will burn some food on the grill for ya . Well not really burn i pretty good on that thing .

Pretty satisfying huh?

Well I made it back home yesterday morning.

I stopped in to see a friend in Iowa and we spent some time driving his 56 Chrysler around listening to his old Pan Head chopper and talking about his current build.....a 64 Dodge 2dr HT thats getting a BB and 4 speed.

I also stopped by one of the route 66 museums in Oklahoma and got to see some neat old cars and bikes.

I don't think I've ever seen such a wide range in gas prices before. All the way from a low of $2.11 ( naturally at a station a I passed about 20 miles after I had just filled up) to a high of $3.79.

All together I put about 4000 mles on the truck durig the trip which makes a total of around 6500 since it was finished in July. The old truck did great.....no problems at all.

Congrats Mike! Another successful first trip out! The rewards of a hi-quality build with attention to detail!!!!

Thanks Dave. That trip back to Illinois has always been my personal test to see how well I did on a build. I always kind of figured if they hold together at highway speed for 12-14 hours straight I did pretty well

Congrats, Mike. Nothing like a bug free build to make you feel good. I followed your build thread from the first entry. Great looking truck, you did an awesome job on it.

Can't wait to be out there on the road too! Good job!