PCH Cruise - June 24th
 

For anyone who lives in So. Calif. (or anywhere for that matter!!), we're doing another PCH Cruise on the 24th of this month. I did a "dry run" this past Saturday and this is the route I came up with. If you have any questions, let me know. The only thing I'm hoping for is better weather!! Saturday was very wet and you could hardly see the ocean!! But, unless it rains, it's ON!! Our destination with be the Automobile Driving Museum located in El Segundo. Here's a link for more info.....

http://www.automobiledrivingmuseum.org/


Starting out at the Donut Shop at the corner of Adams Ave. and Magnolia St. in Huntington Beach. Leaving at 8:00 SHARP!!
We will head out onto Adams Ave., heading west (right turn out of the driveways). Turn left at Main St. (after turning, bear left to stay on Main St.). Main St. ends at Pacific Coast Highway. Turn right and drive for about 9+ miles. Turn left at 2nd St. After a couple of miles, bear left at Livingston Dr. (Livingston Dr. becomes Ocean Blvd). Stay on Ocean Blvd. (which becomes the Seaside Fwy) and go over both the Gerald Desmond and the Vincent Thomas Bridges. Stay to the left towards Gaffey St. after coming down from the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Keep going straight past Gaffey St. You will now be on Summerland Ave. which will end at Western Ave. Turn left at Western Ave. and go to 1st St. Turn right at 1st St. which will end at Miraleste Dr. Turn right on Miraleste Dr., which will end at Palos Verdes Dr. East. Turn left at Palos Verdes Dr. East and continue all the way down the hill to Palos Verdes Dr. South. Turn right on Palos Verdes Dr. South and drive for about 6 ½ miles. Turn left at Paseo Lunado. Turn right at the first street, Via Anacapa. Turn left at Paseo Lunado which then becomes Paseo Del Mar. Continue on Paseo Del Mar to Palos Verdes Dr. West. Turn left on Palos Verdes Dr. West for about 2 miles until you see a turn off for Pacific Coast Highway – Redondo Beach. Turn left and continue to Catalina Ave. Turn left on Catalina Ave. Go to Ave I. Turn left at Ave I and go to Esplanade. Turn right at Esplanade and continue on to Catalina Ave. Turn left at Catalina Ave. and continue on to N. Pacific Coast Highway. Turn left on Pacific Coast Highway and continue for approximately 8 miles to Mariposa Dr. Turn right on Mariposa Dr. to Lairport St. Turn left on Lairpost and the Automobile Driving Museum will be on your right!! Total mileage is about 50. Come with a full tank of gas and expect a fun time!!!
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Sounds like fun, Joe!:headbang:

The museum is cool.My 62 GP has been in it twice.Tom

Joe, what time do you anticipate getting to the museum? I've been to that museum once before. Being from the Northern part of Southern Cal, I'd be coming the opposite direction. I might be able to cruise down and meet up.

Hey Mark, as close as I can estimate, we should be to the Museum around 10:30 or so. Hope you can make it!! We have around 12 cars so far!! Still hoping for good weather!!

Ok Joe, thanks. That gives me an idea of when to try to leave. Obviously traffic is a factor too. Plus I'll be going slower than most people on the freeway with 4.10s in the back. You'll have a more scenic route than I. I'll probably take the 5 to the 105 to get over by LAX. Lots of concrete to look at. I'll fire things up this weekend and check everything out.

Mark it would be good to see you at the museum. To bad you can not make the cruise because I know you know where the doughnut shop is in Huntington beach. None of us will be going very fast because Joe will be the leader and he has 4:88s.
Mark Sheppard

I will be at Donuts in the AM but will be going to a Sprit of Lions museum opening in the afternoon.Tom

4.10's????........sound like "freeway flyer" gears to me!!!! :)

I've been in Joe's Nova at 6am in the morning on the freeway...going to two different cruises! It's a "blast"!:youguysrock:

4:10's are "cruzin" far RH lane gears -- been there done that ... and you're right ... It's a blast ... Craig

Yep, I'll be in the right hand lane. Unless of course I have to pass somebody!

I was totally kidding!! Yep, anything 4.10's and lower would definitely qualify for "right lane gears"!! I only take the freeway very early in the morning and even then it's kinda dangerous, what with guys coming up on you doing 70-80 mph. I'm doing 54 mph at about 3400 rpm!! Can't even remember having to pass anyone going slower!!

Joe is a safe driver! And as a bonus, we cruised by where OCIR used to be :3gears:

Seen on freeway this morning.................!!!!!!:wink:
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...psreot57aq.jpg:shocked:

:haha: Nice sign!!

That is too cool -- haven't run 4:88s on the street but I have run 4:56s ... right hand lane gears ... TAZ :burnout:

Well, I may or may not make it. I was going over the car today and I noticed that the battery had leaked and acid decided to eat paint off the tray and generally make a small mess. The big question is why it leaked? The only thing I did was change the voltage regulator a few months ago because the system wasn't charging and I was left at a show waiting for help. I'm thinking now the system is over charging for some reason and cooking the battery. I checked the voltage hitting the battery while running and it was 14.2 (when I put the new one in) and my amp gauge was on the plus side, so I thought ok, good. It was only getting 11-12v to the battery before. The regulator I put in is a solid state regulator that I bought to use in the meantime until I find one that's dated correctly. Maybe the new unit isn't switching off when it should be. So, I'm probably not going anywhere until I figure this out. Ugh...

Mark can you bring the Camaro?

Well, the Z is currently missing a carb. It can't go too far without one. I'm kinda bummed. I was looking forward to driving the Caprice down. I still might be able to figure it out by them. We'll see. Otherwise I could buzz down in my HHR SS.

Should be a great time, thanks Joe!

So I had the battery tested today by one of those hand-held testers. That said the battery is ok. Supposedly no shorted cells. I put it on the charger to see what would happen. Seemed to take a charge fine. It didn't get hot. I'm hitting the battery tray with paint tomorrow, now that it's cleaned up. I guess I'm going to put the battery back in with a layer of plastic under it, fire it up and measure voltages again. If I can get this figured out by Saturday morning, I'm gonna cruise down. Anybody have any ideas what else to check?

Mark I've always used a battery mat.Keeps the acid from reaching the tray.Enjoy the cruise!

I actually have battery mats on both my cars! They've been great for the most part. Never had a problem until now. Probably because the battery spewed too much and the mat got soaked. I can't help but think it's because of an over-charge. Eventually I'll find out. I just hope I can deal with it before the weekend.

OK good luck.

Guys,I will have the gold 63 421 Lemans at Donuts in the AM.Tom

Well, it looks like I'm gonna give it a go tomorrow. I checked the system out today and took the Caprice out for a ride. Things seem ok, voltage is good, no battery spewing, confirmed all the connections/grounds. I'm still not exactly sure why the battery spewed out the vents in the first place. Anyway, I'm going to start out from North of LA with a target time of 10:30 am at the museum. If all goes well I'll see everyone at the museum!

Thanks Bruce, you are too kind!!

I remember that! It's changed a lot since then.

You are welcome!! See you tomorrow??

See you in the morning Tom.

Good news Mark!! Hope to see you tomorrow.

I think it was a successful cruise!! The Museum is a very cool place and I want to go back on a Sunday when they let you ride along in cars that they take out!!
A few of us at the Donut Shop before heading out....
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...psuxfyauhy.jpg
A little bit overcast in this shot but it was very nice weather for most of the cruise and I was very happy for that!!
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...psnitgicq0.jpg
The room for all the "special" cars!!!
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps5jlex9pm.jpg
Part of the showroom.......
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...psifkuwf0o.jpg
And they even let you sit in most of the cars....except for the "special" ones!!
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps1fn4zkdy.jpg
A few of the happy crew!!
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...pss7p6pulm.jpg
Mark and family......very nice meeting you all !!
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...psdli73pxe.jpg
Peace out.............
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...pscsjp2vla.jpg

Awesome...looks like a great day for a cruise in SoCal!:youguysrock:

Is that overcast "June Gloom"?

How did the Caprice perform Mark?Hope things went well.

Hey, yes, thanks for asking! The car ran fine.The car didn't have any cooling or charging issues. Maybe the things I tweaked fixed the issue. I had another theory too. Not sure, but I was thinking that since the battery was new, I had the old regulator in which seemed to not be charging that well. Putting the new regulator in may have caused the plates to heat up (because it was getting a REAL charge) and caused the battery to find it's happy fluid level point. Much like filling a radiator for the first time and some boils out under pressure with the cap on.The car started to get a little warm at one point on the way back, but never got past 11 o'clock or made me worry. The weather turned out to be great. Traffic was fine going down to the museum, a little heavier coming back. Driving the 110 freeway through the city of LA is never really that great. I do have a vacuum leak I need to deal with sometime soon. I'll get to that. High on my list now is to finish rebuilding the carb for the Z and getting it back on the car so it runs. It's been years since it been running out on the streets.
It was nice to meet some of the guys we type with online here and good to catch up some with Mark Sheppard. A bunch of thanks to '69Novajoe to organize the whole thing. I would guess we'll be doing it again. Oh, and yes, I was cruising the right lane most of the way up and back and had a bunch of thumbs up while driving.

I'm putting this drive on my bucket list

Yep, as much as I worried about it, it turned out to be a great cruisin' kind of day!!

That's what it's known as around here!! I was just hoping it would subside a little for the cruise. We couldn't see Catalina Island but at least we could see the ocean!!

Do you mean the complete cruise from the Donut Shop?? It is a very scenic drive if you do.