2007 Woodward Dream Cruise

What every family needs to haul the lil munchkins in.

Yesterday marked the 13th annual Woodward Dream Cruise. While the event has typically taken place in suburban Detroit, stretching from 8 mile north to Pontiac, the city of Detroit is becoming slightly more involved with each passing year. Already, the event covers some 16+ miles of road. Talks are underway to make the cruise even bigger by promoting events further down Woodward in the heart of the city of Detroit.





For car hobbyists, this is the event to be at. People come from all over the country, and all over the world, to watch as the cars go by and stroll the parking lots and downtowns they are parked in. Estimates range from 30,000-40,000 classics and over 1 million spectators. Now many events will throw out big numbers to make an them sound bigger than they really are, but in this case, perhaps they are underestimating. It is by far the largest car show you will ever see, and the biggest event metro Detroit, or most any other city in the country hosts for that matter. Consider it a Mardis Gras that celebrates the automobile.

Love this Stang!

The cruise itself has changed over the years, and in my personal opinion, this year was by far the best I had been to. Gone are the days when burnouts were allowed with people soaking the lanes with water. As much as I enjoyed those days, I saw a few too many cars get out of control and jump the curb. It's amazing nobody ever got killed back then. I myself was guilty of racking up a few tickets for doing burnouts, even after the announced crackdown. I learned my lesson after a few court dates though. There is at least one local judge that has a thorough understanding of how a line lock functions during a burnout. In addition, he was satisfied with my argument that it was accomplished in a controlled manner, not in a "careless" manner as the ticket stated. Dodged a bullet that time!

Wondering whether or not this car was show without the go, as the cage was simply a 6 point roll bar

It's hard to say whether or not the street rods are less represented than they once were, but there obviously aren't as many cruising the streets. Perhaps they are parked in one of the downtowns of one of the many participating communities. I know last year Ferndale played host to Mustang Alley, which also attracted many other Fords to that area of Woodward. The show is spread out over 16 miles, and I only venture to see approximately a 3 or 4 mile stretch of that.

Mopar winged warrior

A few years ago, it seemed that the cruise had become more of a corporate sponsored event. While corporations still play a huge part, they don't seem to be so in-your-face as they were a few years ago. Another change I noticed, it seems there is an overwhelming muscle car presence now, which I have no complaints about. The SUV's and mini vans seem to be dwindling each year, making way for more classics. Perhaps a growing number are choosing to simply park their cars off of Woodward and either walk the strip, take the free SMART Bus, or set up chairs to watch. Either way, it's a change for the better. I chose to park my ride simply after arriving this year. I didn't car to creep along at 5-10 mph for hours. You can honestly walk this cruise faster than you can drive it.




My 69 Camaro is still no closer to road ready than it was last year, and my Challenger is now my dad's Challenger. I did give my 89 Formula a clean job like it's never seen before and cruised it up there. I wasn't a few miles from home, in Highland Park, when a guy pulls aside me and yells "Man, I haven't seen a t-top car in forever!" I had to look at my girlfriend and laugh, as I pointed out in front of us and said "Hell, there's another right there in front of us," as I spotted a same generation black Iroc.

To my surprise, 3rd generation F-bodies seem to be making a stronger presence. I guess it makes sense, as kids these days have long since been priced out of the classic muscle car market, so 80's-90's Firebirds, Camaros, and Mustangs fill their needs instead. NICE 2nd generation F-bodies are also growing in numbers. The new muscle that has hit the streets in recent years is also blending nicely, such as customized 300's, Chargers, SSR's, GTO's, Vettes, Mustangs, and last built Firebirds and Camaros, even the now 20+ year old Grand Nationals mix nicely with the newer EFI crowd.

When you know your taxes are waaaaay too high

This was the longest day I had spent up on Woodward for many years. We cruised, walked around, and sat in chairs for a solid 9+ hours. Perhaps next year I'll get an even earlier start so I can make a full lap all the way up to Pontiac. It would be nice to know what resides in other areas of the cruise. Here are just a handful of the pictures I took. A link at the end will lead you to all of the nearly 300 pictures.

The wing states that this was THE test car for Chrysler experimenting with the monster wings. The license plate read "1STWING"

I agree with this guy's sticker in his side window, he isn't normal

Lo....riiii....der

I'm sure this Mopar has sucked more than a few competitors through that scoop.

No problem with this sort of "in-your-face" advertising!

One of the coolest bugs I've ever seen.

Ummm....I think....hmmm....no comment.

Is this an example of vehicle evolution? If so, I can't wait until in a few years we'll see the same for the Camaro and Challenger.

I didn't even know VW ever made such a thing.

HELL YEAH IT'S GOT A HEMI!

Did the "good ol days" ever really end?

A few words on this one, as it is the vehicle that started it all for me, a Dodge D100 pickup. One of my friends who was a bit older than me had one, give or take a year, and color it in teal instead. It had an independent suspension out of a Plymouth Volare, slammed on the ground, a 383 stroked, and a tunnel ram sticking out of the engine bay. For me, a 15 year old at the time, it was the epiphany of badass. I helped him around the garage, occasionally being rewarded with the rumble of this beast as he fired it up. The truck is long gone, but the memories are not, nor is the bite from this original bug. If not for this truck, I may have never even learned to change my own oil, who knows.

Never in my life had I seen so many Deloreans. There were over a dozen this year, all parked together.

I can't even recall what this was, so let's just call it unique and rare.

For more pictures from the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise, click here.

Changing the fuel pump in my '89 Formula...again

As mentioned, the fuel pump I put in 1 1/2 years ago decided to quit on me the other night. So, this weekend's plan was to replace it, this time with an AC Delco unit, as opposed to the piece of shit Carter I used last time. Armed with my trusty Haynes repair manual, I started tackling the job Saturday morning.

Once the car was supported on jacks, I removed the rear tires.


Next, I unbolted the exhaust from the cats, as well as from the rear hangers.

Removal of the panhard rod and frame brace.

Just like the last time I replaced this pump, I found myself wishing I had a few grand to drop into my car to do some performance upgrades. Replacing the pump is a pretty extensive ordeal. You have to remove you track bar, brace, exhaust, unbolt lower shock mounts, stabilizer bar, remove the springs, and then you can drop the tank. Of all the items mentioned, almost every one of them has an aftermarket alternative that would offer increased performance and handling.

Here the rear end is lowered, now only attached by brake lines and the trailing arms.

Once the rear is dopped, I could fully drop the exhaust. The system is packaged very tightly, so until the surrounding components are completely removed, forget about trying to snake the system out from the car. My muffler is an aftermarket Dynomax unit, which is looking pretty rusted. I'll likley go with a Flowmaster muffler when the time comes, as well as update my intermediate pipe to 3 inch, and perhaps omit the cats along with the air pump and fittings.


The stabilizer bar was a riot to try and remove. Just look at the placement of the lower bolt, and you gotta ask yourself, who the fuck did the servicibility study on this car? Get out pry bar for this one, or in my case, a "Ford wrech," aka steel mallet, to drive the socket onto the bolt head. Sure would have liked to swap in some poly bushings, but as it is, I already replaced both sets of nylon bushings a few years ago after snapping the stabilizer links while taking corners a bit too fast.

A set of Koni shocks reside in the front, though the backs have yet to be replaced.

Finally, with the tank removed, I could replace the pump. Getting the tank out was the easy part, getting it back in is what is the real pain in the ass. Granted, it would have been a bit easier had I bought a couple of 5 gallon containers to drain the gas, it's still hard to snake that damn fill neck back in the 1/4 panel and get everything lined up properly so the straps will bolt back on.

As is always the case, I managed to miss a step, which forced me to backtrack a bit. I had forgot to install the exhaust system during the right step, so I had to once again unbolt the panhard brace, the lower shock, and a few heat shield screws so that I could lower the rear again. Once lowered, and the spring removed, I could now snake the exhaust intermediate pipe back through to where it belonged, seen in the picture below. This whole job would have been a helluva lot easier with a hoist, which is in my future plans for my garage. Screw this laying on your back bullshit, there is never enough room to get at what you need to.



Here are a few pictures of the shop dogs hard at work.

Thursday night cruise at the American Legion Post 34

I recently decided that I need to be a bit more connected in the local cruise scenes. Just because my one muscle car is still an in-the-works project, doesn't mean I can't enjoy the shows with my 19 year old daily driver, which I have been getting a growing number of inquiries about from onlookers.

Last night, we headed out to the western burbs to attend a cruise night. The initial show we went to seems to no longer exist. Fortunately, we passed another show in Livonia at the American Legion Post 34. There weren't but a few dozen cars at the show, only a few that really caught my interest, but it was a night out at a car show none the less. Here are a few of the nicer rides.

1969 Mustang

Chevy Corvair

Plymouth Sport Fury

Ford Galaxy 500

All stock and all original just never does it for me. Street Rod that thing already!

I believe this is a 1969, Chevelle SS

1971 Vette with a 454

Here are a couple of VERY nice 2nd generation F-bodys. You don't see many of these cars left on the road, in good condition. The black Firebird in particular was simply perfect!





After the show, I decided we'd head on up to Woodward, just to see if there were any classics out yet. While there were, they were far and few, perhaps a few dozen at best. There was a parking lot with a handful of cars parked, though nothing much worth stopping for in my opinion.

As we started back towards home, trouble hit. My car began to stumble, then stalled altogether. After many failed attempts to get it started, I knew it was time to call for help. Fortunately, I had a friend who lived very nearby. As I sat there with my flashing hazards, I already had began to troubleshoot what could be wrong. I knew that my battery was on it's last leg this past winter, and that it is probably due for replacement. Until recently, i always thought batteries usually die during the coldest of days. Recently, it has been brought to my attention that extremely hot days, like what we've had lately, are often just as responsible. So, the battery was one thought.

My second guess was the fuel pump, which I had replaced already about 1 1/2 years ago. I had heard that aftermarket fuel pumps are a piece of shit, but at the time, one of the local auto parts stores were the only places that were open, so a Carter pump is what it was going to be. I remember being shocked at the cost, I'm thinking around the $50 range or so, and with a lifetime warranty to boot I believe. Well, seems that warranty was there for good reason, you'd be needing it.

As I sat there waiting, I turned the key forward and listened carefully, nothing. What I should have heard was the fuel pump building pressure in the system. I did consider that I couldn't hear it over the sound of the traffic going by, but this aftermarket piece of shit had always been a lot louder than the stock unit.

After my friend showed with a tow strap, we headed to his place. After parking it, we charged the battery for a bit. I checked the relief valve on the fuel rail, nothing, not even a little squirt of fuel. After a short time, I tried turning the key forward, nothing. So, without much effort it was narrowed down to the fuel pump.

The AC Delco replacement is going to set me back $160 or so, but the 100,000 or so miles and 17 years the first one gave will be worth the extra money. I'll be sure to take pictures of this project, as it entails quite a bit considering you have to drop the whole rear end out of the car in order to drop the gas tank. At least it happened while it was warm out, like 95 degrees, which will make it that much nicer working in my sweat box of a garage. Fun fun!

Cruise nights in Metro Detroit

I want to start hitting up some more cruise nights before the season is over, so I did an internet search. After a few tries, I stumbled upon a great site that lists a ton of local weekly cruises all over Michigan. I'm going to add a link on the side bar.

Cruises in Metro Detroit and across Michigan

1967 Coronet Deluxe

Recently, a coworker told me about a Coronet for sale that was being stored in my company's warehouse. According to his observation, it was in good shape, and sounded well worth the $6,200 asking price. It had a slant six in it, but that could easily be swapped out and replaced with a much more respectable V8 of a larger displacement. I made a call to a friend, who was VERY interested, so much so that if it was a solid car, he'd be willing to buy it without a second thought.
Today I managed to make it over to the warehouse for work. Initially, I thought the car looked pretty solid as I walked up. Without much inspection of the body, I dropped to the floor to check out the underside. I few quick pokes found that the floor was pretty rotted out in several places. The frame where the torsion bars attach were ate up by rust pretty good as well, as was other parts of the structural support.

Such a shame, as I would guess that the odometer reading 60,000 miles was very likely original judging by everything else I saw. The interior looked all original, was in very good shape, and had that very musty old car smell too it, which is most likely attributed to the rusted out underside in this case. The doors, jams, and under the hood all looked to be in very good condition as well. Closer inspection of the body shown signs of a quick and dirty half assed paint job. While whoever laid the paint down seemed to do a decent job, the body man didn't know what they were doing. The bondo in the wheel wells was very apparent, with the back sides of the wheel well lips packed a good inch thick.

The slant six, as well as everything under the hood, all looked very neat and tidy, just like it just came from the factory. The rear end was whatever the weak rearend is that would come behind a slant six. I didn't count, but it looked similar to GM's 10 bolt, with the cap on the rear, as opposed to a pig style setup.

It makes me sad to see cars like this, as they may be on their last leg without the right owner. Everything that I saw could be fixed, the car could be saved, but it would take a lot of effort by somebody willing to put in the time and money. Instead of the right kind of owner, somebody who knows little about cars will likely buy it, over paying of course, and drive it until the car literally splits in half from rusting out. Neither my Camaro nor my Challenger was in this bad of shape, yet it is the kind of project I would like to tackle some day. I guess I always look at it as, somebody has gotta do it, or they'll end up in the scrap yard and nobody will enjoy them. Perhaps I enjoy the car hobby so much because I've never looked at it from an investment point of view. In fact, many of my modifications will actually lower the value of the vehicle, but that is what it takes sometimes to achieve my personal tastes.