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Cruisin' with Deerslayer

DEERSLAYER LINKS including vendor sites for parts and tools as well as sites for old truck and hot rod organizations

TINKERING WITH DEERSLAYER chronicles the day-by-day maintenance and improvements episodes for Deerslayer, a '37 Chevy farm truck hot rod.

CRUISIN' WITH DEERSLAYER Roadtrips, cruise-in's and truck show stories and tall tales.

TONY'S DUNGEON Tony Pascarella's forum entries at OldGMCtrucks.com and H.A.M.B. regarding Deerslayer, particularly the 302 GMC engine build in his farmhouse basement.

DEERSLAYER MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for Deerslayer, including required tools, materials and procedures.

PROJECT NAILHEAD Chronicles the rebuild of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster 322 nailhead engine as a future replacement for Deerslayer's Jimmy 302.

1. Picking up Deerslayer

Sitrep

Back in May while I was on the Hutchinson run with BillyBob, Tony Pascarella decided to sell his '37 chevy pickup hotrod. He had put it on the market once before and I had decided, at that time, that if he did it again, I would not let it get away from our group, OldGMCtrucks.com, providing I had the coin. When I saw he had listed it again at OldGMCtrucks and HAMB, I waited a long time to give the other interested fellas a chance, maybe five nano seconds, then e-mailed Tony.

Tony and I cut a deal and I sent a deposit when I got back from Kansas. He kindly agreed to garage the truck for the summer for me until I could pick it up in september. On top of that, he maintained it for its ride back to Florida by packing the wheel bearings, lubing it and getting it inspected. He also replaced the custom HEI dizzy he built with a standard distributor he knew I would be more comfortable with on the roadtrip. The HEI unit traveled to Florida in a box beside me.

I had arranged the pickup to coincide with a family reunion that, unfortunately, didn't pan out this year. The Labor Day weekend approached and I prepared myself. The plan was to rent a one-way car from Mr. Hertz and make the trip to Rochester, New York in about two days, arriving at the dropoff on august 29th sometime.

I couldn't prep for this trip like I have for the BillyBob roadtrips with the Lewis & Clark Expedition backup supplies but since I was planning on keeping on the Interstates and not the two-lane blacktop back roads, supplies wouldn't be as critical. I took "Mother", the Garmin Navigator with me and paper maps. I have a ratty replica WWII Army Air Corps mechanics cap I wear on the BillyBob trips. I figured Deerslayer would need his own lucky hat so I managed to locate a real WWII Army Air Corps mechanics cap in a Ebay estate auction.

August 27^th 2008 Departure day. My co-worker, Mo, followed me up the the warehouse bay to garage BillyBob. Then, he dropped me off at the Hertz facility to pick up my "Full size" car for the ride north. It was a Chevy of some flavor but I wouldn't have known that if not for the insignia badges. Looked like a commodity. I didn't even lift the hood to see what was there. It performed well but there was no sizzle.

By mid-morning, I was on my way. Mother directed me north on I-95 to I-26 in South Carolina to I-77. I was still in South Carolina when I stopped for the night. All traveling was done in daylight. The second day took me north on I-77. Somewhere along the line, Mother took us over to I-79, then up to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and slingshoted around the southwest side of Pittsburgh and north to Erie where I spent the second night.

August 29^th 2008 The friday morning run to the Hertz drop off in Rochester, New York was interrupted by the only Krash Lab emergency of the trip. My Boss's assistant, Virginia, called to say they had lost the Intarweb connection. I had stopped at a New York Turnpike service plaza to return the call. The wireless connection was bad and I had a heck of a time Just conveying my administrative password for the system to Virginia and co-worker Luis. I knew I couldn't walk them thru diagnostics routines with this connection so I went for the "nuclear option". I had them reboot the T1 router first by cutting off its power. Then, we rebooted the proxy server/firewall machine using the same method and I crossed my fingers. A few anxious seconds passed and they tried to bring up Google . . . It worked and I was on my way again.

I had talked to Tony a couple of times and he said to call him when I got to the Hertz location. It's a good thing I didn't ask him to meet me there because the Hertz website gave me an address to a non-existent building on the Rochester Airport perimeter road. I eventually went into the airport and followed the signs to the rental car drop off area. It was the correct location because the Hertz guy addressed me by name as I got out of the car. Two minutes later, I was sitting on my luggage by the access drive and Tony was on his way to pick me up in his Jeep.

I'm writing this more than a month after the roadtrip so my Mark I memory is starting to fail me on some of the details. Tony didn't drive Deerslayer to pick me up because of rain possibility. We got back to the Pascarella compound sometime around noon. I got he shop tour and technical reviews of both Deerslayer and Sluggo, Tony's new project, a '81 El Camino. It was a Texas cruck, Tony's name for a car/truck. It has a smallblock 305, an unpopular engine to hotrod which is exactly why Tony is going to make a performer out of it. He is replacing the "sluggomatic" tranny with a manual box. His term sluggomatic is why the OldGMCtrucks.com group immediately christened the vehicle "Sluggo".

We took a ride in Deerslayer to get me familar with the truck. Tony drove fer awhile then turned the truck over to me. Pretty straighforward. The heavy Hayes clutch took a few minutes to get used to. Tony fabbed his own linkage after the force required to disengage it bent the original linkage. The most difficult thing for me to get used to was the gas pedal location. It's to the right farther than usual where the foot starter usually is. Tony kept glancing down where I was stompin' on the floorboards instead of the pedal. Damn! This thing is about twice as much fun as I thought it was going to be!

Joy gave us some sammiches for lunch which hit the hunger spot nicely. we had a beer or two and puttered around. Tony called Kevin to come over for supper and bring some more beer. Kevin's beautiful '55 GMC 2nd Series pickup has the Poncho V8 engine. We took a half-hour ride and Kevin offered the steering wheel to me. I regretfully declined because of the Coronas I already had under my belt. What a nice rig this truck is!

The four of us sat down to a great meal. We went out to the shop afterwards and put a new headlight in Kevin's truck. That was enuf work. Time for a few more beers and tall tales. Watched some TV after Kevin left and then turned in for the nite.

August 30^th 2008 We're all early risers and we were all awake again before dawn. Tony gave me the paperwork I needed. He let me drive the truck to Florida on his insurance and tags. Made it a lot easier to deal with Florida DOT after I got there. We said our goodbyes and I got headed off towards my cousins' homesteads in North Tonawanda, New York. It was a short leg for my shakedown cruise in Deerslayer.

I didn't think to check the odo mileage until I had been on the road for about twenty minutes. Best estimate is 82,750 miles on the odo when I left Villa Pascarella. The cruise went well and I started getting used to stopping for hi-test fuel. Like my other vehicles, I adopted my habbit of toppin' off the tank when it gets down to half full. That way, if I get caught in a big traffic jam, I won't idle my way to an empty tank. The guage face in this truck is much bigger than the actual needle travel from full to empty so you have to pay attention 'cause it doesn't look like the needle is moving, but it is.

Pulled into my cousin Linda's place sometime early afternoon and hung out with her. I passed the place and had to turn around and come back but she was on the porch when I got there. maybe Deerslayer makes more noise than I thought. Linda called her brother, Billy, who lives a mile or two away and he arrived shortly thereafter. I started in on Linda's beer supply. It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it.

After awhile, Linda's husband, also named Bill, came home and we got caught up since the last time I'd seen him a couple of years back at a family reunion. When Linda started preppin' supper, I followed cousin Billy back to his place to get settled in. When I backed out of Linda's place onto the busy street and tried to follow Billy, I had a heck of a time getting Deerslayer movin'. OOPS! Works better with the parking brake released. Billy gave Deerslayer his daily driver's space in his garage next to his show car, a much modified Camaro. Sorry I didn't get pics.

Cousin Billy is a much more tidy bachelor then I am. He can walk from room to room in his abode whereas I need a bobcat to get around mine. There are car show awards everywhere for the Camaro including a couple of boxes full in the basement. We went back to cousin Linda's when the supper bell rang. Good conversation, food and drink until time to call it a night. Billy and I retired back to his place.

August 31^st 2008 Got up shortly after daybreak. Billy was all set to watch the Speed Channel all day. He turned on his TV and it wasn't working. Hooked up an old black and white unit to see if the problem was TV or cable. It was the TV. I got ready to shove off while Billy got ready to go TV shopping. Cousin Linda's husband wanted me to stop on the way out of town. When I got there, Linda was the only one up. I got a cup of joe but I didn't get my obligitory photos of Linda, Bill, and kids Nick and Katelin. I couldn't convince Linda to pose with the truck in her houserobe. I almost got another cup of joe upside the head for suggesting I would try to get her and the truck on a Tractor Supply calendar.

Said my goodbyes and headed down the road to Pittsburgh. I was at my brother's place by mid-afternoon. He was waiting for me with a new batch of home brew. He didn't think it was his best but for the two days I was there, once the sun got over the yardarm, I had a bottle in my hand on a continuous basis. Hung around the house for the rest of the day. Had a great BBQ dinner on the backyard deck. The dog, Simon, appeared to remember me enough that we didnn't have to go thru a long period of low level growls and hooded looks. My nephew, Sam, took a video of Deerslayer. I had the engine running and was bench racin' with JR about the truck and Sam walked around the truck once with his cam. He posted it on Youtube and it got close to 300 viewings before he took it off again.

September 1^st 2008 Labor Day My 59th birthday today and Deerslayer is probably my last big gift to myself for some time, at least. I told JR, I wanted to go the a FLAPS to get some brake fluid before I got into his beer supply again. My sister-in-law, sandy, asked if I could take the neighbor kid, Nathan, for a ride around the block. Sure! After awhile we got all the kids together and they jumped in the pickup bed with Sandy to ride herd while Nathan's mom, Marybeth rode in the cab with me.

JR stayed behind to take the pics. My neice, Brooke sat up against the cab with Nathan's little brother between her and Sandy. Then Nathan with his sidearm to protect the womenfolk. On the other side is Alex from the neighborhood and my nephew, Sam, up against the tailgate.

Off we go. We went around the block once. I should have given it two laps now that I think on it. Nobody complained about the ride being too short so I guess it was ok. When the kids ran off to resume their games, JR and I headed to the auto parts store.

I picked up some brake fluid, just in case, and handed the keys to JR when we came out of the store. He had a good time and we took the long way back. In fact, I almost had to pry him out of the truck with a crowbar when we got back. He didn't want to give it up.

September 2^nd 2008 There was a tropical system I'd been watching to decide whether I would wait it out for a week of try to get past it back to Florida. Decided that Deerslayer and I would make the run. After JR got off to work and the kids headed out for their first day of school this year, We made the dash. Started out from Pittsburgh early morning on tuesday and pulled into the Krash Lab parking lot early afternoon the next day. All traveling was in daylight and Deerslayer ran like a top. The route was pretty much the same one, in reverse, that I had taken north in the rental car.

Roadtrip POST Check

I only took the time to record the GPS navigator stats this trip. These are from Villa Pascarella to the Krash Lab in Boca Raton. I didn't save the stats from the Mr. Hertz car.


5.	Navigator Stats	1,484.1 mi Overall Avg 59.3 mph Moving Avg 66.1 mph Max Speed 87.2 mph Total Time 25:01 Moving Time 22:26 Stopped 2:34

Those of you who have followed the BillyBob trials and tribulations over the years know the name of Nathan Hall (VWNATE), a Los Angeles mechanic, expert in the ways of old stovebolts, volkswagons and motorcycles among other things. Nate spends a considerable amount of time helping those of us with old trucks on the maillists and forums, free of charge, and he has helped me with many of BillyBob's problems.

Many of us noticed when Nathan's almost daily posts on the Old-Chevy-Trucks maillist fell off to no posts. After some time, one of the list members discovered on another forum that Nate was in the hospital with lots of broken bones and injuries. On October 15, 2008, Nate came back to Old-Chevy-Trucks with a post titled "Not Dead Yet":

Feels pretty close though .

I was riding my Kawi W-650 Moto (looks like a '67 Triumph Bonnie) to work @ 04:00 and stopped for a red light , a taxi going over 45 MPH rear ended me , I flew through the windshield and landed in the front seat .