4000 Mile Corvette Road Trip – South Dakota, Montana

 
 
On June 14th 2015, my wife and I embarked on a 4000 mile round trip through the badlands of South Dakota and the mountains of Montana. If this doesn’t interest you, maybe the fact that we did it in our 1978 Corvette will!

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I spent a good chunk of time getting the car ready so that we would minimize any problems on the trip. I was concerned that the heat in June and July we may encounter in the badlands may be an issue for a 37 year old cars radiator, so the first thing I did was replace it with a Dewitts aluminum radiator with dual SPAL electric fans. I then had the rear differential rebuilt and changed from a 4.11 ratio to a more reasonable 3.55. I also put in a fibreglass rear leaf, and new bilstien shocks all the way around. I ended with new front control arm bushings and a wheel alignment.

We headed initially to Winnipeg with our good friend Peter (on the motorcycle). While in Winnipeg, we had the wheel alignment done at Birchwood Chevrolet. They did a very good job, as the car handled very good after the alignment.

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Yes, I let Kim drive too :-)

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Admiring a 1954 Vette!

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A local trying to pick up my wife!

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But I took care of it!

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Just because…

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Even Better.. :-)

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hmmmm??

 

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Kims being artistic :-)

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When we got to Wall, SD, we noticed a strong fuel smell when at a stop light. I checked, and the fuel pump had a slight leak. We spent the night in Wall, and then went on to Rapid City where we had it replaced at the GM dealership. A 45 minute job ended up taking all day. Not sure what their problem was, but we weren’t too impressed.

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Our bed and breakfast in Rapid City, SD
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The roads were amazing, in case you haven’t noticed!

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Better put the tops on!

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Made it to Wyoming

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Devils Tower in the background

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Almost out of fuel… wheres a gas station?

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Whoops!

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When we got to Mammoth, we noticed a small pinhole leak (well maybe a pen hole) in the lower radiator hose. I patched it with black RTV, and duct tape and that got us to the next town, Livintston, MT, where we had it changed.

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Touring around Bozeman, MT….
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That turned into a 37 degree celcius day…that’s 98.6 degrees F.    Being from Canada,  I wasn’t impressed….

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Kim trying to make me feel better :-)

Other than the fuel pump and radiator hose, the 1978 Corvette didn’t miss a beat. The engine ran real strong (Original 350 L82 rebuilt in 1999). The thing that really surprised me, was how comfortable the car is for touring. I was expecting to be stiff and sore after a couple hours in the older car, but the opposite was true, it was very comfortable, and our last day we drove 16 hours straight only stopping for lunch, and I could have driven more… no problem!


Comments

4000 Mile Corvette Road Trip – South Dakota, Montana — 9 Comments

  1. Very nice. I love the mirror photos – but I have a thing for reflections. Back in the long ago days (’77)I did a cross-country in mine. I’ve told my sweetheart that when The Plastic Pig is done, we’re going to do some road trips!

  2. Dude – a dream come true trip in a C3! Great notes and captions – and background leading up to your trip. Was wondering if you guys ran into any rainy weather and how the wipers/tires did. You did it big – what a special experience to always have, even with the minor setbacks which you handled with a `yeah, but it was worth it’ attitude. That 16 hr. return trip, hearing the purr of the C3 was also interesting. And, agree with you how comfortable a well maintained C3 is for touring – and, when you’re sitting by your best friend sharing the nostalgic experience like that, who could ask for anything more. I am envious, to say the least – and respectful of your preparation and calculated risk to go for it. Lucky dogs.

    • Hi Dave, thanks for the nice comments… Yes, we ran into rain a couple of times and hail as well. One night we were sleeping and I woke up hearing loud noises outside… I looked out to see it hailing very hard… I yelled at Kim to get up, and ran out to the car in my underwear to put the cover on. Thankfully we got the cover on in minutes, and the hail turned out to be kind of mushy and just spatted on the car.

      The car did fine in the rain. I slowed down of course to be safe. My wipers though kept hanging up and wouldn’t work the first time it rained. I looked at it and realized that I had the wrong type of wipers on. I went to the nearest automotive store and bought the right ones, and no problems after that.

  3. Looks like you had fun on that trip, you took lots of really nice pics, and if they are in order, you can see how your tired of driving at the end.
    I did my own 3700 mile trip this summer, and wish I had stopped more along the way to take some photos of the car in different places. I also found that these cars don’t drive like your modern car, and it seems like I had to pay attention more than when driving my newer cars.

    Glad to see you using your vette….

    • Hi Forrest, actually those pictures at the end are not from being tired, but the 37 degree Celsius day we had (I think that’s about 98.6F.. I was not enjoying the heat that day, but not tired.. just hot. Later that day it dropped about 3-4 degrees, and I was fine… It was just at the temperature that my body couldn’t handle I guess… :-)

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