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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!<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Yes, I let Kim drive too \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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\nAdmiring a 1954 Vette!<\/p>\n

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\nA local trying to pick up my wife!<\/p>\n

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\nBut I took care of it!<\/p>\n

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\nJust because…<\/p>\n

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\nEven Better.. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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\nhmmmm??<\/p>\n

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\nKims being artistic \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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\nOur bed and breakfast in Rapid City, SD
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\nThe roads were amazing, in case you haven’t noticed!<\/p>\n

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\nBetter put the tops on!<\/p>\n

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\nMade it to Wyoming<\/p>\n

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\nDevils Tower in the background<\/p>\n

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\nAlmost out of fuel… wheres a gas station?<\/p>\n

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\nWhoops!<\/p>\n

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\nWhen 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.<\/p>\n

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\nTouring around Bozeman, MT….
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\nThat turned into a 37 degree celcius day…that’s 98.6 degrees F. \u00a0 \u00a0Being from Canada, \u00a0I wasn’t impressed….<\/p>\n

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\nKim trying to make me feel better \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"