The trip down to NYC and back was quite uneventful. Traffic was almost non-existent until we reached Route 87 and even then, it was moving along quite well. The round trip was ~11 hours covering 523 miles with five stops total; breakfast (30), fuel (15), pick-up the Blazer (60), lunch (30), and fuel (15). We left at 5AM and were in Tarrytown at 9:45AM. Tom (seller) arrived at around 10:15AM.
Before loading up, I took the truck for a slow spin around the block just to see how things were running. The engine needs a good tune up and will need to have the carb tuned as well. There was a noticeable bog with a quick stab of the throttle which may be caused by a faulty accelerator pump. Rust was a bit more substantial than I had originally thought, but all of the panels are reproduced so replacement will not be a problem. The last thing I noted was that the steering was quite free. I do not want to say that it was loose because it really was not. It just takes very little effort to steer even when idling in park which leads to it being touchy while driving. I will look into tightening up the steering box prior to putting the vehicle on the road.
After we were all loaded up, we dropped Tom off at the train station and were pulling onto Route 87 at around 10:45AM. We made the trip a bit longer by getting off of Route 87 too soon and having to drive down narrow Route 17 for about 25 miles. It was amusing watching the faces of oncoming and overtaken motorists! I am sure that this stint was nerve racking for my father as the lanes were only as wide as the trailer. Other than that, nothing worth noting. We pulled into my dad’s place at around 4PM to pickup my Rainier and then were at my place around 4:30PM to unload the truck.