Edsel vacation fail

I had a similar situation trying to get my 64 LeSabre wagon ready for a family road trip to the beach a couple of years ago.

98 ls1 swap...check

air bag suspension...check

4 wheel disc brake conversion...check

working AC...check

not realizing it had NO rear seatbelts for the kids...D'OH!

After working for days straight trying to meet the family vacation deadline, we are packing the car! and I realize there were no seat belts in the rear seat for the kids car seats! After suggesting that 'we' never had seatbelts on summer trips with our parents. The wife put her foot down right there! a big N O... I actually considered using a ratchet strap to hold the car seats in place, but she never has to know that.

this pic was taken about a week before our planned roadtrip...

your neighbors MUST love you :)

mad_machine wrote: your neighbors MUST love you :)

what you cant see in this photo is the multiple tire marks running down the alley...

im a homeowner...they just rent = no rights

One thing that my brother and I both remember fondly is dad seeing a cop behind him and telling us "don't turn around, ignore him". We always turned around but rarely got pulled over.

I have fond memories of driving 1200 miles to Florida in the back seat of the family car, 71 Z28. It was cramped, hot, and noisy, but I enjoyed it.

There's a good Japanese/Korean restaurant in the falls, just down the street from the Hilton fallsview. Great stop for lunch!

David S. Wallens wrote: We never left home without these: Yes, I hotlinked the photo, but here's a plug: looks like AAA sells them, $2.99 each for members.

You can also get them at Cracker Barrel.

jhaas wrote: I had a similar situation trying to get my 64 LeSabre wagon ready for a family road trip to the beach a couple of years ago. 98 ls1 swap...check air bag suspension...check 4 wheel disc brake conversion...check working AC...check not realizing it had NO rear seatbelts for the kids...D'OH! After working for days straight trying to meet the family vacation deadline, we are packing the car! and I realize there were no seat belts in the rear seat for the kids car seats! After suggesting that 'we' never had seatbelts on summer trips with our parents. The wife put her foot down right there! a big N O... I actually considered using a ratchet strap to hold the car seats in place, but she never has to know that. this pic was taken about a week before our planned roadtrip...

I trust you didn't have far to drive? You, my friend are a brave man. We need more pictures.....

Rode a long way more than once in the backwards facing third row seat all old wagons used to come with. Fought with my brothers, peed in empty Coke bottles, played 'slug bug', 'Popeye' at night. I still clearly remember riding in the back of the car, laying on the rear package shelf (! try that one nowadays) at night and watching the stars.

Good times, indeed. jhaas, that's an awesome pic!

I rode in the back of a Caprice wagon (tailgunner) from Garden City NY to Shelter Island (towards the end of LI) about 13 years ago. I got out and just about fell down as the ground seemed to be rushing towards me, after hours of it rushing away from me.

Per Schroeder wrote: I rode in the back of a Caprice wagon (tailgunner) from Garden City NY to Shelter Island (towards the end of LI) about 13 years ago. I got out and just about fell down as the ground seemed to be rushing towards me, after hours of it rushing away from me.

post graduate spring break?

Jensenman wrote: I still clearly remember riding in the back of the car, laying on the rear package shelf (! try that one nowadays) at night and watching the stars. Good times, indeed. jhaas, that's an awesome pic!

Haa. I used to do that too. Now the PC police would throw your parents in jail. When i wasn't on th rear shelf, i was standing up between the parents in the front seat, inhaling both of their second hand smoke.

jhaas wrote:

more details on the 914 puhleeeez!!!

When my grandpa got a 1973 Electra 225 my brother and I were thrilled that it had armrest that pulled down in the front and back seats. We would pull those down sit on them and be able to see out better. We would cruise the two track of northern MI on summer evenings looking for deer and bears while grandpa enjoyed a stubby bottle of beer

"more details on the 914 puhleeeez!!!"

GRM Challenge awesomeness. Check out some of his great work here.

OT - JHass, I know GRM had a small article about your '49, but do you have a build thread somewhere on that beast? I LOVE that car!

(And, well, the SHO powered 914 is pretty hot too!) Marc

Im 1987 Dad decides he's taking the family to the Daytona 500 and Disney World. Mom, Dad, Me My sister and brother, uncle and grandmother get in the Buick Wagon and head south. The three of us stayed in the back but didn't open the seat, just sat on the floor. We got a great deal on a hotel right on the beach, the La Breeze, so after 20 hours in a car we got to spend a week in on room, days before the bulldozers were going to flatten it to make way for a place with running water. I could write a book about the week, but the funniest car trip parts were my grandmother buying a 15 piece pot and pan set (you can't get a deal like this at home) and haing to keep it on her lap the whole ride home because we were out of space, and trying to find Cale Yarborough's house at about 3am after stopping for gas, and alost hitting a deer and landing on his lawn.

Wally wrote: I could write a book about the week...

If the book would be as good as most of what we get from you already I would happily buy the book.

In reply to jhaas:

there is so much win in that photo, i'm not sure i can look at it again!

FWIW, i got a ride in that wagon after the LS1 and bags, and it was a hoot, although it did drag the exhaust over every pebble...

4cylndrfury wrote: MMM, Personally I think losing the Option of taking the Edsel is a hit to the experience. I know that spending time with the fam damily is a serious plus ( I miss my siblings sometimes these days), but id give anything to be 6 again, and be heading off to god-knows-where to do some camping, bouncing around the back of my dads Cherokee chief, fishingpoles and coolers all over the place, dying of heat exhaustion and listening to Creedence on the radio...good freakin times man!

Or in the back seat, facing backwards, of a '58 Chevy Brookwood 9 psgr wagon. Listening to the 348 burble on down the road...Oh, yeah!! Good times, baby!

David S. Wallens wrote: We never left home without these: Yes, I hotlinked the photo, but here's a plug: looks like AAA sells them, $2.99 each for members.

I will need to go buy several for the family. My daughter is old enough to play that with my wife. the boy is not 2 yet and still needs to grow to play.

I remember sitting up on the parcel shelf on my father's Opel Kadett Rallye when I was little.

And while my mom denies it ever happened. I also remember we had a BIG fold out foam sofa that fit perfectly into the bed of our chevy custom deluxe 10. I remember quite a few trips sitting back there with legos and stuff while the cap kept out prying eyes and kept me safe from flying objects and wind.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

woah. thanks for the very vivid flashback

we had a crown vic wagon for years that had the sideways facing fold down seats in the "way back". i always wanted to sit there for anything more than a 15 minute drive so i could draw, using one side folded down as a table. this inevitably led to being sick from the sideways orientation and focusing on something other than the vehicle.

mad_machine wrote: I remember sitting up on the parcel shelf on my father's Opel Kadett Rallye when I was little. And while my mom denies it ever happened. I also remember we had a BIG fold out foam sofa that fit perfectly into the bed of our chevy custom deluxe 10. I remember quite a few trips sitting back there with legos and stuff while the cap kept out prying eyes and kept me safe from flying objects and wind.

Sounds like the time my dad drank from the wrong creek and rode back to L.I. in the back of their '69 chevy 3/4 ton on the 5 gal. bucket camp toilet...

spitfirebill wrote:

Jensenman wrote: I still clearly remember riding in the back of the car, laying on the rear package shelf (! try that one nowadays) at night and watching the stars. Good times, indeed. jhaas, that's an awesome pic!

Haa. I used to do that too. Now the PC police would throw your parents in jail. When i wasn't on th rear shelf, i was standing up between the parents in the front seat, inhaling both of their second hand smoke.

The PC police? I know things were different back then, but did people just not get in accidents? Seriously, the mythbusters showed a Kleenex box flying forward could give you a cuncussion... I wonder what a kid would do? Not to mention i dont think it would do the kid much good. The laws of physics still applied back then as well.

Joey

ya physics hasn't changed any but back then being stupid wasn't punishable with prison time....