Can you not just get one of those strap-on roof racks that the yuppies use on their Subarus? Geez, talking about welding and drilling holes...
Even if the fancy-pants Yakima(?) brand yuppie racks are too pricy, I bet you could fabricate a reasonable facsimile with your tube stock and some ratchet straps.
Just spitballing here.
Don't come here.
There's nothing.
It's really thin dude like one to two millimeters at max. If you have a stick welder don't even try.
>I'm just riffing here...
Fluid checks, flushes if needed.
Leak checks. You want dry as a bone and tight as a drum.
Brakes.
Tires rotated, balanced, pressure checked, tread checked.
Alignment.
Windshield wipers good? All bulbs good? Weatherstripping good?
Just little things that might be a minor annoyance driving in town could really ruin your day going cross-country.
Bring spare fluids. Tire plug kit. Spare tire. Maybe a cigarette-lighter tire inflator. Fuses. Bulbs. Gas can.
And just common-sense survival stuff. Have bad-weather clothes, just in case. Shoes you can hike in. Keep water in the vehicle. Listen to the weather reports. Slow and steady will get you there. I'd go armed but that's just me.
Sounds like a lot of fun, OP, enjoy your voyage.
That depends on the health of the engine. I drove my prelude w/180k, 6000miles in 2 weeks last summer @ 12hrs/day. My tach sat 4500rpm most of the time and never blew up. My redline is 8k tho. Change oil before and after the trip, check fluid levels daily while driving and you'll be fine.
Driven my 1990 corolla from Turkey to Spain.
Not a single problem occured except low oil pressure.
I suggest you bring:
A jack,Spare tire, wrench set,hammer, screwdrivers,2liters of 10w-40,antifreeze.
Blanket and Pillow if you get a chance to sleep in a car.
Easily available canned food, water,matches,knife, fireaxe.
Our cars are pretty durable for such trips.
OP, I would like to get a tach? Which one did you use on your car?
Should I install it myself?
I'd like to give it a try.
>nah I'm repainting it so I'm stripping the current paint
Why would you strip it down to bare metal? Unless the spot was already rusting, why not just abrade the old paint instead of stripping it all? It looks like the panel is already oxidizing.
I bought a 2002 nissan altima for 1000$ and drove it from Montreal to California and back.
Also made some stops in Texas, Vegas, Grand Canyon, and while I was in California I drove around LA, SD, and SF.
I brought my spare tire, tool kit, bottle of coolant, and jumper cables. I only needed to use my jumper cables a couple times because my alternator broke. Thankfully I was in LA and not in the middle of nowhere when this happened so I was able to replace it.
Not too many hitches on the trip but I would do it again.
It's MIG, not stick arc.
here's the one I purchased. It was pretty easy to install. Ran the power wire to a fuse slot that was wired to the ignition, so it only comes on when the car is on. Then I ran the ground wire to a bare metal bolt on the chassis. Finally, I ran the RPM signal wire to a diagnostic port under my hood. One of the pins on that port outputs the engine rpm signal from the alternator. If you don't have a port like that, you can wire it into the alternator somehow. There are guides online, it's a pretty simple project.