THE SHAKEDOWN - BMW SWAPPED 1968 MUSTANG ROAD TRIP

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:20]moving.

[00:00:35]When you lay this all out end to end, it's quite the process. It feels like an eternity in the garage. I told you guys I wasn't going to bring this car back on the channel until we were driving it properly.

[00:00:49]I'm living up to my word. Felony's back.

[00:00:52]It's time to get ready for overcrest.

[00:00:54]There's one more big hurdle to get over, and that is to get this thing on the open road and see what it is really like.

[00:01:02]All right, guys. It's the weekend before I have to drive this thing to get inspected. I'm taking it up to Whistler because I want to shake it down kind of on the inspection run. I've got like 3 weeks until I leave for Overcrest. two and a half maybe. At this point, I am scrambling. I am hauling ass on this thing. Basically, I've been taking time in between when parts show up and everything to kind of like prep and get ready to roll on marine paint. Painted the tail panel. I replaced the diesel valve and the PCV system on this thing because it was full of that like goopy condensation milkshake. The PCV was smoked. It's been chugging oil. I also did a full overhaul on the cooling system. I made bulkheads on the firewall. I replaced all the heater lines with silicone line because they have a little bit more bendability to them. I replaced the brand new Corvette radiator that leaked from Performance World with a stock just 318i radiator with a built-in expansion tank.

[00:01:56]So, I had to plum the return lines on the heater core to a single port, which was kind of a pain. I ran the water pump just with an impact gun last night and kind of bled the air out of the system.

[00:02:06]I got to get it up to temp today. So, yeah, I'm basically going to get the car kind of back to normal today. I'm going to get the intake back on, and I'm going to run the car, get it up to temp, pressure test it, make sure there's no leaks, and start bleeding brakes, getting ready to drive this thing. It'll probably be about a 350, 400 km round trip, and uh yeah, I got to make it happen. This thing's got to be road legal, and it's got to be shaken down because, like I said, I'm leaving in a couple weeks, and it's got to work. So, I'm going to get to it. I'm not going to film really anything of finishing it up.

[00:02:39]Next time you see this thing, we're going to be leaving the driveway, heading to Whistler.

[00:03:33]Oh, the wipers work sort of.

[00:03:39]All right, I'm driving felony to Whistler. Got an appointment for an inspection at 5. It is 11:00.

[00:03:51]See how she does. This is uh this is the shakedown.

[00:03:55]All right, first gas stop.

[00:03:58]I'm supremely sketched out by this thing. The alignment's close. No sway bars at all, so it's a tractor. We'll see how it goes. It is geared super steep. So, yeah, there's going to be some revs. We'll see how fifth and fourth is. I haven't gotten up that high yet. They might not even work. Uh, I'm going to jump over to Lordco, grab some zip ties and some oil. Keep going. Kind of going to film this like on the fly.

[00:04:22]You'll just see what I see. I don't know what I got time for today, but I just wanted to bring you guys along for this because it's a special moment. Been working on this car non-stop for like the last year. So, it's time to see what it can do. Aside from the tires Aside from the tires rubbing and being unbalanced, it's doing what it's supposed to do.

[00:04:44]I think actually sounds pretty good.

[00:04:57]As you can hear, it scrapes the it scrapes the rear profusely.

[00:05:12]is like an aircraft. Actually, I need a headset.

[00:05:18]It's holding temp. Oil pressure's good.

[00:05:24]Um, seems all right.

[00:05:27]I'm just going to keep trucking. I'm passing through in front of me right now. I'm like 2 hours from Whistler.

[00:05:34]Just going to keep moving.

[00:05:38]Sketchy.

[00:05:50]If you're wondering why I have an intercooler there, uh, I'm actually delivering some parts to my buddy Aaron in Whistler. I've got some wheels and his intercooler for his rally car. Um, I'm in North Van right now at West View exit, which is kind of the last stop before I get on the Sea of Sky. Check the engine bay over. Check a couple things and then I'm going to motor on to Whistler. This thing is running. Uh, I don't think I got the tires balanced.

[00:06:19]Can't remember. The front is shaking real bad at like 60 mph, 100 km an hour.

[00:06:24]So, have to see if maybe I can remedy that. But other than that, everything seems to be operating. It's got a weird stumble sometimes when you're taking off from a start. Uh, and it's intermittent. It's like a ground for the pedal is acting up or something.

[00:06:37]So, I'll have to get that looked up. But yeah, I'm going to check some over and then we're going to hit the highway.

[00:07:11]The first part of the journey through the lower mainland was pretty rainy and quite a bit sketchy. The car does spin the tires quite a bit with the steep gears. It really just blazes them at will when it's cold or wet out. I pulled into outbound station to once again check over the car, grab a coffee. This shakedown run, I wanted to look at everything as much as possible and see if anything changed, see if anything moves or leaks or, you know, see what would develop. And so far, everything looked pretty good.

[00:07:46]Heat. Heat.

[00:08:19]sort of became lost in the drive just enjoying the scenery and the mountains and the car wasn't making me think twice about it. That is until at the top of this hill coming down this canyon, the clutch pedal went to the floor.

[00:08:33]Well, I think I just needed to have a quick rest and maybe the car did too.

[00:08:38]I lost the clutch on the top of this hill, which is pretty funny. I didn't smell fluid or anything and all my locks and everything looked good. And uh I had a nice fancy clutch mechanism worked out. And here's the bolt for it. So, basically the clevis just has this, excuse my wiring. The clevis just bolts into this nut that I've welded to the lever and uh it popped out. So, just got to screw that back in. And I actually kind of figured that might happen because the sawing action would probably work the bolt loose. This is a nyllock nut, but when I welded it, obviously the plastic probably melted a little bit.

[00:09:18]If I'm yelling, it's because it's super loud in here. But um I was terrified this morning when I left and I'm having such fun time right now.

[00:09:31]This thing's nuts. Like it's driving.

[00:09:33]It's I mean other than the clutch thing falling off. Um I'm absolutely shocked that this is knock on something working right now. It feels really cool. Anyway, I'm going to put this bolt back in and then uh get back on the road.

[00:09:51]That was hilarious. I'm like, "Oh, my clutch just dropped to the floor." And that's not good. But yeah, anyway, it's a good place to pull over. It's really seen me here.

[00:10:16]Heat.

[00:10:44]Heat.

[00:10:47]Yeah, everything just kept working and I pulled into Whistler. Objective A complete. The first leg was done.

[00:11:02]All right, I made it to Whistler and the clutch bolt was the only issue so far.

[00:11:08]There's some weird noises and rattles and stuff that I'll probably have to tighten up, but I can't believe the car actually made it. I've got some parts drop off to my buddy Aaron and then we're going to run this thing through inspection and just see how everything goes and hopefully keep driving. Pretty stoked.

[00:11:26]It's uh this thing did really well.

[00:11:29]Really needs tires balanced, though. I'm super happy.

[00:11:35]All right. uh ran this thing through out of province inspection and got it stamped. So legal there. Uh the guys there said that I need a federal inspection, but I think it's the uh registar of imported vehicles um inspection, which you do when you import the vehicle. This being a 68, I think it's exempt. So I think all I got to do now is just get to an insurance place and put insurance plates on it.

[00:11:58]But I can probably do that tomorrow because I got a permit on it right now and I don't need to waste more money.

[00:12:03]I've got till midnight to get home. So, I'm just going to start making my way.

[00:12:06]Crazy. What a day. I can't believe I I've been driving this thing. Like, it's been so long. I mean, I've had the little putt, a couple little putts around the neighborhood, but like actually taking this thing on a road trip is insane. I cannot believe I'm I'm here.

[00:12:24]I mean, this is a road trip that I would totally take for this is a road trip I would take for granted in any of the other cars. They could do it no problem.

[00:12:31]Um, this was like a journey. This was an adventure today and uh it's not over yet. So, I'm going to go find some food somewhere, probably down Squamish, and then uh we'll make our way home and uh we should be hitting the Ca Sky probably prime sunset time, honestly.

[00:12:48]See how it goes.

[00:13:18]I got asked multiple times, why would I drive to Whistler just to get an inspection? Short answer is do it for fun. Why would I go down the road when I can take a dayong adventure in a car that I just finished building and really test it? really really put my work to the test and figure out is this going to work? Is this going to cross the country? Like I said, I was terrified when I took off in the morning. But by this point, rounding the hills back out of Squamish, I felt invincible.

[00:13:42]I felt like I could take this thing right across the country.

[00:14:12]Heat. Heat.

[00:14:43]As the day wound down and the fireball in the sky hit the horizon, I was closing in on the city. want to take advantage of all the golden hour light.

[00:14:51]Shot some photos and hung out by the side of the road near Horseshoe Bay.

[00:14:55]Eventually began making my way back towards home. The car didn't leave me stranded. It did beautifully for something that is barely set up and just finished putting together. This is the end of one journey and the start of another. The start of a new life, something once left to rot in someone's driveway in Northern California. I'm never going to forget these two years in the garage. all the hard work and everything that happened in between. At the end of it all, we both left the garage better than when we went in.