Darryl milled around talking to everyone for a few minutes, then retreated back to his truck to fetch his camera. "If I don't get pictures of this, no one will ever believe me", he mused.
Dale took a break from the headers to make a trip to a tire shop and swap the ancient slicks off the Gremlin for a new set of ET Streets, and street legal tread on the frontrunners. Boone and I were throwing one last gasp Summit order on the PC when he returned. "I better make sure the Gremlin doesn't have a Pro gear in that Dana 60", he decided.
"Well, I guess pull the cover and get some numbers off the ring gear...I don't know how to tell just by looking..." I added.
He brought back some weird numbers that yielded no info after several different internet searches, we knew they were 4.56 but little else.
Finally,I called a friend who had knowledge of the build, and had worked with the previous owner. "There is no way He would have bought Pro Gears", my buddy relayed to me, "In fact, he was working at a Dodge dealer at the time, so I bet he just warranteed out a set of gears from there". When I relayed that info to Dale, he just smiled and shook his head, "That's exactly what they are...Oh well, should be OK".

When I went back outside, Darryl wasted no time getting down to the business at hand, "What do you have left to do to have your two cars ready to go!"
I knew Darryl was about to start cracking the whip, I also know he's a detail guy, and if I gave him jobs I would never do, maybe they'd get done, and I'd keep him off me for a while...it was worth a shot.
"The passenger's side door is screwed up on the Belvedere, won't open from the outside, and I need to put this shifter handle in and wire it to the nitrous."
That kept him busy for about an hour, then he was back...so after a quick discussion we decided to tackle getting the new Hemi leaf springs under the car. The ones Dale was supposed to add when he installed the Dana 60, the Global West subframe connectors, the 3/8 fuel line, and 3/8 tank pick-up...all of which were still in the same boxes they had occupied for the last 4 months...FAMILY!
The first thing I noticed when we got the new springs out beside the car, was the lack of shackle bushings...so, a run to NAPA was in order, and it was nearly closing time. Darryl and I made the run into Tulsa, and stopped for something to eat on the way back, by the time we returned the sun was gone and so was Dad.
"Where'd Pops run off to?" I asked Boone.
"He asked Dale to borrow his 1 Ton and took off...I'm not sure."
"Well, if he's going to load Darren's Tank to take to the mufffler shop in the morning, he has to have a truck to pull it with." I surmised.
"Ya think?...Yeah, you're probably right", he shook his head.

Darryl decided we should tackle one spring at a time, so we started on the driver's side. The rear shackle came apart without a problem, the front mount bolts, no problem, the 45 year old u-bolts...Big problem!! After an impact, big breaker bars, and two cans of penetrant...we decided they were unsalvageable.
About that time Wade Metzinger showed up to give Dale a hand, and I thought, "Wow, what a nice guy"...little did I know he was just a Moparts spy sent there to report on the ongoing thrash at our clandestine Skunkwerks!!