As Darryl and I planned a trip back into Tulsa, Dad came over with a pair of radiator hoses for Dale's Gremlin, and started explaining to me the parts that would work and the bends that would be different. Apparently since they knew we were headed back to NAPA, I was volunteered to hunt for hoses that would work. I loaded up 3 10lb nitrous bottles, and received directions from the NAPA store to Grand Prix, Tulsa's premier speed shop.
Once we had the remaining shackle bushings we needed at NAPA, along with one more U-bolt to match the 7 Boone could find from the Truck (he had new custom ones to match the lowering blocks he used to enhance the stance), we headed into Grand Prix. When I pulled the bottles out of the back of the 1 ton, that's when I noticed I had forgotten about the hoses...oops, Dale wasn't going to be happy with me!
We walked in, and were immediately helped with our bottles, so then we had time to walk around and take everything in. The walls were covered with racing pictures brought in by patrons, and it was like a twenty plus year history of Tulsa's best..very cool! They had counters and displays that wrapped around into an older part of the building, and even a section of used and vintage stuff. A bunch of tires caught Darryl's eye, and he was soon drooling over a pair of the new M/T drag radials, and had the opportunity to compare them to the older ones side-by-side. I think only the thought of 5 days worth of Premium Unleaded about to descend on his card, kept him from walking out with them! When we returned to the front counter, I was told to go in the back and check out my 3rd bottle. There it sat, leaking between the bottle and the nozzle. I had bought it off craigslist, and had intended to take it to Thunderbird cylinder for a re-cert, but just never made it. "I'll have to drain it to replace the o-ring, and then charge you for another fill..."
"Yeah, I know..gotta pay to play right? Oh well, do it".
We left the speed shop with one more stop on the agenda, Darryl needed to find a Chase Bank. We finally found one in a sketchy part of town, surrounded by delapidated old buildings, I was SURE the address was wrong, but just as I about to hightail it outa there, it appeared like a lighthouse!

Once back at Dale's we worked on the Belvedere in earnest, getting everything buttoned back together underneath, then we looked at the steering. While turning the wheel, as Darryl took a better look at the box, he told me, "That slop is not in the box..or other components..it's all in the coupler! Someone must've put it back together wrong..maybe left one of the shoes completely out or something!" He poked around under the hood a little more and said, "These plug wires are shot! They're cut all to pieces..it's gotta look like 4th of july under here at night!"
OK, I HAD to get him out from under the hood as quick as possible...or he would break me or condemn the car before this trip ever started!