Darren's check arrived on 5/1, so that will help with the Airwolfs, oddly enough though, it's been a week and my card hasn't been charged, and I haven't seen an invoice... so have I bought any heads or not?
Dale called me the next day, "Did you hear about Darren's old Dakota R/T? That kid who bought it from him totaled it out in 4 days! Guy pulled out in construction, and ran him into a Jersey barrier, set off both air bags, and then something caught fire under the hood". That was the kind of thing that would drive Darren crazy, even though it wasn't his anymore....ouch!
On 5/6 I read the unfortunate news that Jeff at MCH was in the hospital, and Robert mentioned that Brian at IMM had given him a time frame of "8 to 12" weeks on his engine, so I was starting to feel that the max ported Edelbrocks might not have happened any faster anyway.
On 5/11 Darryl and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Spring Fling in Woodley Park. I really enjoy that show. We ran into Rod (Just-a-Dart) and he had a set of 360-1s for sale, with valves, and intake...right there on the table, you could touch them, look at them...darn it, if he'd had those in his trailer at MATS, I might've pulled the trigger! I was committed, though, so I walked away despite his best (and very sound) arguments. Darryl and I had a nice contest going in our heads as the day passed; Were there more wing cars in attendance, or more 340 sixpacks for sale in the swap meet? I think it ended up at 7 to 6 in favor of the sixpack setups, but I can't be sure! As we were winding down our trip through the swap area, the familiar "You must be MoparBilly!" rang out, as I was rocking my Drag Week 2011 t-shirt. Darryl groaned as I started another epic benchracing session with new friend John (johnnycuda) and our departure time moved back another hour.
In the week following Spring Fling, I started to get antsy about the time table, and I implored Dale to call Rod at Bloomer Performance again. He reported back in a few hours, "He said your pistons are stuck in engineering..." "What the heck does that mean?" I fired back. "Means that '3 week' clock isn't ticking!" he laughed.
Two days later, I reached out via phone to Bryce Mulvey of Dr J's Performance. "This is Billy, wondering where we are on the SBM220's?" "Um yes, still a couple of weeks, we are kinda overwhelmed around here right now..." "Well, you haven't even charged me yet, or sent me an invoice?" "Yeah, I'll try to do that this afternoon, like I said, we've just been really busy!"
Friday, May 17th...Dale called, "Just talked to Rod again, he said he has to go out of town for a friend's funeral, but he shipped the crank, and the rest will come when he gets the pistons..." As of Today, the 21st I've yet to be charged, or invoiced for the heads.
Have you seen the Discover Card, "We treat you like you'd treat you commercials? I'm starting to think that's the situation! I mean, it's hard to bang on these guys when the shortblock is still sitting in the Valiant, yet to be removed from the frame rails, but I'm sure I'd be much more motivated If I was surrounded with new parts!
