I was in and out for the next couple hours, sleeping in between small talk. Boone finally nudged me awake to get in the Coronet and head to his house.
"I wanted to help him get the engine in the car, and mated to the trans", Boone explained as we drove away, "he should be able to handle it the rest of the way".
"What time is it?" I finally questioned, only barely coherent.
"Three AM", he confirmed.

Thursday

I woke up around 8, took a quick shower and kicked Boone out of bed. We grabbed fuel in the car, a cup of coffee, and some breakfast at the QT near his house, then went to Drive Shafts Inc. to drop of a 1350 yoke for the Belvedere. We ordered a 3" steel shaft with a 1350 solid U-joint up front, and a 1350/7290 combo in the rear. That would be much better than the stocker 7260 shaft with the 7260/7290 combo that Rachael killed last year.

When we arrived at Dale's to take the Duster to the muffler shop, the Gremlin appeared mostly complete, but Dale wasn't around. His stepson Cody informed us that he had only went to bed about an hour before we showed up, so we decided not to bother him.
We mated the trailer up to the muffler shop rack, and just pushed the Duster straight back off the trailer.
"What does he want on here?" The muffler guy questioned us.
I just shrugged and pointed at Boone.
"I thought Dale called you", Boone looked startled, "I thought it was all hashed out".
"Well, he scheduled an appointment, and told me to just run it down the sides and turn it out in front of the rear tire, but I don't recall what size he wanted."
"Three inch, I guess", Boone decided.
"I'm out of three inch stuff", the muffler guy explained, "So you'll have to run down to Grand Prix and grab some mufflers and reducers if you want to go that route".
Boone threw his hands up, "Alright! We'll be back as soon as we can."
"Dang it Boone! I'd have brought my empty nitrous bottles if I knew we were making a trip to the speed shop today", I complained.
"Never fails to happen during Hell Week!" He shook his head as we drove away.

We dropped off the parts at the muffler shop, and ran by Wal-Mart for some more "Cherry red" paint cans, so we could make sure the Duster was all one color (sort of).
We went back to Dale's, and scuffed up the fiberglass parts for a quickie paint job. We nearly had them all sprayed when Dale walked out in the back yard to finish up the Gremlin.

"When are you guys bringing the Duster back?" Dale asked us straightaway. "I've got the glass guy showing up here in an hour and a half to install the new windshield and all the chrome trim!"
Boone explained the situation with the three inch exhaust and Dale went completely ballistic.
"I told him and I told you, I wanted three and a half! How hard is that to comprehend!" He paraded us around to the back of his shop, "I've got three complete three inch systems right there I could've modified or used parts from if that's what I wanted!"
Boone's mouth was ajar and he shrugged his shoulders with his hands uplifted, but he waited a moment before he spoke. "I didn't remember that, and you didn't write it down..."
"Well, I'm not paying for those parts!" Dale shook his head, "You can put them on a car of yours when we get back from Drag Week!"