Sounds like an awesome event and experience for sure. All of you guys are definately die hard gearhears and kudos to you for makin it back safely w/awesome stories to share with us.

is there some place i can get the DVD of this so i can fast forward thru the adverts?

"...my quad muscles started to shake like jello, as I accepted my fate of being run over by a 73 Charger..." LMAO!!!!!!! You just can't find this stuff any place other than Billy's missive on Drag Week. Thanks again for the story, Billy, I am on the edge of my seat wating for the next installment!

Scott

What a story!! Billy...I always said you should write for a magazine!

When we returned to Dale's house after dropping off the Charger, we found Darryl with his Dart unloaded, and Dale working on the troublesome headers once again.
Boone walked up to Dale, and said, "Well, we discussed making a choice on one of these last night, and since you're still working on the headers...I guess the Gremlin is the choice...the Truck is out!"
Dale just gave him a blank stare, and I turned to Dad, "What just happened?"
Dad shrugged and started helping Boone clean up the tools, spare parts, and sub-assemblies that were scattered over a half-acre.

Boone never has explained exactly what changed his mind on a continued effort toward the Truck, but I really feel he didn't want to bolt all the body pieces back on until the paint and body work were up to his standards, whatever that may be. Welding in the down bars (still not done) would have sealed the deal, as the bed would have been permanently mounted at that point. The doors were also a sticking point. The 65 doors are pretty rough, and need attention, the 68 doors are perfect, but don't feature the refrigerator handles...and for Boone that is a must have. Just the day before he had gotten tabs welded on the aluminum radiator, and the fuel cell, as well as the bung for the -10 return, and I felt he was making good progress..then it was over.


All of us have been surprised by the interest this project has generated, and I promise to keep everyone informed as progress continues now that the dust has settled!

While I know there is plenty to come.I have to tell you this.In talking to your dad he loves what you guys are doing.PLEASE talk him into going the whole week next year.After talking to him for 2 minutes I said"You are Billys dad"He actually smiled and said yes.

Great read so far Billy. Yo uare gettign closer to inspiring me to give this a shot.

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!

Darren showed up from work shortly thereafter, and he recruited Boone and Dad to help him go retrieve the Charger. Apparently it didn't take much coaxing, because the new arrangement of those 2 helping Dale on the Gremlin had NOT went well while Darryl and I were touring Tulsa.
Dale's side went something like "I give them something to do, and they never finish it, then they come over and want me to look at something, and I'm trying to do these headers".
Boone's side went something like, "He gives us one thing to do, then when we hit a snag, he puts us on something else, instead of working through it...and all he really wants to do is mess with the headers.
There was a header throwing incident, with scatches on Boone's leg to denote the final resting spot, but both parties are being pretty mum on the details...

I had been fielding phone calls all day from my buddy Mike. He was my Engine builder/best friend/racing buddy for more than 8 years in Phoenix, until a divorce drove him out of the Valley of the Sun, to Tulsa. He wanted me to join him and his new Wife for Supper at a local restruant, and I kept telling him I had too much left to do. He finally volunteered to come over Saturday and help, if we'd take the time to visit. So Darryl and I took the Belvedere for a test drive to the restruant of Mike's choosing. Darryl had wanted to go to the track instead, but an ominous storm had blown in throwing dust and debris everywhere, and the rain started just as we left, luckily the wipers, and the passenger's side seatbelt worked, or he would have had more ammunition to use against me!!

A great read, you could write a book on this. Keep it coming, this great hearing all the thrashing details before the week actually begins.

Awesome Bill. You haven't even made it to the trip to the first race.....I'm checking in here everyday just to see your reports unfold! I'm still laughing at your trip with the Charger to Mr Muffler's hoist.

Michael

Dinner with Mike was great and he was already working us over to join him for the midnites at the track saturday night..promising to have his Pinto ready to go. Mike is a rabid FE fan, having spent the better part of his life driving and building them, but I refuse to hold that against him!
By the time I dropped Darryl off at Dale's, and went over to Boone's it was nearing time to pick my baby girl up at the Airport.
She is the mischevious, adventerous sort, and had commented last year when I returned from Drag Week, that she would like to do it, if I would give her enough warning that she could get off work. So, I made her enter the Belvedere when registration opened so she would have to commit. She's been 124+ mph in my Challenger, wearing my oversized Jacket and helmet with a pillow stuffed behind her back..so I figured (hoped) she could handle a 12 second street car.

Mischievious?Huh,wonder where she got that.LOL.

I picked her up in the Belvedere, and she immediately wanted to go visit her cousin Chad, who is close to her age and had just bought a new house. She had google maps already up on her smart phone and said, "Just go that way."
"What street are we taking?" I asked
"Not sure, but I've got a "You are here dot, and a where we are going dot, so start moving and I'll tell you if it's the right direction".

My dad started his career as an OTR truck driver in 1973, every one of us could read maps by the time we were 12, we understood the interstate system, we knew how to read adresses, find our way around just using the numbers on buildings and corner signs. To this day you can ask him about a location giving him only the state mile marker, and highway. He can tell you how far it is to all major cities in that area, the closest rest area, and the closest truck stop...WHERE DID I GO WRONG AS A PARENT!

I mumbled something and headed off in the general direction I knew we should be going, and she managed to not get us lost until we were about 4 miles from his house..so she called and had him bring us in turn by turn after that.
When we were ready to leave there, I put her behind the wheel. "You've got to get some seat time in this old girl, before we hit the track", I explained. 'Don't even use low..It's reverse manual with no low band apply..so just take off easy in second." I figured that was the easiest way to go about it, I didn't want her screwing it up on the street and then blowing her foot off at the track.
She did great until we jumped out on the freeway, traffic was going by her, and she was being tentative to bring it up to speed, finally when she was starting to pass everyone again, I said, "that's good enough..."
"These old cars are wierd", she commented, "It feels like I'm going 70, but the speedo says 50!"
"You're probably closer to 75!" I laughed, "Your Uncle changed the rear gear..speedo's not even close."
"When were you gonna tell me that?" she gave out a holler and stuck her toes in the four barrel.

When Boone woke me up Saturday morning...I was still feeling most of Friday, that was a long day, and 6 hours of sleep didn't feel like much. Rachael was fired up to get her Vacation in full swing. The 3 of us headed to Dale's, leaving Darren, Jamie, and Dad in full thrash on the Charger.
Mike arrived at Dale's shortly after we did, and crawled under the dash of the Valiant to attempt to get the new temp guage wired up, and the brake lights working. If there are 20 things I feel comfortable with Mike doing on my car...wiring would be about number 19 on the list, but with the passenger seat added to the Valiant..I don't fit under there at all!
Dale's Wife had left to go on a women's retreat, so Rachael moved into the kitchen for a look around, and declared, "Dad give me your bank card, so I can go get groceries and cook everyone breakfast!"
I gave up the plastic, and heard the Belvedere fire up a few minutes later.
Darryl laughed and shook his head, "Your card AND your car?"
"That car is no longer his", Boone retorted. "Took possession of it and lost it in less than a week!"

She came back bragging about how many people liked "Her" car at the grocery store, but I figured she had a week to learn to hate it if things went wrong!
She stepped outside a little later and told us all to come in for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits were piled high.
"Where's the gravy?" Mike asked quickly.
"Don't know how to make it, and I didn't buy any at the store..."
"Good grief Child...where's the grease from the bacon and sausage", he interjected, and he began his lesson for the day.
My taste buds were happy...my arteries, not so much!

Your memory recall is uncanny.My version of DW.Got to Tulsa,slept in a day bed twice(Back ache)went to Ennis(hotel parking lot,Beer)Then to Gilliam,Memphis and back to Tulsa. It was a blur.Since I talked to you throughout the week I know whats coming and its KILLING me.

Shortly after breakfast, Dad showed up with a portion of Darren's column shift linkage, which needed to be cut, and lengthened. Apparently everything that worked fine with the factory 400 in the car, was now refusing to bolt up to the RB. Darren had elected to re-use the same small tube headers because they cleared the power steering, the column shift, and fit nicely, but now, they didn't fit anything.
To complicate matters the 66 440 block had no provisions to mount the power steering, and this late in the game was no time to attempt to drill and tap the blank boss on the front of the block. So, the sanden ac compressor, and the power steering pump were thrown to the corner in favor of a more conventional belt alignment for now.
Dad made it sound as though real progress was being made. "Once Darren quit trying to put the filler neck from Jamie's 74 Satellite in the car, and found the one for the 73 Charger, it slid right in!"

Mike had chased down my brake light wire, hooked it up, and bent the bracket back in place. He had it working perfectly by hand, but every time he touched it with the brake pedal, it blew the 10 amp fuse he was using in the power wire he had ran over from my existing race car wiring.
"That switch must've had a plastic piece on the end at one time", he determined. He cut down the insulator off a blue butt connector and slid that over the plunger on the switch, now we had brakelights and no blown fuses!

Rachael walked over a few minutes later and reported, "The Belvedere is filthy inside and out, I need to go to a car wash and clean it. Got any cash?"
I dug for a twenty as Mike laughed, and told her to ask her uncle Dale where the nearest car wash was.
"I spotted one on the way to the grocery store", She shot back as she jumped in and the 440 fired to life.
"Ya know", Darryl added "she might not like that car so much when she's the one footing the gas bill.."
"I don't think she has any intention of ever doing that" I mused.

After Mike had the wires ran for the temp guage, and tied into the wires I sent in from the firewall, he began to excuse himself from the project, as he needed to get home and get his Pinto ready to go to the Midnites. He tried to get a commitment from Darryl and I to show up out there, but I had no intention of letting that Pinto anywhere near the Valiant, because Mike would use it as bragging rights despite the fact it wouldn't be a fair fight!
I borrowed Dale's timing light and set the initial at 12, the MSD was outof the box at 20 degrees total in fairly late at 4K...sure enough, it was perfectly at 32 all in, but seemed to be bouncing all over at around 2800-3200, prime cruising range for the Valiant.
Dale laughed when I brought it up to him, "Springs are too weak, or weights too heavy..I don't know why you aren't bringing it in sooner!"
Well, I just didn't have the desire to tear into it that point, heck at any point. Let's be honest, I'm not a guy who draws a ton of enjoyment out of working on cars, never have been, and it gets worse as I get older. I do, however draw a ton of enjoyment out of going fast, and beating the crap out them, and this, alas, is the driving force behind my impetus to pick up a wrench.

When Rachael returned from the car wash, I dug a bottle of wax out of the back of the Valiant and tossed it to her, "Grab some of these towels and give it a wax job while you are at it".
She happily went about it, that girl has never been given a cleaning task she didn't like, it's a gift from heaven, I swear. Her first job, was at thirteen. Mike had asked if my 15 year old Son would want to clean the 2 man machine shop he worked at with his boss, just 5 hours every Saturday. I told him Rachael would be perfect for the job. The 2 men, one late 50's and the other late 60's didn't think she could handle it, but 3 Saturday's later they were singing her praises, and she was a SunnySlope Auto and Machine employee for 3 years, coming home every Saturday with cash in her pocket and filthy from head to toe! When she turned 16, she got a real job at Fry's Food Stores, and has been there ever since.

I was stretched out under the Valiant, cussing the grease gun as it spit grease back at me, when Darryl walked up and said, "Just take it to a quicklube place, you need a decent test drive on it anyway.."
Dale told me of a place about 6 miles away, so I agreed to the plan,jumped into the Valiant, fired it up, and took it out on the street for the first time with the new rear shocks/ springs, front suspension, rear tires, patched up cooling system, re-built converter...Oh boy, here we go!

Driving a 106" wheelbase A-body, with ladder bars, bias-ply slicks, and a spool out back, combined with pizza cutter 165/80 radials up front, down poorly maintained, uneven side roads is an interesting sensation. The rearend reacts to the undulations it encounters in the road, and transfers them to the front end with a lazy (usually) side to side motion. It's up to you as the driver to keep the front pointed where you want to go, as well as making corrections for the yaw supplied from the rear. In four miles I had determined, that last year's drag radials, while a disaster on the track, had much better street manners!
When I pulled into the Quicklube, it was determined I wouldn't clear the rack, so they motioned me around back. Now that the smallblock had some heat in it, it was happily idling at a rather annoying 1500. I went around back and shut it off. I could tell from the restored 70 Camaro on one rack, and the various other classics around in different stages that this was an enthusiast's garage, and sure enough I had help, and an audience fairly fast. As I walked around the car I noticed one of my screw on Wilwood dust caps was AWOL, not good! I don't run caps on my front Centerlines because I like showing off my wilwood aluminum hubs, now all I was showing off was my spindle end, nut, and wheel bearing! "Buddy, this thing's got a serious oil leak", the tech commented. I bent down expecting to see that my new canton oil filter adaptor had sprung a leak, but no...right out of the bottom of the tranny cover area...great, rear seal...this is not going in my favor right off the bat.