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!