Dad parked Dale's truck and trailer in front of his house, while I drove my 1 ton into the back yard, and lined it up with my trailer. Dale and James were draped over the interior of the Gremlin trying to get seats and the new seatbelts in the car. "Thought you had that whipped last night?" "Just the bar tabs up top", Dale shook his head,"now we have to get the floor mounts in, and the exhaust guy used one of my passenger seat mounting holes to bolt in the muffler bracket". James was beating on one of the floor tabs for the seatbelt with a small ballpeen hammer so I went to my truck for my 2lb. sledge. "Thanks", he smiled, "The belt is too thick, when it's in place, the seat won't fit, so I just needed to massage it a little!" "Where is Boone?" I asked. "Haven't heard from him yet today", Dale shook his head. "What did you get done to the Truck last night?" Dale thought for a second, "Well...we decided to use the duster cable throttle pedal again, and got it mounted in the floor...we still have to get a cable bracket modified for the engine. All the electrical and wiring is good...Oh! I went ahead and pulled the distributor, and backed that intermediate shaft a tooth, so we will have to reset the timing when we finish breaking in the cam." "Boone got the shifter in", James added,"and I think your Mom and Rachael finished with the interior panels this morning." "Cool, what's Darren doing?" "Walking around like a zombie!" James interjected. "Think the fuel system is good to go," Dale shook his head, he's under there now putting a fuel pump block off on the engine. He's re-adjusted the springs, because the tire is closer on one side than the other, and was actually rubbing the front of the spring...problem is...he still hasn't finished up the ignition, so we still don't know if it's gonna run!" "You got this thing figured out?" "Well...I'm going to take it for another test drive, and see how it acts after the changes I made to the carb. I need to reset the front ride height, set the toe, and adjust the tie-rod ends, as one is only in about 4 threads, but all that is probably going to wait until after-tech!"
I helped them until they finished up and jumped in the Gremlin for a test drive, as they idled around the house, Boone stepped out of the back door with a soda can in his hand. "Where are they going?" "Test drive. Where have you been? Darren took Friday off from working on his car, and now you just took Saturday off!" "Whatever!" "It's after noon!" "I had to get all my clothes and stuff ready to go, make sure the house is locked up, hit the bank and try to figure out how I'm going to pay for this! Besides, I've been here for a while..." "What were you doing?" "Eating lunch, Jacque, Rachael, and Mom have had it ready." "Dang it!" I glared at him, "That's where Dad disappeared to!" "You know it! He was first in line!"
I went in the house and grabbed a plate, only to have Rachael take it away from me. "Have a seat, I'll fix it for you". She shoved me out of the kitchen, and I sat down beside Mom and Dad. "Boone brought the clippers over, I'm going to cut his hair before he leaves", Mom gave me an appraising look, "You are looking pretty shaggy yourself, and I can fix you up too!" "Drag Week isn't a fashion show mom, I'll be fine", I said, as I ran my fingers through what little hair remains on top. "Well, it's plenty hot, so you'd at least be cooler!" Dad gave me a sidelong look that confirmed my suspicions, some battles weren't worth fighting, even after all these years! Rachael brought my plate over and asked what I wanted to drink, saving me from the conversation with Mom.
When Mom was painting Boone's stencils, she asked me for something small and heavy to hold the stencil against the door...now I have a set of cobalt blue half inch drive impact sockets!
