Tuesday morning, 9/2, meant America was back to work, which in turn meant we could go buy parts, and the delivery trucks could drop off boxes at Dale's house again. From this point until registration, every day would be like Christmas and some credit cards would be smoldering!
Boone and I walked into Grand Prix Auto Sports in Tulsa, and tossed 2 bottles onto the counter. Monte Smith would once again be supplying free N20 refills during Drag Week, but I've always felt it's best form to show up with full bottles to start the event, and the Gremlin, as well as the Belvedere would be using plenty all week. While we waited for that, we grabbed some race fuel, a couple handfuls of various fittings, and a spare fuel regulator. Our next stop was Harbor Freight, for some more drop cords, an NPT tap set, and various other tools, then we hit Napa, Wal-Mart, O'Reilly's, and Denny's! We showed up at Dale's with the back of the poor Mazda 323 nearly dragging the ground, and looked like the ladies coming back from an all day Saturday shopping spree when we started emptying out the car.
Mom and Dad were setting up the camper in the corner of Dale's back yard, and Dale was working on installing the battery box in the back of Darren's Dakota. Mom immediately drafted Boone into helping them, so I walked over to see what Dale was involved with. In much the same way that he did the Barnyard, he was using a Taylor stainless steel battery box, and running the cables through the bottom. He also installs a weather proof relay in the box to run the electric fuel pump, with only the activation wire running forward to the cab.
"How did it go last night?"
"Didn't get to bed until around 2:30", he laughed, "The bottom of the linkages on those carbs hit the intake, so I had to cut them off, then modify the linkage and return spring to fit...it definitely wasn't a straight up bolt on deal!"
"So...you got your runs in on Friday, and your physical filled out..."
"Yeah, I sent all that stuff in by Fed-ex this morning, so it will be there tomorrow, and she will fax me a temporary license."
"What are you going to do about getting the car certed?" I shrugged, "Or do you plan to put on some roll bar padding and try to get by?"
"Not sure", he shook his head, as he put the finishing touches on the L-bracket that would hold the relay, "I called Division 5, and I'd have to tow it up to Wichita to get an inspector to do it up there. I haven't called Division 4 yet."
The big project of the evening became assembling an 8 3/4 third member for the Barnyard. After Boone, finished helping Mom, he dug a rusty 742 case and equally nasty 30 spline spool out of the back of Dale's shop, and headed off in the direction of the bearing press in the front garage. He cleaned everything up as best as he could, then came back frustrated, holding up the old bearing he'd pressed off and the new one, which was obviously the wrong inside diameter.
"This install kit we got from Summit last week has the wrong bearings", he handed them to Dale.
After about 20 minutes of smart phone research, and a couple of parts store calls, Boone was off in the Mazda for another run to O'Reilly's.