Boone and I scanned the top of Darren's aluminum tank looking for a place to put the fuel return Dale had just shoved through the bed. There was a washer with a bolt through it in the top right corner that appeared to be covering a hole. Boone removed the cap and tried to put his hand in, "Nope, we're going to have to pull it all off so I can get my arm in there".
"You mean those 15 little bolts, with the ring on the inside and the gasket, and the..."
"Exactly", he interrupted me.
I shook my head, "This thing is going to fight us every step of the way, isn't it?"
"Uh, Dale, do we have a bulkhead fitting?" Boone ignored me.
Dale went scrambling over to another car in the backyard, dug out a small plastic fuel cell, and started pulling a fitting off. That's where we were at this point, hours away from registration, no more parts runs, we would have to do with what we had on location.
After three hours of Darren cursing under the truck, Boone finally had to run him out of the way and put the bolts in the torque converter, one was cross threaded, and it wasn't clocked properly. Just as Boone was ripping Darren for his incompetence, the drama was deflected as a tall, lanky fellow none of us recognized entered the back yard, "Yeah, I'm the glass guy your girlfriend has been hounding all day..." he stuck out a hand.
"Wow! I am so glad you made it!" Darren greeted him, then showed him what we were up against with making the back glass work.
With Boone and Dale under the Dakota, the poor glass guy trying to install a back glass without access to the bed, and myself working near the tail, Darren and Dad turned their attention to installing the fancy new steering wheel. Boone yelled at him three times in a row, "The adapter you bought clearly says it's not for vehicles originally equipped with an airbag, so that horn is not going to work!"
Some how Darren managed to resign himself to the fact Boone was right without an argument, but we had plenty of time left in the week!

Dad and I wimped out at about 9:30 pm and headed off to bed, figuring sleep was a precious commodity at this point, and I was out by the time my head hit the pillow. I woke to the sound of Boone's Mazda firing up, and checked my cell phone, 3:30 AM. I pulled on my jeans, and shuffled out of the Pop-up camper, Dale and Darren were still draped over the Dakota.
"Was that Boone just leaving?"
"Yeah", Dale answered, "figured he'd better get home, and get a little sleep".
"Dave, can you fix the starter?" Darren asked, "Boone put it in crooked, the nose isn't in the tranny."
"Sure", I crawled under and looked up, and clearly it was not in the register, "He must've really been tired, he never makes mistakes like that!"
"Yeah", Dale laughed, "He was sleeping on the job, that's why we sent him home!"
I finished the starter, slid back to where Dale was working, and happened to look up at the silver third member, "Ok, I've seen 741s, 742s, and 489s...what the heck is a 985?"
I had to look it up, it's old, like late 50's, Dale commented.
I had been working with them for about an hour when Darren abruptly dropped his tools, turned to Dale and said, "I've been out here in this wet crap all day, my socks and shoes are soaked, I can't take it any more. I've got to get home, take a shower, put on some fresh clothes, and then come back."
Once he was gone, I turned to Dale and started leaning on him. "You need to go get some sleep, now!"
"If I sleep, this truck won't get done!"
"That's not on you, you've got your own Drag Week to think about, and if you don't get some sleep, it's not going to work out."
"I guess you're right", he ran his hands through his hair, crawled out from under the truck, and trudged off towards the house.
I shut off a few lights, closed the garage door, and decided to try and steal another hour or so of sleep myself if possible.