While I had the engine out for paint, I retorqued the head bolts while it was on the engine stand. To get at all the head bolts, I had to remove all the rocker arms and when I had the engine back in the car, I adjusted all the valves again. But for some reason, I doubted myself if I'd done it right or not (it's funny what you think about late at night sometimes). Well, I adjusted them just fine because it still runs!! I had a small gas leak that turned out to be only a loose fitting that I'd only hand tightened while putting things back together. Jerry noticed it right after it started and I shut if off right away. That was probably a good thing that he noticed it because I wouldn't have been able to see it from the drivers seat. After that was fixed, it was music to our ears too here that engine run again. 

If your wondering how the exhaust sounded, I'll have to say, it was louder, but not that bad. The real test will be when I get it back on the road and take it for a drive. If I can't stand it cruising down the street, they won't be on there for very long. The nice thing about building your own exhaust is making it easy to take apart when you need to work on it. Changing mufflers would only take me about an hour so that's no big deal. One other thing I noticed was that the engine revved faster now. I think with these race mufflers on there now, the engine doesn't have as much restriction as it use too. I wonder if it runs any better?? Time will tell.....

The car is about 98% finished at this stage and I'll have to say, I can't wait to take it out for a drive because the last test drive that I was on really sticks in my head. There's just something about hearing an engine making horsepower and tires spinning that gets the o'll juices going. Yep, I remember that day very well, and want to experience it again....real soon!!!

I've been keeping in touch with Rob, the graphics guy, for sometime now anticipating taking the car over to him so he could redo the colors in the flames. I guess he's been too busy to work on it till now because I've talked with him for a couple of months now waiting for a time I could take the car over to him. I talked with him on 12/12/05 which was the day we had finally decided that I could take the car over to him so I could get directions to his place. I was going to put in on a trailer to get it there because it's not street legal. I was keeping all the lights and mirrors off the car so he could buff the whole thing one more time after he was done painting. All those items get in the way when your slinging buffing compound around and it makes it hard to work around them too.

Well if it's not one thing, it's another because there's more good and "real bad" news. After talking with Rob on Monday, the 12th,  he wanted to know what I was going to pay for. I told him that I was going to pay Bart to clear and final buff the car once he was done but I would gladly pay him (Rob) that amount if he was going to finish it. I also said that I would pay for any materials that were used on the redo as well. Rob then told me that he had been thinking about all this and for him to redo everything, he wanted the same price as he got when he did it the first time. Now what the hell is up with that? 

I told him that I was in shock now after hearing this and there's NO WAY that I was going to pay full price again for this. He said that he was sorry for not telling me sooner but that's what he wanted. I also told him that the three colors that were suppose to be on there weren't, and he agreed. 

If I had known that Rob wanted full price when we talked about this a few months ago, I would have told him "no" back then and could have been putting it together. By now, I could have been driving it around instead of waiting for him all this time. Damn that made me mad and now I'm going to have to eat this one-and-a-half-color graphics job. Rob went from high on the list of people that I "thought" did good work too the bottom real fast. 

At this point, I've started putting the rest of the car back together so I can enjoy it. I also called Bart to ask him if he could final buff the car for me and he said yes so I'll be taking it over to him today. He said that it would take two days for this so after I get it back, it won't take long to get the rest of the car back together and I might be able to drive it by Christmas day!! 

I do have a couple of things that I've been working on since I've had the bomb dropped on me. To be able to run at the track and meet the NHRA rule book, I need an electrical shutoff in the rear of the car. In case of a crash and there was an electrical short, this shuts down the whole system. The switch that I'm using is made by Flaming River. Flaming River is known for all things related to steering but they also make a very nice miscellaneous items, like this switch and timing lights. 

What I'm going to do is mount this switch in the rear of the car but I don't want it to show. How am I going to do that? I'll get to that on the next page. What you get is everything you need to mount the switch but one thing I'm not going to use the black right-angle bracket. The switch has a large T-handle that can turn off in 1/4 turn. This makes it easy to shut off in the heat of the moment.