With the truck safely at my parent's house it was time to start trying to scare up some parts. She didn't need much, but what it did need it needed pretty bad. Dad called on some of his connections and I scoured online and got what we needed to at least get it ready for the hillclimb. The only snag we ran into was tires and those were fairly easy to find, just back ordered. More on that in a bit. Dad located some spark plugs and all the fluids we needed. I ordered an ignition tune up kit, a gas tank and a couple light bulbs online and had it all shipped to his house. It was like Christmas at my parents for awhile with packages showing up every couple of days.
I was on vacation for the week before the hillclimb so the plan was to get down there as soon as I could and work on the truck between football games (had 4 that week). It worked out that I got down there late Sunday night in order to get an early start on Monday morning.
Get up Monday morning and take off one of the tires that had gone flat and took it to the tire guy to see if he could do anything with it. Dad had a parts run to Watseka so I called to get the "cop check" for the title work and started gapping spark plugs. The cop check was fairly uneventful except for the fact that the numbers on the truck don't match what's on the title, but the number he ran came back clean. I got the plugs installed while waiting for dad to get home with no trouble. Dad got back and we commenced to tune up, points, cap and rotor. Cap and rotor were a piece of cake, the points made up for it. It took me, my dad and my girlfriend Dawn about half an hour just to get them installed. I'm sure we were quite the sight, all 3 of us bent over the fender of the truck cussing. Finally got them installed and gapped and it was the moment of truth. I jump in and hit the starter, she cranks...and cranks....and cranks. Hmmmm, no spark. The damn thing worked before we started messing with it and now won't run at all. Reset the gap, still nothing. Lots of head scratching ensued. Dad went over to the Chevy garage to ask their mechanic what it might be and I kept tinkering. On a blind shot in the dark I pryed up on the points where they go over the post and what do you know she fired right up. With that hurdle cleared it was off to the BMV to try to get plates.
If you'll remember earlier I said the numbers didn't match so this could be a problem. I go into the BMV in Morocco and conveniently forget to mention the part about the numbers not matching. The girl goes through everything and I'm thinking I'm in the clear and then at the last possible minute she realizes the title and the cop check don't match. UH OH!!! Had to fill out a couple of forms so they can issue me a new VIN number. Ordinarily that wouldn't be a problem but the hillclimb is in 5 days and I don't have plates. Hmmmm, have to figure something else out on that one.
Got home from the DMV, picked up the tire (new tube and flap) installed that and called it a day. Football in Tri County that night.
The big job for Tuesday was a fuel tank. The original had gone bad and the previous owners converted a fire extinguisher into a fuel tank. Worked good but only held 2 gallons. I had ordered an 11 gallon dune buggy tank and the plan was to install that in the bed and just run a line from there. Dad was gone on a car run all day so this fell to me and Dawn. This went surprisingly smooth. I think I only made 3 trips to the hardware store and Napa for various fittings etc. With the tank installed I put a couple gallons in and decided to take it to the gas station to fill it up. Take off down the road and get about a half mile and she starts coughing and back firing and basically just running like shit. So much so that when I got on the clutch to pull into the gas station she quit...hmmmmm. I was hoping it was a fuel problem but no such luck. So I start tinkering and remember about the point problem from earlier. Yep same deal, pry up on the points and it fires right up. Apparently there was a fiber washer or something that was supposed to go in there that we either didn't get or lost. Got the truck home and started thinking about what to do about the points issue.
We decided to just head over to Watseka to the big hardware store and see what I could come up with. Finally decided on a plastic washer I found. While we were over there I picked up a muffler too. Got home and installed the plastic washer under the points (this time they went back in no problem) and so far she's been running fine. Installed the muffler in about 10 min time (has to be a record for me for anything automotive). Boy what a difference that made. I liked it loud but it's much more tolerable quiet.
With that done on a whim I decided to kick the tires. Damn, found another flat. I really wish the new ones weren't back ordered. So I pulled that wheel off and took it back to the tire guy at B&G. By this time is was late in the day and he didn't have time to look at it then, said check back on the next day.
When Nate got home him and I did the oil and transmission lube change. No real problems with that. Just some good quality father son time spent under a truck. We BBQ'd some pork chops for dinner and celebrated Nate's birthday early that night.
Wednesday was spent cleaning and polishing. Dawn worked her butt of on the old brass nozzle and got it shined up pretty good. When Nate got home he polished up the bell and siren and got those shining better than they have in 30 years. Checked in at the tire guy, gonna have to order a tube. Might be here Thursday (oh shit).
Thursday dad was off on a car run and there wasn't much to do to the truck so I put up an air hose reel in his shop and built a step for the deck to cover the broken concrete. Only big problems with that was when the ladder came out from under me putting up the airline. That could have turned out bad but didn't. Checked with the tire guy, still no tube. Went to Nate's football game in Seeger that night.
Friday was just odds and ends, mounting a slow vehicle triangle and fretting over the tire. Cody had a football game in Caston that night and I had to leave about 430 to make it on time. Waited all day and hadn't heard from the tire guy. On my way out of town I decided to stop by. He was locking up the shop when I pulled up. Asked him about my tire and he said "Oh yeah we just finished it up." Swung by the house on the way out to drop off the wheel and went to Caston to the football game. Got home about midnight and proceeded to swap tires around. Nothing like wrestling 200lb wheels around by yourself in the dark but I got it done.
Dad talked to his employer at Sondegrath Motors and they loaned us a dealer plate to get the truck to Newport and back. We were going to run it without plates if we had to but it was nice to at least be somewhat legal. I'm not sure a cop would have bought it that it was a dealer vehicle but it worked out.
So the truck was as ready as we were going to be able to make it. Cody had a football game Saturday so the plan was for dad and Nate to get up early and take the truck to Newport for practice day while I went to the football game. I went to bed that morning feeling pretty good about what we had accomplished over the course of a week and hoping, that with a little luck, we'd be able to pull off the weekend.
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