Page 10 4/9/08 to 6/9/08

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4/9/08
Yikes, no entries for over three months!
Roy took out the driveshaft assembly and we ran it up to Wenco. Mike and Jim rebalanced it, adding three weights. Mike claimed it was a little out of time. He remarked it, and it is back in the truck. I have not driven it yet to see how it feels. It was vibrating from 55-70. Hope this does it.
Jay Dykes is due to make the dash surround shortly. I intend to take out the FC tomorrow, and need the truck.

5/29/08
Jay did not get around to answering calls or connecting with me before I left for Indy. He now has the truck, for about a week. He has fabricated, as of yesterday, the top of the fan shroud. That’s it to date. He is supposed to be working on a two-piece bottom half to make it possible to remove the fan by taking off the top of the fan shroud.
He has not started on the dash panel as yet. I have no car to drive at this point. The Impala trans nuked, and it is over at ACT under warranty. The Hemi and Regal are in Sun Valley at Reliable, but I have no money to pick them up.
The Graham is my ONLY driver at this point, and is not good for anything over 10 miles or so. I need to put a puke tank on it.
So I may have to pick up the Dually tomorrow until the Impala is repaired or I can find $7200 to pick up the Indy cars.

6/1/08
I picked up the dually last night. The center lower section of the shroud is not yet in, but the fan noise has been somewhat reduced. So it appears much more air is being drawn THROUGH the radiator, condenser, and intercooler and NOT from around it as before. It should only take a day for Jay to finish that section and tune up the whole unit once I give it back to him.
The batteries keep dying. I guess I need to take them back to AutoZone and have them run a load test. They just don’t hold for very long. These are nearly new batteries, new alternator, and had the truck batteries disconnected while Jay had it. Must be one battery just going dead, and sucking down the other. One of the batteries was from a place in Sun Valley if I remember correctly, and I thought I already exchanged that one.
We’ll just start over and see what gives here. Meanwhile, the truck is on the charger.

6/4/08
The batteries last if I drive it every day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get around to testing it.
Roy has chosen not to continue here for a while. He cites my financial struggle, and wishes not to be a part of the burden. What he is really saying is that he has logged about 100 hours of nearly unpaid work, and I think he just doesn’t feel comfortable about it. He also doesn’t want to be put in a position where he takes money out of John’s week. I have given him money, pressure washers, etc. in an effort to compensate him for his wonderful and generous labor. But we’re all feeling the hurt right now, and I think he needs to find some monetarily productive use of his spare time. I deeply appreciate his help, and I hope he finds himself (as do I) able to spend time here in the future.
Meanwhile, I will pull the dash cluster out tomorrow and send it off for repair.

6/9/08
Aside from being my 64th birthday, John and I got the dually up on the rack today and blasted the underside. It was already quite clean, as we had cleaned it just before giving it to DPS for the motor work.
I started to put some paint on it but we ran out of paint and time. We’ll use the spray gun tomorrow and go at it some more.
I spoke with Roy the other day and he will be returning tomorrow to work again. I will just pay him as we go henceforth.
I have pulled the dash cluster out and wrapped it for shipment to Dave Ruberg for repair. I need to find the right size  box, then it’s off by UPS tomorrow for repair. I have already paid for it by PayPal.

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