It’s been a good Saturday. I pulled the C-6, starter, linkages, tubing to the radiator, door handles and windshield washer tank off a junk ’70 lwb and hauled it all home. I left the flex plate which had six nuts that would not budge. Hosed ‘em down with WD-40, we’ll see what they say come Monday. They may say, "get a new flex plate."

I’ve been piddlin’ with my cars for 20 or so years—mostly tune-ups, brake jobs, u-joints, a clutch in a VW bus, like I said, piddlin’ stuff. So I’m real proud of myself to have pulled this thing out from under a parked truck without drawing any blood, not even a trashed knuckle, and not breaking anything. I don’t even remember having to talk ugly to it. The best part of it all was the price, $100, for it all, and I could have had the drive shaft, too, but it’s a two piece. Then again, maybe the best part was just the fun of doing it.

I did have to take a little ribbing from the guys at the shop where the truck is parked. "You’ve pretty much shot a whole Saturday with that one hour job there haven’t you?" "I’ll give you a real good deal on putting that thing into your truck for you." Cut the old man some slack, okay? I stopped for a coke a couple of times. And a burger.

Dan Blackwell