Home at last, home at last!

Woo hoo! After a couple days of clock-watching, today was the day - Barney came home about 20 minutes ago!

Yesterday I picked him up from the brake shop and ran him a couple of miles cross-town to Tri-City Transmission in Vista for a throttle-pressure adjustment, but he wasn't ready by afternoon so I made arrangements with Kurt to get him today after picking my son Reed up from school.

We got to Kurt's around 3PM. He said he'd had Barney out on the road and he was driving really well; the only problem was that the kickdown valve seemed a little sticky (after all, it's been nearly a year-and-a-half since he finished the transmission for me) but that it would work itself out with use.

While at the shop, Kurt introduced me to Ken, who was in with his cherry-red 1929 Model A roadster, and said that Ken was a fellow Stude owner. Turns out he has a '64 Daytona hardtop with a 289. We chatted for a while and I told him about the local chapter and website - hopefully he'll check us out.

So I fired Barney up and proceeded out onto Santa Fe Avenue, northbound. I took the long way home to avoid as many stoplights as possible - click on the map above to get a good view of our route. It took about 30 minutes for the 11-mile trip, but it was a breeze the whole way! The temp gage was working (maybe it just needs to be used, too) and never registered over halfway on the range, and the engine and trans were working together like Rowan and Martin.

The only worry I had on the way home was about fuel - there wasn't a lot of gas in the tank to begin with; only about 3 gallons, and the two shops had been out road-testing the car a few times. But we made it home with no problems, with my wife and son serving as a "chase" vehicle, behind me the whole way.

There's still a bug or two to work out - one stop light isn't lighting, and I really have to get the new rear springs in (the rebuilt front end is very quiet, but the worn out rear slams like a WWF wrestler). But he's on the road, and running well, and the hardest part of the battle is over (I hope). Now to have some fun!