Hello Gents. I apologize for the lateness of this message as I left Springfield and went into prepping for and appearing at a 3 day arbitration that just ended. So I went from one scramble to another.
Loren is right. Things got a little close at crunch time for me to get ready to be judged. I planned on final touches and cleaning on Wednesday only to find that a dent in my oil pan made my car sound like I had thrown a rod on initial start-up. That blew Wednesday for me and I was lucky to get it fixed in time to pile my uninstalled parts and cleanings materials into the trailer and hit the road Wednesday Night with Mark in front of me in John's rig.
So I showed up in Springfield not nearly ready for judging. Here's where the incredible generosity and class of the members of this board come in. In addition to Mark A. who really carried me on his back for the past several weeks, I could not have pulled this off without the help of Loren and Brian and Mark on the taillights, a whole bunch of things from Jon T on Friday like cutting the dust flaps, help with the interior, etc. and perhaps mostly from Dan A. who literally helped me get the trunk liner set up, the sill plates in, the dust flaps in and several other finishing touches done about 20 minutes before judging was to start. As with Mark, ... Dan, I could not have done it without you. The final push came from John E. after I ran out of gas and was just sitting there waiting for the judges to show up. Despite having two cars to be judged he got me on my feet and polished right along side of me to put a bit of a shine on the old girl. You guys really are the best.
Now all I have to do is tune up a few things like door panels, new dust covers, and door locks, and chrome install and I might actually get the car in good enough shape to actually deserve this award.
Thanks to you all.
Rob
