Monday

Monday it was off to the Hot Rod Garage in Sand Springs, OK. They build real nice rods and customs there. Jim Smith, son Jason and their crew were great hosts. Coffee, donuts and a tour of the shop. They do it all there, fab, paint upholstery. The next stop was an added attraction. The personal collection of Bruce Ricks. He owns, among other rides, the 56 Ford Ridler convertable. There also was a nice 40 convert, a couple of Olds, one a wagon and one a rag top, 54 Chevy rag top, a huge collection of tether cars and oil cans. As I drove out of his collection parking lot, I heard a clunk as I hit the brake pedal. Only when the car is moving and the brakes go on the clunk is there. If the car is still, there is no noise. I rolled the car along and Don and Ron walked next to it. They heard it from the front area. So, it was back to the Hot Rod Garage to check it out. The guys found it quickly. Both bat wings were broken. The clunk was the axle moving when the brakes were applied. By chance of good luck, they had a pair in stock on the shelf. Should be an easy switch.......wrong!!! The spring perches would not come out of the axle. After trying to remove them for about an hour, we decided the answer would be to remove the axle, unhooking the brake lines, pulling the king pins, oh yea, they would not clear the 39 Lincoln upper pivot nut, so we used a cut off wheel to flatten an edge to clear the nut. The V8 medallions had to be pried off too. Finally the axle was out and on the bench in the vise, still would not budge. Finally a torch, and a lot of hammering with the air powered impact hammer they came out. The bat wings went on, perches cleaned up, anti siezed up and all was reinstalled. In the middle of this episode, the Smith's ordered pizza for lunch for the workers and us 3 guys. We then rebled the brakes and

adjusted the shoes. I took it for a test run...all good....we left about 3 PM and headed for Ft Worth. We got to Charles house about 8 PM....whew!! Made it!