Well… we’re here. Despite putting the ‘Mach 1’ decals on at 11:30 last night, we made it. We had a great day just relaxing and Frank actually won a Best In Class award – on his first time out!!

The best part was when the MSG Commander was walking by admiring Frank. He actually told me it’s a beautiful car, to which I replied, “Looks a lot different than the last time you saw it, eh?” “Excuse me?” he looked confused. I told him that this is that pile of project car that took up so much space in his Auto Hobby Shop while Jim and I was running it for him for the past 18 months on the weekends.” His demeanor changed as he said, “Oh. You must be Eric.” “Yes Sir, I am.” He kept staring at Frank, grinding his teeth, and finally said, “Nice car,” as he turned and stormed off.

Oh. My. Gawd. I felt SO good. I delivered a nice verbal equivalent of a kick in the nuts to the elitist asshole who’d caused Jim and I so much hassle. My day was complete at that point… until he had to hand over a Best In Class plaque later that day, that is. Best. Day. Ever.

Showing off the engine at the GAFB Car Show.

Got the tires slicked up and everything polished.

Even the trunk was in inspection order.

Interior’s pretty much all finished up, except for the seat belts and a couple more details.

Didn’t get the trunk stripe on yet – still gotta adjust the trunk lid… and pretty much just ran out of time last night.

No words… just a cool car and a cool guy – my pal Jim Eimer. 

My pal Jim and his Jeep after the show and everybody bailed. Just grabbin’ a couple pics and having a celebratory Guiness.

Here’s the spec sheet from the day.

And one of the new hardware.