Thursday night I got a call from the hospital to come see my Mom. About 5 hours later she passed – peacefully – but at least we were there with her. Totally out of nowhere, ‘something’ got out of control and her body just couldn’t take anymore of all the things she had going on. A few weeks ago while I was watching her struggle just to take a nap, I said a prayer and asked for her to go peacefully sooner than later so she wouldn’t have to suffer a hard ending… and I feel like I might’ve just gotten an answer. I’m more relieved than upset or devastated, as most people would think I would be after losing Mom.

A big help through all of this has been the arrival of my BFF Dave. We’ve been working hard on getting the drivetrain swaps for the Jeeps sorted out, and having Dave here to work with side-by-side and just enjoy ourselves being together has been incredibly helpful not only for the project, but also because there’s just nothing that can replace the time you get to spend with the most important people in your life. Mom is gone, but she would want us to be together right now.

This past Saturday, the day after Dave drove from Phoenix to San Angelo, we finished pulling out the TF-999/D300, driveshafts, motor mounts, and exhaust system from Klooge. Sorry I got a little behind on my ‘blogging… then again, I’m actually catching this up on 10 Feb, while back-dating to 19 Jan. Behold the power of owning your own blog.

The TF-999 decided to spill its guts when I started working on the cooling lines – they pretty much disintegrated, so I guess I’ll need some new ones when this all goes into my Jeep.

Sunday, after some re-organization and clean-up, while Dave was working on dropping the fuel tank (he bought a new one), I worked on getting the 258 unbuttoned and ready to come out.

It’s times like this I’m reminded that the clamshell mod (as Dave calls it) was the best $8 I ever spent on my Jeep. Under the grille bolts and both fenders swing out of the way.

Also had a chance to put the first piece from the transplant into Klooge – the radiator.

Monday was about getting the engine & transmission/T-case out of my Jeep.

A happy Dave, now that we got the engine pulled out of Dookie.

Today was cold and trying to rain all day, so Dave worked on getting the rest of the fuel tank stuff taken care of, while I pulled the steering column and brake/clutch pedal assembly from my Jeep. I don’t think we got any pics of that.

Hopefully, it won’t rain tomorrow so we can get more done, otherwise it’ll be a marathon to squeeze everything else we have to do before he has to leave this coming weekend.