Goings on at the shop Thursday included installing the locking transmission dipstick into the Texas Thug, and filling it with fluids. The fuel system was checked for leaks, and a couple were detected and fixed. The oil pump was spun up with a drill and the topside oiling checked. One of the restrictors was not oiling due to a defect of the hole not fully drilled, and so that was fixed.

Finally the motor was started and run for a few minutes to check how it sounded, its oil pressure, if there were leaks, and anything else out of the ordinary. The below is the video of the first startup.

All went well with that first startup. A few moments later the car was started again, the timing set and the carbs adjusted. Afterward, the 4-link was checked for square and adjusted.

It was late in the day, and I’m in the process of moving over the weekend, so the car will sit on stands until Tuesday. Hopefully, I’ll find no leaks, and take it off the stands. The plan is to warm up the engine to set valve lash, and then take for a ride. If all still goes well, all that will be left will be to finish bumpers and polish the glass. It should be at the Dave Duell Classic.

Earlier in the day, I mowed the land around the shop, leaving a half acre wildflower meadow.

The power window motor was installed in a Hyundai Genesis Coupe I’m giving my youngest daughter.

I mentioned that I’m moving. Well I own a house next door to my shop. We had my elderly in-laws living there so we could care for them. In January of 2017, my father in law died.of a heart attack I hired a woman to live with my invalid mother in law and to care for her, as  I’d promised my father in law I’d do everything to not have his wife die in a nursing home. Last month, she too died.

We decided to sell our house in Katy, live at the house next to the shop during the week (so I can work on selling my collection of cars), and we bought a house on the lake for long weekends. So we’re moving out of one house, getting it ready to sell, and moving into two others. It’s a big job. The day before we were to move out of Katy and have a truckload going to each of the other houses, my daughter decided she didn’t want the built in bookcase/desk in her room. Between her and my wife — it was too much drama to not just bite the bullet. The bookcase was ripped out leaving a patch of carpet missing and a spot needing painting.

The floor was no big deal as we will have all of the carpet ripped out and wood flooring installed in the coming weeks. So I cut a piece of paint out close to the molding and went to Lowes to get a gallon of matching paint, and that whole wall was painted.

I feel getting the motor started to be a real big mile stone in a very long project of building the Thug.