In the last chapter, I finally got the brakes working.  That means there shouldn't be much left to do before I can take the car on a test drive, right?  Wrong!   We need more than just brakes to get a car running.  We need a functioning drivetrain, too.  And in order to have that, we need a functioning fuel system.  I already knew everything from the fuel pump on was fine from when I first got my car running, but what about the gas tank?  The tank appeared to be original to the car, right down to the big dent on the bottom.  Since new tanks aren't that expensive, I decided to replace the tank instead of taking my chances with the old one.  And thus began the saga of the gas tank.  After spending $300 on a new tank only to have it busted in shipping, and then waiting three weeks for a new one that ended up being out of stock, and then cancelling and buying a cheaper tank that seemed fine until I tried to put it in and realized it was also damaged, I was pretty unhappy.  While the new tank had saved me about $150 over the old one (they were virtually identical), it had cost me about a month of waiting.  Not wanting to go through the same monkey business again, I got out the rubber mallet, whacked the filler neck back into shape, and put the tank in the car, ending the gas tank saga at long last.  

With a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, two gallons of gas, it wasn't dark and I wasn't wearing sunglasses when I tried to move my car for the first time.  I got it running fine, but when I put it in gear, nothing happened.  No shudders, no groans, just nothing.  I then remembered what the previous owners had said about having the transmission rebuilt and checked the fluid level.  Bone dry, figures!  They had never run the car after the transmission was rebuilt, so the torque converter sucked up whatever fluid they had put in the transmission when I put the car in gear.  After a trip to O'Reilly's for some ATF and a funnel, I was back for take two.  This time, the car went into gear and made some effor to move, but something was still seriously wrong.  There was lots of scraping and groaning, and I only jerked forward a couple of inches when I stomped on the gas.  Popping off the front wheels revealed the 14" stock rims didn't clear the brake calipers.  I tried them with a spacer, but with the stock offset, they still wouldn't clear the calipers.  After lots of cursing and steaming, I accepted that I'd need to get some 15" wheels for the cars, but just for testing purposes, I flipped the old wheels inside out to confirm my car did actually move.  Fortunately, it did, so I went ahead and set about sourcing some new rims.  I ended up getting three from North Providence Auto Salvage (the fourth one was bent and got tossed) and a fourth from a pile of rims at Paul's Pick-A-Part in Chelsea, Maine.  With a set of new Kelly tires installed, I put the 15s on my car.  Sadly, the original hubcaps no longer fit the wheels, so my car was looking extra hooptie.  

After a brief intrusion by a canvasser for the state's upcoming gubernatorial election who tried to hand me a flyer as I was halfway through pulling a wheel off my car, I had the car back on the ground and ready to go.  Then, the battery decided it was the perfect time to die.  No worries, we can just give it a jump.  Then the float decided to stick again in the carb.  No worries, we can just give the carb a few whacks to free it.  Then, the car started right up.  No worries, we can... oh wait.  It did stall about four times on the way out of the driveway (carb rebuild in the next chapter, don't worry), but other than the soft brakes, the maiden voyage was a success!  Now I knew my car could handle the road, so the next steps were to make it road legal so I could finally register it.  Well, that's all the time we have for this week.  From everyone here at ONEC, I'm Sam Gerhard.  *Cue the theme music*