Kat Monteiro

The View From My Offi ce

With Kat Monteiro

Here we are again, almost the end of June. Time has really fl own by.

Things seem to be ge ng be er somewhat with the whole COVID thing. People are ge ng vaccinated and it’s easier now than ever to get a vaccine shot. California is doing very well on ge ng a good majority of our popula on vaccinated and as of the 15th of June we are now open for business.

I was sorry to hear on the news that some states might have opened up a li le too soon without a good part of their popula on being vaccinated and are again experiencing surges in cases of COVID. The airplanes are fl ying and are packed with people anxious to get out and go somewhere. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do, for over a year now we’ve been wearing our masks and now I really don’t know how to go out without it on and I’m not sure I’m ready to take it off in all situa ons yet.

I am s ll working at our front retail parts counter and I’m s ll loving it. Maybe in the Fall I’ll get back out on the road and start visi ng customers again if everything goes well. I do enjoy talking with customers and helping out where I can. We have been crazy busy in the parts department which is a good thing.

Things at home are about to change again. Our daughter Terra who has been home and going to school for Avia on Mechanics has since fi nished her program and got her cer fi cate of comple on. She has spent the last two and a half years going to school in a very intense program and has done very well. She has really enjoyed it so that makes all the diff erence. She fi nally found her niche and I believe she is going to be happy doing this kind of work. We are very proud parents.

I am pleased to announce that she has already been off ered a job at Duncan Avia on in Lincoln Nebraska. In fact, we will be making a road trip out there at the end of this month to move her. We have already been out there a couple months ago and found her an apartment to live in for her and her dog. She starts her new job on July 12th. Duncan Avia on has a very good reputa on in Lincoln Nebraska and seems like a really great company to work for. We are all very excited for Terra to start her new adventure! She will be an Airframe Tech working on corporate and business jets.

I am sure I will have plenty to tell all of you in the next issue of the MMG magazine about our trip back there. Her and I will be driving our Ram Diesel truck, towing her car on a car trailer, with her dog! We plan on driving two days, 10 hours each day, so 2 nights in a pet friendly hotel, and then get to Lincoln on day 3. Sounds like a great adventure! I am so excited for her, but I know I am really going to miss her.

I have already checked in with Lyne e Oakes and let her know she was coming. I know they are not in Omaha anymore but at least they are only 2 hours away if she needs something.

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Rick and I had a li le bit of an adventure a couple months ago that many of you die hard Mopar fans will appreciate.

Some friends of ours who live in Los Angeles sold their company, re red, bought some property in Montana where they plan to build their house, and in the mean me are going to live in their travel trailer on said property. Kathy Grisham has been good friends with Rick since high school, and her husband Tom has always been interested in building cars and motorcycles. Well, since they were moving, and his sister was selling their childhood home, it was me to clean out the garage.

So, Kathy got in touch with Rick and asked him if he would be interested in some Mopar engines that Tom had stowed away in his parents garage, hoping that someday he would rebuild them and put them in a project car. Rick said of course! We didn’t want them for us, but we would have no trouble fi nding people who would want them. Continued on Page 13

Continued from Page 12 So off to Riverside County we go in the #8 parts truck, the truck we call our Powertrain Truck because it is the big 2500 Hemi truck with the power li gate on the back - much needed in situa ons like these! We get there and back up to the garage - and while Kathy and I watched - Rick and Tom pulled out the engines and carefully, without hur ng themselves, got them up and loaded in the truck. It was quite the task! Having that power li gate made all the diff erence and really was the star of the show.

Before we le , we contacted Chuck Finnley. Chuck is a huge Mopar fan. He worked for Rick as a parts advisor for many years and was really good at it. He really connected with people who loved old Mopar cars. When I am out in the fi eld, I s ll have customers that ask about Chuck. People really liked him. He was always in the process of building his old Challenger. He re red 6 years ago or so but s ll maintains his passion for the old school cars. He has quite a li le collec on going. And he s ll goes to the car shows. So when Rick reached out to him about these engines to see if he knew anyone who would be interested in them he said “ME”!! (of course, he did!)

So on day one Tom and Rick pulled these engines out of one garage and loaded them up into the truck, we spent that night at Rick’s mom’s house, then on day two Rick and Chuck unloaded them off the truck and into Chuck’s garage. It sure was a busy couple of days!

At the end of the weekend we loaded and off loaded:

 A 70 440HP2 Commando

 A similar vintage 383 Long Block

 And a 33 Plymouth 6 cylinder Flathead and transmission – it was completely rebuilt about 40 years ago and has been si ng in the garage ever since!

Tom kept the Hemis and is dragging them to Montana with him! “Someday” he says…….

It is really interes ng to me that these old dirty things will be someone’s treasure!

So that’s my li le adventure story for this issue of the View From My Offi ce! Never a dull moment.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you in Florida in October!