Okay - true confession time - I'm usually pretty conscientious about putting things back together and on one occasion, I got a friends '68 Firebird buttoned back up after replacing intake manifold gaskets (hmmm - sound familiar??). Well, I was wiping tools and I couldn't find a 1/2 inch combo box/open that I knew I had used. I hunted high and low and couldn't find it and then tried to remember where I had last used it and couldn't remember. In fact, I'd used a 1/2 x 9/16 to tighten the alternator. Then I started to worry and so I informed my friend that I couldn't find the wrench and we needed to pull the manifold off because I feared that the wrench was inside the lifter galley.

Long story short - pulled the manifold off and nothing. Now I was really getting upset and my buddy grabbed the coffee pot and two folding chairs. As I sat down, I felt something weird and discovered that the wrench was in my back pocket. We both laughed until I cried. I finished my coffee and then re-assembled the engine which fired and ran beautifully with the timing spot in the first crank.

I don't put tools in my back pocket anymore.........