Muscle Car Road Trip: Two Weeks in a 1978 Chevrolet Malibu, Part 6 - Hot Rod Network

We made it to Springfield, Missouri that night and spent the following morning exploring Springfield's Bass Pro Shops. Danny loves to fish, and I've never been inside one of those stores, though I've heard all about them. Out in the parking lot, the Malibu mocked us by dumping what looked like two pints of coolant on the asphalt. I quickly traced the source of the leak to a rubber plug blocking off an unused port in the passenger side radiator tank of the supposedly direct-fit radiator I had replaced just days earlier. The cheap hose clamp chewed a hole in the cheap rubber plug blocking the port. I repositioned the plug, and we limped to a parts store, fortunately located just two blocks away, where I bought better-quality block-off plugs and clamps. I had lofty plans of visiting Don Dial's Race Shop in Seminole, Oklahoma, along with Midwest Street Cars, where I'd try to pry install a performance part or two on the Malibu. Those plans began to shift to something more along the lines of self-preservation, and I planned instead to replace the thermostat, and double check the timing and carburetor settings. Most of my Oklahoma City connections were not home the next day, but John "Baron" Gentry was home and offered up his garage and tools to our cause. Source: www.hotrod.com