Hoses tight: check. Coolant level: check. Gas in the carb: check. Fire extinguisher: check. Of course, I left the window up, so if there had been a fire, the balky linkage would have ensured a few moments of panic as I tried to get the window down to reach the outer door handle (the inner latch is off the door right now) but that’s all just details. Three tries and she fired right up, idling smoothly for having sat dormant since October.

I backed her out of the garage and almost took the driver's rearview off the door (the doors weren't open wide enough, because they're backed in with 3' of snow) after shifting into 4hi—the rear wheels just spun on the cold ground. After idling for about 5 minutes the temp gauge didn't rise off the left peg, so I think she needs a good ten minutes of running time before I know if anything is fixed or not. But just to have her out of the garage again is a huge relief.

While I was out there, I swapped out the green dashpad for the new black one I bought from Karl, which sure does look better with purple.