Trouble

I had high hopes for this work weekend. We had everyone together for almost the entire day, but by looking at the car you wouldn't know it. So what's the problem you ask? Car doesn't run and the cage is not done.


First the carb, and yes the picture says it all. I finished rebuilding it, but after installing it on the engine it didn't work. The first problem was the gas tank was empty. We filled it up and tried again but it would only run on the accelerator pump, not the main venturi. We had the carb apart a few more times double checking passages but they were all clean. As a final check we tried to run the carb under pressure. 3psi of shop air to the bowl vent and the car ran great. So obviously the passages aren't plugged. We suspect a major vacuum leak, but whatever the problem is it's our #1 priority. How can we win a race if we can't start the race?

As for our roll cage, that's an easy problem. Jeff made great progress, that is until he ran out of gas. I guess technically the cage is done (although we may add a few more braces in a few places), but our seat mount is incomplete. After welding for more than 6 hours, Jeff was tired anyway.


How about the things we did accomplish? Ummmm..... Chris and Phil got the gas tank out. The tank needs to be cleaned and a new fuel sock needs to be installed. We may also end up replacing the fuel line because of it being so heavily varnished. This fuel system has become a real pain. The doors were also finished trimmed so that they're ready to be welded closed and the rear quarter panels started to get trimmed to clear our new wider tires.


I suppose these tires are one of the high points of the weekend and maybe even the car. We may not be fast but we should stick to the track!

Even though we didn't get as much done as we wanted, it was still a good weekend. I mean come on, the worst day of working on a race car is still better than the best day at work! There was plenty of beer (do you think this is hampering our progress?) and Russ grilled burgers and brats for everyone. Russ has also promised to paint the inside of the car today while I write this. We shall see....

We've got 5 weekends left before the race so I wouldn't say we're in trouble, but we'll all feel a lot better when the engine runs right. Most of our parts are already in the shop and there isn't much welding left. I think until the engine is running I may be working more than one day a week. I would much rather have the car done early and give us some time to pack some other weekend items than be scrambling around that last week still trying to finish the car. Well maybe next weekend we'll look a little bit better than this.

We're in!!!

So the news we all wanted to hear finally came yesterday. Apparently enough other better qualified teams have failed to pony up the dough to race in April. Their loss, our gain! Our number came up in the random waitlist lottery and now we're headed for CMP. For your browsing pleasure, here is Jay's invite:

"Hi, Team Captain:

Good news--I think. Your team has officially been ACCEPTED for LeMons South Spring, on 4-5 April 2009, at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw SC. We got tons of crappy entries for this race; yours was just enough crappier to be selected. Nice work.

Okay: What do you need to do now?

A: Read this email completely.

B: Forward it to the rest of your team, one of whom is certainly smarter than you are. (You agreed to be captain, so clearly you're not the genius.)

C: Acknowledge this email with a reply that says "Team (Whatever the Hell it Is) Received the Acceptance." If you don't confirm, we'll assume you've wised up and will give away your slot. And yes, I am getting tired of receiving "Team (Whatever) etc" replies. Har har. Very clever. Never saw that one coming, nosireeebob.

Got all that? Good."

So now what? We're actually in good shape with the car. All we need to do is finish a few details and get her painted. In other news, we've had a team member change. We dropped that chump Jerad (actually with the economy and all, he respectfully backed out; can't say I blame him), and replaced him with Chris' father. Don't remember his name so Chris will have to remind me later. This gives up four drivers and one pit member. We are actually in negotiations for a fifth driver right now, but we'll have to see if they're serious or not (cash talks).

That's it for now. If your reading this and you're not following the blog, why the heck not?! Click the link to the right and join the crowd! There may be a free prize for following......

Armored Personnel Carrier

Another week has gone by and two positive things have happened. One, we all still have our jobs. Two, our cage kit arrived! That means it's time to bust out the welder (and a few Doritos). We manged to get the whole crew together Friday night despite any complaints from the wives and it being Valentines Day weekend. I'd say we made some good progress. I always have lofty aspirations (like get it all done in an hour), but realistically we got a lot closer to complete. There was, of course, much "down" time.

While waiting for the others to arrive I started things off by finishing the electrical system. The engine fan is wired to come on with the ignition switch and we now have spark back. The addition of a brake light rounds out our simple electrical system. I wish my Cadillac's electrical system was this easy.

Now throughout the week I have been rebuilding the carburetor at my house. I stripped it all the way down so that I could inspect and clean it. What a piece of crap. Have any idea what 5 year old gas looks and smells like? It looks and feels like that old Tootsie roll you find under the couch cushion. And smell? Let's just say my wife wasn't so happy about my "project" this week. The new gasket set is on the way and hopefully I'll be able to clean all the jets out this weekend. Hey, all I need is fuel to flow. I don't really care how well it flows. Those are squirrel nuts in the secondary.

Back to the garage. With all of us present, as well as our new cage kit, we got to work on installing the only thing protecting us from rogue Crown Vic's. The cage looked small on the shop floor, but it turned out to be an almost perfect fit for our car. Tight against the sides and roof, just how you'd like it. In fact, all of the notches and tube lengths were perfect. Hats off to Day Motorsports of Texas for such a great kit at a great price. Before we welded the main hoop in, we strengthened the floor by welding in the hoop support plates. Before Russ got too sleepy he layed a few beads to prove to us his welding prowess.

With the seat position decided and our main hoop located, the rest of the cage went together rather quickly. Granted, it was all just tacked at that point, but seeing it in was a big boost. So much so that Jeff and I decided to stay until in was secured in the car which wound up being midnight. One of the things we noticed after the door bars were in was that the doors would not close anymore. Our original plan was to weld the doors closed anyway, but now it looked like we were going to have to remove the inner door panels and just run with an outer skin over the car. Charge up the sawzall, I'm going in!

For the last hour Jeff (our certified welder) began his finish welding and I continued to cut the doors apart. We still have to add a pair of rear down bars from the main hoop to the floor, but that will be easy. Also we have to make a seat box for our seat and get that mounted. Seatbelts and, budget allowing, quick disconnect steering wheel should finish off the inside of the car.

We also got a preview of the finished car's ride height. Slammed! Once the new tires are on, it will actually sit almost 2 inches lower yet. Of course this will require us to make so minor fender modifications. We may also be zeroing in on a paint scheme. I'm afraid I can't leak any info on that just yet, but with any luck we may be laying paint by next weekend. Did I mention that we were still on the waitlist and may not even be able to race this thing?

Big (?) Work Day

Alrighty then! It's Saturday night and we've got the whole team together for some work and beers! We still have not purchased any parts (what are we waiting for, a donation?!) so we continue with what I call Stage II weight reductions. If it's not required to make the car go around the track, it's gone. Stage III weight reductions are coming in the form of yours truly going on a diet. We also get into the suspension, carb and electrical system. We start things off by thinking of actually working.

So what else is slowing this car down? Exhaust, heater core and washer fluid tank are all obvious. 10 miles of vacuum lines and a charcoal canister (don't tell the EPA) don't need to be there. A few select cuts on the body to trim fat. How about all that wire? Don't need it, wiring harness gone. So now our non-running car is more non-running. We are sooooo smart. But hey we stripped another 100-200 pounds off the car!

The engine bay now looks clean, uncluttered and ready to propel this go-kart to the checkered flag! Other underhood modifications include thermostat surgical alterations (read: sawzall), drain coolant and flush, new electrical system wiring (more on that later) and an intercooled 23psi twin turbo system. Oh wait, scratch that last one. I'm not allowed to add horsepower to this engine.

Not quite sure what to do with this piece of crap. The '80's were a bad time for engines. We've got enough room under our $500 limit that we might pay to have somebody rebuild it. They'll probably laugh at us though so we'll be back to plan B (yes, the beer next to it).

So anyway, back to that wiring thing. Are you concerned that we completely removed the vehicle wiring harness from a quasi-computer controlled vehicle? Bah! No worries mate! We decided that we only need 5 electrical circuits: start, charge, ignition, fan and brake. The car runs an old school cap and rotor distributor with separate coil, so we're golden! Start and charge is auto shop 101, so if we couldn't get that working Russ should fire us from our real jobs anyway. Fan and brake? My dog could figure that out. And yes, to answer your question we did get the starting and charging system working by the end of the night (could've been sooner if Russ would have given me a solenoid that wasn't broken!). We'll route the wires and mount the switches to the rollcage when it's in.

By the end of the night we had got quite a few things done. That list is getting shorter (and yes, it's written on the roof)!


This week we swear we're going to order the roll cage. Plus, if we're feeling really ambitious, we might order the fuel pump as well. Somebody (Russ) said they were going to take care of spray bombing the interior flat black, and Jeff is going to finish the work on the coils. Which reminds me, we need shocks. Or do we......
Well kids, that concludes another action packed update! Tune in next time to see if we get more work done than beer drank, and remember DON"T DRINK AND DRIVE!