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!