(12/3/2001)

Since nothing really interesting is happening in the Super Stock world, I thought I’d start keeping a record of how my car is going together. I’ll either keep it up until I’m done or forget to take pictures and stop somewhere along the way. I hope that anyone building a car for the first time can learn something from my mistakes.

 

It’s December 2 and I’ve finally gotten the shop cleaned out and the furnace working. Time to get started on the car. I had a 78′ Regal out in the back lot that I was going to use for a frame, but it was rotted out in too many places. Thanks to Bob Munger for donating this ’82 Malibu frame. It’s a better start than I had expected. I’ve stripped it and hacked off most of the extraneous brackets and mocked up the rearend in preparation for putting the cage on.

 

Well, after several hours of looking at body and cage dimensions, and propping up body panels and tubing, I think I’ve got the cage where I want it. It’s farther back than seems right, but the quarters fit so I guess it’s OK. If I was using a stock body it would have been a lot easier. Just in case I’m wrong, I’ve only tacked it together. I’ll mock up the whole body next weekend before I weld it. I got the cage from CSC and it went together with very little coping once I got the posts set. I also put in the weight jacks.

 

Unfortunately, due to me feeling under the weather and the fact that I didn’t have a tubing bender, I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped this weekend. I put in a few more cross tubes and fitted some supports, but since I didn’t have the right size shoes for the bender, I couldn’t make the down tubes. I’ll have the bender next weekend and hopefully get most of the cage ready to be finish welded.

   

This weekend things went a little better despite the fact that I only spent Sunday working. I got the down tubes made and started on the fuel cell mounts. Kelly wanted me to explain why I replaced the main hoop with down tubes. The fact is, I don’t have a high ceiling in my shop and I don’t have to lift the motor so high to get it out this way. It’s starting to look like a real racecar. I decided to throw in a picture of it’s roommate. How can it not go fast after being parked next to a Packard all winter? Next weekend I should be able to get the rear tubes and fuel cell mounts on. I’m going to get the seat and the rest of the steering parts this week.

 

Despite the weekend being three days, I only got a day’s worth of work done on the car. As you can see, I started fitting the interior sheetmetal and steering. I need to go get the crossmember and motor mounts this weekend so I can finish locating the engine and the other lower control arm so I can work on the front suspension. I went to get the seat this weekend, but it turned out to be the wrong size. I should have the right one next weekend and should be able to finish the cockpit.

I’ve been doing some brainstorming with my dad and we’ve come up with some pretty unconventional ideas. He’s approaching this car like it’s a Supermodified so I’ve had to pass on a few of his more “creative” ideas, but I have used a few of them, so if you see something that looks strange, it’s Dad’s fault.

No pictures this week.

I’ve been having atrocious luck with cars and money for the last couple of weeks so I haven’t gotten a lot done on the race car. This is becoming a recurring theme. I did manage to finish most of the rear of the cage, but I’m still waiting on some material to finish the cockpit. Lance Wideman stopped by on Sunday and was nice enough to do the finish welding on most of the main cage. I need to remember to keep some Hooch in the fridge for his next visit.

I forgot to take pictures this week so I’ll try to remember to get some before I start next weekend. I mocked up the rear of the body to make sure the cage was properly positioned and it seems to be OK. It’s going to sit a lot higher than I expected.

   

I actually got some work done this weekend. My parts all came in finally and I got the rest of the main cage finished. I just have a few diagonals and the seat mount to put in next weekend and I can start on the suspension, cockpit and body. I’ve worked out most of the details as far as mounting key chassis parts so I’ll be spending a lot of time building brackets and such next weekend. I got a note asking how I was coming as far as expenses. Right now I have about $3500 in it. That doesn’t include wheels, tires, trans, or motor but it does count about everything else. I may have a deal for the rest of the welding and some motor work set up. That will be very helpful.

   

It doesn’t look like I got a lot done, but I did. Most of the finish welding is done and I’m down to something like six brackets, the rest of the footbox, and the fuel cell guard to make. I hope to have all that done next weekend and do the body the weekend after. I had the new seat in to fit the steering and pedals. It felt good.

Pictures coming soon. Ok, so they’re not coming at all. I somehow managed to erase them from the camera…

Another weekend of doing little things. I made the motor mounts, the brake pedal, the front shock mounts and the rear bumper mount. Lance got sick so the rest of the welding didn’t get done. Hopefully he’ll be feeling better next weekend. As it sits, the to do list consists of the trans mount, the battery box, the window net brackets, nerf bar plugs, upper rad support and exhaust brackets. I ordered the headers Friday so I’ll be able to finish the exhaust this weekend. Hopefully I can get started hanging the body this weekend too.

Hopefully, pictures coming soon.

I have one thing left to weld on the chassis. I didn’t have the metal for the weight tray/battery box, so that’s on hold for this weekend. The exhaust, motor and trans mounts are in and the finish welding is done. I even put rub rail plugs on in case I decide to run them. I’ve got the pedals ready to go in and just need to tin in the footbox. I’ll be finishing the cockpit and putting the body on this weekend. I’m picking up the Lexan for the windshield today and hopefully enough tin to build the dash and rear deck Friday. Ed Costello is supposed to come by Saturday and tell me whether it looks legal or not. Let’s hope he doesn’t have any serious issues with it.

   

Just when things were going so well… Mounting the body is kicking my ass. It seemed so simple. Measure everything and put it where it says to in the catalog. Not bloody likely! I got the roof, quarters, and rear bumper on Saturday morning and everything was going fine. So I went to put on the doors and all of a sudden the quarters don’t fit. Then I discover that the radiator is too high. So now I have to cut off the support and build it lower. I went home early last night beaten. I’ll go back next Friday and give it another shot. Maybe it will go better then.

     

Well I did a little better this weekend. I got the doors on and the quarters where they’re supposed to be and I put the fenders on. It’s not looking too bad. The whole body sits higher than I would have liked but since I don’t want to cut off the cage and lower it, I’ll have to live with it. Maybe I can get the ride heights down some more.

I’ve decided to pass on the Motorsports Expo since the guy that’s doing the sandblasting is going on vacation tomorrow and won’t be back in time for me to get it painted and back together. I probably could have finished enough of it to get it blasted if I’d worked on it yesterday, but I wanted to watch the 500. This way I can take a little more time to work out any details I might have missed.

I ordered most of the parts for my motor this weekend. I get my tax return this week so I’ve got a few bucks to spend on parts. It’s not going to be anything special, but it should hold together and that’s the important part.

   

This week I’m pretty much with body. Doug came over Saturday and built the rear deck for me and with that finished it wasn’t much more to get the rest of the rear clip put together. Sunday I managed to get the fender supports in and the nose on. Getting everything straight has been a nightmare. It seems like every time I put in a cleco or a brace, something else moves. Doug is supposed to come up one night this week and help me put in the dash, windshield, and hood. That will finish the body so I can go back to the suspension.

Ed Costello came by Saturday afternoon and looked at the car. He wants me to change some things I don’t want to, and let me know I could change some other things I do want to. He also told me he wants to look at my intake manifold from last season. I’m a little annoyed that I have to take the top off my engine again(they had me pull the intake Classic weekend), but kind of proud that I ran well enough for them to think I’m cheating.

Speaking of motors, I’ve got everything but the rings for the new motor. Final price including rings: $815. That was everything but the crank, rods, block, bare heads and rockers. I hope to again prove that I can win with the cheapest motor in the class. The block is supposed to be bored by this weekend and hopefully, I can start getting it put together next weekend.

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Well all the body mounts are on and the body’s back off. This weekend I’ll be moving the engine forward (I’m still unhappy about that) and working on the suspension. If all goes well, I’ll have the rolling chassis ready for sandblasting the next weekend.

No pictures for a couple of weeks. The camera went to Phoenix and Vegas.

I finished most of the suspension this weekend. I also took care of all the brackets and stuff that I’ve forgotten up until now. I expect to have the upper control arms on next weekend and to get it sandblasted. Then the old car comes in and gets reworked. I have a real deadline now. I’m going on vacation the second week in April and it has to be done by then. I talked the the guy that has my motor and he says he’ll have it bored and checked out this week. I’ll probably send it out the end of this week to have it balanced.

I’ll have pictures next week. Promise.

The car is off to be sandblasted. I had to do some of the welding myself yesterday and I hope the parts I put on stay on. This weekend we’re bringing the old car in and changing the transmission and front sheetmetal. If all goes well (and it never does), the new car should be back in and ready to assemble Sunday afternoon. I talked to the guy doing the machine work on the motor yesterday and he says the rotating assembly should head to the balancer by Friday. I’ll get the heads done next week and hopefully get it put together the week after (and not a minute too soon).

       

I got the car back from being sandblasted. I managed to buy the wrong color paint, but it’s just the roll cage and it does the job so I’ll leave it (who knew there was a difference between Massey Ferguson Grey and Massey Ferguson Flint Grey). I’ll paint the cockpit tin and start bolting it together next weekend. The motor isn’t coming along quite like I hoped. I got the crank back from being turned Sunday afternoon and checked all the clearances, but the rods still need to be resized before they go to get balanced. It’s possible that they’ll be back before the weekend, but I’m not holding my breath.

I got the old car out and did a little work to that. It has issues. When I pulled it into the garage I noticed a puddle of anti-freeze on the floor under it. It turned out to just be a bad head gasket, but while I had it apart I discovered that the distributor gear on the cam is ruined so I’ll be tearing it down before the season starts. I also discovered that I can’t get a starter on the car with the headers on it. I’m going to take it back out and park it until I finish the new car.

   

Well things didn’t go as well as they could have this week, but it’s on wheels and it has a cockpit. I needed to get it rolling to move it so I just threw on some hubs and a rear end and they’ll have to come back off next week to get done right. The brake lines are in and the front suspension is pretty much right. This weekend I’ll finish riveting the tin together and get the fuel lines, wiring and suspension done. I can’t put the body all the way on until I get the motor so that will be delayed another two weeks. Next season I start the motors in November. This time I’m waiting on the assembler to have the block honed. I’m actually starting to worry about having it done in time.

   

It’s amazing what you can do with a week of vacation. Except for the engine and some paint, the car is pretty much ready. I need to do some little things like pack the bearings, bleed the brakes and set the tow, but most of the major stuff is done. I do need to get the exhaust finished, but I figure I’ll drag it over to Louie’s next weekend to have it done there.

I get to make a cameo in my pics this week because Kelly (no, not that Kelly), my graphic designer and apprentice pit slave, was up helping this weekend. I’m not in there making engine noises. I promise.

     

It’s amazing. I started as early as I could and have worked all weekend, every single weekend and I’m still worried about making practice. My new motor won’t be done, so I’m putting the old motor in for a couple of weeks. I went to put it in yesterday and it turns out that my oil pan doesn’t fit. So I have to put that off for another week while I order a new pan. I did get the body painted this weekend. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get that on next weekend. Thanks to dad (Steve’s Body Shop) for supplying the paint and the skill in putting it on. The new paint scheme is pretty cool. I hope it comes out as well as it looks on paper. I still need the vinyl to make it look right though.

     

Well, I’m in the homestretch. I got the motor in and fired. I let it run for a while on Sunday afternoon to make sure it was going to stay cool and it looks OK. The body is on and just needs some minor work to get it finished. It came out looking pretty good. I’m pretty much down to exhaust, wiring, some weight and the rest of the body mounts. I’ll be working on it every night this week and should have it pretty well wrapped up.

I’m looking forward to getting it on the track but I do feel a little nervous about how it’s going to handle. I’ve tried to remember everything I can and I hope I didn’t miss too much on the basic setup, but things can go wrong and usually do during test and tune. I just hope nothing terminal happens to it and I find any bugs quick and can fix them.

 

Well I made it to the track. Things didn’t go quite as well as I wanted to, but I did find and fix a few bugs. It ran hot all day so I didn’t get a chance to dial in the suspension much. The brakes are a little weak and the window net fell out while I was on the track once(I did manage to run Tony down after he passed me while driving with one hand. Don’t try this at home folks.). I also had a problem with the alternator, hence the push start. I should be able to get pretty much everything straightened out this week. I’ll be spending more time getting the old car ready for Doug to drive. We’ve decided it’s better to get one car running right than have two new cars that don’t work. So we’re going to put his motor in my car and use the two weeks before Shampine Memorial to finish his up.

   

I think I’m ready. It’s got tires. It’s got a motor. It’s got the right corner weights. It’s got letters. I’m still a little worried about it staying cool, but I don’t know what else I can change at the moment. Hopefully it will be OK. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out overall. There are some things I would have done differently if I had it to do over and will probably be changed after this season, but it’s a good solid car that I feel safe in. I expect it to handle well and lay down some good lap times.

     

Well, things didn’t work out the way I thought they would. Almost, but not quite. The car was loose all night but still drivable. A tangle with Chris Lupa in hot laps probably didn’t help tighten it up any as it bent the RR axle. I ended up babying it through the corners for the rest of the night. I’m hoping a new axle and a small spring change will tighten it up enough to make it driveable for next weekend. I’ll start second in the heat and third in the feature. Maybe I can redeem myself. I was a little upset with Kelly when he came in. I hope we don’t have to go through that again.

   

Not much to say about my own car this week. It ran well enough until about half way through the heat. I think I’m losing a cylinder. I’m told I have a bent valve. Fortunately, I’m putting the new motor in during the off weekend. I’m also replacing the radiator. I’ve been fighting it because the one I’m using is cheap and replaceable, but I just can’t keep the motor cool enough. We’ll see if this helps.

I thought I’d mention the incident between Dave and Chris(mostly because I have graphic pictures of it). Even after watching the tapes, I still don’t know if Bill helped Dave get sideways, but after he spun Chris went for a hole that wasn’t there and hit him hard. Both of them were shaken up and Dave smacked his knee but they were OK overall. Fortunately neither of them has any hard feelings and both should be back for the June 9 race.