Short Work day 2-25-2012

Well the car is together; the kill switch is tested, covered, and marked; drove the car around the block; and my dad is off for his vacation to play in the Colorado snow. Now I just need to keep myself busy for a few weeks until the race. With only a small amount of prep and shopping left to do, I will be going nuts for sure. My girlfriend is excited to have me for an entire weekend for the first time in awhile though.

I have found out that the next race we plan to do at Buttonwillow is a full 24 hour race. Now with the second car in the equation, the budget is tighter. So the original plan to buy and upgrade to a 14" or 15" wheel may not be realistic. So I have been looking into what is left of the 13" tire market and think there maybe something to get us by. These Nexen CP641s hopefully will be better then terrible and last the full race. We also will need to get some lights because the last time I drove the Spitfire at Buttonwillow in the dark with the stock head lamps, it was down right frightening. Looking into getting a pair of Hella 500s to mount on the front to help light our way.



Gotta get me some time on Forza 4 to learn the Infineon track better, and stop thinking so much about what we are going to do after the Infineon Race until after it is over.

Damn it feels good to be a crap can racer...

Work Day 2-18-2012

We are almost done...



Thanks to a lot of hard work from my pops, we are very near ready for the Sears Pointless race that is just over a month away. He modified the bumper supports and welded them in so we could mount the bumper on. The big rubber bumper just would not fit right after all the new mods so we mounted the metal one back on. It has taken a few hits before and held up fine so with it and the new fuel cell guard installed, the car is far safer then it has ever been. He also got the motor back together and started up. It ran good which is always a relief.

Well trying to decide how to continue forward with beefing up the floor panel at the drivers feet, a friend who stopped by recommended we use some Herculiner. It should do the trick and protect from rusting. Once we got all the holes patched up and cleaned the floor pan up with some paint thinner, we painted a thick layer of the stuff on the floor. Not very exciting or pretty but functional and important.



We then got the seat back in and now bolted to the new seat back brace as well. The seat is no longer just mounted to the "British Tin" floor. The only downside is we will feel a lot more of the bumps and shocks of the ride because the flexible floor is no longer absorbing some of it. Hey we are looking to be safe, not comfortable.



An interesting fellow came by to check out whats left of our spare parts cars and said he would take them off our hands. He is rebuilding a Triumph GT6 and a lot of the parts are interchangeable with the Spitfire. In return he is pulling off a few parts for me to give to a fellow LeMons racer. So these things are finally out of my parents yard, which I know makes my mom happy. See ya later you awesome rat turn infested rust buckets. You both served us well, now go get hacked up else where.



Next week, we will be finishing up the cover and markings for our Killswitch, bleeding the brakes, and driving it around the block to check everything out. Once those things are done we will be basically ready for the race. There will just be some small side prep work I will be taking care of while my father goes on a much deserved vacation. I am starting to think he works harder on this car for me then he does at his real job. Funny though, now that the spare parts cars are gone, he could not help himself and already picked up another car for our next project. Much faster and a different country of origin.. but that is for next year and will be a different story.



Damn I am getting excited about Infineon...

Work Day 2-11-2012

I was able to get my buddy to come do some welding work for us and man did he get a lot done in only a few hours. It was relieving for me to see most of the safety upgrades are now done as they were the most important items on our list for the 2012 season.



We now have a solid cage around our fuel cell that ties to the frame and the back stays. This set up should ease the minds of the LeMons tech crew a bit.



Within the few hours he was there, he was able to help strengthen the areas around our spreader plates inside the car as well. It looks and feels so much more solid then before.



He was not happy with our floor pan at the driver's feet so with the last bit of time he was there he started installing a plate to beef up that area as well. We will finish it off as he got the most important welds done for us.



I feel kind of useless while he does this work, so I just try and get him what ever he needs, food, beer, water, and stand by with the fire extinguisher. Then during his smoke breaks I assist my pops while he works on the motor, and I have some fun adding some paint to the car. I created a simple safety pin stencil that looks kinda cool and gives the car more of that punk rock look.





Also I have been continuing on my team theme costume. It has come along pretty well and now I wont just be standing around in a t-shirt. I will actually look like the jack ass who owns this car. I still have more spikes, safety pins, paint, and patches to add to the vest before it is done. I will also be spiking my hair up at the race, but you can get the idea.





Good times, we are almost ready and the sense of urgency is gone. Now time to check out the greatness from the LeMons race that was out in Texas over the weekend.



And well I guess I should get back to work....

Short work day - Feb 4th 2012

Continued stripping down the third Spitfire for parts, and it soon will be time to have these things hauled off. The last major piece we wanted from it was the diff. Thanks to a can of PB Blaster this kind of thing is becoming quite easy, but the working conditions were less then ideal. Check out what is still left in the trunk of this thing, you can see why he only charged us $500 for both of the cars and an extra standard 4 speed transmission.



Here is a look from under the car where I spent a few hours working...



But it was worth it.. I got out a diff that turns like butter and will be great to have as a spare. We already thrashed the original one and are running one pulled from the other parts car.



My pops was able to find a buyer for the over drive transmission we pulled out of the car last week. It is in good shape and sold for $350. So we actually made back $100 from the two cars, got two running motors, two good diffs, spare axles, and two spare transmissions from the deal. A lot of work, but that is half the fun of crap can racing, rat turds and all.

Here is the over drive transmission with it's driveshaft, the guy who is buying it is meeting us at Infineon to pick it up. So it is one more thing we have to haul with us.



It was a good day... Now off to go have a few cold ones with some friends and watch the Super Bowl. Go.. uh .. I do not like either team, should be good fun anyway.

Theme stuff - getting punked out.

Got started on some of my theme gear to wear at the next race. I never was into the flashy punk rock style with the big hair, safety pins, patches, spikes, studs, etc... but this is quite fun. I can see why many kids did this kind of self made styled clothing during class and when they were supposed to be doing home work. Just look at these nuts.. that is a lot of effort and money to show they are "punk" haha.



There is a damn funny article about "how to be punk" where I found the pics of those kids you can read it Here.

I was more the t-shirt, jeans, and vans shoes type of kid. Though I can not deny I had my moments of trying to hard when I was in high school, and had a real liberty spike mohawk for about five days of my adult life. Anyways......

I had a general plan of the things I wanted to make and what I would need. The most expensive item was going to be the leather vest or jacket. But lucky for me, a friend of mine gave me one for free that, after cutting the arms off, will work great. I also was going to order some spiked wrist bands but found a site that whole sales spikes and studs, so for very little money I can make it all myself.

The first thing I made is a neck chain horribly modeled after the neck chain Sid Vicious wore. If you do not know he was the bassist in the Sex Pistols.



Here is a picture of the famous Sid sporting said neck chain and one of the spike wrist bands I will make...



I will be cutting out the team logo from my team shirt to add as a patch on the back of the vest. There are also two other band's logos I had patches of that I will be adding, The Dwarves and Flogging Molly. When I cut the arms off the jacket I realized the cuffs have buttons and will be perfect for making cheap spiked wristbands so I will be able to make three, the third will be made from an old leather belt I have.



My pops has been showing me up at the races so far by actually getting his hair dyed and cut to sport a real mohawk. He also has a spiked neck collar he got in England. This time around I will at least be proudly sporting some less the classy punk rock threads..

Will post up pics of the gear later down the line when it is done.

"Anarchy in the U.K.!"