Friday, April 30, 2010

Good things happening part 2

Was too tired last night to type everything out.

I had a call early this week from a racer who I ran against last year (and he kicks butt), letting me know I could borrow his camera this year. He isn't racing due to funding this year. I am so thankful.
I also got an e-mail from my favorite girl racer and she let me know that she has some used tires for me. I am so thankful
My Dad has been working hard in the garage this week. Put together my mirrors (secret weapon), cleaned up my tow cables, and the trunk pin plates. He also has my front bumper and is preparing to paint it. Thanks for all the work Dad!
My Mom has also let me know she wants to help anyway she can...so kind, love ya.

Now I am going home. To hopefully work on the racecar. Going to Autozone and the glass place early tomorrow.

Hopefully I will have an update on Monday!
Have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Good things happening

Some of the work that got done last weekend.
Seat installed and roll cage foam installed
Trunk pins installed
Rear diff cover pulled off, fluid drained and goo-ed back on.
Windshield ordered and tires ordered (and picked up the tires today)
Billy Bob has the car almost all wired up. We ran the fuel pumps, radiator fan (which may need to be replaced) and tail lights.
See pictures below



Big Thanks to Billy Bob and Bryan coming over and helping me.

What I hope all the ITB cars see this year of me.

Seat and roll bar foamed installed


Yeah....still making a mess



Sorry I have been quiet the last few days.









Monday, April 19, 2010

Countdown begins...31 days


Here is a picture of the racecar, in 31 Days this car will be racing around Waterford Hills
So yes I have a little work to do.

This weekend finished task list (snow not included)
Transponder bracket mounted
Finished removing factory wire harness
Mounted fuse box
Modified glove box
Modified tail light wires
Installed the Kill Switch
Routed tail light wiring
Put the car up on jack stands and removed tires – prepping to change some fluids
Pulled more parts off the old car (include tow loops – not that I will ever need them again….LOL…I hope)
Billy Bob started the process of wiring everything up
My Dad stopped by and took some stuff back home with him – mirrors, emblem for the hood and finding proper hardware for the trunk pins and rear bumper

Work will be crazy this week and I have something going on after work each day this week. But this coming weekend is looking great for nothing on the schedule but working on the racecar and even more help to work on the car. Hopefully it will warm up too because the car needs to be painted soon!

Thursday, April 15, 2010




Well, my world is upside down now. I got a new assignment at work. I have to travel further and longer hours. But it is work and it is interesting. And top secret.

A quick update from last weekend.
The fuel pumps are hooked up

Rear panel installed – Separate compartments between fuel cell and driver – a good thing

IP Top Panel cut to fit around the roll bars, found the installation screw/ bolts too

Welded the front clip, a little rust made some of the uni-body structure a little loose, so I had to weld up some spot welds

Began to disassemble the factory wire harness to make room for a simpler one. It will be re-installed to comply to the rules..

My Dad made a mean (aka AWESOME) gauge panel for the racecar

Remove the fenders

Removed some more parts from the old racecar

The weather was beautiful and on Saturday and I want to thank Billy Bob and my Dad for helping me again on Saturday. My Dad also helped me trim my trees on Saturday.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Definition of a Northern Redneck

Taking parts from the garage to the living room of your house to keep them warm so you can paint them this weekend. :-)

Guilty!

Praising God in the storm....the snow storm.

Changed spark plugs last night, put some Armor All on to clean up some parts and removed a fender to be painted.
On Wednesday I removed gauges for the old car, took the driver's side door off the old car and had dinner with my Dad and Cathy for his birthday. Oh and then the Waterford Hills racers meeting.

Until next time...be safe and God Bless

Disclaimer

Figure I should get this out before I forget.
This blog is about....racing and getting the new racecar ready for the 2010 season. After, about the wins (I hope) and the trials (Oh there will be a lot of them).
This blog will have my life on it sometimes...like, what I did instead of working on the car. Or post links to stuff that interests me. Or tell you how blessed I truly am.
Some other notes....
I ain't the best at grammar. I may edit the post to fix stuff.
I sometimes don't make sense.
I am an engineer not an english major. Bear with me. I tend to write in the past, present and future all at once.
I do welcome comments.
I maybe funny, I may not tell you everything, I might rant, I might be boring. I might not post all the time. I will post if I get a sponsor (you better believe it).
But most importantly I will be me and I will show you who I am, I don't know any other way.

Be safe and God Bless :-)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

I made Youtube!

Slow day at work. I never got to send these out via e-mail. Thus for your viewing pleasure I present racing with TF American Racing via Tom.

http://www.youtube.com/user/924RACR#p/a/u/2/lHsI35Rq2Kc
This was from the June 2009 Sunday feature race at Waterford Hills. You are viewing from Merritt's #77 924.
I am battling with Alec in the white #3 Mustang and Kimi in the pink/blue #73 Mustang. One word - Loose!

http://www.youtube.com/user/MotownR#p/a/u/1/UczrX64G2qo
This is from the same race but from Lee in the #33 ITC (The gray car in the above video). I am still loose!

Kimi stated after the race she wanted to get around me quickly because she was tired of seeing the doors of my car. I am quite sure the tires got retired after the race.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter Weekend

Here is a list of what I got done this weekend. Most of the work happened on Thursday night and Friday. Saturday I visited my buddy for his birthday and Easter I had church and spent time with the family.
Thanks to Billy Bob for coming out on Friday.

The garage got cleaned and the spare part bins were sorted and put away.
The car got a wash down.
All the "goo" was removed from the rear window.
The fuel cell was opened and drained and put back together. Foam is good to go.
The tail lights were installed and the wire was hooked up and the the lights tested.
The fire extinguisher and its bracket was installed. The car has a fire system which is an upgrade from the last car.
The key locks were installed.
The race seat was removed from the '79 and measured to determine what I need to install it (brackets) properly.
We looked over the electrical system and the gauges, most of the gauges are going to come from the '79. Yesterday (Monday) I bought a volt gauge and took that one and others off of the '79 with the stock IP panel to my Dad's. We worked on modifying the panel to get all the gauges to fit. I still need to unhook a few gauges from the '79 to finish the panel. I would like to hopefully hook up all the gauges by this weekend.



The tail lights are installed!
















Billy Bob helping me drain the fuel cell.







I got some free tires if anyone is interested.



















So I made a little mess.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

An extra day to work on the car!

Yesterday my work announce they were giving us Good Friday off! WooHoo!!! Good Friday is tomorrow ;-)
So I convinced/asked/scammed Billy Bob to come over and help get the car ready. Well, probably help continue to get the car ready, probably won't be ready after this weekend, but I hope to make BIG progress.

Anyway....now that I think of it, I won't have to go to bed tonight, maybe I will just stay up all night and work on the car.

I will hopefully update information later this weekend if not, Monday by the latest.

Here are some pictures of the old racecar, since the only picture I posted was of it wrecked

Paddock Turn leading Franz in the Fiero (both ITB cars), 2009, probably fighting for 8th or 9th position...in class.


This was from driver's school in 2008 (the yellow hood), leading Donnie Walsh in his Miata, must have been ahead of him in line coming out of the pits, or he is lapping me. That is Franz's car behind us but someone else rented the car from him for driver's school.



This was from a open track day - practice, picture by Bubba



Paddock turn, a nice picture by Clutch

Again leading a Miata that is about to lap me, clearly bouncing off the curb.
Until next time be careful and God Bless!