Last entry from last year's racing... the damage...
Okay.. so I had a great time at Kamp Motor Speedway. I returned home, unloaded the car and tried to fire it up. I had the exact same problem again with the new starter!
So.. I took the car to a local hot rodder's shop to get a new gasket put in the intake manifold (oil leak), have the shifter lever re-attached and see what they could do to help me with the starter.
They suggested mounting a stock starter to real tight tolerances, measured and mounted carefully. They said they had done this with a street rod with real high compression ratio and never had a problem. I dropped the car off and waited to hear back from them.
It took them till Saturday morning for me to pick it up - which of course was the day of the practice at Fairbury.
We fired the car up at the shop prior to loading it and everything seemed to work fine. They timed the motor, after having removed the distributor for the intake manifold installation. And then we shut it down for loading. I found out then that the lights had been on in the trailer, so of course the battery was dead. I went back to the house to load up for my trip, and I was nervous about unloading the racecar due to the dead battery in the trailer. (I wasn't aware that the truck was charging the battery as it ran, so I probably could have unloaded.) Anyway, I only loaded up a few hand tools that I thought I would need to air up the tires, tighten down some bolts, etc. I didn't load up the whole tool chest because it was in the garage, which would require unloading the racecar. This would prove to be an unwise move.
When I got to the track, it started sprinkling immediately after unloading. :( So I loaded back up... then it stopped again, so I unloaded. I got the car ready and went to fire it up - same damned problem! I was very frustrated. I went to find a track official and asked if I could get push-started just to turn some laps, and was told that wouldn't be a problem. So I changed quickly into my gear and with some help pushed the car back away from the trailer.
I climbed in and got a push start. Now.. this was my first time getting a push start. And it's not a real "smooth" process. But we managed to get it going, knock it out of high gear and then move on over to the staging area.
When I got out onto the track, I shifted up into high gear without any problems (whew!) and waited for the green flag. It was just me and another guy, so I could really enjoy myself and try some things. I felt the car pushing real bad in turn 2, not wanting to turn to the left even before I got on the gas. I think it might have been the shape of the turn, though, and I suspect there's something I can do with my driving to fix that. The other guy on the track spun out probably 3 or 4 times during out laps, so I'm not really sure how many green flag laps I ran. But before I knew it, the white flag was displayed as I exited turn 4.
This is when my problems started. I had turned lap after lap with very few incidents and hardly getting out of shape. Meanwhile my lap-mate had spun out repeatedly. So I decided I needed to push it a little, see what I could do. And push it I did. The car started to move forwards at an angle as I gave it a little more gas, the rear end trying to move to the right a bit as it pushed the car forwards. I countersteered to keep the car going straight, but I didn't really lift off the gas pedal - hoping the tires would continue to get more and more forward grip. But it just didn't happen fast enough and (in my head) "come on come on come on come on" *BAM* I smacked the wall with the right rear. The car bounced off the wall and spun around, clipping the right front against the wall in the process. I came to rest facing backwards in the entrance to turn 1.
The track workers ran over to see if I was okay - I was, just mad at myself - and then they hooked up the rear of the car to a tow truck. Here's something I bet you didn't know - when they're towing your car by the rear, you have to keep the steering wheel straight ahead or else the car will "wander" a bit. Yeah, I looked like a goof, but it didn't do any damage. They just had to stop the tow truck and come back to tell me to hold the wheel straight.
When I got to my trailer and was lowered off the tow truck, that's when I really began to get alarmed. How was I going to repair this thing so I could load it onto the trailer?!? I didn't even have any of my air tools to remove a tire! Fortunately a good friend brought over his crew and helped me out quite a bit. They disconnected the driveshaft as it was pinned against the rollcage. We changed the tire since a wheel was bent and from there were able to load it up. I brought the trailer back to Lockport and parked it in the yard, where it sat pretty much until September or October.
A week ago Saturday, my buddy - George - and I climbed under the racecar and removed some broken or bent pieces. My parts list is kinda long, but it's not too formidable. I took some pics, though, of the damage...
Damaged rear corner
Rear Corner from another angle
Corner damage close-up
another close-up
More damage on the side - nerf bar shoved up, tore some sheet metal and some rivets popped out
side damage close up
inside the side of the car.. the nerf bar mount is bent up and cracked the weld.. note the torn sheet metal
This piece is called a 'J-bar'.. but it now looks like a 'C' cause the right end got bent almost 90 degrees on impact
Another shot of the 'J-bar'
One broken shock, one bent shock
One of the bars in the Z-link got bent just a little, but it shouldn't be expensive to replace
Something got bent in the front.. maybe in the steering linkages, cause the tires are toed out excessively now
And this is why the toe is knocked out.. note the white concrete dust packed into the wheel. (though, the deeper bend is from before I bought the car)
Well.. that's about it! It's not really that bad. The parts are kinda pricey - Driveshaft $150, and the rear wheel $125, the prices go down from there.
Hope you enjoyed! I didn't enjoy hitting the wall, but I did enjoy the laps up to that point.
-asa
So.. I took the car to a local hot rodder's shop to get a new gasket put in the intake manifold (oil leak), have the shifter lever re-attached and see what they could do to help me with the starter.
They suggested mounting a stock starter to real tight tolerances, measured and mounted carefully. They said they had done this with a street rod with real high compression ratio and never had a problem. I dropped the car off and waited to hear back from them.
It took them till Saturday morning for me to pick it up - which of course was the day of the practice at Fairbury.
We fired the car up at the shop prior to loading it and everything seemed to work fine. They timed the motor, after having removed the distributor for the intake manifold installation. And then we shut it down for loading. I found out then that the lights had been on in the trailer, so of course the battery was dead. I went back to the house to load up for my trip, and I was nervous about unloading the racecar due to the dead battery in the trailer. (I wasn't aware that the truck was charging the battery as it ran, so I probably could have unloaded.) Anyway, I only loaded up a few hand tools that I thought I would need to air up the tires, tighten down some bolts, etc. I didn't load up the whole tool chest because it was in the garage, which would require unloading the racecar. This would prove to be an unwise move.
When I got to the track, it started sprinkling immediately after unloading. :( So I loaded back up... then it stopped again, so I unloaded. I got the car ready and went to fire it up - same damned problem! I was very frustrated. I went to find a track official and asked if I could get push-started just to turn some laps, and was told that wouldn't be a problem. So I changed quickly into my gear and with some help pushed the car back away from the trailer.
I climbed in and got a push start. Now.. this was my first time getting a push start. And it's not a real "smooth" process. But we managed to get it going, knock it out of high gear and then move on over to the staging area.
When I got out onto the track, I shifted up into high gear without any problems (whew!) and waited for the green flag. It was just me and another guy, so I could really enjoy myself and try some things. I felt the car pushing real bad in turn 2, not wanting to turn to the left even before I got on the gas. I think it might have been the shape of the turn, though, and I suspect there's something I can do with my driving to fix that. The other guy on the track spun out probably 3 or 4 times during out laps, so I'm not really sure how many green flag laps I ran. But before I knew it, the white flag was displayed as I exited turn 4.
This is when my problems started. I had turned lap after lap with very few incidents and hardly getting out of shape. Meanwhile my lap-mate had spun out repeatedly. So I decided I needed to push it a little, see what I could do. And push it I did. The car started to move forwards at an angle as I gave it a little more gas, the rear end trying to move to the right a bit as it pushed the car forwards. I countersteered to keep the car going straight, but I didn't really lift off the gas pedal - hoping the tires would continue to get more and more forward grip. But it just didn't happen fast enough and (in my head) "come on come on come on come on" *BAM* I smacked the wall with the right rear. The car bounced off the wall and spun around, clipping the right front against the wall in the process. I came to rest facing backwards in the entrance to turn 1.
The track workers ran over to see if I was okay - I was, just mad at myself - and then they hooked up the rear of the car to a tow truck. Here's something I bet you didn't know - when they're towing your car by the rear, you have to keep the steering wheel straight ahead or else the car will "wander" a bit. Yeah, I looked like a goof, but it didn't do any damage. They just had to stop the tow truck and come back to tell me to hold the wheel straight.
When I got to my trailer and was lowered off the tow truck, that's when I really began to get alarmed. How was I going to repair this thing so I could load it onto the trailer?!? I didn't even have any of my air tools to remove a tire! Fortunately a good friend brought over his crew and helped me out quite a bit. They disconnected the driveshaft as it was pinned against the rollcage. We changed the tire since a wheel was bent and from there were able to load it up. I brought the trailer back to Lockport and parked it in the yard, where it sat pretty much until September or October.
A week ago Saturday, my buddy - George - and I climbed under the racecar and removed some broken or bent pieces. My parts list is kinda long, but it's not too formidable. I took some pics, though, of the damage...
Damaged rear corner
Rear Corner from another angle
Corner damage close-up
another close-up
More damage on the side - nerf bar shoved up, tore some sheet metal and some rivets popped out
side damage close up
inside the side of the car.. the nerf bar mount is bent up and cracked the weld.. note the torn sheet metal
This piece is called a 'J-bar'.. but it now looks like a 'C' cause the right end got bent almost 90 degrees on impact
Another shot of the 'J-bar'
One broken shock, one bent shock
One of the bars in the Z-link got bent just a little, but it shouldn't be expensive to replace
Something got bent in the front.. maybe in the steering linkages, cause the tires are toed out excessively now
And this is why the toe is knocked out.. note the white concrete dust packed into the wheel. (though, the deeper bend is from before I bought the car)
Well.. that's about it! It's not really that bad. The parts are kinda pricey - Driveshaft $150, and the rear wheel $125, the prices go down from there.
Hope you enjoyed! I didn't enjoy hitting the wall, but I did enjoy the laps up to that point.
-asa