Impressive work Steve,lots of luck ,lots of work,it will pay off in the long run.See you at the Nationals.Bruno.
Well....... she's home and in the process of going back together. Final assembly is a SLOW process!! LOL It sure does look different in different light conditions.... sometimes light blue, then dark blue, then gray and sometimes blue with purple tones!
Looks great Steve, can't wait to see it in person, and watch it run at the nats.. Been a long journey since you started this in 2017, but it is great to see it coming together. And if that's your trailer.. BUY A WINCH... I shutter to think of folks opening doors and clambering in and out of cars with fresh, perfect paint on them. Even if you have the driver door on the trailer, I have seen just too many bad things happen with folks driving them in, and backing them out of trailers. If that's not your trailer.. well, then... nevermind.. JW
Thanks!! Not my trailer..... I wish it was!! My trailer is smaller and yes, I have a winch with nylon rope instead of wire rope!!
Geeze, what's left? Looks like you could jump in that thing, and go for a ride.. well, if it was not raining and snowing out.. Looks great Steve, love the color. JW
First day of actually taking it out for a test ride. She definitely needs some "tweaking" in some areas, but overall, it was OK. Good oil pressure, didn't run hot, shifted OK, etc. One MAJOR issue I found was that the eye bolts that come with new SFI seat harnesses are TOO LONG!! The two center ones for the lap portion were too long and rubbed a 3/8" wide x .040" deep groove in my aluminum driveshaft..... DOOOHHOO! (I was wondering what that intermittent "grinding was!) My bad...... just didn't give it a thought when installing them. I ordered a new Denny's driveshaft, but it won't be finished until June. That leaves me with NO drag racing in BG this year. I'll still bring the car and cruise it around and enter the show, but no hard launches with that damaged driveshaft. Quite honestly, it was going to be really tough to be ready to race it anyway. It's kind of a shame, but I'm running out of time to prep and test the car before BG anyway. I'm NOT one to race a car that's not 100%, especially one with this level of expense involved! I have way too much going on and not enough time to get it all done. It'll be there, but no racing..... well, maybe a few burnouts! LOL The color sure looks different in the sun!!
I commend you for your decision Steve, I brought mine last year with the same intent after a full build (minus paint) and let’s just say I didn’t succeed! Lol No sense in rushing it, I would have just cruised mine around a little if I had it to do over again
Thanks Mark, I'm sure I'll get some crap from some people, but I know it's the right decision. It's real easy to "wish" things were a certain way, but to actually get to that point is a whole different scenario. By next year I'll have all the bugs out and some seat time...... it is what it is...... I'm just glad I'm able to bring it!
Steve you may be able to bring it up here to Machine Service in ashwaubenon. They build aluminum driveshafts. Similar situation happened to a customer of ours. Exhaust clamp rubbed on it and they made a new one. Just a thought.
Thanks Dan, I actually thought about that, but I truly believe "somebody" was trying to tell me something by this happening. I'm getting to the point that I'm getting stressed over trying to get the car finished, get the used trailer I bought road worthy, finish SRE products and still have a small "life" including "family". Too much for a retired guy!! Lol I'm going to take a deep breath, take a step backward and just enjoy the Nats' without racing...... I'll survive! Lol
Looks good Steve. Smart decision to have it sorted out before doing any crazy runs. I´ll look forward to see it in BG.
Yup, always the little things that get you.. I had a driveshaft blow up on a test drive in a brand new frame off /455-2004R upgrade.. shaft was assembled wrong at the driveshaft shop, which brought it's critical speed down enough that it blew up on the final test drive on the highway. No indication other than a very slight vibration.. in final testing, I had to make sure the downshift was correct on the trans at highway speed. About a second after the trans dropped into second, the driveshaft exploded. I had to replace the entire rear floor pan on that 64 Skylark.. If I were you Steve, I would leave it at home... for one simple reason.. it's going to be really hard to not "do a burnout" and with that setup, it may take a lot less than you thing to surpass your driveshafts failure point. And that would be a huge mess, and a huge setback. If you really want to take it, have a steel driveshaft made for it. Then, even if you don't want to go balls out on the race track, you can fool around with it, with no worries. Cruise around town and have some fun with it. Or.. If you don't want to waste the money on a new steel shaft, remove the damaged shaft completely.. tow it to the show field.. then the simple answer to why you can't run it, will be "no driveshaft". Not saying you can't control yourself, I just know how these thing happen.. The best thing you can do is eliminate the possibility of failure. With the price of fuel what it is, I doubt I would invest the money to drag the car down, if I could not have any fun with it. I found out last year that attending without a car is hard, I cannot imagine having the car there, but not running it.. torture.. Anyway, great looking car.. and congrats on it "almost" being done. JW
I appreciate the concern Jim. I talked to Denny at Denny's Driveshaft about the entire situation. He told me what I already knew about NOT racing it, but he said I'm very safe to drive it around as long as I don't hook up the tires and put a load on it. I know what you mean about just leaving it home and also having it there but not racing it, but I know I would feel absolutely terrible if I were sitting down there at the Nat's and the car was still at home...... that would kill me more than anything! LOL I'll just put my brain in "car show mode" and not get stupid....... believe me...... I'm the LAST person on this earth that wants to tear it apart and start over!! Also, I think I'll completely refrain from driving it into town and just keep it at the track........ that'll take 99% of any temptation away! With that in mind I "promise" to behave!!! LOL!!
