Here is the reason why I haven't started on the bus yet...
Here's what it started out like in late March...
Then you start stripping everything off...and the car parts too...
Robbed parts from my sister Stacey's car from last year (frame is broken in 3 places, but it's very fast). I took the engine and tranny along with the entire rear-end and roll cage...
I took parts from my old car as well. I cut it up last fall after the race season was over. The back section, with the fuel cell, is in my new car.
I got pretty excited to go after I got the cage out of Stacey's car and painted it. Here it's ready to go in my new car, but not before a test drive...good thing pictures don't catch sound because I didn't realize she was taking my picture and I was making "vroom, vroom sounds while shifting gears...I built this cage for her new car in 2003.
We had to remove the remaining glass before we could get the cage in. I dragged Stacey away from wedding planning to give me a hand while I was caught laying down on the job again. It's not all that warm so she had a tough time cutting the caulking while I kept pressure on the glass.
Here's the cage installed in my car...notice the dents in the bars from her getting hit hard on her driver's door. That hit broke her frame and she ended up taking the last three weeks of the season off so she could heal up.
Here's the front view with the cage in. Still needs the front done before we can install the motor and tranny. You can see the windshield mesh that I cut from my old car car with a disk-grinder...
We rolled Stacey's old car over to take the rear-end and exhaust off. It was the easiest (and most fun) way to do it. Here's Scott (Stacey's boyfriend) using the tractor and then inspecting...
I got the front part of the cage finished using parts from Stacey's car and new pipe. I had to weld every part of the mesh that attached to the pipes. It took me the better part of a day to attach the pieces on the windshield area and in front of the radiator...
Here it is, all hooked up and ready to go to the shop to swap the engine from the old car. An engine hoist is the only piece of equipment we don't have. Next year I will make sure I have one so we don't have to rely on anyone else for help.
Here it is after the engine was in and we put the hood on it. We finished stripping the trim off and started removing the vinyl top. What a nightmare those are! We riveted steel from my old car roof along the bottoms of the doors to tie them to the body and we welded the doors shut. Now it's time for paint...
After 6 weeks of work, 8 sawz-all blades, two 12" cutting disks, three 4" grinding disks, three pounds of welding wire and numerous cuts, burns and abasions, this is what it looks like. This is Stacey and me with the new race car. As you can see we build our cars from the ground up and I even do the paint and graphics. I let my friend design the flames and pinstripe them this year, but I layed the paint on.
Here it is without my ugly mug in the picture...
I got Stacey into racing and she does a great job. This year she is taking the season off because she's marrying another race driver I introduced her to at the track. Here's my tribute to them...
Finally, after all that work, we made it to the track. Here's my car next to Scott's. I finally got to take a deep breath and relax!
Whew, it's a lot of work putting together a post like this. I hope it's less work to look at.
It's always fun to share a little of my world with my friends since we only get to "see" each other through posts and a few pictures. I always enjoy getting a glimpse of the world of others.
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