Quote:
Originally Posted by camcojb
Will yours ever be finished?  |
...maybe?
Believe it or not, earlier this year I actually did work on my car… modified the frame for eye mount upper and lower coilovers up front, swapped lower control arms for eye mount coilover versions, repaired my ATS spindles that I messed up the upper balljoint tapers in several years ago (had to build a fixture to hold them in the mill so I could bore out the old inserts, then machine new inserts, then use liquid nitrogen to shrink fit them into the spindles-- couldn’t send them to Speedtech for the repairs because they don’t make them like that anymore and no longer have the parts or fixtures to deal with the ball joint inserts), and modified a set of C6 ZR1 SKF X-tracker hubs with the later yellow wire active ABS sensors to fit on the ATS spindles to work with the Continental/Teves MK60 ABS that I’m going to be using.
And of course, right when I’m making progress and finish the front suspension and am ready to pull the frame to box it and build the torque arm for the rear I start getting “those” phone calls… can you put an overdrive transmission and build a new rear end and put rear discs on my El Camino? Can you look at my Corvette that I took somewhere else for an EFI swap and it’s never ran right since and the shop that installed it says nothing is wrong? Can you look at my GTO that has an electrical drain and the Vintage Air doesn’t work anymore since the body shop had the car completely disassembled? Now that I don’t want it to be a race car anymore, can you cut the roll cage out, install a Ridetech coilover setup, install Dakota Digital RTX gauges, and Vintage Air in my Biscayne? So much for having a spot in the shop free to work on the frame.
Between the cars that come to my house and the phone calls and visits to about 4 or 5 local shops that get stuck on difficult wiring or EFI issues they can’t figure out is why my car keeps sitting unfinished. It’s not because I don’t have the parts, because a good portion of the game room in the house is FILLED with parts to finish the car… I just spend all my time working on other people’s cars while my car sits neglected.
I keep telling myself after the El Camino and Biscayne are done no more jobs for other people at my shop until my car is running again, but I’ve been saying that for 12 years now because the other cars keep showing up because I can’t say no… and lately I’ve been getting the panic phone calls and texts from people who want last minute stuff done before hot august nights… argh. I can’t win.
I definitely need to get the frame off, modded, and primed/painted before winter rolls around. I don’t want to be doing frame mods in the winter when condensation is an issue, then I have to constantly clean off flash rust before welding, plus priming/painting in the winter when the humidity is up is asking for fisheyes and other paint issues to happen.
Looking forward, debating if I should get a hold of Kurt Urban and have him prep another crankshaft for the LS2 I had him machine for me about 12 years ago and is still unassembled in boxes. The block/heads/rods/pistons/valvetrain are still just fine, but years ago when I was still planning on doing the twin turbos Kurt said stick with a stock LS2 cast crank as it won’t be a problem even up to 1500hp. Now that I switched to the 3 liter Whipple I need to machine a keyway into the crank for the blower drive, and I’m wondering if I should have Kurt machine up a forged crank instead or if the stock cast LS2 crank with a keyway added will be OK. I’m really only worried about the crank snout with the Whipple, everything behind it will be OK as I won’t be making enough power where Kurt said the stock crank becomes an issue. I need to call him and ask. Maybe I should make more progress on the car first, because at this point assembling the engine is WAY down my to do list, LOL
Hoping to be back on my car after all the last minute panic hot august prep issues go away… we’ll see.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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