Success...and Failure...

As you can tell by the date, I'm very, very late in updating this blog. Since so much has happened, I won't be able to give you a blow-by-blow accounting. Here's the "cliff's notes" version:

1. Somehow, by some herculean efforts, we got Lacey ready for Roebling. This was after numerous (!) cylinder heads, clutches, blown head gaskets, more valvetrain issues than I thought possible and all sorts of other problems. Everyone contributed.
2. We drove at Roebling. Highlights included finishing 14th out of 31 on Saturday, 17th out of 31 on Sunday, and even leading for a little while on Sunday. While the car was difficult to start after running, and several of us (including me) put the car off the track, Lacey kept running and gave us some confidence heading into the next race. It should be noted that we got a lot of help from non-driving friends, such as Doug Lawson, Dennis Andrews, and Mr. Wayne Andrews. We certainly couldn't have done it without them. We did lose a lot of oil, which led to Tim replacing the front seals and pan gasket with a little help from Jamie. Unfortunately, as it turned out, our team's confidence was misplaced!
3. We tried to drive at Sebring. Again, the details are too painful to recount, but suffice it to say that over the course of Friday night/Saturday, we either rebuilt or replaced the following:

• alternator (twice)
• fuel pump (rebuilt and replaced)
• fan belt
• front carb float and jet
• rotor button (twice)
• distributor
• distributor cap (twice)
• spark plug wires (twice)
• exhaust system mounting

Additionally, we filled the master cylinder that was new when we put Lacey together at every pit stop to try to stem the flow of fluid entering the booster.

When we crossed the finish line at 9 pm, we were the last car still running, and the five cars preceding us in the finishing order had all previously dropped out, but still had more laps in than we did.

So now, we're licking our wounds and prepping for the next race. Chump Car is racing at Roebling at the end of January. Will we be there? Time will tell. I know if we are, Lacey will be a different car by then.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

Jamie

Flush, Flush, Flush...and then flush some more...

These pictures say it all. After over an hour of flushing the block, including physically breaking open the clogs from the rear block screw-in plug, this is what the residue looked like when the water dried. I won't tell you how it felt when the plug let go in my face...let's just say that when Lacey's incontinent...she's REALLY incontinent.

Jack's take: The Trail of Tears...looks, to the casual observer, like a trail of rust...but this is actually the trail of tears of neglect shed by Lacey's engine block and heater core.

All this time, we thought she was just stubborn - resisting every effort to remove every rusted, neglected fastener - now we can see she actually was crying for help: "my block is clogged with rust and I've got a blown head gasket!" - she is now being much more cooperative - I have removed the intake and exhaust manifolds without encountering a single stubborn fastener - keep your fingers crossed and hope this continues through water pump housing and head removal this week.

"Head removal"? Watch for the next post.

Them's The Brakes!

From a 5/25 email from Jack titled "Them's The Brakes":

What another time sucking nightmare of frustration this was - Lacey's calipers didn't wanna give up their pads, let alone their pistons - got em all out though - only got one piston out of the farm car's calipers so far - will briefly try again this am before i send them off and let a pro try - rebuilding calipers is dead-nuts easy to do - if you can get em apart.
The pads looked almost new - but I'll bet the last time this puppy was driven, the outboard pistons weren't moving at all.

Irony of ironies: right after this struggle, i went in the house for dinner and Caroline handed me a bottle of sparkling wine she couldn't get the plastic cork out of - "sure - I'll take it out to the garage and hit it with a torch and some PB blaster - then maybe an air hammer". She decided to have something else to drink with dinner.

I must say the arrival of this box was yesterday's only real bright spot:

Update

No time to update the blog lately, but here's what's been going on:

• Lacey has suspension, steering and almost brakes
• We have another work session scheduled for Saturday
• Jack has been slaving away on the car
• We're hoping to have her driveable by the time we leave on Saturday
• It would be nice to at least be able to have a little time to shake her down
• Jack wants to run her in an autocross at the end of June...
• Lots of fabrication work left (metal bulkheads, installing taillights, aux. headlights, cool suit cooler mounting, battery isolation, etc....)
• The car has acquired a (used) graphic that inspired me to change the blog background today... :-)

Work Session!

A lot of work was accomplished on Lacey this weekend:

• Front suspension largely assembled -- ask Jack about SUPERPRO if you want a good laugh...


• Belts installed (required 'modification' of driveshaft tunnel...)


• Steering rack re-installed


• Seat 'kinda' bolted in place (need different hardware, but it fits)


• Replaced engine and tranny mounts (with very good safety-related reasons...)


• Finally...we'll need a new thermostat. Boy, will we EVER need a new thermostat.

And look below at the wonderfully clean cooling passage...just imagine what the inside of the block looks like! LOTS of flushing in our future, for sure!

There's no going back now...

We are officially entered for the August 21-22 ChumpCar race at Roebling Road (near Savannah, GA). Come cheer us on!

Jamie

CAGED!!!!!

Lacey's cage is finished!

Hot Wheels salutes RiffRAF!

Ok, not really. And this car looks a WHOLE lot better than Lacey ever will (although I'll take our safety equipment). But I thought it was cool...

More Cage Updates!

Again, mostly pictures from Jack...she's looking good...and safe!

Getting Cagey!

Just a bunch of cage pictures.... :-) Please look and comment!

Todd hard at work...THANKS, Todd!!!

Seat brace to go here

Door bars aren't in yet

fuel cell will be moved forward slightly. We had to go to a cell as the rear bars would go through the stock tank!

Amazing!

(post from Jack)

the driveshaft continues to be Lacey's most cooperative part.

I would have sworn this puppy wasn't coming apart without considerably more time, effort, and perhaps some damage. I credit Sili-Kroil and careful application of brute force with freeing the stuck splines.

Credit that can o stuff in the picture, from the sample pack Paul gave us, with dissolving the rust around the collar enough to unscrew it with relative ease.

No heat source or cutting tools were involved.

Cheers,

Jack Mc

Just when I thought I'd seen all the damage....

(post from Jack) ...I noticed the left front spring/shock tower brace is cracked at both ends.

(from Jamie) We have access to a free bent frame that may well have less rust...maybe Todd can cut/weld to section this thing back together solidly.

What's interesting is that this car was on the street as late as 2002, according to the license plate that came with the car...scary thought.

And all we want to do is race it for 24 hours straight....hmmmmmmmm....

One of these things is NOT like the others...

One of these things just doesn't belong....

In other words...how you DON'T want a differential mount to look.

No telling what happened to the other half of the mount.

"Oh, Todd..." (our cage welder)

Part Removed Without a Torch!!!

News flash: Jack was able to remove his first part without a torch or saw!

Unfortunately, it's the driveshaft with a seized middle joint. Hopefully, copious amounts of solvent and PB Blaster will free it up...

The true level of...rustness...is evident on looking closely at this part.

I wonder if taking advantage of the factory lightening program like this is legal? :-)

It Fits!!!

Thanks to Randy, our ace aluminum welder, we were able to split the seat down the middle and shrink it to JUST the right size to fit Lacey...and still fit Kevin and me...our more "ample" team members.

So now Lacey can be taken to the cage welder on MONDAY!!!! Can't wait!

What... the Diff?

(post from Jack)

The diff is out - you'll have to take my word for it since i forgot the camera today.

But first - this morning, Joe let me in his rented garage to collect the wheels and trailing arms from "the farm car" that we recently dragged out of a field. This is when I first really missed the camera - Joe removing the front wheels in his lawyer shirt and tie would have been a great shot. Loaded with 8 wheels - 4 from the farm car and 4 from Lacey - I went to see Jon Cannup - he dismounted all 8 dry-rotted Michelins - all 8 had tubes - which is surely the only reason any of them held air more than 5 minutes.

Anyway - we spun all 8 wheels on Jon's balancer - on a TR6 lug pattern adapter - I'm gonna call 5 of them pretty good and 3 of them good enough to use...

On to Concord - Lacey let go the diff with little resistance today - all 4 bolts on the front flange broke loose - then I managed to borrow a vise grip small enough to grab the pin inside the broken mount and keep it from spinning. Unfortunately the broken mount is worse than I thought - I had thought (by feel) that the front edge of the mount had just separated from the frame - turns out the whole front half of the mount is missing - along with a bit of the frame to which it was attached.

Todd - our welder / cage fabricator - looked at the car today on the lift - before I got there - I should let Joe report on that as he talked to Todd and I haven't - but I gather he saw nothing un-repairable and gave the thing a really good look as he spotted something I had not - the part of the body shell to which the front right corner of the driver side floor pan is attached is ...ah...not really attached to anything anymore - but it sounds like Todd can fix everything - and weld the diff - and still be cheaper than anybody else.

Cheers,

Jack Mc

well, THIS isn't going well...

(post from Jack)

Lacey gave up the rear part of her exhaust pretty easy - but won't let go of her diff - and the front right diff mount is broken - that's the hardest one to see with the exhaust in place - and the break had been effectively hidden by a rather half-baked repair - which I will try to explain once i get the diff out. Right now the pin in the right front mount threatens to spin in place forever - and after wasting a lot of time with PB Blaster, Sili-Kroil and a torch, I wound up cutting all 8 bolts holding the axle flanges to the diff and tomorrow will probably cut 2 of the 4 bolts holding the driveshaft flange to the front of the diff.

You may have noticed I have loaned Lacey 4 other wheels to wear while I get the tires off her old ones - which I will then evaluate before I blast them.

watch for another update tomorrow.

Cheers,

Jack Mc

PS. Will Taylor (owner and co-driver of last year's One-Lap of America winning Nissan GTR) stopped by today, pointed to a part on the car and said "What's that - part of the brake bias system?" He'd never seen or heard of a lever-arm shock - geez... kids these days...

I had a disagreement with Lacey today....

(Post from Jack)

- she didn't want to let go of her windshield frame.

things got messy...and ugly.

But, in the end, Lacey let go the windshield frame and survived just fine - same cannot be said for the windshield and frame - both of which died an ugly death.

I especially like the trail of dislodged rust dust under the sill.

Cheers,

Jack Mc

HoleyFramenCruciform!!

(Photo from Jack in Charlotte)
Picture says it all. Welding will commence shortly.

eBay auctions begin...

So, the great sell-off has entered Phase II; if you need TR6 parts, please check out our auctions at:

eBay Auction Link

and bid, bid, BID!!! :-) Just remember, you're supporting a grassroots Triumph race team looking to show everyone that a Triumph can still win races...

Update from Charlotte!

From Joe:
"Lacey arrived safely. After some "Triumph Shuffling" she is resting comfortably at a shop (Jack's rented space) in Concord N.C. We have names of several cage builders in the area and plan to move forward ASAP."

"On another front, Jack was kind enough to spend several hours (even though he had an autocross to prepare for!) to help me move a '76 TR6 parts car out of the woods where it had been for 10+ years into a rented garage that I have. We removed the gas tank, which Jack will inspect for integrity. If it is in good shape, we have our gas tank! There could be additional parts that we can use. A good couple of days!"

Hooray for the Charlotte guys!

Lacey moves to Charlotte

On Friday, four of our six team members met up at Wayne's Alignment in Siler City to talk about Lacey and transfer her to Charlotte to the custody of Jack and Joe for cage installation. We also resolved to enter the August 21-22 ChumpCar race at Roebling Road as our first event. That seems awfully soon as I type it.

Joe took this picture of me "driving" the car as we winched it on to Jack's trailer...seat is just placed into position...actually, it's not even in position yet...we decided we have to take 2" out of the middle of the seat, so we need to find a friendly TIG welder...

On the bright side, the eBay auctions for the remaining parts will start shortly... :-)

10:31 pm...

After working all night on the floor and the first stuck carb, I still have one carb to rebuild and have to load the car on the trailer to take it to Siler City tomorrow. Remind me again why I'm doing this?

Back to the garage...

Triumph...and Failure...and Triumph!

Got a lot of help today from Doug, a friend that volunteered his time in the rain today to pull and clean Lacey's gas tank. Unfortunately...some DPO (darn previous owner) beat us to it and did a crappy job of repairing the bottom of the tank. So...we're looking for another TR6 gas tank. Know of any?

The repair looks like brazed copper with fiberglass...weird. And some ugly sealant put in the tank bottom for good measure.

On the bright side, we were able to finish gutting the interior, including doors/side windows and the dash.

AND...SURPRISE...we STARTED THE CAR!!!!! Now, it didn't run very well because the rear carb's fuel jet was locked up solid. After looking at the carbs closely, they will need a rebuild. Luckily, I picked up two rebuild kits for the grand sum of $11.00 each at the Gathering auction a few years ago! So that's the project for the rest of the weekend...

Thanks to Doug!

Other important news: We've finalized the drivers at 6:

Jamie P.

Tim R.

Jack McG.

Joe D.

Vern B.

Kevin A.

Best of luck to the ChumpCar teams racing at Rockingham this weekend!!!

But on the bright side...

The driver's side floorboard was a different story...it was NEW, yes, NEW. Still painted in that electrostatic black primer...

Of course, in keeping with the workmanship of the rest of the car, it was held in with sheet metal screws...

But NEW! Wow!!!

Flt. Lft. Palmer

P.S. Thanks to Paul for being the first purchaser of the finest in used, RiffRAF Racing TR6 parts! We will be $33.33 closer to being legal (<$500), just $66.67 to go...

Just in case you didn't think this was a Chump-worthy car...

Whew! Who'd have thought that the major tool needed to remove the seat would be an air chisel (!) After 2 hours of fruitlessly trying to save the seat slides to put on ebay to help the budget...I gave in and air chiseled the seat slide out on the passenger side.

Turns out it was a TOTAL waste of time to try to save them. Reference the pictures...



So, at least I don't have to worry about auctioning those off! On the other hand, there were some useful components that I removed today, more to come. We have until Thursday to get the interior gutted as that's when Lacey will be displaced from the garage... :-)

Here's what the floor looked like, first right after I removed the seat, then after cleaning. Note the two layers of carpet...a layer of black indoor/outdoor carpeting was placed directly over the original carpet...or what was left of it.

Later on, what you see is what the floor looked like AFTER the debris...which was more substantial than the floor in some places...was removed. Look at the chump-worthy aluminum pop-riveted patch right over the rust! Of course, they missed a few holes, as is evidenced by the closeup...