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...