Well, it's been a long time, but here's an update

I had stopped using the blog for updates, but since there have been a lot of pictures taken, it makes it easier to use this for our mailing list. So...

We had a work day today. To catch anyone up that hasn't known what's happened, we turned the TR6 into an awesome...ok...a semi-awesome racecar. And then, when I didn't shut it off as quickly as I should have at Charlotte...it was totaled. So, since then, we've been working on making the car all over again starting from a new frame and tub donated to the team by Joe, our wonderful team member.

The team had a major work session today; the second one in the past two weeks. LOTS was accomplished. We now have four wheels worth of suspension, the engine and tranny are installed (bolts not tightened yet, but they are installed!), all four fenders are installed (thanks, Joe!), a new dash panel was fabricated and pre-installed (will have to be pulled one more time and painted) from Lacey's old drivers' side door. Brakes were installed, fuel pump and ALL electrical harness was put in place (THANKS, Doug!!!) and both headlight buckets were installed (we now have a TR7 bucket on the driver's side).

We actually would have put the car on its wheels, but didn't have enough straight wheels and tires to put it on yet. Jack sent three wheels by Joe today and I will be cleaning them up and painting them to re-create the famous ORANGE set of wheels.

From the top, you can see the new door (and Kevin's temporary (?) numbering). Nice to see how the door fastening will go.

Wanted to show Doug pondering the next move....

You can see the nice electrical panel Doug created for us installed in the footwell.

Also the fuel pump installation (in the trunk for more protection this time)...we will be running the fuel line through conduit through the interior to keep it away from the hot exhaust. This is "chump legal."

You can also see the (currently) camo dash and proof that the engine is installed.

Looks like more work next weekend as long as we can figure out a way to transport the car to Raleigh...I'm out of town, so it will have to be someone else...

Jamie
Squadron Leader, RiffRAF Racing

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