Sunday, October 28, 2012
Reflection
Looking back on my first season (really a partial season), I still feel good despite the crashes. I converted the car from a Formula Continental to a Formula F with Honda power and I learned a lot in the process. I wanted some different challenges and I got them. I'm getting more and more comfortable with the car and I know that a lot more speed is there. The one thing that I still haven't gotten used to is how quickly this car brakes compared to a FV. There is definitely a lot of time on the table there. The car is really a blast to drive but certainly not cheaper than running a FV. It will be a little of a challenge to manage the costs and I will be seeing if I can find some additional sponsorship. If I can't then I will just have to see how much I can do with the budget that I have. But I'm still glad that I have gone through the process and I hope that everyone has enjoyed the blog! A number of people have come up to me during the year and have told me that they have been reading my blog and have enjoyed it so that makes me feel good. One of the things that I wanted to get across to everyone is that although racing a car like this isn't cheap, it can be done without a lot of high dollar shop equipment and a large professional team. However, there is no doubt that I am at a disadvantage against those large teams. That is ok with me -- I'm doing the best that I can with what I got and I will continue to get better!! I also plan on continuing this blog although I probably won't be updating it as often as when I was building the car. I hope everyone keeps following and I welcome questions from anyone that has them!
Watkin's Glen/Thanks Terry!
I raced at the last F1600 series weekend of the season at Watkin's Glen, NY a few weeks ago. I ran a test day at Summit Point a couple of weeks before Watkin's Glen and after making some set-up changes I was able to take another .7 seconds off of my previous best time there on tires that had 8 heat cycles on them. That really boosted my confidence and I came into the WG weekend with a great attitude and ready to push the car and myself harder. I hadn't been to WG in quite a few years but I at least know the track and I drove a number of laps on iRacing in a Lotus 79 as part of my preparation. Unfortunately the WG weekend turned out to be a mixed bag.
We only had two practice sessions on Friday before qualifying in the morning (11:30 am) for Saturday's afternoon race at 4pm and the same qualifying and race schedule on Sunday. On my second lap of the first qualifying session a metal piece that holds a rod end for the shift linkage broke away from the frame so I couldn't shift the car. The piece had been brased to the chassis and I suspect that it breaking away from the frame was a byproduct of the wreck that I had at the beggining of the year. In order to get it fixed I had to find someone that could weld it back to the chassis but in order for someone to get to it I had to remove the right front suspension, the right sidepod top, and the right side panel. I also had to disconnect the electrics. Not a small amount of work and there was no hope of getting out again on the test day. My only hope was to make qualifying. The weather was also interesting that day. We had rain, sleet, high winds, and temps in the 40s. Not exactly great conditions! But I was there to race so I got the car stripped down and found someone to weld the piece back on. Unfortunately since it had been brased before it was not able to be welded because remnants of the brass from the brasing was still infused in the metal. The same group that had the welder had some torches and brasing rod so that it could be brased. Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone to brase it until I happened to find out that a friend of mine who I had raced against in FVs was able to brase -- he doesn't race FVs anymore but he was there to see the action. So he got the piece re-attached and I could then put the car back together. I wasn't able to start re-assembly until late in the afternoon and my wife, Terry, and I were there until 8:30 that night. It was supposed to be 25 degrees Saturday morning so I wanted to get as much done as I could that evening but our flood lights stopped working and although I did a little bit of work using the lights from the truck, that really wasn't cutting it. Terry was a real trooper because the conditions were pretty lousy along with my mood. :)
I finished up getting the car ready for qualifying in the morning and although I qualified 16th out of 22 cars, I was penalized 2 spots for missing a black flag. A number of other cars also missed the flag and were penalized. Although I spun once in the race, I had a good race and finished 14th. It was the first time that I really got to race against others in this car so it was good to experience that. Here is a video from the race up until my spin.
After looking at my data, I decided that I needed to change gears for Sunday's qualifying so I did that Sunday morning. I also made a couple of small set-up changes. I had a good qualifying session and took anothere 1.2 seconds off my previous best time which put me 15th on the grid. I was reasonably happy with that. One thing that I noticed though is that my car was a little too low in the front so I planned on raising it. Unfortunately the front corner of my car hit some sort of pipe cover that was located where we came off of pit lane and was sticking up over an inch. Unbelievably it ended up bending the front right corner of my belly pan away from the car so I had to take a cut off wheel and remove that piece of belly pan. I now have to replace the belly pan on the car over the winter as a result. Again, unbelievable.
For the race, I knew I could go faster and I was just looking forward to it. I again made some small set-up changes so I just wanted to get through the first few laps so that I could tell how the car was feeling and then I could push it harder if it felt good. A good plan but rarely do races go as planned. Coming onto the front straight to start the second lap one of the cars running in the top 10 lost the back end of his car and hit the outside guard rail and then bounced into the oncoming traffic. The car in front of me hit him pretty hard and I tried to squeeze between the crashing cars and the guard rail. The gap closed and I hit the car in front of me as well as the guard rail. Six of us ended up being involved in the crash and there were cars and car parts strewn accross the front straight. My race was obviously done. The left corner got the brunt of my crash but I also destroyed my nose and shock cover as well as some other bits. Obviously dissappointing but if you can't accept crash damage then you shouldn't be racing. At least I have all winter to fix it.
My wife's and my anniversary happened to be October 16th so we stayed in Watkin's Glen an extra day and enjoyed the fall foliage and the winery's. :) I'm really lucky to have Terry as my wife and crew. As I mentioned before, she was a real trooper and she sticks with me through thick and thin. She also does a great job as my crew. Some of the things that she does is documenting the tire temps when the car comes off the track, documenting pressures, and taking notes when changes to the car are made. She is also on the radio to me giving me much needed info while I'm in the car. Not only is someone like that absolutely necessary but it wouldn't be as much fun without her. Thanks Terry!!
We only had two practice sessions on Friday before qualifying in the morning (11:30 am) for Saturday's afternoon race at 4pm and the same qualifying and race schedule on Sunday. On my second lap of the first qualifying session a metal piece that holds a rod end for the shift linkage broke away from the frame so I couldn't shift the car. The piece had been brased to the chassis and I suspect that it breaking away from the frame was a byproduct of the wreck that I had at the beggining of the year. In order to get it fixed I had to find someone that could weld it back to the chassis but in order for someone to get to it I had to remove the right front suspension, the right sidepod top, and the right side panel. I also had to disconnect the electrics. Not a small amount of work and there was no hope of getting out again on the test day. My only hope was to make qualifying. The weather was also interesting that day. We had rain, sleet, high winds, and temps in the 40s. Not exactly great conditions! But I was there to race so I got the car stripped down and found someone to weld the piece back on. Unfortunately since it had been brased before it was not able to be welded because remnants of the brass from the brasing was still infused in the metal. The same group that had the welder had some torches and brasing rod so that it could be brased. Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone to brase it until I happened to find out that a friend of mine who I had raced against in FVs was able to brase -- he doesn't race FVs anymore but he was there to see the action. So he got the piece re-attached and I could then put the car back together. I wasn't able to start re-assembly until late in the afternoon and my wife, Terry, and I were there until 8:30 that night. It was supposed to be 25 degrees Saturday morning so I wanted to get as much done as I could that evening but our flood lights stopped working and although I did a little bit of work using the lights from the truck, that really wasn't cutting it. Terry was a real trooper because the conditions were pretty lousy along with my mood. :)
I finished up getting the car ready for qualifying in the morning and although I qualified 16th out of 22 cars, I was penalized 2 spots for missing a black flag. A number of other cars also missed the flag and were penalized. Although I spun once in the race, I had a good race and finished 14th. It was the first time that I really got to race against others in this car so it was good to experience that. Here is a video from the race up until my spin.
After looking at my data, I decided that I needed to change gears for Sunday's qualifying so I did that Sunday morning. I also made a couple of small set-up changes. I had a good qualifying session and took anothere 1.2 seconds off my previous best time which put me 15th on the grid. I was reasonably happy with that. One thing that I noticed though is that my car was a little too low in the front so I planned on raising it. Unfortunately the front corner of my car hit some sort of pipe cover that was located where we came off of pit lane and was sticking up over an inch. Unbelievably it ended up bending the front right corner of my belly pan away from the car so I had to take a cut off wheel and remove that piece of belly pan. I now have to replace the belly pan on the car over the winter as a result. Again, unbelievable.
For the race, I knew I could go faster and I was just looking forward to it. I again made some small set-up changes so I just wanted to get through the first few laps so that I could tell how the car was feeling and then I could push it harder if it felt good. A good plan but rarely do races go as planned. Coming onto the front straight to start the second lap one of the cars running in the top 10 lost the back end of his car and hit the outside guard rail and then bounced into the oncoming traffic. The car in front of me hit him pretty hard and I tried to squeeze between the crashing cars and the guard rail. The gap closed and I hit the car in front of me as well as the guard rail. Six of us ended up being involved in the crash and there were cars and car parts strewn accross the front straight. My race was obviously done. The left corner got the brunt of my crash but I also destroyed my nose and shock cover as well as some other bits. Obviously dissappointing but if you can't accept crash damage then you shouldn't be racing. At least I have all winter to fix it.
My wife's and my anniversary happened to be October 16th so we stayed in Watkin's Glen an extra day and enjoyed the fall foliage and the winery's. :) I'm really lucky to have Terry as my wife and crew. As I mentioned before, she was a real trooper and she sticks with me through thick and thin. She also does a great job as my crew. Some of the things that she does is documenting the tire temps when the car comes off the track, documenting pressures, and taking notes when changes to the car are made. She is also on the radio to me giving me much needed info while I'm in the car. Not only is someone like that absolutely necessary but it wouldn't be as much fun without her. Thanks Terry!!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Making A Scoop Part 2
Now that I'm not frantically trying to get the car back together for the next race, I have some time to write this second post on the scoop. In Part 1 I showed how I was applying bondo over the foam and sanding it smooth. Here are the two main pieces (top and bottom) after that process was completed.
It was then time to cut the pieces apart again so that I could make five different "plugs" that I could fiberglass. I used a hacksaw to cut the pieces.
I wanted a lip around the top and bottom pieces so that I could join them together using 10-32 screws. In order to create that lip, I fastened each of the pieces to flashing that I bent so that it had a 90 degree angle.
I used some 1" long wood screws to attach the pieces to the metal. The foam is dense enough to allow the screws to take hold of it but I had to make sure that I didn't overtighted the screws. I used modeling clay in order to fill the gaps between the pieces and the metal.
Once all the gaps were filled, I could then lay out the fiberglass cloth and cut my pieces. Even though this process can take a long time, I have found that it really pays off when laying out the fiberglass with the resin. I used several layers of really thin cloth, one layer of fiberglass matt, one layer of heavy cloth, and then finished up with another layer of really thin cloth. Here are a couple pics of me laying out the cloth.
The pic on the left shows the thin light cloth and the pic on the right shows the heavy cloth. The thin light cloth obviously conforms to the curves and sharp turns a lot easier so it is important to start off with that. Frankly, all of these pieces would have come out a lot better if they were vacuum bagged but I don't have that equipment so I made do with what I had.
After I had all my cloth cut, I then applied mold release wax and the mold release liquid. The liquid is green and dries to a very thin film. I applied two coats of wax and two coats of the liquid. The pic on the left below does not have the mold release materials applied and the piece on the right does.
Ok, let the fiberglassing begin!! Btw, I ALWAYS wear proper respiratory gear and have fans running when I do this in the garage -- fiberglass resin fumes are not good for you!
I then trimmed them and glued them together with high strength epoxy. I also laid a strip of fiberglass matt along the main seams.
The flat panel filter needed a ledge to sit on so i made some pieces out of aluminum and pop riveted them into the bottom piece.
One problem that I ran into was that the scoop was a little too long and wouldn't fit between the throttle body and the main bulkhead. So I ended up having to cut off the front part of the bottom piece and in order to get it to fit in a short period of time I fabricated a piece of aluminum to fill in the front part of the bottom piece. I also ended up trimming the front part of the top piece a little more. But I eventually got it to fit.
I think it actually came out pretty good. There is only one problem -- I don't like it very much. :>) Although I think it is much better than just using a cone filter, my helmet actually ends up being directly in front of it so I think I would be better off having a scoop that is in the air stream. The wheels in my head are already turning as far as other possibilities and I just might be able to use the bottom piece of the scoop. Changing it will probably end up being a winter project.
It was then time to cut the pieces apart again so that I could make five different "plugs" that I could fiberglass. I used a hacksaw to cut the pieces.
I wanted a lip around the top and bottom pieces so that I could join them together using 10-32 screws. In order to create that lip, I fastened each of the pieces to flashing that I bent so that it had a 90 degree angle.
I used some 1" long wood screws to attach the pieces to the metal. The foam is dense enough to allow the screws to take hold of it but I had to make sure that I didn't overtighted the screws. I used modeling clay in order to fill the gaps between the pieces and the metal.
Once all the gaps were filled, I could then lay out the fiberglass cloth and cut my pieces. Even though this process can take a long time, I have found that it really pays off when laying out the fiberglass with the resin. I used several layers of really thin cloth, one layer of fiberglass matt, one layer of heavy cloth, and then finished up with another layer of really thin cloth. Here are a couple pics of me laying out the cloth.
The pic on the left shows the thin light cloth and the pic on the right shows the heavy cloth. The thin light cloth obviously conforms to the curves and sharp turns a lot easier so it is important to start off with that. Frankly, all of these pieces would have come out a lot better if they were vacuum bagged but I don't have that equipment so I made do with what I had.
After I had all my cloth cut, I then applied mold release wax and the mold release liquid. The liquid is green and dries to a very thin film. I applied two coats of wax and two coats of the liquid. The pic on the left below does not have the mold release materials applied and the piece on the right does.
Ok, let the fiberglassing begin!! Btw, I ALWAYS wear proper respiratory gear and have fans running when I do this in the garage -- fiberglass resin fumes are not good for you!
After the resin dried, I could then use plastic wedges to remove the pieces from the plugs. Here are the pieces before being trimmed all the way. Btw, the red is just magic marker that I used when drawing my "cut" lines on the cloth.
I then trimmed them and glued them together with high strength epoxy. I also laid a strip of fiberglass matt along the main seams.
The flat panel filter needed a ledge to sit on so i made some pieces out of aluminum and pop riveted them into the bottom piece.
One problem that I ran into was that the scoop was a little too long and wouldn't fit between the throttle body and the main bulkhead. So I ended up having to cut off the front part of the bottom piece and in order to get it to fit in a short period of time I fabricated a piece of aluminum to fill in the front part of the bottom piece. I also ended up trimming the front part of the top piece a little more. But I eventually got it to fit.
I think it actually came out pretty good. There is only one problem -- I don't like it very much. :>) Although I think it is much better than just using a cone filter, my helmet actually ends up being directly in front of it so I think I would be better off having a scoop that is in the air stream. The wheels in my head are already turning as far as other possibilities and I just might be able to use the bottom piece of the scoop. Changing it will probably end up being a winter project.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Mission Accomplished!!
This is another quick post to give an update on my first F1600 Series pro race weekend. I'm happy to say that the car was pretty good right off the bat and I accomplished a number of my goals for the weekend. 1) I brought the car home in one piece, 2) I got down to a 1:16.xx lap time, and 3) I finished in the top 10 in one of the races. I didn't go faster every session but I wasn't too far off from doing that.
All things considered, the weekend went very well. I turned a 1:17.2 in the first session which was the fastest that I had ever been around SP. I turned a 1:16.8 in the only qualifying session on Friday so that made me happy. However, that time only grided me in 12th position (out of 18) for Saturday's race. 5 cars were underneath the 1:15.5 track record and 3 of them were in the 13s!! The competition in this series is unbelievable!! In Saturday's race I got pushed wide at T1 on the first lap by another driver and he got by me as well as another car. However, the car that pushed me wide went off in T5 a few laps later and the other car that got by me spun in front of me at the same time so I got both of them back. Unfortunately we were totally broken off the rest of the field by that point and I ran by myself the rest of the race. The car didn't seem to have the grip that it had on Friday and the only dissappointing part of the weekend was that I wasn't able to get down to the 16s again. The fast times from Saturday's race gridded us for Sunday's race and I was grided 14th for Sunday's race.
Sunday's race was much more interesting. It was raining on and off all day. Our race was at 11 am and at 10:30 am it was bone dry. We had slicks on the car and they wanted up to the grid early so Terry (my wife and crew) strapped me in -- and then it started pouring. I sat in the car for about 30 seconds and then decided that we needed to change to wets so I got out and started changing. I almost had the left rear off when it stopped raining! So we looked at the weather map on Terry's phone and it was showing that there was no rain over us. So I left the slicks on, got back in the car, Terry strapped me in -- and you probably guessed it, it started raining again!! But now it was about 10 till 11 and since it was just Terry and I we didn't have time to change to wets so off to the grid I went. I got up there and all but 3 cars (including myself) were on wets. A friend and long time racer, Tim, came over and asked Terry if we had rain tires. She said yes but didn't have time to change. I motioned to Tim to lean down and talk to me and I asked him if I was making a big mistake. He said yes and that we should go change to wets. So back to the trailer I went. I got out of the car to help and Tim told me to get back in the car so Terry strapped me in for the 3rd time while he was changing the tires. One of the guys from Hoosier came over as well as a couple of motorcycle competitors so it was really pretty amazing how quickly the tires got changed. I got back to the grid when the cars were going on track so I started dead last (17th). But at least I was on track with the right tires on the car!! I was back up to 14th or so before the start finish line and I just decided to keep the car on course and finish. I didn't turn any real fast times but I did make a couple of good passes on other cars. However, a lot of people went off track and brought the car home in 9th. I'm happy with a top 10 finish in that group -- I don't car what the conditions are!! Here is a pic of the start of Sunday's race as we were approaching turn 1. I'm deep in the spray and couldn't see hardly anything!
The one thing that I still need to work on is my shifting. I was trying to go from 4th to 1st in the braking zones and I think I will be better off to go through the gears. Once I'm shifting without thinking about it I think it will all become much easier and I will get faster as a result. The weekend was obviously a lot better than the regional and the F1600 series is fantastic. So all the hard work paid off and it is nice to not have to be working on the car in the evenings and long hours on the weekends. :)
All things considered, the weekend went very well. I turned a 1:17.2 in the first session which was the fastest that I had ever been around SP. I turned a 1:16.8 in the only qualifying session on Friday so that made me happy. However, that time only grided me in 12th position (out of 18) for Saturday's race. 5 cars were underneath the 1:15.5 track record and 3 of them were in the 13s!! The competition in this series is unbelievable!! In Saturday's race I got pushed wide at T1 on the first lap by another driver and he got by me as well as another car. However, the car that pushed me wide went off in T5 a few laps later and the other car that got by me spun in front of me at the same time so I got both of them back. Unfortunately we were totally broken off the rest of the field by that point and I ran by myself the rest of the race. The car didn't seem to have the grip that it had on Friday and the only dissappointing part of the weekend was that I wasn't able to get down to the 16s again. The fast times from Saturday's race gridded us for Sunday's race and I was grided 14th for Sunday's race.
Sunday's race was much more interesting. It was raining on and off all day. Our race was at 11 am and at 10:30 am it was bone dry. We had slicks on the car and they wanted up to the grid early so Terry (my wife and crew) strapped me in -- and then it started pouring. I sat in the car for about 30 seconds and then decided that we needed to change to wets so I got out and started changing. I almost had the left rear off when it stopped raining! So we looked at the weather map on Terry's phone and it was showing that there was no rain over us. So I left the slicks on, got back in the car, Terry strapped me in -- and you probably guessed it, it started raining again!! But now it was about 10 till 11 and since it was just Terry and I we didn't have time to change to wets so off to the grid I went. I got up there and all but 3 cars (including myself) were on wets. A friend and long time racer, Tim, came over and asked Terry if we had rain tires. She said yes but didn't have time to change. I motioned to Tim to lean down and talk to me and I asked him if I was making a big mistake. He said yes and that we should go change to wets. So back to the trailer I went. I got out of the car to help and Tim told me to get back in the car so Terry strapped me in for the 3rd time while he was changing the tires. One of the guys from Hoosier came over as well as a couple of motorcycle competitors so it was really pretty amazing how quickly the tires got changed. I got back to the grid when the cars were going on track so I started dead last (17th). But at least I was on track with the right tires on the car!! I was back up to 14th or so before the start finish line and I just decided to keep the car on course and finish. I didn't turn any real fast times but I did make a couple of good passes on other cars. However, a lot of people went off track and brought the car home in 9th. I'm happy with a top 10 finish in that group -- I don't car what the conditions are!! Here is a pic of the start of Sunday's race as we were approaching turn 1. I'm deep in the spray and couldn't see hardly anything!
The one thing that I still need to work on is my shifting. I was trying to go from 4th to 1st in the braking zones and I think I will be better off to go through the gears. Once I'm shifting without thinking about it I think it will all become much easier and I will get faster as a result. The weekend was obviously a lot better than the regional and the F1600 series is fantastic. So all the hard work paid off and it is nice to not have to be working on the car in the evenings and long hours on the weekends. :)
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Off To The Races!!
This is just a quick post and I have to apologize for not updating my blog recently but I have been a little busy getting the car ready -- which it is!!
I even managed to finish my scoop (at least in a workable condition) so I will be posting on that later.
The F1600, F2000, and Formula Atlantic races will be at Summit Point this weekend and practice and qualifying are tomorrow. I will be loading up the trailer this afternoon. I feel good and I at least met the challenge of getting the car ready! The schedule and links to results and even live audio can be found at www.f1600series.com. Wish me luck! I hope my luck is WAY better then the last race weekend! :)
I even managed to finish my scoop (at least in a workable condition) so I will be posting on that later.
The F1600, F2000, and Formula Atlantic races will be at Summit Point this weekend and practice and qualifying are tomorrow. I will be loading up the trailer this afternoon. I feel good and I at least met the challenge of getting the car ready! The schedule and links to results and even live audio can be found at www.f1600series.com. Wish me luck! I hope my luck is WAY better then the last race weekend! :)
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Making Progress
I haven't had much time to post blogs because I have been working on the car in the evenings after work and of course on the weekends but I am making progress and I'm confident that I can make the F1600 Pro Races at Summit Point this month. K-Hill Motorsports really helped me out as far as getting the frame fixed. I dropped it off with them two Sunday's ago and they got it sand blasted and had a welder replace the bent bars. I got the car back the next Saturday! Luckily the frame was not twisted so it was a little less work to fix it. Here it is after I got it back.
You can also see the side panel to the left of the frame. While the frame was getting repaired, I was working on that. That repair was pretty straight forward. Just fiberglassed and put some kevlar on the backside and filled in the cracks with short strand fiberglass putty and bondo on the front.
A fellow racer genorously offered to sell me some used sidepods (tops and bottoms) at a good price so I purchased those. The tops were just like mine but the bottoms were actually a different shape at the back. I didn't expect this so this meant more work. You can see that my sidepod (on the left in the pic below) is straight in the back and the one I bought is angled.
So I had several choices. I could 1) either repair the crashed one, 2) modify my tail section to fit the side pod I bought, or 3) replace the crashed front part of my side pod with the front part of the sidepod that I bought. I decided to go with option 3.
I took some measurements and made a template out of cardboard in order to trace the same cutting pattern on both sidepods. It would have been easier to cut in straight lines but I decided to cut a jagged edge because I figured it would be stronger and the two pieces would fit together like puzzle pieces.
Here are the two pieces being fitted together. I made sure that I fitted them with the sidepod mounted on the bellypan of the car.
Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job of determining the point to cut on side of the sidepod.
No worries though, I filled it in with spray insulation foam that I bought at Home Depot. The pic below shows the foam as well as the two pieces joined together.
I mounted a piece of aluminum to the bottom and used a construction adhesive between the aluminum and the sidepod as well as between the edges. I used 1/2 inch countersunk wood screws to attach the aluminum to the sidepod.
I ground down the points of the screws on the topside and put a piece of fiberglass on top. Once I had the two pieces joined, it was just a matter of fiberglassing the remaining cracks and applying some bondo on top. Here is the finished frankenpod with the smashed up bit next to it.
And here are the pieces mounted to the chassis. They just need paint now!!
And here is a pic of the chassis after today's work.
So, decent progress but it is full steam ahead until it is done! I would actually like to have my scoop done before the pro races as well but I'm not as confident about that -- it certainly isn't as important either.
Good as new!!
In order to save some time and some money, I painted the chassis with some chassis paint that is brushed on. I can't say that the paint job is a good one but most of the frame is covered by the bodywork anyway.
You can also see the side panel to the left of the frame. While the frame was getting repaired, I was working on that. That repair was pretty straight forward. Just fiberglassed and put some kevlar on the backside and filled in the cracks with short strand fiberglass putty and bondo on the front.
A fellow racer genorously offered to sell me some used sidepods (tops and bottoms) at a good price so I purchased those. The tops were just like mine but the bottoms were actually a different shape at the back. I didn't expect this so this meant more work. You can see that my sidepod (on the left in the pic below) is straight in the back and the one I bought is angled.
So I had several choices. I could 1) either repair the crashed one, 2) modify my tail section to fit the side pod I bought, or 3) replace the crashed front part of my side pod with the front part of the sidepod that I bought. I decided to go with option 3.
I took some measurements and made a template out of cardboard in order to trace the same cutting pattern on both sidepods. It would have been easier to cut in straight lines but I decided to cut a jagged edge because I figured it would be stronger and the two pieces would fit together like puzzle pieces.
Here are the two pieces being fitted together. I made sure that I fitted them with the sidepod mounted on the bellypan of the car.
Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job of determining the point to cut on side of the sidepod.
No worries though, I filled it in with spray insulation foam that I bought at Home Depot. The pic below shows the foam as well as the two pieces joined together.
I mounted a piece of aluminum to the bottom and used a construction adhesive between the aluminum and the sidepod as well as between the edges. I used 1/2 inch countersunk wood screws to attach the aluminum to the sidepod.
I ground down the points of the screws on the topside and put a piece of fiberglass on top. Once I had the two pieces joined, it was just a matter of fiberglassing the remaining cracks and applying some bondo on top. Here is the finished frankenpod with the smashed up bit next to it.
And here are the pieces mounted to the chassis. They just need paint now!!
And here is a pic of the chassis after today's work.
So, decent progress but it is full steam ahead until it is done! I would actually like to have my scoop done before the pro races as well but I'm not as confident about that -- it certainly isn't as important either.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Fixing the car!!
I must say that my tune has changed quite a bit since my last post. I have to admit that I was quite depressed and dissappointed but I have received quite a bit of encouragement and support from friends and family and I'm now very motivated to get the car fixed before the F1600 pro race at Summit Point the weekend of August 24th. The main thing that needs to be fixed is of course is the frame and here are some pics of the damage.
I can re-glass the side panel and a fellow racer has offered to sell me some sidepods and radiator shrouds so I will be getting those in a next couple of weeks. I have the A-Arms and I might have a steering link and I might have a lead on a used radiator but if that falls through then I can order a new one. I have actually already repaired the fuel cell cover by pounding the aluminium back into shape. When stripping the car, I tried to do it by undoing the least amount of stuff as possible so that it will be faster to put it all together. For example, since I used the weather pack connectors, I was able to remove all of the wiring with the engine and without disconnecting all of the sensors attached to the engine.
And here are some pics of the other damage.
That's the bad news but the good news is that I have been tearing down the car in the evenings and today and have gotten it down to the bare frame so that it can be welded. I will be dropping it off with someone tomorrow to have it sand blasted on Monday and then it will be given to a welder that has a surface plate and the necessary tools to repair it.
I can re-glass the side panel and a fellow racer has offered to sell me some sidepods and radiator shrouds so I will be getting those in a next couple of weeks. I have the A-Arms and I might have a steering link and I might have a lead on a used radiator but if that falls through then I can order a new one. I have actually already repaired the fuel cell cover by pounding the aluminium back into shape. When stripping the car, I tried to do it by undoing the least amount of stuff as possible so that it will be faster to put it all together. For example, since I used the weather pack connectors, I was able to remove all of the wiring with the engine and without disconnecting all of the sensors attached to the engine.
So, it is a good start and I have a month to get the car ready. As long as the frame is repaired pretty quickly then I have a good shot of making it. I love a challenge!!
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