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- South Australia
Hooray! New page!
Ok so we're onto some seriously exciting stuff right now! First thing first, we have a roll cage!
We had some issues with the local business we got to do the cage for us. First the boss went on holiday and left the job with the apprentice who had a lot of trouble understanding the very complex technical regulations. There was someone who worked at the shop who could've helped but chose not to, because he builds roll cages for cash on weekends and was angry we didn't go straight to him.... When we didn't even know he did it. Then they couldn't get the chrome moly steel we wanted or even a pipe bender to work with it.
It got to the point that dad had to source the steel and bender, then he and a guy who works for us had to go in on the weekend and help the apprentice build the thing. To say we were angry is an understatement, and it's fair to say that if the bill comes back big, there's going to be a rather angry phone call or two. Regardless, the cage did turn out fantastic and when I first got to see it this Saturday I was blown away. We went above and beyond the regulations to make it as safe as possible and it makes for some seriously sexy race car stuff! 👍
Talking about seriously sexy race car stuff... The heads are finished. The work speaks for itself and the massive valves look mighty impressive!
And a reminder of how they were before...
The builder had nothing but positive things to say about the engine and he's very excited to see what numbers the car puts down. He liked it so much that he put all these photos on his business' Facebook page
Unfortunately it's came out to be a fair bit more expensive than anticipated and that may mean we don't get to do much work to the suspension or brakes. A situation that scares me far more than dad. I said to him "so we've basically built a drag car and now I'm gonna have to throw it up a mountain without so much as a test drive?" And he just laughed and said "well that's your problem isn't it!" Jokes aside I'm rather nervous about it and have found an open track day we should be able to use as a shakedown. The only downside is that it's a couple weeks before the hillclimb and that deadline's looking tight already
Finally, I went down this weekend and we got to do quite a lot of work on the car. The most important and noticeable of which was what we got done to the roof. I'm going to making a video about the build of this car that will go into far more detail on all aspects, but for now, here's some pictures.
Basically we drilled out the spot welds and cut out the old pillar, then put on the one from the donor roof.
We then put the new roof skin on and welded it in place. Unfortunately my phone died before I could get a photo.
That's pretty much it for now! The gearbox is going to be picked up from Iowa this weekend and we're on the lookout for a safety harness and seat. Oh and we're starting to think of paint schemes. A combination of Matte and gloss black has been throw around a couple times
Thanks for reading folks!
Ok so we're onto some seriously exciting stuff right now! First thing first, we have a roll cage!
We had some issues with the local business we got to do the cage for us. First the boss went on holiday and left the job with the apprentice who had a lot of trouble understanding the very complex technical regulations. There was someone who worked at the shop who could've helped but chose not to, because he builds roll cages for cash on weekends and was angry we didn't go straight to him.... When we didn't even know he did it. Then they couldn't get the chrome moly steel we wanted or even a pipe bender to work with it.
It got to the point that dad had to source the steel and bender, then he and a guy who works for us had to go in on the weekend and help the apprentice build the thing. To say we were angry is an understatement, and it's fair to say that if the bill comes back big, there's going to be a rather angry phone call or two. Regardless, the cage did turn out fantastic and when I first got to see it this Saturday I was blown away. We went above and beyond the regulations to make it as safe as possible and it makes for some seriously sexy race car stuff! 👍
Talking about seriously sexy race car stuff... The heads are finished. The work speaks for itself and the massive valves look mighty impressive!
And a reminder of how they were before...
The builder had nothing but positive things to say about the engine and he's very excited to see what numbers the car puts down. He liked it so much that he put all these photos on his business' Facebook page
Unfortunately it's came out to be a fair bit more expensive than anticipated and that may mean we don't get to do much work to the suspension or brakes. A situation that scares me far more than dad. I said to him "so we've basically built a drag car and now I'm gonna have to throw it up a mountain without so much as a test drive?" And he just laughed and said "well that's your problem isn't it!" Jokes aside I'm rather nervous about it and have found an open track day we should be able to use as a shakedown. The only downside is that it's a couple weeks before the hillclimb and that deadline's looking tight already
Finally, I went down this weekend and we got to do quite a lot of work on the car. The most important and noticeable of which was what we got done to the roof. I'm going to making a video about the build of this car that will go into far more detail on all aspects, but for now, here's some pictures.
Basically we drilled out the spot welds and cut out the old pillar, then put on the one from the donor roof.
We then put the new roof skin on and welded it in place. Unfortunately my phone died before I could get a photo.
That's pretty much it for now! The gearbox is going to be picked up from Iowa this weekend and we're on the lookout for a safety harness and seat. Oh and we're starting to think of paint schemes. A combination of Matte and gloss black has been throw around a couple times
Thanks for reading folks!
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