77 replies to this topic

[Johnny D]

The dreaded loose visor ??

J~

[surlynkid]

Well it technically is the back straight, so he can do some nose picking, but get it over with before turn in.

[Tom Hampton]

Something got inside my visor from under my chin. A spec if dirt or something in my eye. I was clearing it. I don't think it was a factor, but who knows?

[Tom Hampton]

Rollerskated.  7 days (well nights+weekend, 40 working hours) to strip the tub, remove the cage, and separate it from the undercarriage.  I need to remove the fuel tank and fuel lines from the tub. 

 

I used the engine crane to lift the tub off the subframes.  With my dad  to help balance the tub and make sure everything was clear, it was no big deal.  We bolted a short length of chain to the lower dash-bar mount (on the trans tunnel).  This left the tub balanced a little to the rear.  But, one person could easily lift up on the rear bumper and manipulate it, while the second drove the crane.  I think I may try the forward seat-mounts (on the cross-members) when I put the new one on.  That might balance it a little more evenly. 

 

 

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[Tom Hampton]

I haven't had much time to post updates. But, I reached a milestone today...i have officially removed and cleaned the last part from either the donor or the old tub. It's all reassembly from here.

The engine compartment is painted a high visibility bright white. The rear sub and diff have been swapped. All the sound deadening has been removed from the donor. The fuel tank, fuel lines, and hard brake lines have been transferred from the old racecar to the donor.

[Tom Hampton]

To put a bit of a bow on this saga...

The car has been rebuilt. The car was wrecked on Friday, April 22nd. I was home from the track and started stripping it Monday April 25th. I dropped it off at X-Factor yesterday morning (Monday June 6th). All told with the help of my Dad, my Wife, and X-Factor Racing it has taken 239 hours to re-tub the car (179 of those hours are me personally).  Included in that time, I've been to two graduations out of town, a memorial day get-a-way, and my Parents 51st wedding anniversary celebration.   In order to accomplish that, I've worked 4+ hours a night after work, 12 hours on Saturday and Sundays (except for the noted mandatory family events).  I haven't come in from the shop before midnight since April 25th.  And I've only had 8 "discussions" with the wife about priorities. 
 
I did make some improvements over the original car. 

 

The old tub was a 200k+ mile 1992, the new tub is a 39k mile 1990.   The wiring harness looks like it was manufactured yesterday.  It looks cleaner than my 2009 daily driver!  Having both tubs side by side in the shop, its clear that the 1990 has considerably less mass in various places.  There is less steel here and there, and the wiring harness is made using smaller gage wires.  
 
I stripped the tub down to the main wiring harness,  I eliminated every legal ounce of excess weight from the tub.  In addition, there were several race parts from the old car that either didn't go back, or were significantly weight reduced prior to being reinstalled.  I don't have a final weight, yet.  So, I don't know the results of that labor.  The old tub was 2055 dry and no ballast.   I needed 15 lbs of ballast to make weight in April (with a full coolsuit).  I'm another 7 lbs lighter than I was in April, also. 
 
I relocated the cool-suit and fire system bottle to the passenger floor from the trunk area.
 
I spent considerable time improving the wiring harnesses for the race systems...per my recent posts on that subject.  I'm still not totally happy with it, but it gets the job done.   Its heavier than it needs to be (but we are talking ounces), and still a little too much like an octopus.  But, it is robust and does allow for the removal of any/all LRUs from the car. 
 
Cosmetically, I spent several days cleaning and prepping the engine bay, wheel wells, interior and trunk for paint. I repainted the engine compartment, wheel wells and trunk gloss white for visibility.  I painted the cockpit hammered gray.

 

All told I probably spent 80 hours on these "non-essential" tasks.

 

The one thing that didn't get done was a new exterior paint job.  I'll take care of that over the summer for debut at the fall races.  I'm going to retain the same color scheme, but the rear section will have a slight modification, just to distinguish the new from the old. 

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[Tom Hampton]

PS: I used the Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy paint for the engine bay.  My thought was that it would be less susceptible to that environment than regular oil based paint. 

 

I DO NOT recommend this paint. 

 

Even with a thorough scuff and cleaning, the paint just flakes off when "struck" by a hard object such as a dropped wrench.  Adhesion is terrible, and the paint itself is very brittle.  1/2 Dime sized flakes come off at a time. 

[mhiggins10]

Thanks for all of the details, Tom- that is a hell of a lot of work.   Only 8 conversations means she's way more understanding than my wife would be.

 

For the differences in the 1990, specifically less steel in certain places- can you elaborate a bit more?  Are any of these areas directly related to safety, and would impact how cages should be built differently for a 1990?

[Tom Hampton]

Thanks for all of the details, Tom- that is a hell of a lot of work.   Only 8 conversations means she's way more understanding than my wife would be.
 
For the differences in the 1990, specifically less steel in certain places- can you elaborate a bit more?  Are any of these areas directly related to safety, and would impact how cages should be built differently for a 1990?

Yeah, she's a trooper.  She did most of the "cleaning" (wheel wells, trunk, interior, and roll cage) and all of the brush painting.  My dad sprayed the engine bay, and I sprayed the wheel wells.  She brush painted the cage, trunk, second coat on wheel wells, and interior.  Heck she spent several hours cleaning all the stickum off the roll cage and prepping it for a fresh coat of paint...then she painted it. 

 

As far as the differences go...I'm sure I could with some time sitting side by side.  The old tub is still in the corner of my shop.  But, it mostly seems like less brackets and stuff for accessories, maybe some thinner gage steel here and there.  The wiring harness is definitely lighter.  I haven't compared wire-2-wire, but it seems like its made using smaller AWG wires.  But, it could also be a difference in option packages between the two cars.  I'd have to spend some time just going back and forth between the two tubs comparing item by item.  For obvious reasons, I did not take the time to do that during the build. 

 

I've been told that the 1992 is about 20 lbs heaver than a 1990.  I don't know that I can really confirm/refute that because I made several changes between builds that I can't really quantify.  Eg, I removed the tar crap from the firewall, and similar type changes which couldn't really be weighed pre/post.

 

As far as impact on cage design...I doubt it, but I'm not a structures engineer.  Somebody like Keith in WA would be in a better position to make that kind of determination.  Even if the 20 lb figure is accurate, some of that is in lighter wiring, and excess brackets.  it seems unlikely that 10-15 lbs of less steel due to possibly thinner gage would change the strength of the car enough to alter the cage design. 

[Diller]

PS: I used the Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy paint for the engine bay.  My thought was that it would be less susceptible to that environment than regular oil based paint. 

 

I DO NOT recommend this paint. 

 

Even with a thorough scuff and cleaning, the paint just flakes off when "struck" by a hard object such as a dropped wrench.  Adhesion is terrible, and the paint itself is very brittle.  1/2 Dime sized flakes come off at a time. 

 

 

I use that paint on roll cages with great success. I have also used it on many sets of wheels. The key I found was a very very long cure time. I usually don't touch the painted surface for a week after it is painted. After that it is hard as a rock.

[trboboostr6]

wow! that video makes me cringe.

hope i never have to re-tub.....shit....just jinxed myself

[Tom Hampton]

I'll leave the race-weekend report for another thread, but here are the final results of the re-tub from its first weekend on track.  First, the good:
 
1.  I had to add 30 lbs of ballast (for a total of 45 lbs) to make weight at Hallett this weekend with 2 gallons of gas.  I weighed 5 lbs less than I did in April, so the new car is ~25-30 lbs lighter than the old car.  In absolute terms the car weighs 2048 dry with a full coolsuit cooler (8 lbs cooler, 8 lbs water/ice) or 2032 no-coolsuit//no-ballast/no-driver. NOTE: the 2055 number for the old car was WITHOUT a coolsuit.
 
2.  I got a new tech sticker and log book on the first pass with zero remedial actions with a notoriously picky tech inspector.
 
3.  The car performed well on test day and in Race3 (see below for the race1-2 saga).  Balance was very neutral ("much" less loose than the previous car).  The rear-bar is still disconnected, tho.  As the long race wore on, the car tightened up where I eventually had to alter my braking points and use some curbs to get the car to rotate.
 
 
I had three issues related to assembly of the car:
 
1. The RF UCA long bolt was not torqued at the end of the day.  I checked it as part of my pre-race, but at the end of the day on Friday I was able to get 1/2 turn more.
2. The brake hardline that attaches to the banjo bolt on the master cylinder was slowly leaking.  The pedal was initially long at the start of each session.  A 1/4 turn solved that.
 
I'd seen some brake fluid under the MC while the car was still in the shop, but couldn't find a leak.  I cleaned up the initial puddle and the MC surfaces and then placed a towel down to check for a current leak.  No further fluid was evident, so I thought it was a spill left over from bleeding the system.  So, I wasn't too disappointed by this issue. 
 
3. The big issue - On the first green lap of Race1 my brakes seized up exiting The Bitch.  At first I thought I was lugging up the hill in 3rd, but no...  Came in discussed it with a few people, and the consensus was re-bleed the system.  Race2, same thing..but, it took 2 laps to occur.  Again discussed with more people, initial thought was bad master cylinder.  After a few phone calls, found a new one 45 minutes away.  R&R'd, and a rebleed before sunset.  It bugged me all night long, the old MC was new 2 years ago, and I just couldn't make sense for how it would "go bad" and fail at temperature but work fine in the paddock.  At 3am Sunday morning, I read everything I could find including a few posts from Bennett.  I also re-read the FSM. 
 
Two possibilities seemed to emerge, the booster pushrod was not correctly adjusted....or the pedal free-play was incorrect.  The booster, MC and prop-valve were transferred from the old race-car (not reused from the new tub).  I transferred them as a unit, and never disassembled them.  so, it seemed unlikely that the booster pushrod was at fault.  At 650am I couldn't stand it and got up and went and checked the pedal free-play.  None---High and tight, hard as a rock.  I crawled under the dash to check the pushrod jam nut size, and noticed that the brake switch was protruding from its bracket by a thread or two.  I like my pedal as high as possible and have always kept that switch fully retracted.  I checked THAT jam nut and found that it was only finger tight.  I loosened it, and spun the brake switch back 1 revolution and now I had the requisite 1/8-1/4 inch of free-play in the pedal. 
 
Went out for morning warmup, no issues.  45 minute Race3, no issues.  I now believe that I'm the less-than-proud owner of a spare 1.6L MC. 
 
I'm disappointed that I left that jamb nut finger tight.  I didn't loosen it as part of dis/re-assembly.  But, I should have checked it to be sure it was tight when I transferred the pedals---particularly such a safety critical item.  It cost me two full races, and consequently put me behind the ball for race3.  further, it could have been worse if the brakes had locked up rather than just "drag". 

[Tom Hampton]

This will be my final post on this topic, barring a response to answer a question. 

 

I have not given proper credit to those who made it possible to get this car back on track in 6 weeks.  Of particular note to this community is X-Factor Racing Owner: Chris Haldeman and his squirrel (Michael Johnson).   Chris gave me the advice I needed on the process.  He answered every question I asked about how to handle one oddity or another.  He and Michael welded the old cage into the new tub, and put the setup onto the new car.   He noticed that my new diff was a VLSD and that I had the wrong half shafts installed.  I ran home and got them and he and Michael R&R'ed them while I waited. 

 

The shop floor setup was damn near perfect!  When we finally scaled it Friday evening, the cross was 49.9% without even touching it, and only made one minor toe adjustment to the LF. 

 

I know I'm extremely fortunate to have any race shop literally a mile from my house, which is on my commute route to/from work.  But especially, one of the caliber of X-Factor, owned by someone like Chris.  I can't count the number of times I've stopped by on my way home to BS, ask a question, or sometimes even help turn a wrench. 

 

He may be a bit tired of the #41 by now, though.  I'll try to keep the car off any more immovable objects, and finish the season clean.  I think that would be a good step in the right direction.  It has not been a good sophomore season.

 

No less important: my Dad came up and helped separate the rollerskate from the old tub, and also attach it to the new tub.  He helped paint, and also helped transfer a lot of the parts between tubs.  All told I think he put in between 40 and 60 hours of work.  Mom came up with him and made it a family affair supervising our progress.  :-)

 

Last by no means least my wife.  This whole crazy saga was her idea.  I'm sitting there staring at the racecar 30 minutes after I hit the tree, and she is texting me Craigslist ads for possible donor cars.  She never skipped a beat.  She's the one who said, "We are going to Hallett.  Whatever it takes!" I tried to explain the insanity of that statement, but she was having nothing of it.  I tried to explain that it was every night, and every weekend day between then and now...and I still wasn't sure it was possible.  Her response, "Fine.  I'll help, too!"  As mentioned above, she DID. 

 

None of us could do this without our family's support.  Some more direct than others---but, its too much work, time, and money to just be a one-(wo)man-show.    Even though they won't come here to read this, they deserve the acknowledgement none-the-less. 

 

Thanks to all. 

[steveracer]

Wow Tom, she's a keeper.

 

My wife would've said "If you can make it happen..."

[MotoFusi]

Does she have a sister? Preferably with a high income? I'm in the market LOL

[Tom Hampton]

She has several sisters. Two of them are even single. However, high income they are not. They are farmer girls from Kansas.

[luvin_the_rings]

Bravo! Good Show!

 

Can I get movie rights to this? It has it all, heart break, turmoil, suspense and even a love story!

 

Seriously though, congratulations, I'm not looking forward to our first crash.  

[Alberto]

She has several sisters. Two of them are even single. However, high income they are not. They are farmer girls from Kansas.

 

Got pics?  I can get into farm girls.