RA delayed one week

So our race got delayed due to the snow, ice and cold. Big shocker being that Road America is in Wisconsin. The good news is, that gave us more time to button up the car and fine tune a few things. I think we're pretty much ready to go now, just need to pack the truck and trailer.


Added a couple new sponsor stickers to rep the nice tire deal we got.


The hood and bumper almost line up now.


Jeremy wanted to mount a bumper cam, for a sweet view during the race. So since we don't need headlights in this race, I stuck it right up front.


And the interior is all cleaned up. We also added a new fuel level gauge. Hopefully it works close enough. Even though we need to top off the tank each pit stop regardless.

We're all ready to Chump it up at Road America!

The bumper is now relocated over the new tubular bumper. Charles and Pon stitched the bumper back together, and preserved the bear hair yet again. Good work guys, it looks, well, as good as it can.


Here my dad was getting the heater fans (aka computer fans) installed with the adapters. The adapters were going to make it easy to add ducting, but we went another route later.


This view shows the big inlet fan. This will provide "low" fan function, and blow air through the heater core. The computer fans will provide the "high" fan function.


And here's the final location we decided to mount it in. Mounted up off the cage, it let us use some tubing elbow to aim airflow rather then having to run ducting. I hope it works. Actually I hope its warm enough that we don't need it!


Friday night Soren swung by to drop off his mess of wires and switches. When I plugged it in to test it, it worked, so there's a method to madness. Apparently 90s luxury car wiring isn't as straight forward as one would think.


Here's where we got by the end of Saturday. The switches were all mounted, but the car would no longer start. Frustrating...


So after a good nights sleep, some delicious birthday dinner, a clear head prevailed and lead me to the kick panel fuses, where I found two blown fuses. I believe these were the result of working on the cutoff switch with battery power still hooked up. Whoops. So a couple new fuses later, and everything's lit and running. While it was running I even bled the powersteering since we had replaced the hose again.


And here we are, everything's back in the car. We did get all the wire zip-tied away after the pic was taken. So we're all ready to roll. Time to pack the gear and get ready to race. I'll probably take it for a spin tomorrow or Tuesday after work. And yes, I added a couple additional sponsor stickers too.


Big thanks to everyone who helped wrap up the car in the last couple days. Especially my dad, who came up and worked with me all Friday night and all day Saturday!

Just about ready to throw some heat

Well we start with Jeff getting almost done on the door mods. Had to smooth it a bit, and there's still a little work to do, but its close.


Saturday we got the new dash panels cut out. The center one is all mounted and ready for switches. The steering column gages need tabs welded in place, and some final trimming to be done. You can see the steering wheel hanger mounted on the cage, it should help keep the nice wheel from getting dinged up.


Caz welded up the new box for the heater core. Of course all I had in the right size sheet was stainless, but it shouldn't rust now.


We decided to reuse the old heater core, and just remount in something smaller and removable.


Here's a mock up I did Saturday of the mini fans we're going to run for the defrost and driver heat.


Then I mocked up the inlet fan.


To help hold up the heater core, I made a brace for the base of the box. Here you can see it through the big hole for the inlet fan.


And here's a view of the core resting on the support brace.


Then I stole the supports from the original heater core box, and reused them. Since I can't weld stainless at my house, I decided to do the remaining work as bolt on or screw on. This worked out pretty nicely.


One hole saw and a little plasma cutting later, and we have 4 holes for the mini fans. I also drilled all the mounting holes. Now I just need to get some fans, wire them, and build a mounting bracket for the box. Its pretty close though, it should get installed next Friday. Also need to decide where to put it.


Then on Sunday night we made a stop by Caztek to check out the new City Cycle tourer. Caz and his crew have been working for months on a new, better touring pub-cycle.


Close up of one of the many nice Caztek details.


Nice little spot for the driver.


Two sides of "bars" with pedals and coolers in between, you know, in case the keg empties, like it did tonight.


And here's a shot from the side, for more info check out The City Cycle

Getting closer to being a real chump...

So its been a couple weeks since I've posted an update. But don't think work hasn't been going on. A little time over at Caztek's shop got my new steering column all situated. Then Jeff and I spent some time getting the column located and braced up. What you see here is the finished product, with the new fancy suede steering wheel on.


It is a removable wheel, with a nice Longacre quick release. Here we also have the new "dash" panel mocked up. Pon came over and helped get that done. Saturday we should get the new panels made up, and hopefully start getting some of the new switches wired up. We should also have the new heater box, so we can hook up the defroster. Then we just need to tuck away the wiring and tie things up for the race. The muffler is back installed. We gave up trying to get the Y-pipe off until we have more time. So for now the catalyst material stays put.


And Jeff started work on smoothing out the door entry point to make getting in and out with the door closed easier(ie loading the car on the trailer). That was of course until we ran out of welding gas. On to our third bottle. Tune in after the weekend, some more work should get done soon.


Also, I thought I'd share that those damnedable cottonwood trees that almost ruined our fancy paint job last spring, are officially firewood.

Brand new bumper, ready for action!

And the new bumpers welded on! Jeff came by tonight, and got everything welded together. A couple changes to the top bracket of the bumper cover mount and we'll be all set. And maybe a little trimming and a little paint. But who needs paint, its a ChumpCar!


Another view, this shows a sneak peak of a durability improvement that's in the works.


And lastly, just a sneak peak at the new tires! Yes its a bit hazy in the garage from all the welding.

It doesn't look like much...

Our new team member Pon stopped by and helped me get the new bumper main bars bent. The new 1" die worked pretty well. A little more work on the rebuilt frame horn and things will be ready to tack into place. Next update should have a new bumper in place. As well as show the new trans cooler fan mounted and wired.


The new steering column is just about ready. Got some of the main sizes cut, but now its time for a little work on the lathe. Then combine the two steering shafts, and finish the support column to fit the bushing properly. I'm not giving any sneak peeks of the new steering wheel though. You'll have to wait for that.


Lastly we finished pulling apart the heater unit. We've saved the heater core for potential future use, as well as saving the pass through seals.


Not a big week of seeing progress, but we got a lot of little things done and ready for the next step. Jeff will probably come weld some of the stuff this week, and a trip to Caztek is also in order.

Back to work on the Chumpcar racer!

So we've got two major workdays under our belts now, though scheduling this year seems monumentally more difficult, at least there's less work to do. Or so we thought. First things first, we got to removing the two seats. We had installed a passenger seat for the Road America track day in the fall. Then we got right to removing the steering column and the extra dash bar. That cleared out a good chunk of space.



Then with the steering out, I got work disassembling the steering column to get the base shaft out. We want to use the leftover steering knuckle at the firewall, but of course its a weird Toyota shaft size (think South Park, very small...).


So I had to remove all these parts...


Just to get these parts out. Now to order some parts, and build the new column. And maybe a new steering wheel.

Then we got to work on the damaged front bumper.


We didn't think it took a bad hit at Iowa, but as you can see, it did some good damage. Having previously just welded the new bumper to the still bent front frame horn didn't help. So we were going to have to cut extra off this time.



Jeff got to work cutting everything, and of course had tons of fun since there was so tension left in all the bent tubing. Oops.


So it just meant more cuts, and smaller pieces, which will really just be easier to throw away or recycle anyways.


Here's out new frame horn. We had to cut it back to remove the damaged area, then we welded in some new piece to extend it out even with the passenger side frame horn. Now its ready to start bending the new bumper.


Then it was back to the passenger compartment. Since we ruined out ability to use the AC last year when we removed the compressor, we decided it was time to remove the whole HVAC system.


Lots more room, for stuff...


The heater core is in this thing, but man was it a pain getting it out. We're going to have to really debate whether it goes back in or if we do some other heat source for Road America in March, or for defrost in general. Maybe we should just hope for good weather?


Here's the rest of the pile of parts we took out. Between the steering and the HVAC stuff, we got another 50lbs out of the car. Not as much as I was hoping for, but there's a few more areas we need to look at as well.


Up next I think will be the exhaust and getting the catalysts out. Along with hopefully fully loosening the alignment adjusters. Then maybe some hood and trunk tweaks. Only 7 more weeks until the Road America race. Looks like we'll be working more nights then we thought. Until next time!