Dusterbd13 said:In reply to jr02518 :
Thats awsome! Will have to do that. Not before the show, but when I get around to making it a one lap car.
Oh yeah, we're thinking of how to tweak it to go the distance.
I suggest noise canceling headsets 
Dusterbd13 said:In reply to jr02518 :
Thats awsome! Will have to do that. Not before the show, but when I get around to making it a one lap car.
Oh yeah, we're thinking of how to tweak it to go the distance.
I suggest noise canceling headsets
sleepyhead said:Dusterbd13 said:In reply to jr02518 :
Thats awsome! Will have to do that. Not before the show, but when I get around to making it a one lap car.
Oh yeah, we're thinking of how to tweak it to go the distance.
I suggest noise canceling headsets
We figured wipers were the first step. Followed closely by comfortable seats and side windows.
Looked over the latest list, and it looks like you're using "oem equivalent" brake pads? If so, I'd put upgraded pads on the list, right after the side windows.
Definitely. Upgraded brakes all the way around, actually, as theres nothing beyond stock for the front that ive been able to find.
Dusterbd13 said:Definitely. Upgraded brakes all the way around, actually, as theres nothing beyond stock for the front that ive been able to find.
those are still the original '80 AMC Spirit calipers? Did those get shared with another brand? Jeep?
I think ford. But the number didn't cross to anything else. Its a really strange design.
On a side note, car is FINISHED.
Now to make a packing list for the challenge, steves finishing up the budget spreadsheet and buildbook (i gave him what you sent me, sleepyhead), ive got to wash and wax the car as well as put on the fresh slicks, and write up the story of the car.
How the hell am i going to write this story? It took a year and 33 pages to make. And thousands of man hours.
Nothing i can write will do my teammates and this journey justice. Time to read some Thoreau and Hemingway. Get my mental goove set. Maybe some persig.
Obviously the team needs a Bard. 
"Like all Challenge cars this was a journey of learning. We started far away from the goal with a great distance to travel, both in construction and ability. The only thing we had in abundance, was Spirit. This is our story."
Dusterbd13 said:How the hell am i going to write this story? It took a year and 33 pages to make. And thousands of man hours.
Nothing i can write will do my teammates and this journey justice. Time to read some Thoreau and Hemingway. Get my mental goove set. Maybe some persig.
I just printed out my build thread, hole punched it, and put it in the binder. You spent time documenting the build in the thread, use it.
In reply to mazdeuce :
Do you happen to own a lute and an awsome hat perchance?
Ukulele and a full face helmet?
Anyone that owns and plays a ukulele is winning at life
Congratulations on a successful build.
Dusterbd13 said:Now to make a packing list for the challenge, steves finishing up the budget spreadsheet and buildbook (i gave him what you sent me, sleepyhead), ive got to wash and wax the car as well as put on the fresh slicks, and write up the story of the car.
sent you a PM with one I did up first in the GRM form... can't remember if that's what I sent you or not. Also has some attempts at humor to think about adding into the "info" cells.
Dusterbd13 said:In reply to mazdeuce :
Do you happen to own a lute and an awsome hat perchance?
Is this a Rothfuss reference perchance?
Dusterbd13 said:How the hell am i going to write this story? It took a year and 33 pages to make. And thousands of man hours.
Nothing i can write will do my teammates and this journey justice. Time to read some Thoreau and Hemingway. Get my mental goove set. Maybe some persig.
I think you should write it like a police report.
Book em Dano!
Just had a quick scroll-through to try and get caught up on this thread, I see you didn't go with the Nurburgring livery but the new color's nice anyway. The multicolored stripes on the Nurburgring livery would've been an incredible PITA, so you saved yourself a heap of trouble there.
Challenge Budget: Car/parts $200
Donor Lincoln town car: 410
Engine crossmember: 120
Sold transmission crossmember from Lincoln: 10 Sold rear axle from lincoln: -50 Scrapped what was left of lincoln: -89
Sold AOD from lincoln (300, but can only recoup 261)
Engine swap: 5.0 plus 300 boot
Sold kelstar wheels-200 (cant recoup more than we spent)
2x2 angle iron, tractor supply 12.05
Brand new Watkins glen nascar slicks and wheels, which were bought for $50, and promptly sold to Dallas dad for $50 and some weld wheels with really old drag slicks. So, slicks were $0, but $50 taken out of the recoup limit.
4 5/8 heim and jamb nuts: $37.50
Pair of aluminum seats, $40
Sheet of flame retardant high density foam $10
Fire suppression system parts (not included in challenge budget. But ive had 2nd degree burns on the boys before, so were getting safety gear come hell or high water)
1/4 plate, scrap metal yard: 7.50
Mustang convertible mounts 22
Bending plate cost 25
Swedged tubing, ebay: 31.90
Threaded adjusters and 650lb springs, SRI performance: 65
2 used billstein shocks, pull-a-part: 14
Cage materials: 271.40
1/2 Spool welding wire: 16.50
Leaf spring sliders: 40
Clamps for spring adjusters: 23.59
Adjustable brake bias valve 18 (amazon)
2 cans of flat black spray paint (lowes project source) .97 ea
Half melted, used 21 circuit ez wiring harness cut from my duster after the mice chewed it up and it had a meltdown. $5 is what I was quoted as FMV due to the fact that copper prices are down.
Accessories and flexplate: see link in update
Battery cables and relays, pull-a-part: 12.75
Steering box, pull-a-part: 27.50
25feet 3/8 steel fuel line, ebay: 25.75
Bypass fuel pressure regulator, ebay: 29.23
Used, noisy, and mostly dead fuel pump: 6.50
Two half cans of ford engine blue $7
3/8 plastic line clamps, lowes: 1.78
1/2 metal line clamps, lowes: 3.48
Throttle return springs and brackets: 5
3/8 2x compression fittings, 3x npt-compression, 1x t fitting from plumbing supply house: 6
battery hold down, oriellys 5.99
2x 36 inch 1x1 holey tube: 2
Driveshaft safety loop (dad bought it at an auction last week) 5
Tractor supply run for bolts and angle iron: 18.08
Wheels for monster slicks: 50 from facebook marketplace
Lower radiator hose: 14.82
Oil filter: 4.17
Bucket of hose clamps (pull-a-part doesn't charge for these, so I added the admission charge to the yard): 1
Scrap chunk of 16gauge sheetmetal: .25
Suspension, driveshaft, and 3.73 posi 8.8, offerup: 100
Traded ultralights and sun tach for pro-tach, mechanical 2 5/8 gauges and chunk of diamond plate from a 4x4 buggy guy down the street
Rear brake hose: Challenge budget exempt
Spark plug boot insulators, ebay, 11
Spring perches, amazon 17.49
Pipe standoffs (5) and 3/8 allthread, rhulens supply 8.22
Chunk of diamond plate dad scrounged it somewhere, and said he got got for free.
Misc crap (zipties, sheet metal screws, wiring terminals, used toggles, used scraps of harness loom, nuts and bolts, etc. Pretty much the little oddball crap that goes into every build that I had laying around from over the years) 50
Starter solenoid: 7.90
2 inch glasspacks, chunks of 2 inch exhaust tubing, and a little bit of stainless 2 inch: steves buddy: 15
Tow hook: 3
Steering wheel from swap meet 5
Quick release, ebay: 19.99
Manual trans: 50
Flywheel: 45
2 dog leases 1.98
2 u joint straps 5.99
Clutch kit, clutch master, clutch slave: 107.13 shipped
Power steering hose: 15.99
3/8 coupler: 2.50
Welding: 5
Alternator plugs: 2
Starter: 34.39
ARP pressure plate bolts: 12:50 bradley auto parts
Shocks from scrap metal pile: 5
Hood pins: 7.50. Ebay
Hoosier f40 scrubs (budget exempt, byt I bought 16 with a max of 13 laps for 15 each!!!)
Hydraulic clutch line: 25 from the local tow company
3 inch blocks: 25.89
Trans seal: 4.50
Gigantic freaking wing: 100
T-shirt material. Bought 5 yards, but the number will change when I see how much I have leftover: 5.98 a yard for a total of 30.90. Used 2 yards. So, 11.96
3/4 gallon of bondo brand fiberglass resin my sister in law was donated at the school and couldn't use. Very old, and possibly expired. $free
1/2 gallon of new resin: 27.99 at walmart for full gallon, 13.99 to the budget
1.5 Gallon of bondo: 18.99 on sale at napa per gallon so 28.48
30 foot by 50 inch Roll of fiberglass mat: 39.98 but only used 13 feet (rounded up) 17.32
Gallon of mistint single stage, oriellys: 50
2 quarts reducer, oriellys: 26
Sold passengers seat: -35
Gallon of light ford gray from tractor supply was 29. We used 1/4. So, 7.25
Quart of semi gloss black rustoleum: 8.99 lowes
Two handfulls of sand from my kids sandbox: .25
Squirt of sem bumper paint for the grille: 1.00
Vynil: 1.00
Mostly empty cans of wrinkle black: 5.00
New challenge budget total: 1964.39
So, our last workday was the do or die day. The car needed to ne finished, for all our sakes. So, if it wasnt done, it wasnt getting done before we packed it on the trailer and headed for gainesville. The list was long, the day was hot, and we were all ready to be finished with the project. We were close, though.
Steve started by getting out his roll of aluminum HVAC tape, and “re chroming” the grille. Came out fantastic. I reassembled emblems after detailing them with some various sharpies.
Dallas pulled the hood, flipped it over, cleaned and painted the underside. I went after all the spots of gray I had missed, was splotchy looking, etc. Dallas also crawled in between the cage tubes and touched up some that I wasn't flexible enough to reach. I spent some time bending up the interior fire suppression lines, and making a handle mount that was accessible from outside the car as per SCCA rules. While the paint was drying, Steve Dallas and I polished trim and reassembled the front. We also put the car in the air, and painted the entire suspension with semi gloss black rustoleum, as well as blacked out the window trim, and painted the air cleaner with some ,mostly empty cans of wrinkle black I found in the spray paint cabinet. Only one good nozzle, and 4 cans we were pretty sure were empty, but had just enough for a light coat. We added more rivets to the flares for visual balance, assembled the front clip, mounted the wing, and double checked all our work. We were SO busy that I didn't take many pictured during the work, but did take some of the end result.
In addition to this, we got our packing lists finalized, travel plans finalized, adopted a vinyl guy, etc. The vinyl guy is meeting us at the challenge with our custom cut logos and graphics, so no pictures of those until the race report.
So, without further ado, the moment we've ALL been waiting for: the completed car!
20170930_182002 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_182024 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_182019 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_181715 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_181835 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_175524 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_181829 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_182021 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_181621 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_175505 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_181756 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20170930_181737 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Next, and FINAL, update will be a full documentation of how this whole thing goes. Its on the trailer, with fresh slicks, 30 gallons of 110 octane, spares, and a mission to accomplish. Not be DFL. Have a good time. Be faster than something we shouldn't be. Thats the mission.
That thing is properly badass!
Picture from page 2:
Picture from page 33:
TRANSFORMATION!
Well, now I know where some of my budget discrepancy was!
Looks awesome, can't wait to see how it does!
I can't wait to see this in person. So awesome.
Looking great, duster!
mazdeuce said:I can't wait to see this in person. So awesome.
I witnessed the ”before" version last year on my trip down to The Challenge. I can't wait to witness the "after" version this week!
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