The Maddox door skin kit is actually a really nice set. The dollies all need to be dressed out with a flap disk, but they're much more robust than the puny stuff in the 7 PC set. (I have the older Central set but the dollies are pretty much the same.) Dollies in general are meant to be tweaked to suit their purposes. (Hammers too, really.)
The spoon and toe dolly in that kit would really help to planish out those flares.
Not enough people are watching this thread. That's pretty clever coilover mount. And those fenders are extremely impressive, especially just using hand tools. Please take more in-progress picture next time the body guy is working 
And this, this is just badASS
In reply to Crackers:
Good to know, I'll have to grab that set at some point. I need to learn how to do some of this stuff myself at some point- for when Dan decides beer and food isn't enough payment lol
In reply to maschinenbau:
Thanks haha. It's hard to get pictures of everything. I've been doing the cage and suspension work while he's been doing the body. I had borrowed an iPod touch to leave in the garage for pictures. We used it for a little bit, but then forgot about it. I'll have to see if we have any other in-process pictures. As for the picture, as awesome as it is, I'm hoping I can keep both rear tires on the ground when I get the coilover setup in the rear. Super Stock drag springs are not great for autocross
Full post coming soon, but to cover the basics: Got very little sleep last week, especially Wednesday night on. Made it to Ascutney around 11 Friday night. Car handled better than I could have hoped, but BADLY needs power steering. Dropped 34 seconds off my best time at that hill in that car. Never even had to take a wheel off all weekend.
View from the top of the hill:
Video clip from "the bridge"
So here's the full story from the weekend: Was still undecided on Tuesday whether or not I'd be going to the first NEHA event of the season at Mt Ascutney. A good thrash session after work on Tuesday pushed me over the fence and I registered Tuesday night. I spent 2 nights of working till well past midnight, and then called out of work on Friday to finish up. With the exception of a few items for tech inspection (roll bar padding and an air horn) the car was ready to go around 5 PM Friday. Then I packed the truck and headed north, getting to Ascutney at around 11.
The caffeine I consumed on the drive up took a little while to wear off (some whiskey helped) so I had a few minutes to catch up with a couple other competitors before calling it a night. Up early on Saturday morning to tie up loose ends for tech inspection. Passed with no issues aside from needing to add a door panel to protect my arm from sharp edges. High tech 3-layer corrugated fiberboard served that purpose.
The familiarization run (a "brisk" group run up the hill to get re-familiarized with the hill) went well, and I took my first run. The car was running well, but the top of the Ascutney has gotten VERY bumpy, and I was using up all of the available spring. A quick spring swap and I was ready to go again. See this video for exactly how bumpy the road is:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/cXcsjO_Aypc
We got 4 runs Saturday, my best being a 3:15.37. For reference, my previous best in this car at this hill was a 3:48, and my personal best was a 3:11 in a Neon SRT-4.
Sunday was another 3 runs, and I dropped another second, ending up with a 3:14.65. At the end of my last run, it took me 2 minutes to recover to the point where I could even take my gloves off. The car handled as well as I ever could have hoped, but without power steering and with the condition of the road, I felt like I was wrestling a bear all weekend. Put that at the top of the list before the next event.
Anyway, here are a few videos. First, an edit using some roadside video taken by some of the corner workers and spectators
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ri22NFxdCLc
Here's a full run in car:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/FBOd9N57z1E
And a full run from the fender cam:
The Force is strong with Dan.
This could be my favorite thread of all time.
In reply to NOHOME:
Kidding, you're not
In reply to ebonyandivory:
Haha thanks! It's still got a long way to go, both before and after Mt Washington in July
My goodness this is cool stuff.
DennisMotorsports wrote: In reply to ebonyandivory: Haha thanks! It's still got a long way to go, both before and after Mt Washington in July
I just learned I'm going to be in the Mt Washington area on the 6th on vacation.
"Kids, Santas Village can wait, wanna spectate a race?"
In reply to ebonyandivory:
Awesome! Come on by! There's not actual racing on the 6th, but the all the cars will be arriving and going through tech. Friday and Saturday morning and all day Sunday is when we'll be racing.
Didn't get as much done over the long weekend as I would have hoped, but progress was made nonetheless. Got a call Saturday from the guy putting the limited slip in my rear end (heh) that there was a bolt broken off inside the diff. I am lucky to have access to a CNC mill at work, and he was having issues drilling out the hardened steel bolt with his drill press, so I picked it up and brought it down to work on Sunday. I used an endmill to spot the center and then drilled a hole.
I then used an Easy Out successfully for the second time in my life.
My buddy is running at the ARA's Susquehanna Trail Performance Rally this coming weekend, and has been looking for an edge for his rally car. He picked up a steering quickener, and I fabbed up a mount and modified some splined sleeves to install it in a factory steering column.
Along with the CNC mill, we also have an awesome lathe at work. I turned down the ends of some off the shelf splined sleeves so they were a slip fit into the stock steering shaft.
Welded those into a shortened stock inner shaft. Then slipped them into a cut outer shaft, made some brackets, and welded those to the outer shaft. Now it's possible to take the whole thing apart, so the quickener is still serviceable, but everything is very robust.
Meanwhile, on the Dart, I got the engine bay all cleaned up with some wire loom, and Dan spent way too much time cleaning the plug wires and polishing valve covers. I got a snazzy new air filter that won't go on the car until we're done working because it's too nice to cover with grinding/welding crap. I also finished up the cage, but didn't get any good pictures of it yet. I'll take same glamour shots after the inside of the car is painted.
Put the finishing touches on the cage last night. Here's a teaser before paint.
I'm also having an event at a local bar this weekend, doing some raffles and selling t-shirts to cover some of my costs for Climb to the Clouds. My mom had the idea of making Dart shaped cookies, so I whipped up a cookie cutter on the 3D printer at work!
That cookie cutter is the coolest thing I've seen all week. Did you account for spread when baking? Again, the level of work in this thread is impressive.
In reply to mazdeuce:
Thanks again! I did not account for spread, but I made two different sizes and hope things spread relatively linearly. After a test batch, I can adjust if need be. Or she will just have to make cookies that don't spread much, like shortbread
So not much sleep was had this weekend. Got the rear end back with the new diff, and decided on Friday that I was doing the rear end swap this weekend. The only thing was that the car had to drive onto the trailer Sunday morning to get to a fundraiser event. So I got the rear end in place Friday night, did some rough cuts with the plasma cutter, started putting together a plan, and called it a night early-ish knowing Saturday would be a long day.
I didn't get any in progress pictures on Saturday. I ignored my phone most of the day so as to not waste any time. But here is what I came up with. 16 hour day to design and build a complete (minus some gussets/bracing) 3 link rear suspension. I'll get some more pictures of the setup at some point this week.
Sunday was a fundraiser event to promote some of my sponsors and try to make some money to cover event costs for Mt Washington. We had a pretty decent turnout at the Newport Sportsmans Club for food, drinks, raffles, and live music. It was really cool to have my friends, family, and local community come out to show their support for our grassroots team.
And of course the real reason everyone showed up, race car cookies!
Nice 3-link set up. That's pretty much the best way to make a solid axle handle. Assume you'll have a panhard bar too?
Those door bars are... inspired.
How much of that design is rules vs knowledge of your personal inclination to timber felling?
In reply to maschinenbau:
Yup. Panhard is there. Hard to see-it's kinda hidden behind the shock mount tube
Race car cookies are amazing. Give your mom a high five from the GRM forum.
In reply to Crackers:
I've actually seen the design before (I sorta borrowed the design from a guy named Dave Clark who builds rally cages out west), and have been meaning to try it out. This is the first cage I've built myself in a while and I don't like trying new ideas on other people's cars. This design actually fits a variety of different rulebooks.
I like them because they meet FIA rally specs, and are a combination of the more and more typical X-style door bars with NASCAR style bars. NASCAR bars are arguably safer than X-style, especially when you push the bars into the door. X-style are intended for cars that still have internal workings of the doors (window regulators, etc). With this design I kind of get the best of both worlds. These also don't make it much more difficult to get in and out of the car.
In reply to mazdeuce:
Will do!
After the big push last weekend, I decided to take the week off from the Dart and relax a bit. Well, that last part didn't really happen. Monday I had to get the Dart back in the garage and get my uncle's trailer back to him (borrowed since mine was in PA at a stage rally over the weekend). Tuesday was a trip to CT to deliver the Magical Rutan Rabbit to it's new owners
Wednesday was the only real relaxing day. Thursday was prepping the SRT4 for my uncle (who bought it from my dad) to run at Okemo next weekend. New power steering pump, tire swap, and a quick bearing/bolt check.
Meanwhile, at work this week, I've been able to use the CNC mill to make some brake caliper brackets for my other uncle's Spitfire. He found a set of nice Wilwood brakes to put on the car, but the factory mounting brackets put the caliper out too far, so only half the pad is grabbing the rotor. I designed these and 3d printed one a while ago for him to test fit, and finally got around to machining them out of aluminum.
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