In reply to Keith Tanner :
Keith, that's where these flares came from. We're doing very well on budget, so I splurged on purchased flares, versus cutting up more roadside file cabinets.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Keith, that's where these flares came from. We're doing very well on budget, so I splurged on purchased flares, versus cutting up more roadside file cabinets.
Remind me why the huge square box scabbed on to the tunnel?
In reply to NOHOME :
It was a lot less work than trying to build it close, like the left side. Leaves more space for running trans cooling lines, too. Also, the engine and trans are offset to the right side.
A challenge car that's even getting a paintjob? That's gotta be worth some style points!
In reply to ExcessKuma :
No reason not to have it look good if you have the time to put into it. The interior paint was $10/gallon and we won't use half of it. Same for the exterior. There'll be more budget hit in thinner than paint when it's done. From very early on in the build, I've wanted this car to look like a proper race car and Patrick is facilitating that. It will look the part at the Challenge. All we need to do is make sure it runs like it!
Edit:....and I'll add that there aren't words to express how grateful I am for Patrick's dedication to finishing the car, for buying into my vision for what it should be, and for being a wonderful friend through all of this. I'm a lucky man and life is good!
I have been in a rut mentally. Determined to get out of that, we need to do a group saturday on this thing soon. I have been plugging away at some E36 M3
Bradley is coming over sunday and we're gonna do some stuff. Winter has been absolute trash. The flu that kicked my ass in october was followed by 6 weeks of daily breathing trouble and asthma attacks that we got under control with a course of prednisone. Stuff was looking up, we had a nice get together early in december of good friends and good food. Abby wanted to meet Mr Jingeling, a Cleveland staple and the keeper of the keys to Santa's workshop and he just happened to be at one of the churches in town. Well, after almost 5 years, covid finally got us. Abby picked it up at the church, and she was testing negative so in the course of taking care of her, Carli and I got it right in time to delete Christmas, and then after trying to keep Colin from getting it he got it anyway, so we were basically isolated for a month as it ran through the 4 of us, and we ended up doing christmas mid January.
Now that I'm finally past the post covid lethargy, I'm trying to catch up on our ebay store because income is important for groceries, so we have been pushing hard on that. We are finally striking a balance I think, and trying to block out outside stuff(flails arms wildly at the world around us) which is beyond our control and remembering the importance of fun.
With that, it's time to get back at this thing. Yes it needs to be done for the 2026 Challenge. However, providing it's legal, Bradley and I want to enter it in the Empire Hillclimb in Michigan later this year. It's conveniently located about 60 miles north of the cabin so we have a solid base of operations, we have friends who participate, and a good actual event shakedown before deeming it worthy of towing 1000 miles next spring will be imperative to get this thing set up to win the whole damn thing, which it is absolutely capable of doing. None of us is dragging this car to florida without knowing what it is capable of and making sure it'll perform as expected, so while we do not have to thrash to get it done by mid summer to begin dialing it in, there's still a lot to be done and I'll be leaning on anyone willing to for assistance. It takes a village, blah blah blah...
Also, being tuned in to the auctions we use to fill our ebay store has netted a handful of $3-5 bits for this car that would otherwise run $200+ so....big things coming?
Bradley pounding a fender to match the new lower body line
front aero will wrap from flare to flare. Good luck everyone else?
In reply to Patrick :
Looking at the side views, I probably could have bought 4" or 5" flares instead of the 6", and saved a little bit of budget...or just find cheap 12" wide wheels...
Love it dude. Keep it up!
My brain loves the center of the flare poking past the tire a little - very 70's IROC camaro vibe. Plus there's going to be quite a bit more tire, and we can always pop a slip on spacer in there with good studs. Kinda want to step up to 1/2"x3" arp studs all around just because slicks and v8 with 4 lugs and remembering what Denny did to the studs on the 4 lug v8 neon launching several years ago. My Datsun broke axles before studs.
Probably dont need to splurge on arp but a good set of motorsport circle track studs would be the ticket. Im game for the next group build date and would love to crew it at the hill climb. Maybe shoot for a local autocross date before towing it up to MI.
In reply to keithj :
Definitely want to shake down local. Hoping one of the akron test and tune days lines up. I'll let you know next time we get on it
Hill climb may be a wash because of life getting in the way, but we are getting back at it on may 31-june1. I have a thread in the get togethers section where I will keep an update on build days. Getting close to zero dark challenge on picture sharing but this is how the LF flare is laying at the fender now that 5 pounds of filler that were holding waves in the steel have been removed. The arch area was easily 1/2" thick and the whole panel had a 1/8" coat. We have also acquired the end game autocross tires
Filler?? There was filler in a 50 year old race car? Who knew...
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
Just moving the weight rearward by taking it all out of the fenders and putting it back on the horrible left quarter panel
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:
My E21 has puh-lenty filler.
Patrick said:My brain loves the center of the flare poking past the tire a little - very 70's IROC camaro vibe. Plus there's going to be quite a bit more tire, and we can always pop a slip on spacer in there with good studs. Kinda want to step up to 1/2"x3" arp studs all around just because slicks and v8 with 4 lugs and remembering what Denny did to the studs on the 4 lug v8 neon launching several years ago. My Datsun broke axles before studs.
If you would prefer 14mmx1.50 studs, I have acres of studs liberated from old Chevy wheel bearing/hub assemblies, and at least 16 22mm hex nuts that weren't blingy enough when people would go from steel wheels to bling wheels.
Everything liberated from the scrap piles behind the building at work before the scrap guys came and took them, not sure how that would FMV. Weigh it all and go by scrap value per pound?
I saved them because I like bullet nosed studs for ease of wheel swapping.
Studs and lug nuts are exempt under safety so either way...i would use them for sure those are beefy
bin store 50 cent day has us with electrical protection, a 50 pack of stainless 3/8-16 rivnuts, 2 packs of 2 wire weatherproof plugs, and a couple usb/voltmeter/lighter socket combos.
I'm not sure if we can put larger studs on the front. Miata hubs don't have a lot of extra meat, although it's only an extra millimeter on the outboard side. The hubs would break before the studs anyway. It might be fine, just to have the same nuts at both ends of the car. The rear studs are 12mm currently. I have a battery for the car I can bring on the weekend. I have all the rear brake parts, too.
Welded the flare and holes on the left front fender
I spent Saturday and Sunday at Patrick's working on the car. He and Brad, Keith, and Pete were really doing the work while I puttered at little things. The people of the GRM forum are great and I'm so grateful for their efforts and friendship. Pictures show some of Patrick's excellent sheet metal work, the little receivers for a splitter mount, the original Corolla headlight trim rings on the Hella lamps and the fiberglass Camaro hood cut down to fit. The "frenched" electrical safety kill switch isn't shown because I forgot to take a picture. We're getting there!!
I can't wait to see it on the meaty autocross tires, painted and making rumbley V8 noises !! Life is pretty good these days. Thank you, Patrick and friends!
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