This may be a little ridiculous - a $2018 challenge oddessey

See if you can use a mapp gas torch or tune an oxy acetylene with as little acetylene i believe as possible.  Thus, the "play around with it" comment

1 week until departure. Im excited. And nervous. 

We're as ready as possible.

Ill do a final update juuuust before the challenge, and a recap afterwards. 

so, its close enough to the challenge to let you all in on the last of it. The car is done and on the trailer, and has been done for a couple of weeks.

So, since the last update, we did a bunch.

First, I pulled the stock seats back out, then ripped out the entire interior and roll bar. Again.

For the roll bar, I welded a tube from side to side for shoulder strap harness bar. The tube was leftover from the stick that came with the spec miata roll bar stuff that I traded for the top and deuce. So budget free! Sprayed it in some leftover satin black paint, and put it in along with my butlerbuilt seat and 5 points. While I was at it, I re-dyed every single piece of the interior with duplicolor medium beige. Really turned out nice! I also painted the radio and shifter surrounds in gloss black for a higher class look.

20190831_204452 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190919_121211 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190919_121252 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190822_172146 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

while were talking mechanical, I took the spring rubbers out, and re-aligned it. Not really picture worthy. I also installed the nitrous, in the process repainting and re-looming the trunk. I integrated the wide open throttle switch in the linkage on the accelerator pedal that was used for cruise control. It bottoms out on a bolt on the firewall. Easy. I put the arming switch where the key for the airbag shutoff would go, with a warning light integrated there as well. The bottle heater is operated by the switch where the cigarette lighter should be. Solenoids were bolted to the passengers side head, and the nozzle in the exhaust tube splice. I went ahead and changed the red intake elbow for black while I was in there.

20190902_153544 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190902_153732 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190921_120941 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I took the car to my vinyl guy. We tried a bunch of different things out, and what we ultimately decided on was a few things, that all work together. Most obvious is the 20 inch diameter white door gumballs. They are sized such that the challenge number plate will fit entirely within the circle. We had the vinyl to do another gumball and a side stripe on the hood, but decided it was visually too much. We did use some scrap gray vinyl to wrap the way too shiny and sharp steering wheel. Solved the issues there. I traded a pair of BMW battery cables for the materials. Rear mounted battery in his truck, stickers on my car. Win win!

We then added some specific family decals. The front fenders are the insignia from grandfather crawfords 305^th bomber group in WW2. On the back bumper is the insignia from grandfather tarasis 34^th infantry division. If it weren't for these two men, and the lives they forged in ww2 and the years afterwards, I would not have the parents, and therefore life, that I have today. I'm proud of my heritage.

We rounded out the package with a flyin miata on the roll bar, bilstein/american powertrain on the air dam, and a hellbilly hotrods sticker. In addition, I cut down the mazda emblems and painted them black.

20190919_113614 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Screenshot_20190830-172501 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190920_081833 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20190920_081855 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

stuff that was done, but not photographed: radiator and fans sealed up better. All hardware underhood with matching levels of gold zinc. Overspray cleaned from everything. Tailpipe turned black. Scrubbing, polishing, etc. tons and tons of detail work that isn't in and of itself photographic, but makes a qualitative difference overall.

Anyway, the final details were aero. I built a splitter out of the cheapest ½ plywood I could find, and cut the barn door sized spoiler down to XP limits. In addition, I had brother dustins wife get artsy with it. I REALLY dig it. She nailed my vague idea.

20190922_133054 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20191005_083837 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

and this is the final visual product. It will receive the GRM sticker package, and some custom cut name vinyl in gainseville. The silver wheels have been scrubbed spotless, and the tires doped with used paint thinner. Far softer than they were, so hopefully more grippy.

I will do a summary of the challenge after we get home. I will say that the competition will be stiff this year. Much stiffer than I ever expected. I am still hopeful for top 10, nut doubt I will be able to hit much higher. It will be a fun and challenging weekend, full of friends, family, and thrashing. Mom and dad are doing the concourse presentation, pro-driver timed autocross runs, and if we crack open the bottle my friend Patrick will take those drag passes. I know I sound like a slacker in having others do the skilled portions, but ive always been a builder. Im becoming much better at the practical use of the car via presentation and driving, but im not ready for the big show yet.

20191015_140124 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Car looks really great, can't wait to see how you do!

Dusterbd13-michael said:

...I know I sound like a slacker in having others do the skilled portions, but ive always been a builder...

No way, man. It sounds like you're SMART for handing it over. Knowing your abilities and strengths is, like, all grownup and stuff. The car looks incredible and that last pic really shows the level of detail you've applied. Excellent work, no matter where you finish. Thank you for the inspiration. 

And when you return victorious from this weekend , how often will this awesome creation see street duty?

Good question. It will see more syreet time than the duster during spring and fall, and be driven to and from events. It will never be a daily though. 

But first stop is a good showing at the challenge. 

Good luck!  We're all counting on you!

Looks great! Can't wait to see it!

Looks amazing! I think all that wet sanding REALLY paid off too.

We are here, registered, and ready to go!

Hopefully it's smooth sailing. 

It's finally where it was built to be. Well done. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

It's finally where it was built to be. Well done. 

Thanks. We've gotten some incredible responses to it so far, and never even gotten it out of the trailer. We have signed up for the pro driver, and feel pretty good about things.

10th in autocross. Only slight issues all things considered. 

10th overall in autocross. 

Getting ready to go drag racing. 

Seems like correct phrasing is: 

10th overall in autocross!

w00t!  way to go!  keep it up, and good luck!

Awesome!  Nice work!

You get some good feedback on set up from the pro driver?

Eo, 15.1 an done. BrokBrokendiff. D one. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Eo, 15.1 an done. BrokBrokendiff. D one. 

Oh man, that's gut wrenching, but good that you got a time in the book before it blowed up.  I assume broke diff on 2nd pass?

Nopr. First run

That sucks. Glad you got an ok time all things considered. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Nopr. First run

so it broke at the top end of the track?

AngryCorvair said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Nopr. First run

so it broke at the top end of the track?

It had to have. 

I'm pretty sure it broke free on launched with a dead hook on the Slicks because it was Squirrely and crunchy everytime I power shifted but I left my foot in it.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

 but I left my foot in it.

berkeley yeah!  Lifting ain’t gonna fix it!