Base Coat...

Sprayed the white NASON base coat today!

link to all the pics .... HERE!




At this point I have to thank my good friend Edward for helping me out with the body work and spraying.........THanks dude!

Primer time!

-Etching primer first

- then high build primer.....

-sanding

- sand.....

argh!!!

It is AMAZING TO FINNALY SEE THE CAR IN ONE COLOR!!!!


no booth, GRASSROOTS style !!!

now it's time for more sanding.......

then tomorrow the first coat of WHITE !!!!!

unemployment has it's benefits...............

DUST HELL!

I NEVER WANT TO PAINT A CAR AGAIN IN MY LIFE......

-I HATE BONDO DUST

-I HATE SANDING

- I HATE SANDING

- HATE SANDING

SANDING SUCKS

S A N D I N G S U C K S

ARRGGHHHHH!!!





old hood pin locations fixed

cutting the holes for the my vent project on my hood.......

my made at a home tow hook, my tig welds are getting better... I'll clean it up later with the die grinder...

Valve cover Modification....

On High revving m10 motors the higher lift cams the oil from the oil spray bar gets even more atomized and tends to leave the stock oil breather located at an alrming rate. Even tough this is more of a problem on 316 or 336 cams above 7000rpms I decided to do this on my engine since I have experience some oil loss to my coke can catch can.

taking inspiration from Skidmark Racing's Bob Breed's car....

here is my creation, see both of them here.....from start to finish Click HERE




Since the second one came out so much better I decided I could sell it. So if you have a race car and were looking for a valve cover like this email me!

I polished the details FIRST on the second try and then masked them prior to painting....perfect. I also got better at painting with the wrinkle paint and achieved much better welds on my second try. Welding the cast aluminum was tricky.

here are some different designs I took pictures of at VARA Oktoberfest race......

Jeff Ireland race car

My CAR is in Classic Motorsports Magazine !!!

I'm so excited !!!

My CAR is in Classic Motorsports Magazine !!!

Imagine my happiness when I greet a fellow 2002 racer today at VARA's German challenge race at Buttonwillow, CA and he say to me..."your Pedro right?" i said yeah... " your car is in this month's Classic motorsports magazine!"

I was so excited!!

Made my year!

I slowed down on it a little lately but now I determined to finish it this year!

It's off to paint this week I hope!

I know it's a small mention and picture but it meant alot to me.....
here's the original picture....

cage tie-ins ...

More work today......

I'm currently attaching the roll cage to various points on the unibody.

VARA allows this in my class C-Sedan, although in BMW CCA doing this to my cage moved me up from "prepared" class to "modified" class. I would never be competitive in mod. class. But I only plan on racing with VARA so.....

the seam welding and these "ties" will considerable help with the overall torsional rigidity of the chassis.........I hope!

I needed some practice with the TIG anyways.....

I do have to say welding "out of position" is extremely challenging.... this time I was hanging over the door bars essentially looking upside down at the project and welding on a vertical surface!!

a torch operated control would be preferable in these extreme out of position TIG welds. It becomes a challenge to operate the foot control in some positions....

even so........my welds were acceptable. I know they might not look great, but I am confident I got good penetration.

I learned some things doing the right side, now on the other side I hope to see better welds!

after adding a couple more tubes on the cage, I'll be ready for BONDO! then primer.....




my acceptable TIG welds...
did some of the overhead tabs today along the roofline....

not sure how much difference this all going to make but hey I felt like welding something!

Seam Welding....

Got the rest of the car down to bare metal ( rockers, window areas, door jambs detail stuff)

and did some seam welding of areas I saw could use it. They do this on rally cars to help make the "uni-body" more unified. I figured I have the tools/skill plus it's a old car.....it can't hurt right?

now it's BONDO time!!!!!!!!!!

how fun..... not.

Then repeat this x2000 times around the car....