This last is the rest of the removal. I tossed a little humor in there about feed my son Ryan only if we worked for the meal. Not sure he thought that was too humorous..but I’m his Dad..he has to deal with me. 🙂
3/15/1960 Mercury Comet is brought to dealership windows.
3/17/1949 Porsche appears as the Geneva Auto Show and Gottlibe Daimler born in Germany in 1834.
3/18 a couple of notable birthdays. Andy Grenatelli was born in Dallas (1923) and a little bit before that Ruddy Diesel was born in France in 1858. Ok..Rudolf ….only close friends were allowed to call him Ruddy. Guess what Ruddy is famous for?
Follow the steps and you’ll be able to remove those rusted exhaust bolts and it makes using an easy out on broke bolts…um…well… easier!!!!
1. Heat the bolt or stud with a torch errrkkk….”Yo…us averaged guys don’t have a torch set!!!!” Yeah, I know…I use a regular propane torch from ACE Hardware. ….errkkk Double nut the studs.
2. Once it hot…doesn’t have to be glowing red, touch a candle to it, until there is wax penetrated between the threads.
3. Remove the bold or apply the easy out and you are home free.
Ok, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. I have a couple of muscle cars and cars that aren’t but get “dressed up” like muscle car peeves.
So here are three right off the bat.
1. Don’t put Yanko strips on your 2003 Dodge Neon. It doesn’t look right, and you aren’t fooling anyone.
2. I have nothing against body kits added to a car. I, personally, wouldn’t do it to the two I have, but I’ve seen some pretty nice jobs done on Corvettes, especially. I’ve even seen a lot of imports that look good with body kits. But here’s my peeve, don’t put them on the car if you aren’t going to paint them the right way. Save up the cash and get it all done at once. And one more note on body kits, why would you want to take your Honda Accord and make it look like a 1946 pickup truck? (OK, I’ve never seen one, but you know what I mean).
3. I recently saw a 1970-something Camaro, mounted on the frame of a raised Chevy pickup…almost monster truck size. Why people…WHY???!!!
Okay, there are a couple of mine muscle car want-ta-be peeves.
Post up some of yours. Come on, I know you’ve got them!!!!!
Being an average guy …say it with me…..”with an average budget and average tools”…I travel light to the drag strip.
I don’t have a trailer and I don’t have spare tires, or worry have about NOS (Nitrous Oxide System). I don’t carry a timing light (but that might be handy) or dwell/tach. What I do carry with me is a small toolbox with open-end and box-end wrenches, socket set and screw drivers. I also bring along a lawn chair, a cooler (No Alcohol) and Fire Extinguishers. Now it helps that the strip is less than 10 miles way and I have a very nice GM towing/travel package (AAA like coverage – under 10 miles the tow bill is free) so I don’t really need a trailer and the works.
The tools I carry are just enough to make carb adjustments and plug adjustments. (I have replaced the points and condenser with the Pertronix electronic ignition parts in the Mustang…(very smart idea by the way) and there really aren’t any adjustments I can make to the Corvette as it is currently configured – the computer which is crude 1980’s technology – just returns the car to original operation specs (fuel to air ratio) or close to it anyway.
So I look really small compared to the guys with the covered trailers and the double axle pick-up trucks. But there are a lot of average guys there, taking up no space in the parking lot.
At the drags Pic 1
At the Drags Pic 2
As you can see by these pics there isn’t a giant tool box there and no pit crew. BTW these photos are from my first time at the track, right after the new engine:
New engine just before installation.
And before the new paint.
I have a ton of fun at these events. I’ve attended to two charity events, Race for the Cure, in support of cancer research and a several weekly test-n-tunes. Generally at the test-n-tunes you see a lot of kids (relative depending on your age) with their imports. You can tell there isn’t much of a budget there and that I think is what makes it fun.
In most of these events you aren’t running against the other guy (not really), you are running against your own skill as a driver and a mechanic – your own tune-up work and your last run’s time. The kids with the tuners (a slang term for modified imports) generally have a Nitrous Oxide Systems (NOS) and a lap top to adjust the computer that controls nearly everything to do with the way the engine runs. I know some old school guys that really frown on that but I think it pretty cool.
Do you have a racing experience? Drop it in comment.
Coming up next (if I can find it) is an article I wrote that covers the finer point of bracket racing and some tech tips.
I plan on getting back to the pieces on drag racing, as I have a couple more parts to post. However, I have two projects coming that I thought give you all a heads up on.
The first is a new dash for the Mustang. Dashboards were never made to last, even back in the 70’s. They sure as ‘heck’ don’t last here in the Arizona sun. It doesn’t matter what that the dash is made up of, the heat will eventually mar it or destroy it all together. Painted metal with fade, at the least, if not peel off. Plastic will crack and the vinyl composite like the original dash in my Mustang will crack and curl up.
Take a look:
This the Dash with the custom cover.
Now it’s going to get ugly. Beware, send the children from the room and hide pets. Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for malfunctions of pacemakers, prosthetic limbs or dental work fall out of your head when you gasps at the next few pictures. Don’t view if you are in your lasts trimester or if you spouse in her last trimester. Side effects are severe headaches, nose bleeds, loss of voice and black-outs have been report but rarely occur. (Law school – money well spent!!)
Split dash on speaker cover.
Grand Canyon
Son of Grand Canyon
Tough to see here but the corners are curled up.
HAD ENOUGH?!?!?!!? Yeah…I thought so.
So I order a dash sometime ago and I’m ready to get it put on. …..eeeerrrrkkk….don’t get a cap (dash cap), they are the worst!!! They almost never fit right and they are normal waving and the glue doesn’t hold…especially here in the big AZ. I tried one on my ’74 Torino (I loved that car…I’ll tell that story another time…someone remind me!!!!) and it did all of those things plus it looked cheap. If you can buy the orignal equipment, NOS (New Old Stock) do it. Of course you can for Mustang’s and other popular cars and keep mind some fit other models of the same make. If you can’t get NOS then look for the advertisements where they are using the original tooling (molds etc.). Those are the best…. end of eeerrkkkk… While I’ve got the dash apart I’ll redo any wiring necessary and place all the bulbs. I might even replace the original speak which isn’t hooked up to the new stereo. And I’ll do some cleaning as well.
All this I will film with digital pics and digital movie clips and post them up. Every one can follow along. And if you are in area you can swing by and see the progress.
The second project I’ll be doing with a few professionals at Dynamic Crossfire Solutions. Met these guys through the Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts club (ACE). …eeerrrrk…..For an average guy with average skills, car clubs are a great resources…end of errrkkk… These guys, Tom and Jim have developed a new intake manifold for the lowly crossfire engines. I’ll talk more about that in the another post, but for a fair price, I having the newly developed (first of its kind) intake manifold for my 84. The Corvette will get a new fuel pump and the injectors will be modified to allow manual adjustments and a fuel pressure gauge will be added to help refine the flow. Why???…more HPs car peeps, up to 50 more for, what is really, just a bolt. Tom and Jim are going to let me turn the wrenches and I’ll be filming that was well and will share it here.
I have a new contest coming up (looking at $50.00 gift card) and some tips that might help with the project you are working on.
This is a tough one. Strictly from a budget point of view…nope. I run my Mustang and Vette with the street tires.
What not to do: (Read and heed)
At most tracks they have the water area where most cars with drag rubber will run through. It helps to get the tires spinning. Avoid that!!! On my very first run, I thought I’d be cool and do it like the big boys. Got the tires wet…..oh..they’ll spin alright..no problem…but hey aren’t soft enough to grip and well…lets just say it gets a little hairy and all I wanted was to just trying to get them to smoke a little..would have been fun. Well..what did happen was the Mustang started going sideways toward the concrete divider, mind you, I’m not even to the line yet, (and I’m think..”Hey honey..can you move your car so the tow truck and back in to the driveway).
So not only did they not smoke, they didn’t even get hot, just wet. Now take wet street tires and place them on 1/8 inch of rubber sticking to strip and…ta dah…you have a Mustang on ice…great!!! I recovered from that and got to the line. This was a charity race and I looked a cross concrete divider at this front wheel drive Ford Focus and I smiled…..but only for a second. The tree started and I popped the clutch and heard my bored out 302 engine rev and felt it go…. nowhere….the tires just spun…I see the Focus take off and I let up on the gas the Mustang took off, fishtailing…..I think I did two miles on the 1/4 mile strip, during that run. I did manage to get her up to 86 miles an hour that time but..I was at the end of the run and Focus has already turned off.
What to do:
Avoid the wetting down area. Your street tires will spin….trust me…on all that rubber the other cars have left for you. Warm you tires up only a little.
Now as an average guy..I only have a street car…just like it came off the show room floor, no trans-brake…nope… just a clutch and a gas pedal. So with a manual shift..and street tries you have to be careful taking off. I have out treed a few cars but you have to be light on the clutch. The tires will spin a little and you can limit that a bit with the clutch. A few feet out you will find more grip and 2nd and 3rd will be fine…um….I don’t have a 4th in the Mustang…so that’s pretty much it for me.
My next few passes went much better with my best being 93.43 mph with a 15.391 time. Now that’s pretty good with street tires and only 3 speeds. (Considering the first pass..documented above had a time of 17.54 at 78.98 mph.)
