Worked on Another Car This Weekend

Dateline - 04/23 and 04/24 2016 - Occasionally in this blog I go a little off topic and talk about other things going on in my life.  This weekend I attempted real motor sport for the first time.  I was offered an opportunity to be a driver for a team in a series called Lucky Dog Racing (http://www.racelucky.com/).  The cars are only supposed to have originally cost $2,500 and run on street legal tires or you get penalty points.  Of course, after getting it race ready, it is significantly more!

The team I raced with was "Team Odin" who is championing a 1980 Rover P3500 SD1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_SD1) with the aluminum block 3.5 liter V8.  This engine has a long and storied history which you can read if you so desire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_V8_engine).  Team Odin has been racing this car since 2011 and, well it's not as fast as a lot of the other cars out there.  It's heavier than a lot of the cars, hasn't had huge amount of suspension or brake modes, and is a bit under powered.  Not the kind of car you would think would be a road course car.  But it is a race car all the same and a great test bed to learn how to drive competitively.  Here are pictures:

Car on Sunday Morning

Car on Sunday morning.  Owner Chris standing behind

Car on Sunday morning

Car on Sunday morning

The office

One of the mascots

You gotta have a horned helmet!

"Nice Ass!"

Well, the owner Chris was kind enough to invite me along on their team as a driver.  I bought  all the requisite safety gear (full race suit, helmet, shoes, gloves, etc.) and headed up to The Ridge (http://ridgemotorsportspark.com/) in Shelton Friday night to be ready to race on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning was cold and wet and we were all talking about how the car handles in the wet.  Never having driven this car before and never seen the tack, I was a little concerned but confident.  A little too confident.  But more on that in a minute.  The first 40 minutes of the morning was going to be qualifying.  They wanted each of the drivers to take the car for three or four laps so they could get an average speed.  Chris the owner took the car the first four laps and it was fine although I found out later he did get it a bit loose on one of the corners.

Then it was my turn!  I got into the car and proceeded to do a pretty good first lap considering I was all over the course and had cars passing me!  But as I started my second lap I lost the back end and slid backward into the curve on turn 1.  The car started hard and I finally got it running and started up the climb on turn 2 and 3 and then the engine really started dogging,  I made it to turn 8b before it started belching blue smoke and the car died.

After many profane expletives (all caught on the Go-Pro!), I got a tow back to the paddock.  We took the hood off and there was oil everywhere.  Not a good sign.  We could figure out at first why until we discovered the hole in the side of the engine below the #2 cylinder.  Yup!  I put a rod through the block!  I SERIOUSLY BROKE THE CAR!

Hole in block partially hidden by motor mount

Motor mount removed, much better view of hole

"I don't think that rod is supposed to be there!

Now at this point I have to thank the magnanimity of the car owner and the rest of the team!  I was devastated!  Not only had I broke the car, but I ruined the chances of the team racing on Saturday and possibly the whole weekend!  We all spend a lot of money to get into this race, plus time, energy and expectation.  NEVER ONCE, and I mean this, did the team ever blame me for the engine!  In fact, they were more then generous with me in giving me their experiences with the car and incidents they have had with breakdowns.  And the statement, "This is racing" was said to me probably more then 100 times!  I still felt (and feel) horrible about taking out the car.  But that appears to be my burden to let go of!

So, what to do next.  Well, we had an extra engine in the support truck, so it was time to change it out.  At least I had a chance to redeem myself by putting all my efforts into this!  We proceeded to pull the old engine out, leaving the transmission in the car.  Of course, an engine pull is a lot of work and something nice to do in a shop with heat and a lift, not under a tent with rain and wind!  But we prevailed and got the old engine out, which made quite a conversation piece, and the new one in.  We were buttoned back up and ready to go around 8:00 pm.  Just in time have a few beers.

The other thing I have to say about the team is that they are VERY creative!  We had a few issues with the engine swap.  First, the engine that was in the car was an America version from the 1960's.  We were putting back the 1980 Rover version which had a few distinct differences.  It has a different oil pump interface so we could not use the Accel electric ignition/distributor from the old one, which means we lost the rev limiter.  The old engine used studs for the exhaust manifolds while the Rover used bolts (run to the hardware store!) Also, we forgot to bring the clutch spline alignment tool, which is pretty critical.  The good news was that the car now had a Ford T4 transmission, so we went to one of the Mustang teams racing that day and they had the correct alignment tool.

But the real creative solution for the day was the transmission shaft pilot bearing.  The one in the old engine was designed to fit the American crankshaft and the T4 transmission.  The one in the Rover engine was smaller in both outside and inside diameters.  We tried to drill out the bearing, but ended up breaking it.  No parts store in Shelton carried a bearing for a 1980 Rover, so we got creative.  We went to the local Ace Hardware and found a brass pipe fitting that had the correct inside dimensions with a small smooth area for the race, and larger outside area with threads.  We put the fitting into a drill bit wrapped with electrical tape, mounted the drill on a vice and using a flat file, filed the outside down until we were able to hammer it into the crank!  That was some real thinking on the fly!

So, what were the results of our labor?  We got a full day of racing in on Sunday.  We had to come in twice because a rubber water plug broke, twice!  Easy fix and no damage to the engine.

Here are some pictures of me racing:

Fueling before my time

Strapped in and putting in steering wheel

Just exiting turn 13 into 14

Heading into 14

Heading into 14

Hitting apex at 14

At apex on 14

Exiting 14

My experience?  Racing is really hard!  You are trying to learn a track, how a car handles and deal with a bunch of much faster cars passing all the time.  To be honest, after 30 minutes I was exhausted and noticed that I was loosing concentration so I came in.  I didn't want to break the car again and felt that caution was better suited for the day.  I did get a chance to run again one last time and felt much more comfortable even though the car was pretty rough running.  I still babied it, and felt good that I made it through the race.

Will I race again?  Yes.  I don't think I'm a natural race driver, but I want to get some more experience doing this.  I think I can like it if I can get past the, "don't break the car" feeling.  But even if I don't race again, I'm glad I got the chance to try it at least once!

Dash! You Would Think I'd Be Done By Now!

Dateline - 04/16/2016 - Okay, another day working on the dash.  This weekend was spend getting the drivers side fascia to fit correctly.  This has been a real pain and has required a lot of refitting to make things work.  First, I needed to mount the dash dimmer rheostat and control box.  I knew I wanted to have this between the switches and steering column, but there is a lot of foam there that holds the dash.  So I used a piece of brass tubing to act as an extension and mounted the rheostat using an aluminum bracket.  The control box is mounted using double sided foam tape.  I'm going to print out a knob on my 3D printer to finish this off.

Brass tubing used for dash light rheostat

Rheostat and control box mounted on fascia

Next I mounted the right and center dash panels uses 3M industrial strength re lockable fasteners.  I was thinking of using Velcro, but I thought I would give this a try first.

Next I worked on fitting the left hand dash.  I connected all the wires to the speedo, tach and center control console and tried to get the fascia to fit, but it would not fit well around the ignition lock.  I didn't like the fit and know if I left it, it would bother me, so I peeled back the vinyl and did quite a bit of sanding.  After everything fit, I glued the vinyl back.

Then I had to figure a way to mount the fascia.  I opted for a bolt going through the door jam into the left side of the fascia and a bold going through the center console into the right side.  Seems strong enough.  I epoxied steel tubing into the fascia and center console to add strength.  We will see how long it will go.  I may be revisiting this design choice in the future.

I did figure out how I am going to do the hazard light switch.  I nice piece of brass rod epoxied into the switch and running out to the lower right of steering wheel cover.

Finally, I put the seats back in the car!  Hopefully I will not need to take those buggers out again.  They are a pain.

So, as it stands now, I need to finish the center console face so that I can put that it.  Once that is done, and I re-upholster the steering wheel cover, everything will be in the car!

Still Working On The Dash!

Dateline - 04/10/2016 - Continued to work on the dash this weekend.  I've pretty much buttoned up the wiring and cleaned up the loose ends.  Almost everything is ready to go except the dash light dimmer control and the hazard warning light switch.  I know what I'm going to do with the dimmer control.  I'm going to mount it between the two switches and the steering column on the driver's side fascia.   I need to get some tubing from the hardware store to do that.

What I don't know is the hazard switch, which is part of the turn signal controls.  I'm going to need to do some head scratching to get that to work, but I will!

I also spent some time with the steering column cover (here is a link to when I create it http://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2012/03/three-months-and-moving-right-along.html).  It's a bit too big and the steering column tightening knob rubs against it.  So I had to peel off the vinyl and sand it down quite a bit.  That's okay though since had some aesthetic issues with that anyway and will make a better one this time.

Finally, I mounted the right had dash.  It has bolts that go into brackets I made in the back and then pushes up into position.  It is held in place with a five inch piece of steel tubing that is pushed through the center console side into the front of the fascia.  You can't see it, but it feel very solid and I think this will hold well.  I also mounted the bottom glove box door.

I had to cut my work effort a bit short on Saturday because I needed to wash and was the XK-8.  First wax of the season and it needed it.  The paint was feeling really dry.  It can use a couple more coats to bring back the silky feel that I like.

I also washed the Van, which needed it badly!  That was a full day by the time I was done.

Still Working on Dash

Dateline - 04/02/2016 - Was only able to work on the car for half a day on Saturday because I had a bunch of yard work that needed to get done.  I get the connectors I had ordered from Amazon and was able to wire the center gauge cluster, although it is not installed yet.  I also worked on the wiring for the Tach and Speedo and cleaned up a little of the wiring behind the driver side dash.  Still have more to do, but pretty close to getting all that bundled up.

I still have a bit more work to do on the center indicator panel.  I need to print out the warning light symbols on decal paper and them on some clear plastic.  I also have to paint the blue plastic to silver.  Lots of odds and ends stuff to take care of.  It all takes time!

Once I get the dash installed, I can work on the center console.  I still need to finish the carbon fiber panel.  After that, it should be matter of installing everything.  most everything is already made up connection wise in the center console, so that may go much quicker.

I may go ahead and put the seats back in the car before I do the center console.  It's a bit of a pain to sit in the car without seats!

More Dash Work

Dateline - 03/26/2016 - Continued to work on the dash this weekend.  My first chore was to rewire the center instrument cluster.  This took about two hours to do but the results are nice. I ordered two connectors to finish up the wiring harness, but they have not come in yet, so I'll do that later.

Center gauge cluster wired together

Next I installed the Tach and Speedo in to the left hand dash and started working on fitting that.  Well, things just did not fit.  Again, the problem with a prototype!  The biggest problem was the bottom facia is just too long.  So, I pulled back the upholstery and grabbed the had saw a cut a section of the middle, right below the steering column.  It took about an hour to cut, sand and glue it all back together, but it worked out well and I was able to pull the loose upholstery up to get it tight again.

I also had to talk the steering column back down again because I had to remove a bracket that sat around the key hole.  The bracket was there originally to hold the piece of black plastic molding that went around the key.  I don't need it anymore and was getting in the way.  But the only way to get it off was to pull the steering column back down to get to the screws.  What a pain!  I was really hoping I would not have to deal with that anymore.  Oh well!

So, once I got that sorted, I was finally able to get the left side of the dash mounted.  Now I needed to make brackets to hold the dash.  My new dash sits about 3/4 of an inch further back then the original dash did, so it does not quite fit against the original dash mounts.  I made two brackets out of aluminium that hold the dash in place. I need to fasten the dash to these brackets, but I don't want them to be too solid so that they can flex a bit, so I think I'm going to use industrial hook-and-loop tape.  I think that will hold it, but still give me the ability to pull the panels without too much effort.

Finally, I put the dash pad, steering column cover and steering wheel lock on and took some pictures.

That was a full nine hour day and I was pretty pooped after I was done.

Dash with fittings from back window

Dash from driver side

Dash from passenger side

What's left?  Well, I still have some under dash wiring to deal with as well as finishing the center warning light cluster before I can mount everything.  Then I can attach the center console.  After that, Seats, and dare I say it, external panels!

Wiring and Dash!

Dateline - 03/20/2016 -  Saturday was consumed with my first bike ride of 2016, so I put time in on Sunday instead.  This weekend was dedicated to the dash.  Before I could do anything, I needed to take care of some wiring issues that I still had outstanding.  I needed to wire in the distributor power as well as the power to the new electrical cooling fans.  I needed power that was coming from the ignition side so I wired it into fuse #1 which is hot with ignition.

After getting that sorted, I needed to install some of the vacuum hoses for the heater/air controls.  This of course was harder then it should have been, but with persistence and a few broken knuckles I got that done.

Next was installing the center gauges in the dash and hooking them up.  Here they are installed without wiring:

Center gauges installed

Center gauges installed (back)

Then I hooked them up and tried to get them into the dash and realized I do not have enough room!  Yikes!  I'm going to need to do something different.  Before going hog wild on re-wiring, I decided to make sure I really understand how the dash is going to fit together, so I started putting in the passenger side of the dash.  This required that I install the pressed board glove box.  I needed to modify this somewhat to give room for the new wiring to the fuse blocks, but fortunately I din't need to do a lot and was able to retain most of the glovebox space.

Original glovebox with slight modification to fit new wiring.

I also installed the glovebox door and air vent. Then I "fitted" the unit in the car.  Of course, it didn't fit correctly, which required that I pull some of the vinyl back and file down some of the fiberglass underneath.  Fiddly work, but better to have things fit! With the dash fitted, I can see that I have a couple of brackets to make, but not a big deal at all.

To fix the center gauge issue, I'm going to need to pre-wire them using the nut/screw connectors provided on the gauges instead of the bayonet type that I originally planned to use.  The plan is to wire in all the gauges, leaving pigtails that I will be able to plug/unplug on the left hand side.  This will allow me to install and remove the dash panel much easier.  Should have thought of this before!  All things you learn with a prototype!

Next week I want to install the drivers side panel to make sure I really understand how all of this fits together.  Once I know that everything is going to fit, I'll start installing braces and screwing things in.  Here are pictures of the dash thus far:

Dash from passenger front door without flash

Dash from passenger front door with flash

Dash back window without flash

Dash back window with flash

Center console installed!

Dateline - 03/12/2016 - I installed the center console this weekend.  I know, that doesn't sound impressive, but really it is!  In order to get it installed, I had to do the following:

• Batten down and seal the transmission tunnel cover
• Tidy up the relays attached to the transmission cover
• Installed the shift cable from the shifter to the transmission.  This required a lot of  hole cutting into the transmission cover since I changed the location of the shifter from where it was at when I started work on the car.
• Install the backup lights and ignition lockout wiring to the switch on the shifter
• Install the left and right foot well vent boxes.  These direct airflow to the driver and passengers feet and sit behind the center console
• Install center console air box control doors (had been removed previously for sandblasting and painting)
• Install the air box into the console
• Install the console into the car
• Install the handbrake lever
• Install the handbrake cable and adjust
• Test fit the tunnel kick panels

So, a lot done but not a lot of pictures to show for it.

Center console installed.  Ignore the ugly upholstery on the end.  I'll clean that up when I do the back.

Next up is the dash!  Yup!  Things are starting to come together nicely!