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Post by 58hemifury on Aug 17, 2016 19:51:48 GMT -5
That's f#*cking awesome
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Post by gtopat on Aug 18, 2016 15:30:24 GMT -5
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Post by cynot on Aug 19, 2016 7:26:42 GMT -5
Hell yeah! Sounds like they loved you guys!
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Post by gtopat on Aug 19, 2016 14:21:00 GMT -5
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Post by AZBlues on Aug 28, 2016 13:03:37 GMT -5
All rested up yet? We need details!
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Post by gtopat on Aug 28, 2016 16:16:42 GMT -5
Sorry, I'm overdue. Watch this space
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Post by 58hemifury on Aug 28, 2016 18:29:19 GMT -5
You're my hero
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Post by gtopat on Aug 29, 2016 12:43:58 GMT -5
Part whatever+1: Crunch Time As I'd mentioned in my last update, it was becoming readily apparent time was an issue. I'd brought the whole thing upon myself really, as the car was never supposed to be ready until the middle of September. But, I was really excited to drive the car, so as the summer began, I pitched to my team moving up the timeline to make the August race. How hard can it be? Two weeks before the race, it was obvious; this shit wasn't gonna happen without resorting to drastic measures. I ended up cashing in some "emergency vacation" at work, and spent the week before the race slamming the car together. Every day, 9am to 2am, until we left. Fortunately, the track had a NASCAR-sanctioned event immediately preceding our race, meaning we couldn't get in until Friday morning. Irritating for all the other teams, a blessing for us.  We got the engine started for the first time late Wednesday night. I'd had no time to go through it, so it got dumped in the engine bay in much the same way it'd come out of the motorhome. I bolted on a C-body oil pan, plugged some extra vacuum and coolant ports and changed the valve cover gaskets. I don't think we ever even checked the timing. It thankfully fired off on the second or third try. Some initial top-end clatter faded out as oil pressure built and the lifters pumped up. The 440 through longtubes and dual-2.5" glasspacks sounded AWESOME. Top tip: if you go with the Hooker 5113s, use the header bolts that come with the headers. I didn't want to extract all the (rusty) studs from the 440's heads, but it meant a lot of the them were too long and had to be ground down. By Thursday evening we had crossed 100 things off our checklist, but still had 50 to go. I got lucky and scored (cheaply) a driveshaft that fit from a dismantler. Though meant for a 9.25" car, it bolted in with an adapter u-joint. We still hadn't driven the car as I hadn't finished plumbing the transmission cooler lines or hooked up the 727's kickdown. Actually, that's not entirely true. We forgot the factory linkage as I'd bought the 440 separate from the (short-tail) motorhome 727. Thinking ahead, months before, I'd ordered an (surprisingly expensive) Lokar kickdown cable, specifically for the 727 and threw it in the parts box. When it came time to install, I opened the box to find it came with none of the required mounting brackets and wasn't designed for factory carbs. With no alternative, we futzed with it for hours, fabricating our own brackets, never actually getting it set quite right. Remind me to take a crap in a box and mail it to Lokar. As heavy as the car is, I gave extra attention to the brakes. We rebuilt the rear drums with off-the-shelf stuff, but I replaced the (seized) front calipers with re-mans and all the rubber hydraulic lines. I sent the old front pads out to Carbotech, who supply pads for our other racecar. They relined the cores with their highest-temp compound, which I think would resist melting on the surface of the sun. Around midnight the night before departure, we agreed to pack it in and finish it at the track. After unloading my buddy's blown up '67 Galaxie from the trailer, we winched the very-not-finished Bluesmobile on and I went home to crash. The race weekend hadn't even started and I was already a complete burned out mess.  |
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Post by AZBlues on Aug 31, 2016 1:53:33 GMT -5
Can't wait for the next installment!
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Post by gtopat on Aug 31, 2016 15:50:04 GMT -5
Part 7(?): Race Weekend! After our week of all night thrashing, we admittedly hit the road for Thompson late. Of course, what should have been an easy drive turned into a slow moving trainwreck of congestion and general mayhem on the I-95 corridor. The result was we didn't actually make it to the track until Friday evening, several hours after tech inspection had closed. We had accounted for this and planned to finish the car by working into the night when it was cooler, tech-ing early before green flag on Saturday. Again, like all good plans, that fell apart. We were all too exhausted to get anything meaningful accomplished, but the stream of flabbergasted racers gawking at the giant C-body meant I passed out in good spirits.  Photo credit to Dave Mills/Lemons Racer Lounge For us, Saturday morning green flag came and went in a flurry of activity. While the other cars lined up, we were still wrenching. Wiring in some gauges, installing the race harnesses. Top of the fluids, dick around some more with the god-damn kickdown cable. We discovered power-steering reservoir had several pinhole leaks, which required removal/healthy-coat-of-JBQuik/re-install. Trying to fuel the car, we learned the vent-line and/or charcoal canister was plugged up and wouldn't vent. I eye-balled the front wheels and determined they were pointed in generally the same direction, which the new BFGoodrich G-Force Sports probably didn't appreciate. All of the judges stopped by to admire the car while we worked and to offer encouragement. The thing hadn't even hit the track and was already a crowd favorite. Finally around lunch-time, I hopped in and took it for its first test drive, forwards and backwards 6 feet. Good enough!  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery LeMons inspection is two part. Part one is technical, making sure the car is safe to drive on the track. Part two is "BS" Inspection, where the judges determine how close you stayed to the $500 limit, laugh at your theme and assign you a class based on your car's general terribleness. Needless to say we breezed through both.  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery Despite the 105-degree heat index, we all jumped into costume for BS Inspection. The Blues Brothers theme has been attempted in LeMons many times before, but its safe to say it can now never be repeated. The Penguin was there. So was Tucker McElroy and Trooper Daniel.  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery We we're placed in Class C (the lowest class) and finally had the credentials to put the Bluesmobile on the track. Completely untested. |
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Post by gtopat on Sept 7, 2016 18:28:44 GMT -5
Part 8: Race Time! Obviously we'd missed green flag, so by the time the car had cleared tech and rolled onto the grid, we we're well out of the running for a class win (even by the low standards of class C). I installed my right-hand-guy in the drivers seat and sent him to the grid. Untested was a bit of an understatement as the only actual "driving" the car had ever done was the 1/4-mile or so from our paddock space to the tech garage, but once he'd completed his first lap and didn't immediately pull off into the pits, I was able to relax for the first time in more than a week. She wasn't fast, but she was out there!  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery. My break was short lived as, after 30 minutes or so, my driver came in complaining the transmission wasn't happy. I'd read the correct way to check the fluid level of a 727 is with the engine idling in neutral, but for the life of me, I couldn't get a consistent reading on the dipstick. Knowing the junkyard 727 I'd picked up probably wasn't in the best shape to begin with, I shouldn't have been surprised. In the proper stave-off-the-inevitable-tide spirit, I poured in a couple extra quarts of ATF and sent the car back out, just in time for the rain. While LeMons does run in the rain, lightning is a hazard for the corner workers. Shortly after getting the car back out, the whole track was black flagged for the passing storms. My driver reported the extra fluid in the transmission had mitigated the shifting issue, so while other teams scrambled to tarp up their cars, we rolled up the windows and waited it out. Ultimately, the race would be called for the day as the storms never relented, flooding parts of the track and the paddock, but we escaped the worst. Had we arrived at the track on time for tech and taken our "usual" spot, we'd have been ankle-deep like these poor bastards. The irony was not lost on us.  |
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Post by gtopat on Sept 7, 2016 20:06:23 GMT -5
Part 9: Race Day - Part Deux Saturday night the judges & race organizer had stopped by our paddock space, offering congratulations and recounting how awesome the car looked on the track. Other drivers stopped by and described how they felt like they were on Lower Wacker Drive as they came down the straight along side us. That day's driver described how the car felt unfinished but at least competent. Body roll in the corners wasn't excessive, but the car tended to lurch and heave as it struggled to transfer it's weight through back to back corners. The original rotors were warped, but the race pads meant they worked consistently. The transmission confusion was minimal if some forethought was given to throttle application. Apparently the unrefined 727 wasn't designed with road-courses in mind. (It needs a converter) Despite the short day, we'd at least scored some laps, so we were primed and ready to go for green flag on Sunday. We'd been asked to report to HQ early on Sunday, as the judges had arranged for us to start on the pole. Another team was campaigning a Pinto for the weekend and nobody could resist the urge to line them up together. We fired the Bluesmobile, drove it to the track entrance and gridded ahead of the race leaders.  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery After an hour or so of track time Saturday and minimizing the issue with the transmission, I was looking forward to a day of lethargic but consistent laps. What should come as a surprise to no-one was how quickly that dream was quashed. When the call came to start race engines and parked first on the grid, with every single other car lined up behind us, the horror-inducing *click* of a dead battery signaled what would be yet another long day. We shoved the Bluesmobile into the grass and while all the other cars took the track, we ran for a jump box, squashing the Pinto-chasing-the-Bluesmobile photo-op and missing the green flag. Again! If at this point there is any doubt that running a 24 Hours of LeMons car is a complete shit-show, that should be put to rest now. While my still-fresh driver melted in the stalled-out-Bluesmoble-come-oven, we jumped the 440 to life. Figuring the issue resolved, I told him to stay out for an hour or so before I took a shift. While idiots like us in Class C are just trying to survive, other (read: much faster) classes are actually racing for a win. I think it's part of LeMons charm (and challenge) that there are so many different races going on at the same time, and for those "real racers" so many obstacles to overcome. Like 4400lb C-body Mopars you have to avoid on the track. So while we were probably 30 seconds a lap off the fast lap of the weekend, we do our best to stay out of the way. My instructions to my drivers when racing class C is "pick a side and stay there." Depending on the the orientation of the track, we usually stay to the outside, leaving the "racing line" for faster cars. Be consistent about it, and other drivers know where your car will be at any corner. Despite the Bluemobile's enormous weight, wayward handling, external dimensions and (lack of) speed, the car received not a scratch on it all weekend. Even on a track with 100+ other cars all fighting for position.  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery I wandered off to take my first shower of the weekend, and while walking back to our paddock, happened by the pits just as the car was coming off. Under its own power, right on time. Hooray! As soon as it hit the paddock area with its 5mph speed limit, right in front of me, it conked out. Hooray! When it wouldn't refire, I grabbed my truck and towed it back to our space. Obviously it had needed much more than a jumpstart. Diagnosis was now a crapped out alternator and very dead battery. In my rush I hadn't given much thought to the electric fan I'd thrown in the car to replace the Finger Remover 5000(TM) mechanical fan, but now that I think of it, it's probably difficult for a alternator rated at 60A to run an electric fan that draws near 40A and a 440 ignition. Especially one from 1978ish. Amazingly, the local parts store had an alternator on hand that would fit, so while not perfect, I ran out and grabbed it. A quick install (god C-body engine bays are easy to work in) got the 440 up and running again, only to announce it's valvetrain was very unhappy. The rackety noise, while sounding very top-endish, officially put an end to our weekend. Not loud enough to be heard inside a helmet, over the exhaust, on a hot race track, we had no idea how long it'd been clanking. After wasting a few hours diagnosing and repairing the charging system, we calculated it would take the remaining hour or so to mend and rushing would only risk grenading the whole engine. It was disappointing as we wouldn't take the checkered and couple guys hadn't been able to drive (including me) but we weighed it as a long-term benefit for the car. We retired with about two hours and 30-some laps in the bank, proving we could build damn-near an entire car in a week and get it on the track.  Photo courtesy Judge Eric/Judge Phil's uber-gallery After loading up the once-again-immobile Bluesmobile, we spectated the end of the race and relaxed. We cracked beers to celebrate the end of one-hell-of-a-week and to remind each other this is what we do for fun! We were honored with the "Organizer's Choice" trophy, which unsurprisingly goes to the race organizer's favorite car of the race. The judges admitted we were in the running early for the coveted "Index of Effluency" had we turned more laps. That trophy went to the Pinto. The Bluesmobile is parked for now. It will be back at New Jersey Motorsports Park in the spring.  |
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Post by minevield on Sept 8, 2016 3:19:17 GMT -5
Absolutely awesome!
Thanks for your great pictures and the totally exciting and hilarious adventure story!
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Post by AZBlues on Sept 9, 2016 13:25:15 GMT -5
What a great story, with turn of the century overtones of men and machine tested to the limit. My kingdom for fresh valve springs! I think the other racers were uber careful out there, as nobody wanted to be the guy who hit the Bluesmobile.
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Post by gtopat on Sept 14, 2016 14:36:09 GMT -5
What a great story, with turn of the century overtones of men and machine tested to the limit. My kingdom for fresh valve springs! I think the other racers were uber careful out there, as nobody wanted to be the guy who hit the Bluesmobile. Thanks man! Glad you enjoy it. It's clear you "get it", Lemons is about handing yourself a problem and engineering your way out of it. And having fun doing it. I wanted this thread to be a bit more technical and detail orientated, but our hasty schedule sort of precluded that. I'll do a post-mortem on the car as we start to tear it down. We're off to SC this weekend for our last race of the season, then the Bluesmobile starts getting rebuilt for NJ! |
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