Yeah, I know, it's been a few of weeks with nothing new. Had a couple of problems & trips that have held up much progress, but there has been a little. This page will just be a chronological list page. I'll also set up a page for photos as they come along. Please keep checking back for updates.
Well, lets take a look at what has happened the last couple of weeks...
7-15-04 Partial assembly of front suspension beam, arms & spindles.
Well, turns out there was a missed weld on the front beam, and the link pin nuts don't seat far enough.
7-16-04 Contacted Tweeds Design about the link pin problem... Steve is machining some replacement nuts that should take care of the problem.
7-21-04 Jason from Velocity Fabrication was finally able to get away from the shop to check out the buggy. I told him what I'm looking for, and we discussed options, and he has some ideas on what to do to make this a nice buggy when it's done. It'll be a month before he can get to it though...
7-24-04 I cut out the cross support that was in the way of the rack & pinion steering box with my sawzall. Did a little grinding of the welds to clean up where the support was. The red line represents where the tube was.
7-25-04 Thought about throwing in the new yellow top Optima and taking the buggy out for a quick urban assault... LOL
...Good thing I happened to look at the brake master cylinder!!! Bone dry! That could have hurt, take off out of the yard and into the street, not be able to stop and get hit by someone driving by, or even worse, hit one of the neighbor kids playing out in the street!! That would totally suck!!
OK, time to do some more planning since I can't play.
7-28-04 Doctor appointment... Good News!!! I have lost 8 more pounds, and my blood sugar has dropped to the point the doc says I have finally gotten out of the Diabetic range. He wants to check it again in 6 months... if it's all good then, it will be official, and I can drop the meds!! Yeah!!!
7-29-04 Leave for Burbank after work.
7-30-04 Head out to Anaheim to McKenzie's to exchange the steering u-joints I forgot to get when I went down to pick up all the parts I took pictures of. When I got home from picking up all the parts, I ordered the U-joints over the phone, and I don't know if I ordered the wrong ones, of if there was just some mis-communication. Either way, no harm, no foul.
After that I went around the back of the building to Rancho Racing Transmissions to drop off my core 002 transmission. Turns out I have some kind of freak German Monday or Friday Transmission. It is an 002 case, but it has 091 gears and bell housing. So it looks like I will have a little stronger transmission than I would have had with an 002, but not quite as strong if I had an actual 091. It will be done in a couple of weeks, and shipped to me.
Since the Transmission has 091 guts, I had to go back to McKenzie's to exchange the 002 drive flanges I had bought for 930 CV's. While I was there I bought Desert People The Movie, and Desert people Second Lap DVD's. These are some pretty cool off road racing movies. Personally, I would prefer the music either be at a lower volume so you can hear the engines, or only as transitions so you can hear the racing action, after all that is the true music of racing... That's just my opinion, actually my brothers too but they are good movies.
7-31-04 OK, not buggy project related but a good day anyway... Went to the Burbank-Burroughs High schools all years class reunion picnic/car show at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank. Saw a couple of friends I grew up with and hadn't seen in about 15 years, and my brother (15 years older than me) saw a couple of people he hadn't seen since he was in high school.
8-01-04 I came home Sunday after watching the Nascar race and Robbie Knievel jump a bunch of planes on the ex-USS Intrepid aircraft carrier. He made the jump, but ate it pretty hard trying to stop. He knew he would have to dump the bike into the hay bails, but he slammed his hand on the deck and it was pretty swollen up right after. He may have broken it, but the jump was a success... Time to hit the road home.
8-04-04 The nuts arrived from Tweeds so I can check to see if they will work. Went to Home Depot to get a bushing driver (large dowel rod) to drive the trailing arm bushings back out of the front beam to weld up the missing weld, and do a little extra re-enforcing of the shock towers while I'm at it. A little good news, the new nuts that Steve sent will seat far enough on the front spindle link pins. One problem down!
8-10-04 Man it's been hot up here... haven't been able to get outside much to work on the car. I'm almost glad the shop is tied up on another project so I don't have to get out there in the heat to work on the car... almost!!! It's about 7:30pm, and it's cooled down to 90° so I guess I'll go out & strip down the front beam. OK, 9:00pm and the front beam is all torn back down & bushings driven back out for welding the tower and what ever mods we make.
8-16-04 Things have kind of slowed down, stuck in wait mode for shops before the real work can begin, and the heat making it hard to get things done outside. I stripped off all of the lights off-road & street that won't be needed for towing, and the windshield.
8-18-04 I got the body panels and roof stripped off the car, while I'm still waiting for the transmission to show up, and the fab shop to make room for the chassis.
8-22-04 Well, it's cooled down a little, so I got out and at least stripped off the floor panels, and was scoping out what other changes may need to be made for the new pedals, and rack & pinion steering to fit better. turns out the cool old military canvas bag I had mounted in the buggy has rotted out and fell apart when I went to take it out. I guess it's better to find out now instead of on the way home from a day of playing and the officer wants to see some ID, and the bag is just hanging in shreds with no wallet or registration in it. LOL
8-25-04 When I got home from work, being impatient I called on the progress of my trans since it's about a week and a half over due. Turns out third gear has been on back order. We talked about it, and I decided to go with a little lower 3rd gear so they can get it finished this week. Hopefully it will be here Monday or Tuesday of next week. Since I was making calls I called Jason at Velocity to see about dropping off the front beam at least, but no one answered the phone, may have been busy out in the shop, I'll try again tomorrow.
8-26-04 A little frustrated today, when I got home from work I found out Jason's out of town again, so I don't know when he's gunna get started on the buggy now. Looks like this summers shot for playing in it. Well, at least I got the seats & belts stripped out of it tonight. Nothing else to take off till I get it to the shop, except the old battery... maybe tomorrow. Who knows, maybe if I get mad enough I'll put the new battery in and at least fire it up & let it run a while. lol
8-30-04 Well, looks like the buggy will be going in this week... at least that was the word Friday when I took the front beam in. Hopefully it will be going in tomorrow 8/30 after work. I went out tonight and looked the car over, and found a few more little things to take off, the front bumper, the shoulder belts, one of the brake lights, and the buggy whip spring, and one of the seat belt mounts I forgot to get the other night.
9-01-04 Went by Velocity today so Nick could check out the shock & lower training arm alignment and they got the missing weld done today. Chassis should be going in tomorrow, or Friday evening. Keep your fingers crossed, I know I am...
9-02-04 Finally, My transmission was delivered to work today. So now everything is here and ready to get the fabrication done. I went back over to Velocity today to drop off the tranny and see if there was any update on when the car can be brought over... not yet.
Guess I'll just have to go ahead and cut out some bars on my own... hope they aren't important ones... LOL naw, just the old seat mounting tubes that were too big anyway and are in the way for the widening process anyway.
The yellow lines represent where the seat tubes were mounted in the frame back to the torsion tube. The red arrows are pointing to the tubes that were cut out, and they are laying on the floor panel on the ground under the car.
9-12-04 Another week has passed, but the buggy is going into the shop tomorrow after work. In the mean time I have gone ahead and cut out the old seat mounting bars, and ground down the welds. I took out the gas tank & battery today. I don't know why I hadn't taken them out before now, but while I was grinding, I realized they were still in the car. I took a couple of pictures of it all stripped down, I just have to get them down loaded to the computer then up loaded to this site... more to come as the project begins at the shop.
