Project Update for Oct 10th, 2013: In this update we will pick up coverage of the TT3 Mustang's preparations and updates after we returned from the 2013 NASA Nationals, at Miller Motorsport Park. That work started about Sept 10th. Then I will cover the NASA event at TWS Sept 21-22 and what we have coming up next.
Pre-TWS Updates and Prep
There was less than 2 weeks between our return from Miller (Sept 10th) to the next NASA event (Sept 21st), and I wasn't about to go back to another track with high speed corners with this aero imbalance. So we made a list of changes to make and got to work on them quickly, between customer service and race prep jobs. And the shop was BUSY for those 2 weeks, and the work came down to the wire.
We started by leaving the Mustang in the trailer from the return trip from Miller and taking it straight to the painter. The guys at Heritage Collision wanted a little more time to finish the detail work, as we rushed them picking up the car before they had a chance to wet sand and buff the hood. They removed the vinyl stripes and decals and got to work. When we picked it up on Thursday the hood looked as perfect as the painted front bumper cover and fenders, but we never got around to re-striping the hood before the NASA event (ran out of time). Never rush your painter with an insane deadline, BTW.
After we got the trailer back to Vorshlag's shop we played musical chairs, moving cars back and forth from my home shop to Vorshlag. Mustang came out and stayed, our white
Alpha E46 LS1 BMW went to my house for a few weeks while the
"ST2/TT2 Build" E36 LS1 BMW came to the shop for its turn at some race prep work (it is now stripped down to the bare chassis and
squeaky clean). Then another car was picked up at Heritage and delivered for one of my employees. Man, we need a bigger shop, and a bigger trailer. Growth problems.
When the car was back from the painter the custom made front bumper beam (which I personally weighed at almost exactly 10 pounds) was removed, the ends were capped and welded, and a few more stitch welds were added to the ducting tabs. Then it was scuffed, cleaned and painted. We spray bombed it the same Race Red as the exterior... just because. I hate leaving anything unpainted in bare steel, even on a "race car". And I knew we might be selling this car soon, so it was a loose end to wrap up.
Next up was something that has been on my "to do list" for a long time. We finally did the rear "bump-stop-bracket-ectimy". See, there is a little angled bracket spot welded to the body which has an integral hook slot for (I guess) transatlantic tie-downs (?) and that also has a flat spot above the axle-mounted bump stop to whack into. Well we removed that axle-mounted bump stop ages ago, and with a 12" wide wheel mounted the T-slot is completely inaccessible. This bracket serves no purpose for us now. It does, however, get in the way of the inside barrel when the 12" wide wheels are put down at full suspension droop. We've been doing this crazy multi-step wheel removal process every time it goes up in the air on our 2-post lift or for wheel removal at the track.
First, we drive the rear wheels up on some wood blocks or ramps, so we can then slide a long floor jack way under the axle pumpkin. Next we can jack up the rear of the car (to put the rear suspension loaded in bump direction),
then we can remove the wheels,
THEN we can allow the car to be raised on the lift and the rear suspension can go to full droop
without letting the inner barrels of the rear wheels hang up on this useless bracket. Whew... it is a lot of words to describe, and it is an even bigger hassle to do each time the car goes on the lift. This is one of those special restrictions that go along with a 12" wide rear wheel (but not 10" or even 11" wheels - they are well clear of this bracket). You can work around the brackets with 12s, like we have for 2 seasons... or you can remove the damned things and no longer worry about the wheel hanging up on the bracket at max droop. This never once is an issue in any sort of driving, on the street or on the track track, but only comes int play at EXTREME droop (aka: only when the car is going on a 2-post body lift or being jacked up at the rear NOT by the axle).
It is even more fun to put the car up in the air for inspections or work track-side, as you have to either put jackstands under the axle tubes (as shown above) or yank the wheels first before it goes up onto jackstands. Nine spot welds later, the brackets fall off. If you use a spot weld cutter properly you only cut through the bracket itself (and not the tub). Then clean and paint the part of the inner fender area behind the bracket (otherwise it will be that green-grey primer) in a matching color you will never be able to tell it was ever there. Olof painted this area but we didn't get a picture of it all matching and pretty this time, oh well.
What idiot suggested making a set of
race wheels and having them powder coated in
white?! Oh, yea... that was me. Err... Oops. Looked cool in the very first pictures, but they were stained worse in each successive session at Miller. We tried cleaning them between sessions but it was hopeless. I showed my powder coater what they looked like after we got back and he suggested some polish. We tried that, and it worked OK in some small spots, but it just wouldn't cut the brake dust everywhere. We broke out the Mothers Power Ball and all kinds of waxes, cleaner wax, paint polish, aluminum polish... burned an hour... no help. They sort of almost tried to clean up, but these will have to be stripped (glass bead blasted) and recoated in grey or black if we use them in the future. They look bad.
continued below