Stuff my dog says; on second thought I'll just build a race car

Breather catch can and hoses on, still short two fittings for this and the oil cooler. Tomorrow hopefully for them. Am told we will do intake manifold things soon.....want to be optimistic but I've been hurt before. 20220802_183647.jpg
 
Breather catch can and hoses on, still short two fittings for this and the oil cooler. Tomorrow hopefully for them. Am told we will do intake manifold things soon.....want to be optimistic but I've been hurt before.View attachment 220815
Don't worry, I'll be gentle.
 
Things that make you go "Huh?" We had the same reducer radiator hose elbow I need for the lower radiator hose laying in a spare parts bin.
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My fittings came in today too so I have the oil system sealed back up and the crankcase vent hoses both attached from their engine ports to the catch can. Ran the engine and topped up the oil, looks like it added about 2 quarts to the system plus a other quart to fill the new filter.
 
Things that make you go "Huh?" We had the same reducer radiator hose elbow I need for the lower radiator hose laying in a spare parts bin.
View attachment 220920
My fittings came in today too so I have the oil system sealed back up and the crankcase vent hoses both attached from their engine ports to the catch can. Ran the engine and topped up the oil, looks like it added about 2 quarts to the system plus a other quart to fill the new filter.
So, when this Bad Boy is finished, what are you gonna do with it besides being cooool?
 
So, when this Bad Boy is finished, what are you gonna do with it besides being cooool?
Look at it, take it to shows, maybe autocross just for shits and giggles? Other than that the plan at work is to start taking completed projects to tracks for break in and tuning going forward and I'll bring the car with us then. When this was first being talked about the two guys I was going to be building it with were also talking about building track capable projects and we were talking about taking mini vacations renting a small road course for a day, but they've not shown any actual interest in that in more than a year.
 
Look at it, take it to shows, maybe autocross just for shits and giggles? Other than that the plan at work is to start taking completed projects to tracks for break in and tuning going forward and I'll bring the car with us then. When this was first being talked about the two guys I was going to be building it with were also talking about building track capable projects and we were talking about taking mini vacations renting a small road course for a day, but they've not shown any actual interest in that in more than a year.
I kinda' thought that's where you were going with it. Sounds like fun.
 
When this was first being talked about the two guys I was going to be building it with were also talking about building track capable projects and we were talking about taking mini vacations renting a small road course for a day, but they've not shown any actual interest in that in more than a year.
That sounds like the two friends I had in high school who tried to talk me into going in the Marines. In the end, I went, they didn't. It worked out well for me. I hope this project is rewarding for you.
 
One of the mental hurdles I've had to get through the last year or so is whether any of the track day stuff will ever come to fruition. I've made no concessions for this thing to be driven on the street and I do wonder if I'll be able to do enough with the car to make this all feel worth it. At the end of the day though I've had fun and learned a lot just building it and that's gotta be enough for now.
 
One of the mental hurdles I've had to get through the last year or so is whether any of the track day stuff will ever come to fruition. I've made no concessions for this thing to be driven on the street and I do wonder if I'll be able to do enough with the car to make this all feel worth it. At the end of the day though I've had fun and learned a lot just building it and that's gotta be enough for now.
At worst, you've got a cool autocrosser or take it to the strip and bracket race it. Can it be made street legal? If so, Saturday night cruising would be fun if for no other reason than to share your creation with the public. Personally I think it's way cool.
 
Can it be made street legal? If so, Saturday night cruising would be fun if for no other reason than to share your creation with the public. Personally I think it's way cool.

No speedometer or fuel level gauge fitted, the exhaust is straight through so while it is quiet at idle it gets loud quick on throttle. Also I've made no provisions for any lights anywhere. Those are the major hurdles, but really the way the suspension is made wouldn't be great on the street due to lack of overall travel and low ride height even if those aren't strict deal breakers. There is also the local legalities of being totally fenderless which I'm not familiar with one way or the other.

While most can be simply brushed aside as deal with it type problems but for the lights. There are zero provisions for lighting on this thing, not even gauge lights. So no headlight switch, or brake light switch for controls or fuses/relays for circuit protection, no places on the body planned to facilitate the mounting of the lights themselves (not even reasonably flat surfaces you could stick LED to).
 
Well, today was as good as any for taking the time to relearn to TIG aluminum.

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Oh, my estimate of taking hours of practice to get back decent turned out to be off by hours....this was after a single hour. So I guess I'll just go ahead and weld those radiator tabs on now.

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Admittedly not.great, but not bad for having to steady the radiator on end while welding.
 
That is one skill I haven't BEGUN to master. Part of the problem for me is that by the time my old eyes can see the puddle forming, it's too late...
Same here I think I could do a better job welding if I could actually see that puddle. I'm dealing with just your basic steel welding with small Lincoln wire feed and the gas attachment. Not trying to build anything fancy mostly just fixing things like worn out mower decks or patching up things on old snow blowers!

Every so often I run a pass that just by dumb blind luck looks good so I know the little welder can do the job it's just the nut holding the gun that is failing.
 
Steel, unless it's REALLY thin, is more forgiving. You can take some time after the puddle forms and not wind up blowing a hole in your work. Plus the puddle is MUCH more apparent.

My sad attempts at TIG on aluminum (I have done MIG on aluminum quite successfully back when I worked at the cannery) have taught me two things:

1. Unlike steel, aluminum doesn't glow when it melts, and
2. Once the puddle forms you had best be already moving or you're going to have a hole instead of a weld.

I further suspect that I'm not getting the surfaces adequately cleaned and deoxidized. I plan to spend some time experimenting with aluminum and TIG this Winter.
 
The other fun thing with aluminum in a TIG weld is trying to start the puddle the two pieces of aluminum tend to want to separate instead of merge like they do with steel. The aluminum is light weight enough that even just the Argon flow will push things around which was my biggest hurdle back when I was first trying it. The best advice I got actually wasn't even really specifically given, I was watching a guy trying to pick things up and noticed that he started with the torch really high at first then once the puddles merged he dropped the torch and welded like I knew to do. I will say it seemed like nothing I did with aluminum was right and then it's like the switch flipped and it went from all just to all at least average.

Got a whole bunch of nothing done this afternoon really. I had grand plans, for a fan shroud, but my boss showed up and talked for near 3 hours. That coupled with having to call it a day early because of daddy duty this evening meant all I actually got done was getting the radiator mounts done. There is always tomorrow though.

I was under the impression that when I commandeered my throttle pedal I nabbed the cable with it, and then I remembered yesterday that I also held onto a TV cable from a MOPAR E body years ago and never used. So my thinking was a Bowden cable is a Bowden cable especially with both of them being sold by Lokar so I take the TV cable which is long and use the ends from the old small block Chevy throttle cable to make it suit my needs. Problem being with all that I apparently didn't actually keep the throttle cable so I don't have those ends. Or at least I don't remember what I've done with it.
 
Also a picture
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And another comment in that I thought early night away from work and with just my younger boy at home I'd get some sewing done on the seat. Hasn't happened yet.
 
Made a fan shroud today and got the fan connected to verify that it does in fact still work. The fan was one we had in the shop junk room a while back so while I was pretty sure it did work otherwise we wouldn't have held on to it it was nice to be sure of it. One problem I did run in to was the fact that when I did the bottom radiator mounting I didn't allow any room for the fan shroud. I just bent the rear lip out of the way for tonight to get things back together.
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Well, turns out not all Lokar Bowden cables are created equal. The sheath of the cable isn't stiff enough to overcome the throttle return spring.
 
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