The Road to ChumpcarThe home of "Apex of Failure" a crap-can racing team.

We had a great build (debuild?) day today.  Nice cozy heater, nice lit garage.  Pretty awesome.

Not many issues in the engine bay.  Some unexpected damage (an ignitor or two).  Radiator is trapezoidal now.

Now for the good bits.  Suspension damage!

I actually think we can salvage the damper.  End link is toast, so is the lower control arm (duh), and the hub.  Unfortunately the break pads got messed up too

The big win is that the seat can be fixed.

The rails are probably even ok.

The junk starts piling up.  Nick got the wing off though.  I’m glad we get to salvage that.  I love that wing.

We even found a potential new driver!  Not at all scared of digging right in.

Front suspension is all out.

How did we end up with this mess.

Looks like this, but still OK FOR CHUMPCAR! lol

Not much left up here.

The stuff is starting to pile up, but not nearly that bad.

We have maybe 2 weeks left of this.  If we really push, I bet we could do it in one.

We took a little break until the holidays.  PIR was a real low for us.  Wrecking the car was certainly not in our plans.  It meant we would need to start all over again with a new car.  So that is where our story starts.  I had been keeping an eye on craigslist for any gems.  I finally found something that looked promising in yachats.  It was only a 2.5 hr drive and was advertised as not running but was when it was parked in doors and low miles!  Borrowed a rig and a trailer and we headed out… in the rain.  We reached our location and were greeted with a car that certainly did not match the description.  While most of the issues weren’t a concerned for the special hell we had planned for this little car, they were key negotiating points for getting the price down to a reasonable level.  In the end, the sentimental value and this rust meant we lost the battle.

We wasted a good $50 in gas on that trip but left happy that we made the right decision.  We left with nothing to decorate our rear view mirror.

We had the trailer out and a nice tow rig…  It was too much to resist and we spent the trip home on the smart phones trying to find another candidate in the state that we could visit that afternoon.  A long shot in portland was found.  It had decreasing value over time, it wasn’t running (good for us!), and looked like a total pile of crap that someone would gladly allows us to pickup in return for a very small stack of cash.

After a couple text messages back and forth we heading north (another 2hrs), in the rain.  I don’t mean normal rain either.  Heavy windy stormy rain.  The entire day.  Maybe it was a sign…

We connected with the seller in a mall and were guided to the site where the car sat.  We also were able to speak briefly with the previous owner (his friend) who was also at the mall with him.  Both of them were unable to fix the car and neither had ever driven in.  Trouble?  Maybe.  What it did mean is good haglin’.  Boy is this car a pile.  There are some serious mysteries here.  Several people have abused this poor baby.  We haggled down to less than half the original asking price and hooked her up.

I should own stock in krylon.  We have a lot of work to do, but its straight and we already have all (or at least nearly all) the parts we would need to make this thing right.  We might have a good motor in it too.  Unfortunately, its very far away from being started.  It’s going to need a full inspection and clean up like our last motor.  I will leave you with some “beauty shots” of how she sits in my driveway tonight.

Also, for some reason there was an e30 front lip in the car.  IT IS THE MYSTERY OF THE DANCE.

It’s only 3 days until our next race at our home track in portland.  Sorry we haven’t been posting more, things have been… a little busy.

First off, we have a few final theme items to wrap up.  The ICCBM (Inter Chump Car Ballistic Missile).

Time to ditch the belt fan.  Nick had an electric fan kicking around.  Since we never really “fixed” the belt problem, we want to give our selves the best chance possible.  This should reduce some of the load on the water pump pulley.

Nick also made a little splash guard for the air filter.  It’s going to be wet up there.

Were all packed.  There are just a couple errands to run before we pack up tomorrow night and head up friday morning.

Now that paint is mostly dry, we can take a look at it as it will be from now on!

We aren’t done yet.  Time to add some flare.

My middle school geometer teacher would be proud.  Check it out kids, applicable math(s).

2-3 coats in.

4 coats (it sure took a lot).  We want it to put vinyl stickers for numbers over the star so i really wanted it tick and strong enough to deal with stickers going on and off.

I’m really happy with how it turned out.  Next up is the rear hatch.  We decided it was time to try it out.  A long time ago we prep’d the rear hatch frame but we never followed through and installed the plastic.  I would have liked to get a thicker piece of lexan but this is what was available right away from the hardware store.

Pictured is the frame, stock glass, lexan, and some saw horses to hold it.  I trimmed the 8×4 sheet to roughly the same size as the stock glass to make it easier to work with.  I mark the shape of the stock glass with a sharpee.

Time to cut!  I used a new wood/plastic bit and set the saw on a pretty low setting.  No drama and it cut fine.  You just need to support the sheet.  If it flops around too much it won’t cut.

Now the that window is trimmed, its time to fit it to the frame.

I put a generous amount of silicone down and started on one side working from the center out.

The lexan is being attached with rivets.  I put one every 3 inches or so.  It’s complete over kill I know.  The lexan wasn’t cheap, do it once, do it right (i didn’t lol).

VERY generous silicone lol.

All done!

Now check it out on the car.

Dang, when did this car start looking kind of cool.  Rob brought his trailer by to do some service on it.  It seems like we are ALWAYS working on whatever trailer we can get our hands on.

Yeah we failed.  Brake lights didn’t work.  We found broken hanging wires and probably 20 years of patches.  We tried to replace it and ran out of sunlight.  We only have a couple theme related things to do.  See you tuesday.

Hint 1:

Hint 2:

A quick pass with some 150 grit.

Tact cloth?  Lol not on this chumpcar.  Air nozzle  and a wet terry cloth towel is close enough.

Only the best rustolium for this bad boy.

Yes that’s a paint roller.

First coat dry, the second coat is going on.

Some of the sticker goo is still on there.  Yeah a little running too.  It looks a lot better from a step back.

Two coats (still wet).  The personality goes on tomorrow.

Now that the motor seems to run fine, it was time to tackle the gear shift issue. 2/4/r work fine but any of the gears where you move the leaver forward, 1/3/5 wouldn’t go. It was like there were no gate anywhere forward. After some deliberation with the team on sunday, most of the team thought it had be bushings. When a break in the rain I decided to open it up and give it a look see.

Sure it enough…

Enhanse…

My bad .  Works great now.  I took it for a spin around the block and everything is great.  The motor is really smooth.  I wouldn’t really call the fast but its not really slow either.  Boy does it smoke now though .  That premix sure affects the tailpipe.  Sorry everyone else on the track .

This afternoon we got a couple little things done.  We prepped the car a bit for paint.  Got the rest of the stickers off and actually washed it.

We got an extra bleed into clutch just to be sure.

aaaaand then we ran out of things to do .  Just a couple errands to run and were race ready!  How did we go so far ahead?   Maybe we will get to paint this weekend.

Today, we try vloging?  v-bloging?  Any hoo, have a youtubes.

After blowing our first motor at Spokane this summer, we have been working to secure a replacement.  After months of dealing with little fiddle parts and taking weeks off, we are finally ready to put “motor 3″ into the car.  With this swap, we are also taking the time to finish some things we put off.

The first issue we had was with this freaking pilot bearing.  The clutch kit we got included a new one, so I figured, hey lets go it in.  In the process of removing the old one, we broke two screw drivers, a slit hammer hook, a special pilot bearing removal tool that was purchased JUST FOR THIS, and at least a couple hours of time.  Eventually it was a combination of hack saw blade, broke screw driver, and prying that got it out.

So all I had to do tap the new one in.  Exceeeeeeeept I picked a socket that was just slightly too small and broke the bearing.

Good work me.  Cut this one too.  I managed to find a tech at the local mazda dealer who had one to sell me… but it was 1mm too big.  FML

Last sunday we lined the whole crew up and got “motor 2″ (the motor we finished spokane on) out of the car.

We also got a chance to get the new de-powered steering rack in.

With the pilot bearing issue all we could do is wrap the car up and wait til tuesday when the new bearing gets here.

Fast forward to tuesday!  The new bearing is in and awesome.

Clutch, on.

The tranny went on pretty easy this time.

Then we found a nice fun new problem!  The clutch slave bolts were completely stripped.  We had to upside the holes and retap them.

Were going back to the double pulleys.  I don’t have a ton of confidence in this solution, but I don’t know what else to do.

Then, wow another problem!  Major props to nick for spotting this one.  This little wire used to go to what I think was an oil temp sensor.  We have never been able to actually get the connector off the sensor so we had to cut it at the track.  I got lucky and found the cut sensor in a pile of junk and got it re-attached!

We finished the night off by getting the motor physically back in the car.  I had really hoped to get it running by the end of the night but all the little issues we just ran out of time.  Still, way better then dealing with it at the track.

The next night after work, we got back on it.  Got everything under the car done.  Got most of the other stuff hooked up too.

That catches us up to today.  The rest of the crew had better things to do (why didn’t I?) and I was left solo finished it off.

I got it far enough to try to start it.  Several serious issues:

* Lol i forgot to hook up the throttle cable.
* Clutch needs to be bled.  The clutch slave has been on the bench for almost a year.   No helpers pretty much made this impossible.
* The gear shift does NOT feel right.  I can get it into 2/4 ok but not at all into 1/3/5.  Maybe its due to the clutch bleeding and the throwout bearing not being engaged all the way yet?
* Starter spins but doesn’t engage.  Welp.  We have a third starter, probably time to try it out.

I’m so tired of working on this car.  I hope this all works out.  Need beer and sleep.

Sorry for the missed update last week.  There wasn’t a whole lot to report.  So today is a doubled up summary of everything we have gotten done in the last 2 weeks.

Motor 3 is really coming alone.  Lower intake manifold on.

First fuel injector rails and injectors in.

Upper intake manifold on.

Exhaust manifold on.

Tried to replace the pilot bearing (a new one came with the clearance discount super cheap awesome never-heard-of-this-brand clutch we got from rock auto).  Failed.  Got a neat slide hammer.  Failed.  Tried packing it with grease and using the grease to force the bearing out with a punch.  Failed.  Rob broke down and ordered the proper tool.  It will be here this week.

Attached some water hoses.

Ohh right, the engine needs a wiring harness.  Started installing that.  Ohh wait where do these three plugs go?  Ohh right, under the intake manifold .  Ohh wait, why don’t they look right?  Ohh, there broken .

Decluttered throttle body is ready.

Rob shouts our wheel bearings back to being tight (this is the third time we have done this, which is worrying).

Time to clean up our nasty pulleys.  A little babby wire wheel worked a treat.  Soooo much better.

Our JDM super wing is ready to install!  We are using some kind of glue.  Rivets with my awesome new pneumatic rivet gun and some brackets.

Time to fix the wiring harness.  I had to replace the coolant temp/level… uhh coolant sensor harness and two injector plugs.

I also market the places where they are supposed to go.  Intake manifold back off .

Intake manifold back on and hoses hooked back up.  Wiring harnesses reconnected and routed properly this time.

We also started on our secret new theme.  The stickers had to come off.

Next Tuesday we should have motor 3 completely done.   A week from Saturday, it should be going back into the car.

This weekend…  I fly to Sebring .

Just another rainy Tuesday.  First up, the steering rack is ready!

The water pump is on the 3rd motor.

We finally got all the missing pieces for the shifter assembly.  We were certainly missing some shims and the bushings were completely done.

Lower intake manifold it completely cleaned up and nearly ready to go.  We just need to plug up the space where the oil injectors were.

The last project for the day is to make a block off plate for the oil pump.

First off, make a cardboard template.

Then we transfer this shape on to some spare aluminum and start some cutting.

Close.  It needs some trimming but it will wait til next week.  The plan right now is to get this motor completely ready next week.  T