so i accidently bought a car and started a challenge team last night. have questions.

After nearly a month of not touching it, fired right up.

Brakes bled. Nut and bolt check done. Hood installed. Sgift linkage adjusted. Fluids checked. Passengers seat going in niw. Looks like we might have a race car, boys!

In the immortal words of Darrel...BOOGITY. BOGGITY, BOGGITY...LET'S GO RACIN', BOYS!

Loaded up on the trailer after a successful 1 mile run. Saturday is gonna ve interesting.

I'm hoping for videos but will settle for pictures. Good luck!

Dallas is bringing his cheap Chinese dash cam. Best we got for video other than cell phone from the grandstands or trackside.

We would love a go pro, but not on our budget.

We also need to fab tie down piints. I know they would have to be in the budget, but....

I took the two Hooks off the Blazer before it got gone I'll send them to you if you want. Just bolt one up front on the frame rail and one on Back, sorry I didn't see this sooner. at pull a part they would be cheaper than Shipping

We are thinking about welding a d ring to the framerail at each corner. Be the easiest and best way, but dunno about cheapest.

Challenge Budget: Car/parts $200

Donor Lincoln town car: 410

Engine crossmember: 120

Sold transmission crossmember from Lincoln: 10 Sold rear axle from lincoln: -50 Scrapped what was left of lincoln: -89

Sold AOD from lincoln (300, but can only recoup 261)

Engine swap: 5.0 plus 300 boot

Sold kelstar wheels-200 (cant recoup more than we spent)

2x2 angle iron, tractor supply 12.05

Brand new Watkins glen nascar slicks and wheels, which were bought for $50, and promptly sold to Dallas dad for $50 and some weld wheels with really old drag slicks. So, slicks were $0, but $50 taken out of the recoup limit.

6 5/8 heim and jamb nuts, as well as threaded tube for the front suspension: $65

Pair of aluminum seats, $40 and on;y usng 1 so $20. .

Sheet of flame retardant high density foam $10

Fire suppression system parts (not included in challenge budget. But ive had 2nd degree burns on the boys before, so were getting safety gear come hell or high water)

1/4 plate, scrap metal yard: 7.50

Mustang convertible mounts 22

Bending plate cost 25

Swedged tubing, ebay: 31.90

Threaded adjusters and 650lb springs, SRI performance: 65

2 used billstein shocks, pull-a-part: 14

Cage materials: 271.40

Spool welding wire: 33

Leaf spring sliders: 40

Clamps for spring adjusters: 23.59

Adjustable brake bias valve 18 (amazon)

2 cans of flat black spray paint (lowes project source) .97 ea

Half melted, used 21 circuit ez wiring harness cut from my duster after the mice chewed it up and it had a meltdown. $5 is what I was quoted as FMV due to the fact that copper prices are down.

Accessories and flexplate: see link in update

Battery cables and relays, pull-a-part: 12.75

Steering box, pull-a-part: 27.50

25feet 3/8 steel fuel line, ebay: 25.75

Bypass fuel pressure regulator, ebay: 29.23

fuel pump: 23

Used mix and match nitrous kit: 32

Two half cans of ford engine blue $7

3/8 plastic line clamps, lowes: 1.78

1/2 metal line clamps, lowes: 3.48

Throttle return springs and brackets: 5

3/8 2x compression fittings, 3x npt-compression, 1x t fitting from plumbing supply house: 6

battery hold down, oriellys 5.99

2x 36 inch 1x1 holey tube: 2

Driveshaft safety loop (dad bought it at an auction last week) 5

Tractor supply run for bolts and angle iron: 18.08

Wheels for monster slicks: 50 from facebook marketplace

Lower radiator hose: 14.82

Oil filter: 4.17

Bucket of hose clamps (pull-a-part doesn't charge for these, so I added the admission charge to the yard): 1

Scrap chunk of 16gauge sheetmetal: .25

Suspension and 3.73 posi 8.8, offerup: 100

Traded ultralights and sun tach for pro-tach, mechanical 2 5/8 gauges and chunk of diamond plate from a 4x4 buggy guy down the street

Rear brake hose: Challenge budget exempt

Spark plug boot insulators, ebay, 11

Spring perches, amazon 17.49

Pipe standoffs (5) and 3/8 allthread, rhulens supply 8.22

Misc crap (zipties, sheet metal screws, wiring terminals, used toggles, nuts and bolts, etc. Pretty much the little oddball crap that goes into every build that I had laying around from over the years) 50

Starter solenoid: 12ish (placeholder till I find the receipt or a cheaper one)

2 inch glasspacks, chunks of 2 inch exhaust tubing, and a little bit of stainless 2 inch: steves buddy: 15

Tow hook: 3?

Steering wheel from swap meet 5

Quick release, ebay: 19.99

Manual trans: 50

Flywheel: 45

2 dog leases 1.98

2 u joint straps 5.99

Clutch kit, clutch master, clutch slave: 107.13 shipped

Power steering hose: 15.99

3/8 coupler: 2.50

Welding: 5

Alternator plugs: 2

Starter: 34.39

Driveshaft from 99 explorer 4wd: 22.95

ARP pressure plate bolts: 12:50 bradley auto parts

Shocks from scrap metal pile: 5

Hood pins: 7.50. Ebay

Hoosier f40 scrubs (budget exempt, byt I bought 16 with a max of 13 laps for 15 each!!!)

Hydraulic clutch line: 25 from the local tow company

New challenge budget total: 1824.81

So, im trying flickr now due to photobucket being jerkwads. I know that as of this writing, my photos through them are still visible. But, sometime next year they wont be. I probably will not go back and redo all the links on all the forums this is posted on, so I apologize to the reader of the future. Blame photobucket and send them hate mail.

Our last work day was like a month ago. Life has gotten in the way since then, and I also forgot to update. First up, rear shocks. I had a pair of bent bilsteins from a suburban in the scrap pile. The top eyelet had been bent due to them being too long for the application, and bottoming/binding. Steve looked at them, pressed the eyelet bushing out, took them apart, cut them up, welded them back together, and then made mounts. Hes a damned genius. I have never seen anybody cut and weld shocks before, but it makes perfect sense now that I have seen it. Dunno why I didn't think of it before. 20170610_112710 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170610_135945 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170610_135853 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr When he was done doing that, he whipped up some mounts out of 16 gauge metal wall stud scrap from the plumbing truck, and some chunks of 1/4 plate from the bucket. 20170610_154149 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170610_172415 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr Meanwhile I was installing the clutch line and bleeding clutch and brakes and such. I also made front sway bar end links from the scag mower control rod heims, the bushings that came with the car, and some bolts. 20170710_201046 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr Dallas was busy fiddling with a hundred little details. Like tire clearance. At the outset of this project, I was adamant that I wasn't going to cut the car. So was Dallas. We all know how that worked out.... 20170610_191235 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170610_193854 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr Somewhere in the previous few weeks, I had gone to Hoosier Tire South and bought a set (or 4) of scrubs. These are f40 in 27x10x15. We got the worst set (front right corners all with 13 laps) mounted up for our initial break in tires. The stack I bought was a little more volume than I was expecting.... 20170606_172727 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170606_192511 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr The other sets are tagged, bagged, and in climate controlled storage. Back to the workday.... We also got all the front trim and such on, but needed some assistance from my daughter. None of us could fit our hands in to put the hood hinge bolts back on. 20170610_155153 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170610_155002 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr We then went for our first test run!! https://youtu.be/A77QfsTvpEA https://youtu.be/8byB8ZFToTk After that, we parked the car for a minute. Until this week. See, we realized that if we didn't get any testing in, there's no point in going to the challenge. So we all registered for the autocross tomorrow at zmax in concord NC. Dallas and I got the other seat in, hood and hoodpins on, fluids checked, etc this week after work and loaded on the trailer. He spent tonight installing the roll chge padding that got delivered this morning. So hopefully tomorrow will be a good test and tune session, with no failures and a better developed car at the end. Gonna be hot though.... 20170711_202323 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170710_194600 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170710_194605 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170711_203048 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr 20170711_205834 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I can't wait

What !?!?!? Wait!?!?!!!?? Dusterbd13 sans welding helmet....the end is near, hug your loved ones, the GRM rapture has begun.......

So excited!

Does the plumbing company know that you stole their van to use as a tow rig?

In reply to 759NRNG:

Guy in the picture is dallas or steve. Still none of me...

And dallas is part owner of tge company. Family business started by his grandfater after ww2. So, yup. The plumbing company knows....

10 runs before failure.

But HOLY BERKING E36 M3!

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Details man details. You tease more than Kelly did back in 6th grade.

Dusterbd13 wrote: 10 runs before failure.

That's more than you'll get at the Challenge, so success...ish!

I'll do it full of date in the near-term but we were sidelined by either clutch or transmission issues. Uncertain if its hydraulics or the clutch itself. The car is incredible to drive.

Stampie wrote: In reply to Dusterbd13: Details man details. You tease more than Kelly did back in 6th grade.

Unlike 6th grade Kelly, duster won't break up with you for a guy with a bigger finger.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

I'll have you know that my hands are hung like OJ.

In reply to Stampie:

I'm smart as a mule; hung like Einstein

Im lucky to be able to use my zipper....

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Any go pro vids?

Of me being able to use my zipper?

No. My zoom lens isnt big enough.

Hung like a gnat on a cold winter's day?

and now a moment for weenus smack brought to you be the 'HIVE'