I'm going to have to head north again some night when you test it at a drag strip.
I'm going to have to head north again some night when you test it at a drag strip.
Well, there is a drag strip that is pretty well known between Patrick and the x bomb...
Come on out to keystone raceway! I'll make sure we get fed and get some decent drinks!
Ok i lied i have a short stop in today’s action
day 11 june 19 time to make E36 M3 fit
I’m ready for my close up, Mr Wallens
Overall look
Day 12 June 23. Aka Carli’s birthday. Simple goal was a couple gussets to firm up the connection between the factory frame and the backhalf rails. I bought one of those newfangled diamond steel cutting wheels for the grinder and attempted to use it to go fast instead of the band saw to go slow, resulting in this:
Then I lost 12 build days and have $1200 in medical bills. Good thing those are budget exempt.
Thus concludes the first month(27 days anyway) of the build. My thumb was on strike, the engine was mounted and i had made a car go from a roller to a shell to a roller again.
Ouch! The build is looking awesome but your thumb situation is most regretable.
Those are nice even stitches though. The squishy self healing version of that nice weld above.
Yikes! Been there, done that . Heal well.
Nerve damage? You didn't ruin the cutting wheel, did you?
Those cut off wheels and flap wheels have made me lose more blood than anything that came before.
Yes nerve damage, it feels weird now and if i tap it wrong i get some pretty intense pain. I scrapped the cutoff wheel. Almost took it back to menards to throw through their window but the legal fees would be pretty crappy on top of the medical bills.
flap wheels on the other hand, I love those things.
Cut off wheel scares me. Thanks for making my fear worse.
I wear gloves with cutoff wheels. Both hands on the machine. I also keep the guards on. I've also learned to slow the hell down.
The nerves -may- come back, or you will just get used to less feeling. 24 years ago I had my right forarm arm crushed in a laminating press at the mill I worked at. Crushed everything down to the bone. For about a year I had absolutely no feeling in my right hand, and less than 10% use of it. Now I have about 80% feeling back, and about 90% the strength and use that I had before the injury. The body is a marvelous thing (ain't evolution a miracle?). But you carry on. (And the emergency stop was -just- out of reach....)
I had gloves on, that just meant the doctor had to tweezer chunks of glove out before he could stitch it up 
it was stupid. The wheel wasn’t working like the fiber ones, it was bouncing around and unruly and my brain said stop but my stubborn ass kept going. It jumped out the slot i was cutting and rode up the piece and into my thumb. A loud berkeley ME was what initiated Carli and Colin to come running.
Sorry bout your thumb,but lovin' the weld porn...as always..oh and keep skill saws away form middle fingers...way below average....BTDT...don't want the Tshirt....
I took a port a band to my left index finger about two years ago. Looked very similar. Had gloves on also. The finger is more or less shaped correctly now, but still feels a bit weird. I have developed the habit of rubbing it to stimulate circulation. (heh)
I hate that you got hurt, but I'm glad you didn't have to carry it in a bag to the ER.
Be safe.
Day 13 July 5. I needed a minor win and to exercise some demons.
Finished cutting the gusset on the bandsaw like I should have done, welded them in and began on the transmission mount. Only a couple garage hours.
The silver rectangle tube came from the county recycling dumpster and the round tube is from a long black 1/2” steel pipe nipple that was sticking out of a bucket in someone’s garbage brand new but with a slight bend in it like they tried to use it as a cheater.
Patrick said:
I looked at Wartburg pics and it appeared that one could put a large engine under the hood behind the front axle and not have to worry about the firewall being in the way. And I now see a void where much of the firewall was. Your weight distribution should be excellent. :D
As for your stitches bill, I no talk aboot, eh...
I got a little impatient with the sawzall and wanted it to fit first time. Took out a little more than necessary.
Dusterbd13 said:Those cut off wheels and flap wheels have made me lose more blood than anything that came before.
ditto. I won't even touch one with anything less than my welding gloves on at this point.
Also, try getting slashed by one when you're on blood thinners like I am......I slashed my thumb on a brake caliper clip last week and put a puddle of blood all over the garage lol.
In reply to irish44j :
Gloves are mostly a recipe for getting snagged HARDER in power tools.
As I type this, my left thumb is still mostly numb after slicing it in late 2016 while cutting a fuel line with a razor blade...
Sounds like it’s going to end up looking like the artist rendering Thw8 commissioned when he first built the thing.
I *might* have a small pile of these stickers around somewhere. I do have two of the shirts. I was there at Nelson Ledges when he picked it up and participated in the Lemons race. Spent the first day too hung over to drive but put some laps on it Sunday. It was fast for what it was and terrifying for a relative newbie to race. Man that was around 10 years ago wasn’t it?? Phew.
Speaking with V8 Pontiac Firefly experience, things that are AWFUL when you don't cut enough firewall and/or have too much engine setback:
Changing spark plugs
Replacing header gaskets
Pulling the distributor
Adjusting timing
Pulling valve covers
.... but it looks like you have a lot of access.
Always think "if I ever have to service this....."
I have 2 shirts and a giant pile of stickers, they came with the car.
Skinnyg - after owning a 3.4 dohc lumina(a choice i made, i put the engine in place of a 3.1 pushrod) where the steps for alternator removal include cv axle removal, driver’s wheel removal and a 48” extension for the ratchet, i build everything wide open and serviceable
Day 14 july 6.
Just a little time after work so I started on the tunnel
The thicker white stuff I’m using here has been behind the garage for years. A screen printing shop closed nearby and when i was there checking out the stuff they were getting rid of they told me i could have this little paint booth kit they never assembled. It was a bunch of 3x5 panels that appear galvanized and painted and still covered in the shipping plastic. The plastic is old and hard to peel, the galvanizing must be ground back to safely weld, but free metal. I’m well aware of the dangers of galvanized fumes so i made sure to go back far enough on both sides.
Oh that autoglass picture behind the brake reminds me. On June 19 Victor from WartburgUSA.com stopped by. He is from Los Angeles. A couple guys from germany shipped a Wartburg wagon over so they could do route 66 in it. They threw a couple engines in it for Victor, and he went from LA to New Jersey to get them. On his way back he stopped with me. He brought me all new window seals, weatherstripping, etc. anything rubber on the car he brought me new from Germany. In exchange I gave him the original engine and transmssion. I gave him some extra original bits that I cannot use, and he’s supposed to scare up some nice taillight lenses and turn signal lenses for me. He also gave me brand new front door windows.
He was driving a 250+k mile camry with just a driver’s seat. In the back seat area when he left was a crankshaft, transmission, seat parts, luggage, pillow, crate of empty bottles(use your imagination), bucket of heavy bits and a crated engine block and more door glass. In the front seat footwell was my original engine and a bunch more heavy smalls. In the trunk was another crated engine, a disassembled seat(they’re HEAVY), more smalls, a jerry can, and whatever else it took to pack a camry trunk to the top. He left riding on the bump stops at around 11am and said he would likely make it to Denver - about 22 hours straight through before including gas and food stops - before stopping to rest.
In reply to Patrick :
What is his GRM screenname?
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