Mutt The Race Truck

[Red_Kitty]

Hi Dan

Remind me - is your next outing Loring in September, or Arkansas in October?

Andy

[DanStokes]

Hi Dan

Remind me - is your next outing Loring in September, or Arkansas in October?

Andy

Arkansas in October. Wish I could get this finger healed up (it's coming along fine but will take a while).

Dan

[DanStokes]

Whoo-Hoo! Back out in the shop today with the finger bandaged to keep it clean. That went pretty well with only minor episodes of it getting in the way.


I made the second brace for the door bar hinge so I could set the bar in place and begin tacking it. Making one of these braces was how I did in my finger - I switched to steel. Cutting the "windows" for the thru bolts was my undoing in the one I tried in aluminum.

Pics of the hinge braces:

Lower hinge, braced:



Upper hinge, braced:



And the bar tacked in place:



No doubt you can imagine that without the braces the whole deal would wiggle all over and there'd be no aligning it. I thought about welding the bar in first then cutting it but that would compromise the access to welding it together. I'll probably cut the bar tacks back out once everything is lined up so it can be TIG'd all the way around but I'll let the pro weldor tell me how they want to do it.

Dan

[DanStokes]

No work today. I put Mutt up on the hoist and we brought all of the porch furniture, garbage cans, etc. in to get them out of the storm. Doesn't look like it'll fizzle out and we're directly in the path so it seems prudent to prepare at least a bit.

Hopefully it'll be gone by Wednesday and I can get back to work.

Dan

[Beagle]

Hope y'all are okay....

[DanStokes]

So far so good but it isn't supposed to hit until sometime overnight. With the Hardie Board siding, a fairly new roof, and the generator I don't expect any issues. We'll find out if all my waterproofing and water diversion mods are up to the job but in past storms everything has been fine. We're just starting to get rain and a bit of wind with, no doubt, more to come. In any case we don't run from a Category 1!

The biggest concern is how little Andy will be able to do his business. No doubt he'll find a way to cope.

Dan

[Russell]

Dan, how did you weather the storm? Any of your neighbor's trees fall in your yard?

[DanStokes]

We came thru just fine. The generator didn't start itself and when I checked it out this AM it had a "low oil pressure sensor" code. I did a reset and it fired right up and is, as expected, running the whole place. So we have AC, cool refrigerators, and all the rest just like nothing's going on. I have a call in to the generator supplier so sometime in the not-too-distant future they can track down why it set the code in the first place. If the OP was actually low it wouldn't run so this may be a software error or who knows what.

No trees down on use but a couple in the neighborhood. Some of the beach towns were hit really hard. We have lots of small debris all over the yard so we'll have the yard folks do a pickup sometime soon.

Thanks for thinking of us!

Dan

[DanStokes]

Back on Mutt! Took the loose roll cage bits to the weldor and he glued everything together, even making my crappy welds look better. It's not TIG'ed perfection abut plenty stout and should pass tech just fine. He's coming over tomorrow and will weld the whole deal into one solid chunk. Pic tomorrow as he works and once done. I lured him with promises of AC in the shop.

Dan

[DanStokes]

Here's Vance from Port City Welding doing his thing. He's young (compared to me) and somewhat of a gymnast as is required to put together cage mods inside an existing cage. I'll clean up some of the welds (knocking off the spatter with a cold chisel, etc.) and will post more pics of the finished job tomorrow. It's not a TIG'd together masterpiece but it fits well and I think the inspectors will be happy with it.

I had to pull the dash bar back just a tad to make everything fit nicely, hence the come-along. As he burned everything in with his machine he got to a place where the gun on his was just too big to get the back of the shoulder bar as well as a couple of other spots. To gain access we also had to pull the back window which was warped anyhow and needed fixing. So we fired my Eastwood up and he was impressed with the results as the remaining spots got welded. My torch is much smaller than the commercial torch on his Miller.


Dan

[DanStokes]

And some pics of the welded-in modifications:

Right rear corner. Before this pic I had wire brushed this area and it's pretty much ready for paint. I still have more cleaning up to do though we're not allowed to grind welds so I won't do too much. Vance tried to reinforce some old welds so it isn't as pretty as we both would have liked but it's the best that could be done.


And the sleeve in the left front. The pipe down to the floor plate is new and the sleeve is what SCTA wants to see in a spliced tube. The rosette welds are what they expect to see but I wanted it welded around the circumference as well. Here you can see Vance's skills. The little triangle near the bottom of the sleeve keeps the dash support in the spot it used to be so the dash will screw back in. I'll round that lower corner to make it safer though it will be covered with the dash.


The tab where the seat back frame bolts in. Should be plenty stout.



And the Golden Triangle. Lots of tubes coming together in one spot. By pulling the rear window (it was time for a new one anyway) we had much better access.



Still lots more cleaning to do to get ready for paint but it's moving along nicely.

Dan

[DanStokes]

I forgot to add in the above post that I took the back window to Wilmington Rubber and Gasket and they're making a new one from Lexan (polycarbonate). We discussed the pros and cons and given that Mutt lives indoors Lexan should do the job nicely. He cautioned that I need to clean the window with plastic cleaner/microfiber and not Windex and a paper towel. They'll make a quick 2-D CAD program and cut it on (I assume) the water jet though they have several other options.

WRG is a neat company - they do water jet cutting and all sorts of other nifty stuff and are a great go-to resource here in town for about any weird thing you need done.

Dan

[bukshysteve]

Looking good Dan. I didn't have time to view all of the pages so what class do you plan on? Not sure I want to trade hurricanes for snow but everything is fine up here except Covid and politics.

[DanStokes]

He's an F/DT. Been running the ol' boy for several years. He and I OWN the F'DT record at The Ohio Mile and at Arkansas but then I'm the only one who runs that class. The Tracer Racing F/DT is still a bit faster than Mutt but I have potential I haven't cashed in yet - the new turbo ought to put all that Swedish fuel injection pump to use. The roll cage mods are just a refinement - the truck has been legal for probably 20 years or so as the former owner ran a SBC at Maxton with the same cage.

The hurricanes really aren't all that big a deal (we're about a mile from the coast) and now that we have a whole house generator we get thru them pretty much like they never happened. We'll get out of town for a Cat 4 or 5. We still have Covid and politics. If you recall, Mom was Canadian and my youngest daughter lives outside Toronto so I keep some (limited) awareness of Canadian politics.

Dan

[DanStokes]

And with all the errors hidden in paint:

The LF corner with the cage part done. The door bar is silver as I'll have to handle it and black gets HOT!


LR corner AKA conjunction junction:


And the RR corner with the new shoulder bar in place.


I know I could have repainted the rest of the cage - but I didn't. This is a working race truck not a showpiece.

Dan