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Re: This year's bad luck stories.
OK, so there were a number of issues that we dealt with this year.
1. Spin on Thursday night (~90mph) on the way to Madison. As has been reported - pretty minor damage to both taillight bezels, killed one taillight lens, nicked one headlight door, scratched one rear rim and buffed off a little paint at the rear wheel well opening. All and all - pretty damn lucky given 3+ 360s in the fast lane with traffic around! The best I can tell, there was no contact with any other vehicles as there was nothing sitting around when I was done spinning. The damage appears to have been direct contact with a sign/pole/post on the inside catch fence.
2. Rearended a car on Thursday (different Thursday but perhaps I will stop driving in on Thursdays for a while) in Somerset. We were waiting to turn left at a light (at idle) in the rain when I took my eyes off the road to pick up my cell phone and the car in front of me stopped quickly. Damage includes a fairly significant dent on the upper header (directly under the hood) which also pushed it up towards the hood, KILLED the grill bar (pushed it back, down and into the A/C condensor), minor fin damage to the A/C condenser. This one really upset me as there was no excuse for it - just driver stupidity!
Went to the paint shop today to let them look at it. I have an appointment for the week of July 6th to bring it in to get fixed. I asked a couple of times about costs and never got a straight answer but my guess is it will be somewhere north of $1,500 to fix it all. I know that I threatened to DA it all down and put it back in primer as I hadn't as much as scratched it in 7 years when it was in primer but that would just be foolish.
Now, on to the mechanical issues.
I didn't actually bend any pushrods as I am running fairly stout 3/8" hardened chromoly .080 wall. What was happening was the end (where it mates to the rocker arms) were "wearing out" significantly. I first started to notice a decrease in performance on Friday afternoon on the way to Madison. I stopped at a gas station and ran the valves quickly and found #6 exhaust and #8 exhaust to be LOOSE. I readjusted them and headed off for Madison. I had Arrowhead check with Comp (at the venue) to see if they had the needed parts on their truck but they did not. Dave (Matt's friend) offered to help me find something that would work. He called Jake (I think and no clue on last name) who was coming to Madison and knew most of the local speed shops. As it turned out there weren't any in Madison so he called a friend of his (and Dave's) to see if he could bring some down Saturday night. This person's name is Al Steif who had to drive 20 miles from his home to the speed shop and then ~140 miles from the speed shop to Madison. He brought a complete set of Manley pushrods that were the same quality as the Comps I was running. He gave me the option to purchase as many as I wanted instead of making me buy the complete set.
It is highly unlikely that we would have successfully completed the tour this year without the help of all mentioned above but clearly a loud and sincere thanks to Al for his help!
There were a few other minor issues but given that I built the wagon it is clearly amazing that it works as well as it does.
OK, so there were a number of issues that we dealt with this year.
1. Spin on Thursday night (~90mph) on the way to Madison. As has been reported - pretty minor damage to both taillight bezels, killed one taillight lens, nicked one headlight door, scratched one rear rim and buffed off a little paint at the rear wheel well opening. All and all - pretty damn lucky given 3+ 360s in the fast lane with traffic around! The best I can tell, there was no contact with any other vehicles as there was nothing sitting around when I was done spinning. The damage appears to have been direct contact with a sign/pole/post on the inside catch fence.
2. Rearended a car on Thursday (different Thursday but perhaps I will stop driving in on Thursdays for a while) in Somerset. We were waiting to turn left at a light (at idle) in the rain when I took my eyes off the road to pick up my cell phone and the car in front of me stopped quickly. Damage includes a fairly significant dent on the upper header (directly under the hood) which also pushed it up towards the hood, KILLED the grill bar (pushed it back, down and into the A/C condensor), minor fin damage to the A/C condenser. This one really upset me as there was no excuse for it - just driver stupidity!
Went to the paint shop today to let them look at it. I have an appointment for the week of July 6th to bring it in to get fixed. I asked a couple of times about costs and never got a straight answer but my guess is it will be somewhere north of $1,500 to fix it all. I know that I threatened to DA it all down and put it back in primer as I hadn't as much as scratched it in 7 years when it was in primer but that would just be foolish.
Now, on to the mechanical issues.
I didn't actually bend any pushrods as I am running fairly stout 3/8" hardened chromoly .080 wall. What was happening was the end (where it mates to the rocker arms) were "wearing out" significantly. I first started to notice a decrease in performance on Friday afternoon on the way to Madison. I stopped at a gas station and ran the valves quickly and found #6 exhaust and #8 exhaust to be LOOSE. I readjusted them and headed off for Madison. I had Arrowhead check with Comp (at the venue) to see if they had the needed parts on their truck but they did not. Dave (Matt's friend) offered to help me find something that would work. He called Jake (I think and no clue on last name) who was coming to Madison and knew most of the local speed shops. As it turned out there weren't any in Madison so he called a friend of his (and Dave's) to see if he could bring some down Saturday night. This person's name is Al Steif who had to drive 20 miles from his home to the speed shop and then ~140 miles from the speed shop to Madison. He brought a complete set of Manley pushrods that were the same quality as the Comps I was running. He gave me the option to purchase as many as I wanted instead of making me buy the complete set.
It is highly unlikely that we would have successfully completed the tour this year without the help of all mentioned above but clearly a loud and sincere thanks to Al for his help!
There were a few other minor issues but given that I built the wagon it is clearly amazing that it works as well as it does.
, 2013 LH, 2014 LH
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