Bunny with a pancake on its head

Car is back in the super secret bunny cave.

2009-02-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

We've got cage. Wow. Mitch did a phenomenal job. Did things better than we had expected, and a very clean job. Looks kinda functional, too...

We'll add some gussets and tabs here and there for additional rigidity, but for the most part, it's done.
Tim cut out the spare tire well; we will put a piece of sheet metal over the opening. Sheet metal probably weighs less than the tire well. As soon as we plug some holes in the floor and firewall, we can start assembly. It looks like we've got most of the parts that we need except for exhaust, and it looks like we'll be getting some help there.

Here's what I did yesterday:
Hard to tell from that crappy shot, but that's a pile of undercoating removed from the right inner fender well. Weighed about 7lbs, so here's to free horsepower!
Team meeting today, we'll be discussing strategy and how to get the best drivers to do the most laps. Maybe some pit strategy as well.

It's gonna be a car soon!!!

The Bunny is getting caged!

2009-01-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Took the car down to Muffler Works in Richmond/Albany on Tuesday. Turns out that Tim's "cage guy" is a recommended Lemons cage guy and a friend of Jay Lamm. Niiiiice... :)

Mitch says that the car should be done by the end of next week, depending on how busy he is. On one hand, I'm hoping that he's busy, so that he makes money. He seems like a really nice guy, and seems to really know what he's doing.

On the other hand, I WANT THE CAR BACK NOW!!! Hehehehe...

As soon as we get it back, we can paint, patch holes, and get started putting the thing back together. Wow. We're getting there.

The motor is on a stand in the shop, and I'll do some more assembly tomorrow. It already had an ABA serpentine belt setup on it, so we won't have to deal with that stuff. We've got polyurethane to stiffen up the mounts, and we rebuilt the axles last week. Tim had an interesting intake manifold sitting around, so that will go on with a throttle body I had from an Audi 5000.

Phil from Jalopnik took me on a little road trip today; we went to see Dave @ Evil Genius Racing in West Sacramento. Dave has a 2500-lb Porsche 928 in the shop being prepped as a track toy. Un-be-freaking-lievable. 295 front tires, 335 rears, 4-cam motor that laid down 310hp at the rear wheels, cage, and not much else. Also on hand, in addition to his normal assortment of Spec Miata cars (Dave's specialty), was a real oddball. A Mazda RX3 that was formerly an IMSA Champion Spark Plug Challenge car. Ooooh, pretty. They are prepping it for a historic racing, and it should be a ball when it's done.

Dave is also working on a new Lemons car, but I was told that if I talked about it, I'd never see my cats alive again. I like my cats, so you'll have to wait until the Reno Lemons race. And trust me, you're really going to to want to watch this thing.

Out for cage soon.

2009-01-23T23:30:00.000-08:00

OK, so J and Matt are out, but Rowan is in. Good for them for managing their commitments, good for us getting Rowan in.

Not a lot of progress that would require pictures, but we did manage to get the interior prepped and ready for the cage. If Tim can get his guy nailed down, we'll take it in tomorrow; if not, early next week. Monkey bar pix next!

Just back from Lemons at Thunderhill

2008-12-30T16:59:00.001-08:00

Just got back (well, last night...) from the annual Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza at Thunderhill. Wow, that was entertaining. I was with the Faster Farms team and their lovely '66 Plymouth Belvedere. Unfortunately, our weekend was cut short by a rollover on Sunday morning. Lemons rules state that if you scratch the roof, you're out. We did, and we were. Dang. Not much we could do about it, though. The driver walked away with a scratch on his hat and some dirt on his sleeve, and the car will race again. In fact, the car was driven home from Thunderhill to Pleasanton!

Also, we've been informed that since Altamont Raceway is no longer, the spring Lemons race will be at Reno-Fernley Raceway near Reno, Nevada. Hmmm, racing, cheap buffets, and really nasty strip joints. I love Reno!!!

The rest of the 24 Hours of Lemons season has been set, and depending on how Reno goes, we may be competing at the Buttonwillow event as well.

I spent a few minutes talking with some other Lemons competitors this weekend about the possibility of joining our team; negotiations are under way.

J and I will have lots of time in the next week or so to work on the car; we hope to have it ready for the cage within another two weeks.

Matt paid a visit to the shop today!

2008-11-25T22:59:00.001-08:00

Matt had a rare afternoon off work today, so he went to the shop and worked on the car. Lots of Oil Eater and rags later, the firewall is ready for patching and painting.
Got a bit more interior paint stripped, cleaning things up in preparation for the cage install.
We're stretching the "must have a cage" and "unlimited safety budget" rules as far as we can with this cage... Incorporating some ideas cribbed from Joezeeuw (http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerouser?cmd=viewprofile&id=85991) over on VWVortex, we'll be doing a combination strut brace/tower support/radiator support. I can see it now: "Really, Jay (Lamm, chief perpetrator of Lemons), it's for safety!!!"

Yappy Turkey Day!!

Moar! Because, moar!

2008-11-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Got more work done over the past couple of weeks, and J was smart enough to bring a real camera to our super-secret Bunny Cave Workshop Location (?) so that we could have some real shots.

When the term "door skin" really does = door skin! We've removed all glass, mechanisms, doo-dads, hoo-has, thingybobs, etc. We're left with the appearance of a door, without all that pesky weight.

Tim has a parts washer. We use it. Clean parts are our friend. I don't think I'll ever understand putting dirty parts back onto a car, even if it is a Lemons car...

If you rotate your screen 90° to the right, you'll see some of Tim's plasma torch skillz. Yeah, you heard me, s-k-i-l-l-z, fool! More weight loss in the non-structural areas of the shell.

Because undercoating/Snot of Satan glue/seam sealer are heavy, we're removing them. Regardless of what Boris the Blade says, heavy is not always good.

We've a long way to go, but plenty of time to get there. Interior is being further stripped of sound deadening, undercoating, wire, etc. that we don't need. Since I think that J was born with a soldering iron in his hand (ouch!), he's doing the wiring parts and losing lots of weight there. Just the basics left in the wiring harness now.

Oh but but wait, it gets worse!!!

2008-11-04T22:54:00.000-08:00

This:

Should be here:

But it's not. In fact, there's not much there at all.

Quick shot of the exterior:

Not many changes, just some fresh "stock-type" suspension...

Office:

Not a heck of a lot going on there, either. While Tim was off visiting with Danny Moal (http://www.moal.com/), I was pulling the motor/trans. OK, Kevin helped... Got the rest of the raintray out, took another few pounds out of the doors, got rid of the "Dynamat" stuff on the front floor, and got a load of parts into the parts washer. Once the interior is cleaned up a bit more, it can go out for a cage. w00t!

A little bit of work done today

2008-10-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

Tim and I spent the better part of the afternoon removing weight from the car (down to undercoating now...) and getting ready to remove the engine/trans.
All of the wiring harnesses are out, fuel is disconnected, axles are off (yes, we put stubs in, J!), just side and rear mounts holding the powertrain in place.
Spent a little time on J's square tubing/radiator support idea.
May be working on the car tomorrow if there's time.
Car should be ready to go for the cage by the end of next week. We'd like to give the cage guy an empty shell to work with.

The day we got the car

2008-10-30T17:07:00.001-07:00

24 Hours of Lemons, here we come!!!

Craptacular, innit? Free is good, though.
Ryan set us up with this car. 1982 VW Rabbit More-Door, bone stock 1.7l engine, 4-speed, no fenders, "suspension", no rear glass, seat not bolted to the floor.
Hell yeah.