151....and maybe not!!!!!

A quick update on the repair and rebuild of the Tight Fit slingshot........not everything always goes according to plan, they certainly don't with us anyway, When Steve bought the car back from having the chassis sorted out by Wayne Colliver her noticed a small puddle of oil under the car, seeing that there is no engine or transmission in the car the only other culprit was the rear axle. With the axle removed and scrutinised, Steve found a crack on the bottom of the axle where the protection plate bolts on. A bit strange as the axle hadn't hit anything when loaded or unloaded form the trailer. So now we have another problem.

Our axle is a Chevy 10 bolt jobbie as once used by  top fuel cars in the past but its not the axle of choice these days, that's long been the 9inch Ford they are not interchangeable due to the position of the prop shafts. This is a dilemma do we look for a replacement which is going to be a long search or could the axle be repaired. "We know a man who can" enter Jim and his welding gear and...one repaired axle, thanks Jim. This held us up a bit. Next the chassis needed rubbing down again and repainting so hours of dust and red hands later with the help of friends the chassis was sprayed...but the paint reacted with something this time and came out all bubbly...not good!

Steve phoned a powder coating company in his area that had a tank big enough for the chassis, the guy was on holiday phone back later which Steve did and he got the run-around. So Plan B get someone else to paint it as Steve had giving up trying to get it to look good while trying to paint it in the back of the trailer. So this afternoon Monday 13th the chassis was taken to paint booth in Cirencester.

There is still a lot of work to be done and time is slipping away so it is beginning to look like the Nostalgia Nationals will come around too quick...maybe! So looking forward to the odd Run what you brung and Dragstalgia. Fingers crossed.

150 Maybe just maybe!!

Another year just zooms past in an instant, I spent last year watching all the races on the live feed, thank you "Santa Pod", just wishing I could just have one last race, but after finding out that it was not only a buckled motor plate that was stopping us from racing but also the chassis was bent and twisted, so my dream of one more race looked like it was never going to happen. Steve however! never gives up  on anything easily and earlier this year started looking at ways of trying to get back to the track but with the cost of living rising faster then Keir Starmer's record of failures it didn't look too good. Both Dave and myself had resigned ourselves that our racing days are probably over. We have had a lot of help from people over the last few weeks even Mike Waters made us another motor plate which because of the bent chassis didn't quite fit.

That was until a phone call to fellow "Wild Buncher" and all round good guy Wayne Colliver, who agreed to take a look at the car as soon as his boss agreed to it and when he has time, as he was snowed under with work at the time of the call. A few weeks later the call came though to bring the car to him so Steve with help from his mate Moss, loaded the car on to the back of a flat bed truck thanks to Moss's boss for the loan of the truck without which the car wouldn't have got to Wayne's workshop, and off they went.

I need to point out that at this time Steve had told nobody what he was doing as he didn't want to get our hopes up. Once the car was in Wayne's workshop he went to work. new motor plates were fabricated and with his alignment tool it soon became obvious where the problem was.

Many hours later and a lot of metal magic and huge amount of skill Wayne managed the impossible and straightened out the chassis.

The car was then put back on the truck and bought home, a long  long day but well worth it, the following day Steve with some help braved the torrential rain and refitted our engine and trans just to double check everything lined up with our gear in the car, and it did.

So now the hard work begins, engine and gearbox back out, the chassis will be touched up as it has been banged about a bit, then the rebuild starts it will take time, how much depends on the weather, money and whatever free time Steve has. No idea how long this will take but it will get done and the car will get back to the track eventually. 

Looks like I had better start saving for some fuel and getting the bike serviced and checked out, I wonder if I can still fit in the fire suit and the car, it was always a a bit of a "Tight Fit"

149. Yes it is red

 So to continue from the last update, to make sure that we don´t break anymore welds some gussets were made up and welded into the bottom rails.

Then Jim decided that maybe just maybe it would be a good idea to go over every single weld on the chassis, just for good measure. So I guess we won't be having anymore issues with those for the time being.

Steve had to then rub down the whole thing ready for spraying which meant having to turn the chassis upside down, So it had to be dragged outside first while Steve masked up the inside of the trailer so as not to paint the  parts which didn´t need painting.

Next Steve ordered the paint and just for a change he decided on "RED" as opposed to the previous black.

During the week in the evenings Steve got to work with the spray gun and painted the bottom of the chassis, it was then turned over again and the top half sprayed, a quick rub down and a second coat applied, and the chassis is now ready (excuse cheap pun).

As can be seen in the next photo the red on the chassis is a different shade of red compared to the red of the bodywork, something to be looked at next year, also Steve managed to paint another item in the trailer.

Now it is time to put the car back together and the race is on to complete it in time for the biggest and best race meeting of the year (in my humble opinion that is) Dragstalgia, time to get the trusty Yamaha Super Tenere ready for another adventure ride back to England

148. Another year slips by.....!

Well, hello again, another year has flashed past so quickly, for those that thought we had packed up....wrong!!! we have just been taking our time. OK so the last time I posted anything we had the car in bits trying to find out why the engine, transmission to axle kept stepping out of line. After stripping the car we found the motor plate was buckled rather badly. That was as far as we got till recently. The trailer sat forlornly outside Steve's place and the chassis was left floundering in John O'Sullivan's workshop, The engine and transmission sat in Steve's house.

We all know the problems faced by most people at the moment, increasing bills of all sorts, so the dragster had to take a back seat for a while. There are more important things in life than drag racing, I know there are some that will argue with that LOL. Anyway, here we go again!!.

First of all, a new motor plate was manufactured by our good friend John O´Sullivan which after a small adjustment fitted perfectly.

So, the next problem was to check the chassis to make sure it was still straight and that there were no other problems. The chassis had been sitting in John's workshop for a while, so Steve and Al went to pick it up, it was bought back in Johns works van and was put in the race trailer. It very quickly became obvious there were a problem or two, after sitting for so long there were lines of rust where there shouldn't be any......

So, the decision was made to remove all the paint from the chassis and give it a careful inspection to see if there were any more cracks and yes more were found.

So Steve spent a few days with wire brushes going over every inch on the car and removing every millimetre of paint and found four cracked welds, which was probably caused by my wheelie at the Hot Rod Drags back in 2021 when the trans brake mal functioned. The plan was for John to come and sort out the welding, but as luck would have it one of Steves friends popped round to have Steve have a look at his car as it was making some funny noises, and Jim had just come from a job that required some welding and he still had his tig welder in the car, so while Steve fixed his car Jim welded up the cracks.

So a new motor  plate and the chassis sorted what's next....some strengthening gussets, paint and start to sort out all the other bits and pieces like the cut-off switch, panel fixing etc and then put the engine and transmission back where it belongs and get the car back on the track, maybe sometime this year with a bit of luck!

Good luck to everyone competing in this year's  Nostalgia Nationals.

147. A year is a long time in Drag Racing two years is an eternity

Well how time fly's eh? it has only been..what two years? so what's been happening then? If you can remember that far back! we decided that we needed to strip the car to investigate the problem we had with the engine to axle alignment, which we did.

Then Steve was slightly distracted by something. This was the re-commissioning for the track of Mr Mopar together with John  O´Sullivan after nearly  9 weeks of solid graft they got the car to Dragstalgia last year  the engine was fired up for the first time in 17 years in the pits, the problem was the slicks were also 17 years old and all the coil over shocks  were blown but he still put on a bit of a show. For The Hot Rod drags a few more bits had been done to Mr Mopar like new slicks and new suspension units but there is still work to do on the steering and an anti roll bar to be fitted, "A warning" the lovely Draper brothers who sorted out the tune for the car have a 5 second tune for Mr Mopar and yes you heard that right.

So then life and money get in the way, we have all been there, with the increasing costs of just surviving in this day and age there isn't a lot of money left over for anything let alone drag racing. But then another problem raised its ugly head...the gearbox on the tow truck packed up at this point we all thought about giving up completely. At the start of this year Steve was asked...no told!.. that he was going to be crewing with John in his gasser on street week.

A lot of fun was had and I believe they are going to do it again next year. So over the next few weeks Steve starts to collect various bits and pieces for the gearbox for the Dodge tow truck, once assembled it still doesn't work even though everything has been replaced? with a little polishing work from Mr. O`Sullivan on one of the shafts and some re-jigging by Steve the box was once again placed back into the truck and this time it works yaaaa The truck is then cleaned, checked over and MOT`d. And back on the road.

So now its time for the dragster, the problem found with the alignment was down to a buckled motor plate, the chassis checks out as straight and all the welds are fine, a new motor plate is being fashioned, so for the time being the car will be put back the way it was and fingers crossed the car will be back together again soon, maybe not in time for The Hot Rod Drags but definitely for next year.

146. It´s time!!!

Hello wonderful people well it has been a few months since the last up-date. Sometimes this thing called life gets in the way and then there is this dirty word called money...there is never enough of it!

Yesterday morning armed with some money from a good friend and a helping hand Steve took the Dodge out for a ride not before taking it to work first to give it a going over.

Then a long trip from Swindon to the depths of Bedfordshire to collect the trailer and dragster.

It was parked up over night ready for the mornings work, Steve pulled the trailer to the front of his house and got the car out. just for peace of mind and to heat up the oils before draining of course, Steve started her up just a quick squirt in the injector and away she went and my god that engine sounds so dam good.

So now it is being stripped down to just the chassis so its engine out gearbox out axle out etc, then the chassis is going down the road to our friend John O´Sullivan Mr. Mopar to be checked for any weak or broken welds and to check that the car is straight and that there are no bent tubes anywhere. depending on what is found will determine what we do with it ..front half it repair it or replace!!!

Steve is working hard to get the car down to its skeleton ready for transport.

Engine and gearbox out

Engine and box nice and warm inside

Packed away partly naked for the night

And that´s it for the day. a hard days work with help thanks to Jim Moss, Perry Quinn and Nigel and John and Tyler...To be continued

145. Decisions decisions?

 It's been a little while now since we dragged the car away from the Pod at Dragstalgia rather downbeat after  realising that there was definitely something very wrong going on somewhere with the chassis. We, the Team that is, made the decision to retire the chassis and take time off to either build a new car or just retire from competing in the sport altogether but! this dam sport gets under your skin and we couldn't just walk away so time to do some work and make some "difficult" decisions.

The tow truck, Dodge Ram, has some work done but still needs more, especially the LPG system. Most of the work has been completed on the trailer.

Before we can get the dragster home to strip down we need somewhere to work on her, Now a little while ago I put on this blog the saga of Steve's workshop well! it isn't over yet even though the workshop is now up it wasn't in any way waterproof and the condensation was a big problem and the installers put it too close to the fence between Steve's place and the neighbours.

Steve's friend Perry is a builder and he had a look and told Steve that his crew had a three days spare and they would sort it out. They braced the inside of the workshop, unbolted it from the floor and moved it out of the way and then laid a course of blocks then they put the workshop back on the blocks and bolted it down, this time a few inches further from the fence.

The blocks were then painted with a waterproof paint and the doors extended with left over material from when Steve attacked workshop one, when he couldn't get it straight, all swept but just waiting for the floor to dry off then it gets painted nearly ready to accept the dragster.

Perry and the guys are hard working dependable builders anyone n the area has any building work needing doing give the guys a call. Steve has some special material to cover the inside of the workshop to stop condensation once its dry inside.

So now the dilemma or trilemma even, the car? so after deciding to retire her Steve had a chat with our long time friend Mr. Mopar himself John O'Sullivan who after hearing what had happened told Steve to bring the rolling chassis to him as he thinks he knows what has happened. If it's fixable do we put the motor back in and race it while waiting for a new chassis, do we repair it if possible, then re-tag it and sell it on to help fund the new car or....do we repair it extend the chassis change the body panels add wings etc and not build a new car???

To finance this project Steve has what is now a rare car hidden away at a secret location, a project he started a few years ago a MK 1 Astra GTE the car has had a new front bulkhead new wings new front valance and it has an undamaged un cracked dash along with a later 2 litre turbo motor to go into it, With only a few left registered on the road this is now a rare beastie there was a recent project Mk1 GTE on e-bay that went for over 7 grand and that one needed the panels doing hmmm.

And just to make the decisions even more difficult, Steve had a job to do on a friends vehicle, some welding, but Steve's welder packed up so the guy bought Steve a brand new all singing all dancing welder.

So now Steve could weld up a chassis himself so we are looking at ready cut kits from the states and we have a jig that we can borrow soon  once the car that is on it has been put on its wheels......Repair...Rebuild or Replace??????

That's it for now I hope everyone else is having a great time fingers crossed we may see you all at the track next year.