22. Nearly there!

It has been a very hard few days for "Slimline Racing" on Friday I arranged with my son and crew chief Steve to take the truck from it's nice storage depot to his friends house just outside Sundon Village so that he could weld up the rotting exhaust on the truck....end of the season weld up the rotting cab too...

So I met up with my brother in Luton we made our way over to Bedford to where the truck and car are and we spent a while tying everything down with bungees and straps to stop anything from moving, then set off to get the truck welded, we left the truck over night for Steve to work his magic I dropped Dave back home and I made my way back to sunny Kent.

I took the small on board battery back with me to ensure it was charged in time for the next day, it wouldn't charge on my trickle charge so I put my car charger on it and again it was too flat to start charging so I took my motorbike battery out and paralleled it off with the dragster battery and let the charger do its thing for a couple of hours then left it to charge over night on the trickle charger....

It still was not fully charged by the morning....

Up a 4am back in my over loaded car and back to Luton pick Dave up again then over to the truck check everything is still battened down and off to Santa Pod Raceway, we arrived at around  9am and set up camp and waited for Ian Tuberville to arrive.

We got the dragster out of the truck for the first time in 6 months

We have had a few problems with the car we have had to have the front timing cover welded and machined and we have a damaged rocker arm Steve had to replace the rocker arm and set the gap wrong due to wrong information being given to him, when we fired the car up for the first time it sounded terrible..popping and backfiring,a wise and clever man came over and said "in my humble opinion you have a problem with an inlet valve hanging open for the engine to pop and bang like that" so! off came the rocker cover again and after a phone call and the correct tappet gap being found out they were all re-set then the car was fired up again....

Now it sounded really crisp and very angry it was now a drag racing engine, so time to do the one thing I had been dreaming of for around 40 years....take a car up the track....

I donned the fire suit trousers and jacket put the fire boots on and went over tot he car. now there is na have to climb up on to the slick over the top of the cockpit and place both feet on the axle then at the same time bend your back let your feet slip forward and if you can get your leg between the brake lever and the steering wheel you are in place, and its a tight  place to be in, now put the straps one over each shoulder one from each side and one up from the floor in the middle the on go the arm restraints the the gloves, neck brace and lastly the helmet, if I said this is extremely claustrophobic that would be an understatement I so very  nearly gave it all up and got out, but Turbo said it does take some getting used to but it will get easier..."Just breathe and relax" which I did so I stayed, I swear that both Steve and Dave thought is was getting frightened about driving the dragster but that was not the case I was just having a lot of trouble being in that confined space..I didn't call the car "Tight Fit" for nothing.  

We hooked the car up to the tow line and took it down to the start line, we got to the fromt of the line got the signal to fire up which we did..

As soon as the starter battery was removed form the dragster the engine died. remember that battery problem I mentioned at the beginning...well looks like that battery died on us, so it was back to the pits clean up and pack up ready to fight another day...

21. One setback after another!!

I really don't seem to have much luck at the moment well not good luck anyway, The plan was...we were going to fix the trucks exhaust, change some gaskets on the race car to stop the oil leaks and race it this weekend...but! my son had a wee bit of an accident in his car the day before all this was due to happen and seeing he is my crew chief we had to cancel.

Ok so on to plan B go up and sort the car and truck out this Friday and if anything goes wrong we still had Saturday as well, So I was up at 4:45am left the house with the car loaded by 10 to 6 am....

Generator, tools, tool box, welding gear, axle stands, jacks etc etc. I met my son in Bedford at 9am and by 9:20am we were at the truck, and from that moment everything went wrong ..really wrong.

First job get the bottom pulley off and change the oil seal that is leaking rather badly and take the timing cover off and change the gasket, first thing we noticed was the fuel pump was a bit loose we took it off removed the battery box and then got well and truly stuck as the bottom pulley refused to budge...so we travelled the length and breadth of Bedford and Kempston looking in every tool shop there was trying to find a different pulley puller, did we find one...no, in Steve's shop in Swindon he has them on the shelf LOL Two hours later we went back to the truck and with an almighty effort Steve managed to get the pulley off and then the timing cover.

While Steve was getting the pulley off I took the injector stacks off ready to clean them off and also if we got time we were going to take the inlet manifold off and reseal it, Steve also took the rocker covers off as we were going to change those gaskets too, one of the rocker boxes was loose and I mean loose I could undo the nuts with my fingers and when Steve looked he found a bit of damage to one of the rockers..boy oh boy all I wanted to do was drive a dragster not to strip it and replace tons of parts..

Then on top of that when we looked at the timing cover we found out why the pump was loose there are cracks going through the tapped holes which hold the pump onto the cover which means we are never going to be able to tighten it up properly.

I have now got try and source another cover and a new rocker and push rod as someone has ground the end and I believe they are either toughened or heat treated either way grinding it will weaken it.

My generator was not man enough to power my sons welding gear so we cant fix the rotted exhaust on the truck and I can't afford a new one so I have no idea what to do now? and then it wouldn't start again..getting depressed now after all the money I have paid out so far it looks like my dream of travelling down the sacred tarmac of Santa Pod is fast evaporating...!

20. Tools and stuff

First of all I am so chuffed, this morning my SPRC membership card and gear turned up, so does this mean I am at long last a real racer LOL......

So now I have my membership number I have sent off  my membership application the Wild Bunch, so Slimline Racing is now on the map with it's car..Tight Fit.

As I mentioned in my last post I have now started to get together another tool kit for the truck some fo the tools have arrived and some are still on the way but this is what is on order already....

My son has a small torque wrench for me and I have two battery chargers to pick up as well I am hoping that we have enough tools to do the job now as I am fast running out of money LOL I have one month to get to the gym and lose some weight before I have to see the "Blood Pressure" nurse at my local surgery so fingers crossed I am yet be able to get my licence before the middle of the season.

19. More stuff

I received my registration pack from the Wild Bunch and the car now has a number yaaaa WB64 I have had to join the Santa Pod Racers Club first though so as soon as my SPRC registration come through then I can send my money off to the Wild bunch guys,

We are getting nearer and nearer my arranged/hoped for first try out in the car, still hoping my race suit turns up on time and that I can get the exhaust welded up on the truck fingers crossed that will all be done on the weekend of the 14th to 16th march.

I have ordered up some tools as I do have an imperial and metric tool kit at home...Harley users know that American bikes don't use metric sizes but the thought of carrying all the tools back and forth to the truck is not a pleasant one so I have got some more on  the way which I  will leave in the truck I also found a book that I thought would be useful bit is but not in the way I thought it would be LOL

Time is marching on and I have an awful lot on my plate at the moment but it looks like we are getting there at last!

I am running out of room at home, I live in a small 3 bed mid terrace house and even though I do have a garage that is full of motorbikes and bike trailers so at the moment  I have stuff for racing stuffed into all sorts of places, behind the TV on top of the freezer, you can't open a cupboard in this house without something falling out to do with my racing endeavour, Lorni is getting real fed up with it so most of it is destined for the truck as soon as the last bits and bobs have arrived which should be within the week,,,fingers crossed.

18. Bits and pieces...getting there

OK so  time is moving on now and we are getting nearer and nearer the start of the season we have identified most of the tools and accessories we need and I think we have most of them either on order or here already, I have managed to get a lot of stuff through my son and his companies discount, The race suit is ordered it is now a case of whether it turns up on time or not, the helmet is already here...

I ordered some gaskets for the engine and the transmission and they have turned up...

..along with some 5 gallon liquid containers, so we can now get on and sort out the oil leak I have borrowed my sons welding gear so we can get the trucks exhaust welded up and repair the silencer....

The welder is in the back of the car at the moment along with the welding shield, oil pan, timing light and low level hydraulic jack...in the back seat foot-well in the car is the large capacity battery for starting the car, the leads are being made up by my son and the two sets of braced axle stands.......

 We already have a compressor in the truck and this morning the generator I ordered turned up ..

The adapter plugs and sockets for it are also on the way, we probably have just enough tools to keep us going so I think we are just about there, well ready for RWYB's anyway ..I will worry about the licence stuff later , next I suppose I had best join the racers association's and the Wild Bunch..then its race time folks.....

17. Moving along

It amazes me how quick you can get things done if you put your mind to it, first of getting the truck exhaust welded up has now been sorted I will go down to Swindon in a weeks time to pick up some gear for the car that my son Steven has ordered for me at the same time I will pick up his welding gear, I will then take all of the gear over to the truck where my brother Dave will doe the welding..if I can get a 240v supply from somewhere.

I have this evening sent off my order for my fire proof gear it will be a two piece suit and black....

Something like this I wouldn't wonder but without the shades, I have also ordered the correct approved helmet which will be white...

We now have the axle stands and low level jack so the tools side is sorted I have a decent compressor for now for tyre inflation, I have a 24 Volt battery charger for the truck and I have ordered various plastics,,,funnels fuel cans etc.

The Engine gasket kit has been ordered along with the power-glide sump gasket....

We have fuel and oil just need my other son to get his finger out now and get my generator but if that fails to happen Steve has got one I can borrow for a while, I have rejoined the gym and start my diet tomorrow so with a bit of luck I will get this blood pressure sorted so i can get m licence then I can enter competition for real.......this is all getting real now..woohooo!!!!

16. Work to do

So an early start got me to the petrol station on the A6 just outside Bedford at around a quarter to ten, I found my son was already there, he had come up from Swindon, we had a cuppa and something to eat then drove up to the Caravan storage depot where the truck and car are parked up. The idea was to have a stock check and see what we needed to complete the equipment store ready for racing. While we were there have a good look round the race car.

While we there my son Steven decided to try out the drivers seat.....

We did  find a bit of oil where we weren't expecting to.......

We also found some on the floor which suspected came from here....

..the timing plate cover but after a call to the ever helpful Ian sorted most of the trouble out for us we still have a bit of work to do on the truck as we found the exhaust had cracked all the way through and we have a split in  the silencer as well oh and we need to clean the dragsters fuel tank out and then give it all a clean and polish up ready for the start of the season.