Another major accomplishment!!!
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Sunday, July 29, 2018
Firewall Complete
Just finished the firewall and reinstalled the engine. The engine mount plate is machined to its final shape too.
Another major accomplishment!!!
Another major accomplishment!!!
Saturday, July 28, 2018
New to Hot Rods
Two weeks ago, my sister's two granddaughters were vacationing at our house. They have never been exposed to hot rods, motorcycles, and other cool toys. One evening they heard me start the dragster in the trailer and they came running up to the trailer to see what the ruckus was!
I invited them into the trailer and coaxed them into sitting in the Blue Banana while I started it up. Their reactions were CLASSIC!!!
Watch the videos below to see their reaction.
I invited them into the trailer and coaxed them into sitting in the Blue Banana while I started it up. Their reactions were CLASSIC!!!
Watch the videos below to see their reaction.
Click on the Blog Archive hierarchy on the right hand side to see my posts in order. The ones at the bottom are the newest posts.
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New Titanium Firewall
I finally got back to working on the car again. We have had lots of family obligations and time has been hard to come by.
I am trying to get all of the fabrication work done and I have been putting the firewall off for a while.
I decided to fabricate it out of .035 titanium sheet for its strength and nice looks. It also will not rust so I will leave it in its raw form because it looks really nice that way.
I made templates from poster board and then cut the titanium to its rough shape. Once I fitted it to its final shape, I rolled a 1/8 inch step into it to make it more rigid. The step roll also makes it look nice.
I welded the top part of the firewall to the cowl that attaches to the car body. Titanium is interesting to weld but makes a neat looking weld because of the rainbow colors that are created because of the heat and shield gas.
I still have to build mounts to attach the firewall to the car permanently. I hope to have it all finished this weekend.
Next weekend is another bracket race in Baytown. I will race the Blue Banana again and hopefully win some more rounds.
I am trying to get all of the fabrication work done and I have been putting the firewall off for a while.
I decided to fabricate it out of .035 titanium sheet for its strength and nice looks. It also will not rust so I will leave it in its raw form because it looks really nice that way.
I made templates from poster board and then cut the titanium to its rough shape. Once I fitted it to its final shape, I rolled a 1/8 inch step into it to make it more rigid. The step roll also makes it look nice.
I welded the top part of the firewall to the cowl that attaches to the car body. Titanium is interesting to weld but makes a neat looking weld because of the rainbow colors that are created because of the heat and shield gas.
I still have to build mounts to attach the firewall to the car permanently. I hope to have it all finished this weekend.
Next weekend is another bracket race in Baytown. I will race the Blue Banana again and hopefully win some more rounds.
Click on the Blog Archive hierarchy on the right hand side to see my posts in order. The ones at the bottom are the newest posts.
Or
Back to Home Page
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Endeavor To Persevere
"Endeavor To Persevere" is a phrase that came from one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies, The Outlaw Josey Whales. The phrase was used by the old Native American that was Josey's friend. The old guy seemed to always have trying things going on with him, but he always pushed through the problems and came out of it unscathed.
I can relate to that character after our trials the last few years. It has been so challenging to make my racing dream to come true. I have to admit, that there have been times when I thought I was not capable of accomplishing my goals. I have really struggled to get comfortable and get good reaction times. My daughter once told me that I had no eye/hand coordination like a younger gamer type person. I tried not to believe that statement but at times, I thought she was right.
Over the last several months I have been doing lots of thinking and praying. I just kept my eyes on the goal and depended on God to help me get there. I ran through the race sequence in my head a thousand times during the down time. I simplified a couple of things in the routine to take some of the last second tasks away (switching on the data system is automatic now and I do not have to arm the transmission brake).
We also bought Clifford, The Big Red Truck to make pulling The Long, Long, Trailer a little less stressful. We bought him at the last minute so we had to make another crazy trip to get him and get him ready to tow so it added a little stress before the race.
Now, for the moral of the story. Everything does not come easy, even when you believe in Jesus and try to live right. EVERYONE HAS TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. Some people had bigger ones than I can even imagine. Satin attacks believers just like he attacks non believers. Some times I believe he attacks believers with vigor because he hates our relationship with Jesus. He wants to destroy our faith! When things are tough, do the things that are hardest, depend on Jesus more than you ever have, pray more than you ever have, be more generous than you ever have, help someone that needs help, live more like Jesus than you ever have, get the picture!
Reject satin from your life, off of your family, off of your activities, and in my case, even off of my race car.
Work harder than you ever have to reach the goal and with Jesus’s help, (and with the help of my Sunshine, Traci) you can achieve your goals!!!
Traci and I just got back from our first race since last September. We now have a fitting tow rig and my body is healed from the dirt bike crash a couple of months ago (yes, another tribulation).
It was not easy getting everything done and as usual, the week preparing to go race was full of drama. I had to fix several things on Clifford, The Big Red Truck and make sure it was road worthy. Traci and I worked lots of hours to get everything done. At about 9:00pm the night before the race, I finally got time to check tire pressures on the truck. I found one low and started filling it slowly. Jesus was watching out for me and I heard the tire making funny noises as I added pressure. I felt uncomfortable (Jesus protecting me) I got some ear plugs and tucked in behind the outside wheel while I added pressure. At about 60 psi, it let lose. I have not felt anything like that in years. Thank God, I prepared for the worse. The only damage was to the tire and a small piece of Clifford’s fender and a few pieces of metal tire cords stuck in my face and arms. The blast blew my glasses across the room so I could not see anything. Everyone from the house rushed outside to check and see if I was ok. I had taught safety training for years so the drill of getting behind something immovable (the outer tire and wheel probably saved me another trip to the hospital or worse). I am so thankful that God gave me the feeling that something could go wrong and I acted on it. DO NOT IGNORE HIS WARNINGS!
When Jesus gives you that feeling that you should not do something, or do something, act on it!
If you don’t get those feelings, try listening a little better, and you may want to re-examine your life completely if you aren’t getting any messages!
The next morning, we had to buy a new set of tires for Clifford so we could trust him. Ouch, that hurt $3500 worth of Toyo tires was not budgeted for, ha!
After getting the tires, Traci and I were running further and further behind but we endeavored to persevere. Right before we left, the guy that did the asphalt driveway at our house came by and told me he needed my help. He was doing a driveway in our neighborhood and one of his machines broke. He had hot loads of asphalt that he had to get put down and he needed to get his machine running before it cooled off. I went and helped him so we were even more late. He was very appreciative and it was the right thing to do.
When I got back home, Traci and I continued to get ready to go to the track. I tried to start the generator on the trailer and it would not start. Unbelievable!!, I start the thing about once every two weeks to keep it exercised but today it decided to not start. It ended up being a piece of trash in the carburetor, and we were another hour later. By this time we were both wondering if this weekend was meant to be, but we endeavored to persevere!
We got to the track about two hours late but Clifford pulled the trailer with ease and it was a relaxing trip. When we got there, our fan club Patrick, Lori, and their three kids (our business development manager for our company) were waiting for us. It was nice to see their smiling faces. Turns out that we did not miss anything because it had rained and Friday night races had been delayed.
Because of the delay, Traci and I had a relaxing evening of setting up the pit and getting the Blue Banana ready to race on Saturday morning. Finally, we were ready! We got a good nights rest and woke up on Saturday ready to run.
Saturday turned out to be one of the best days of any hobby I had ever had. We got one qualifying run and I left the starting line too soon by .006 seconds. The car ran the exact number I had tuned it for and performed well. I decided to advance the ignition two degrees to get the car to run a 5.00 second 1/8 th mile.
I chose to run a 5.00 second dial in for the first round. I was running a very experienced driver and he let me stage first. He took a little while to stage his car and I got distracted and was way late leaving the starting line, typical!!! My car ran right on my dial in but I was so far behind that I could not catch him. I was bummed then I heard Traci yelling on the radio that I had won. You have got to be kidding, I won! The other driver had run faster than his dial in number which is a disqualification. This was the break I needed! My first win! God is good!
The win gave me some confidence and I ended up winning two more rounds with excellent reaction times and running very close to my dial in. Except for my one run that I had narcolepsy on, I ran within .019 second variance on my reaction time from my slowest to my quickest. My car had run within .014 second variance from its fastest run to its slowest run. Those are competitive numbers!!! We exceeded our goal times three (our goal was to win one round) because, We ENDEAVORED TO PERSEVERE!
Here are two videos of our best run in round 2. I had a .012 reaction time and only ran .003 off of my dial in.
I can relate to that character after our trials the last few years. It has been so challenging to make my racing dream to come true. I have to admit, that there have been times when I thought I was not capable of accomplishing my goals. I have really struggled to get comfortable and get good reaction times. My daughter once told me that I had no eye/hand coordination like a younger gamer type person. I tried not to believe that statement but at times, I thought she was right.
Over the last several months I have been doing lots of thinking and praying. I just kept my eyes on the goal and depended on God to help me get there. I ran through the race sequence in my head a thousand times during the down time. I simplified a couple of things in the routine to take some of the last second tasks away (switching on the data system is automatic now and I do not have to arm the transmission brake).
We also bought Clifford, The Big Red Truck to make pulling The Long, Long, Trailer a little less stressful. We bought him at the last minute so we had to make another crazy trip to get him and get him ready to tow so it added a little stress before the race.
Now, for the moral of the story. Everything does not come easy, even when you believe in Jesus and try to live right. EVERYONE HAS TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. Some people had bigger ones than I can even imagine. Satin attacks believers just like he attacks non believers. Some times I believe he attacks believers with vigor because he hates our relationship with Jesus. He wants to destroy our faith! When things are tough, do the things that are hardest, depend on Jesus more than you ever have, pray more than you ever have, be more generous than you ever have, help someone that needs help, live more like Jesus than you ever have, get the picture!
Reject satin from your life, off of your family, off of your activities, and in my case, even off of my race car.
Work harder than you ever have to reach the goal and with Jesus’s help, (and with the help of my Sunshine, Traci) you can achieve your goals!!!
Traci and I just got back from our first race since last September. We now have a fitting tow rig and my body is healed from the dirt bike crash a couple of months ago (yes, another tribulation).
It was not easy getting everything done and as usual, the week preparing to go race was full of drama. I had to fix several things on Clifford, The Big Red Truck and make sure it was road worthy. Traci and I worked lots of hours to get everything done. At about 9:00pm the night before the race, I finally got time to check tire pressures on the truck. I found one low and started filling it slowly. Jesus was watching out for me and I heard the tire making funny noises as I added pressure. I felt uncomfortable (Jesus protecting me) I got some ear plugs and tucked in behind the outside wheel while I added pressure. At about 60 psi, it let lose. I have not felt anything like that in years. Thank God, I prepared for the worse. The only damage was to the tire and a small piece of Clifford’s fender and a few pieces of metal tire cords stuck in my face and arms. The blast blew my glasses across the room so I could not see anything. Everyone from the house rushed outside to check and see if I was ok. I had taught safety training for years so the drill of getting behind something immovable (the outer tire and wheel probably saved me another trip to the hospital or worse). I am so thankful that God gave me the feeling that something could go wrong and I acted on it. DO NOT IGNORE HIS WARNINGS!
When Jesus gives you that feeling that you should not do something, or do something, act on it!
If you don’t get those feelings, try listening a little better, and you may want to re-examine your life completely if you aren’t getting any messages!
The next morning, we had to buy a new set of tires for Clifford so we could trust him. Ouch, that hurt $3500 worth of Toyo tires was not budgeted for, ha!
After getting the tires, Traci and I were running further and further behind but we endeavored to persevere. Right before we left, the guy that did the asphalt driveway at our house came by and told me he needed my help. He was doing a driveway in our neighborhood and one of his machines broke. He had hot loads of asphalt that he had to get put down and he needed to get his machine running before it cooled off. I went and helped him so we were even more late. He was very appreciative and it was the right thing to do.
When I got back home, Traci and I continued to get ready to go to the track. I tried to start the generator on the trailer and it would not start. Unbelievable!!, I start the thing about once every two weeks to keep it exercised but today it decided to not start. It ended up being a piece of trash in the carburetor, and we were another hour later. By this time we were both wondering if this weekend was meant to be, but we endeavored to persevere!
We got to the track about two hours late but Clifford pulled the trailer with ease and it was a relaxing trip. When we got there, our fan club Patrick, Lori, and their three kids (our business development manager for our company) were waiting for us. It was nice to see their smiling faces. Turns out that we did not miss anything because it had rained and Friday night races had been delayed.
Because of the delay, Traci and I had a relaxing evening of setting up the pit and getting the Blue Banana ready to race on Saturday morning. Finally, we were ready! We got a good nights rest and woke up on Saturday ready to run.
Saturday turned out to be one of the best days of any hobby I had ever had. We got one qualifying run and I left the starting line too soon by .006 seconds. The car ran the exact number I had tuned it for and performed well. I decided to advance the ignition two degrees to get the car to run a 5.00 second 1/8 th mile.
I chose to run a 5.00 second dial in for the first round. I was running a very experienced driver and he let me stage first. He took a little while to stage his car and I got distracted and was way late leaving the starting line, typical!!! My car ran right on my dial in but I was so far behind that I could not catch him. I was bummed then I heard Traci yelling on the radio that I had won. You have got to be kidding, I won! The other driver had run faster than his dial in number which is a disqualification. This was the break I needed! My first win! God is good!
The win gave me some confidence and I ended up winning two more rounds with excellent reaction times and running very close to my dial in. Except for my one run that I had narcolepsy on, I ran within .019 second variance on my reaction time from my slowest to my quickest. My car had run within .014 second variance from its fastest run to its slowest run. Those are competitive numbers!!! We exceeded our goal times three (our goal was to win one round) because, We ENDEAVORED TO PERSEVERE!
Here are two videos of our best run in round 2. I had a .012 reaction time and only ran .003 off of my dial in.
Click
on the Blog Archive hierarchy on the right hand side to see my posts in
order. The ones at the bottom are the newest posts.
Or
Back to Home Page
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