hornetball

I stave off engine failure by keeping a freshly rebuilt spare on an engine stand in the corner. That has worked for 3 years.

Having money and good taste in reliable, safe, fast cars does not give you class. It just makes you smart. 😉

Here's something that popped up in my YouTube feed that I enjoyed. Go to 4:04 to see Dale's "Dream Car".

Good call. Bet I could rent a steam cleaner.

My main challenge is going to be degreasing before touching anything with a sander/grinder. Especially the underside of the floors. They're quite grimy.

That's a good idea. I was kind of looking for something that would "hide" surface imperfections since I'm going to end up with a fair amount of patches -- and the floor is pretty rough to begin with. Easy to touch up is another want. I was thinking about going with something lighter than black anyway.

Just the kind of feedback I was looking for. Thank you. I'll stick to paint.

All I can say is thank goodness it's fiberglass. If this were a metal car, it would have burned up a long time ago. I'm really not surprised by anything I'm seeing though, and now that I'm down to the bones, it'll be all uphill!

Some more progress. Took an angle grinder to the sidepipe "mounts." They weren't really right, which is why the PO used wire to hold them on. Also pulled out all the old wiring. Here are some beauty shots of what I was working with: And here is it's new home: Got all carpeting and ancient 80s-vintage foam carpet padding up. This let me see the condition of the "firewall" and floors. I see fiberglass in my future. Also, got the power steering pulled out. The condition of the lines was pretty much what I expected given their "routing." Check out this AN fitting: Once I patch up the floors and firewall, I'm thinking about spraying the inside of the car with bedliner of some sort before I re-install wiring, fire system and seats. Anyone have experience with that, good or bad?

You need a new signature pic. That shot from Daytona would look fantastic with the new paint scheme -- although you may want a picture from a different track out of respect.

Ban on instructing?!? That's crazy.

It did OK. At parade-lap speeds, it squeeled every corner. Thankfully, the hubcaps stayed on. My Grandson thought it was great! BTW, from an engineering standpoint, when a vehicle weighs more than 5000#s and is powered by more than 500CID, the proper term is "ship." Ships require a lot of paint.

Been kind of quiet. I've been focused on the Eldorado that I bought for my wife last year. It's finally done and doing parade laps at MSR-C! Any of you who made the TDE event weekend before last got to see it motoring out there on Saturday. On to the Vette. New bias-ply race rubber bought and mounted. I'm sure everyone remembers the rotten spring saddles. I made new ones from high-durometer rubber. This car has power steering, which puts a lot of plumbing in vulnerable areas and adds complexity and weight. Planning to revert this to manual steering. I pulled the fuel cell to begin working on the fuel system. Noticed the fuel cell straps had some of the most porous welds I'd ever seen -- one broke off easily by hand. I'll need to redo them. I'll be running new fuel lines as well -- and avoiding the suspension this time. Another item added to the list is a re-wire. The wiring is a mess. Planning to use one of those 9-circuit hotrod kits from Summit so I can get my lights working for occasional street driving.

Intimidator!

I applied my own penetrating sealer. It darkens the concrete slightly but doesn't otherwise alter the finish much (i.e., doesn't "polish"). I've spilled all kinds of fluids, including brake fluid and diesel, and it always wipes up without a trace. It was quite a chore putting it down on 8000 sq. ft. But with 2 of you and 2000 sq. ft., I'll bet you could knock it out in an afternoon. This is the stuff I used: