Re: Dumbo The Flying Elephant
 

I-65

Re: Dumbo The Flying Elephant
 

Thanks Larry

Steve

Re: Dumbo The Flying Elephant
 

I spent Tuesday getting Dumbo disassembled and parts ordered. Our parts guy said they all should be here today. Keep your fingers crossed for good luck. I still need one more quote from a body shop for the insurance co. All of our body shops are all backed up until mid to late November. I still plan on taking it to St Louis. Or maybe it’s just my latest pipe dream.

Re: Dumbo The Flying Elephant
 

Well there is less available credit on my credit card account now since all of the ordered parts arrived. I dropped the the fender and the bumper cover off at Seay Collision Center owned by former racer Larry Seay. Went to the sign shop to get Dumbo's trunk replaced on the hood. Keep your fingers crossed, we just might make it to St Louis

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Making some adjustable stops for the race cars on the hoist. Goal is to not have them not move up or down and front to back. Also I will pull the pin and put the car in park

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Some days I’m lucky most days I’m not. Not lucky yesterday. A plastic part that mounts and locates the bumper cover to the fender was damaged in shipping. Maybe we will have time to get a replacement part before the fender is done.

I’m not going to try to get the quarter panels repaired until after racing season is over. So if people notice some unusual placement of some stickers I hope they understand. Before I send the car to the shop I will remove the drivetrain. That way I’m sure what is inside the oil pan will stay in the oil pan.

Re: Dumbo The Flying Elephant
 

While Dumbo is being repaired I worked on tying down the pink car better. Strapped the car down the regular way then added blocks and turnbuckles, thanks Glenn, to the front to pull the car down to the blocks. It is vary similar in the rear with blocks at the front spring mount and straps holding the car down. I think a GoPro camera could be a help.

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The camera will open your eyes. I had someone else drive my rig and I rode in the trailer for just a few miles and WOW - there was a lot going on that shouldn't be!! :eek:

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Larry,

I struggled for a few years with the top car moving in the trailer on the lift. A buddy and I had to get in and push it back and forth one time on the way home for Cordova to get it back on the lift correctly.

I put front wheel chocks in solid on the lift and nut zerks on the floor that I put wheel chock in after loading the top car.

I grab a can of mustard (beer) and pull the front straps as tight as I can. Always tight when I get home. The rear straps are a different animal. I haven't found a way to keep them tight on most trips.

Always amazed how I can leave loose stuff on my bench and it stays there, but the cars want to move around.

James

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On the pink car we use two non-adjustable straps with safety hooks on both ends that are crossed on the diff to keep the rear tied down. The front we use two crossed straps that are adjustable. We added pull down blocks and turnbuckles to the front and and a extra set of straps to pull the rear down to the rear blocks. The blocks fit close, less than 1/8” pull down.

When and if we get Dumbo back we will have to fit the new stuff to the car to stop it’s vertical motion. Today we are lowering the hoist an inch and a half to get just a little more roof clearance while going down the road.

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The folks at Seay Collision said fender and bumper cover will be ready to pickup tomorrow after lunch. Most day I would rather be lucky than good! So it looks like we will make it to St Louis.

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Got a text last night with a photo of my bumper cover and fender painted and two tone and will be ready to pick up today.

I still have to pinch myself that I started on it Labor Day and in nine working days it’s ready to assemble. What a great community that our family lives in, everyone we ask helped us.

Patsy sold her Honda Pilot to Jerry Bennett’s Auto Outlet. I think Jerry is going to advertise it as a one owner, low miles, only drive by an old lady on Sundays to and from the casino.

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I got all of the front end bumper cover snapped together. It starts out very flexible and by the time the last piece clicks into place it is pretty ridged. The grills and the headlight bezels are not to bad, but the grill reinforcement is a real challenge. It seem like there is 143 taps and slots that have to be in perfect a-line or it won’t go together. By the time it was done I was ready for a beer and a fresh box of Band-Aid’s

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14 days later. I'm not finished but will be by the end of the day if I have all the plastic rivets I need to put all the shields back in place in place.

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The front spoiler was an experience. I did it wrong the first time. Finally got all the bent tabs close enough to assemble. I ran out of rivets so will have to re-supply today. Still to do pin striping, left front inter slash guard, wheel and tires. We still lack both rear quarters being repaired and the hood needs a little tender loving care. I have to install the new battery. New decals have to be made.

After the car is finished we will load up and improve our tie down method.

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You're no quitter.😉

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I really love Stock racing. It gives me something to do and try to get my stuff to the next level. I’ve invested time and money for parts and equipment since 1980. I have shelves of good ideas that did not help at all, in fact some of the stuff slowed it way down. But I’m always thinking of my next idea that might help or trying to figure out how my competition is going so fast.

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Again Ta-Dah

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We, Dumbo and I, drove to Indy last night to race at the NMCA race this weekend. Dumbo stayed in place and did not cause any problems. I’m not content with everything but we are going in the right direction.

Off topic but looks to be a really fast weekend at Indy.

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Dumbo went straight and ran good Mph. Now we can start working on it!

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Well who ever said common sense in abundance is Genius hit the nail on the head.
We finally came home from Louisville Ky. and Dumbo never moved. Thanks to everyone with all the great ideas.

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Off subject but today Im chopping the top of the golf cart so it will load under Dumbo. My little Elephant is tall and wide.

Hope the part for the motorhome fixes it Monday

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Thanks Ed the lowering kit for the top worked. We can now load and unload golf cart without having to do the race car first.

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Had a power wire fall off of the rocker panel switch and it took a while to find it. Replaced wire and tighten connection, all is good.

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We did not qualify to race stock at St Louis so today I did some maintenance. Relighting the electrical connections, removed fuel tank and checked for foam decomposition, and cleaned filter before fuel pump. Changed from stock to super stock so I could get an extra run and maybe get to race. Qualifying 147 in a 128 car field and DNQ did not help our program.

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Good move, with Super Stock not having a full field, you will get to race.

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We think the car is getting better, but need to improve reliability at starting line. I will leak engine to see if its hurt from St Louis.

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Larry what did you have to do to run Dumbo in superstock this weekend ?



Jerry
Retired 3490 3492 STK SS SST

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Since we had all of our safety stuff and have an inspection sticker on the car, it was pay the entry fee and fill tech card. On those cold mornings the gloves and the dash five suit are much warmer than the dash one stuff.

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Dumbo got hurt and engine will have to be repaired.

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Larry, that is very unfortunate. You were well on your way to getting
your new combo lined out, and now more work, less fun. I feel your
pain. Well, it will be sorted out for the Florida races!

J.R.

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Would you ever run Dumbo in Super Stock again ? Or was it just for one time ?

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If we ever have both cars at the track or if conditions dictate a change. Super Stock was fun and some of the cars were so nice it looked like they were made out of plastic.

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I’m just not very motivated to work on my cars after St Louis.

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Dumbo has an appointment at the body shop 11/7/22. We should be in good shape for next year

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Engine, transmission and radiator are out. I have not gotten use to the radiator being installed from the bottom. I tried something new I left the motor mounts on the engine. The mounts added stability when its on the bench.

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Leaked the engine we (me and NHRA) bent some valves on the 8500 rpm free wheel on the starting line. New valves from Santa I hope and I'm going to lower the rev-limiter to 8000RPM.

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I think I found out why the car slowed from Indy NMCA race to St Louis points race. At St Louis it developed a miss at each gear change and on the launch sometimes. The miss really had me and others scratching our head. The cause, I think, was number seven rear plug, two plugs per cylinder, tube was full of water. So now the head has been repaired and I still have bent valves to deal with.

Where the leek occurred was at the junction of two patterns for the lower and upper part of the head inside the water jacket. It never has leaked before and it has not been hot. Could it be that I need to use something other than water in the cooling system to keep the head from plating out. Could I use a sacrificial metal like is used on outboard motors to protect the engine from electrolysis?

On the plus side I have enough stuff now to pressure test a head on my Gen 3 Hemi.

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NAPA has a anti-crosive additive and water pump lube that comes in a white bottle that i used in my stock eliminator. It looked like water with baking soda in it.

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Last teardown everything was covered in a white powder that was made of aluminum in the water jacket.

I will do some research on the NAPA product. Thanks for the input.