Shop Update May 1-15, 2019

The first week of May 2019, I raced in Memphis. See the Memphis Recap for that story. After I returned from the Memphis Race — here’s a few of the items accomplished at the shop, in no real order.

First we had a butt-load of rain here. I actually had more flooding coming closer to my home and the shop than the last two hurricanes and the last Tropical Storms.

My pond grew to about three times its real size

got pretty close to the back door of the house

The five acres that the house and shop are on had hundreds of truckloads of dirt brought in before building – so we fared much better than our neighbors

about three days later the water receded and I mowed the very wet yard as the grass had grown knee high and the varmints were taking refuge in it

Speaking of varmints, this fried up little guy climb the power pole and got electrocuted going from wire to wire — cutting off power to the property for a couple of hours – until Centerpoint got here.

Moving to the topic of cars, the following was part of the happenings.

This is how the seats (once light grey) for Screamin’ Woody now look after 12 coats of dye. Still a little splotchy so I ordered another 16oz of dye, which came in Yesterday.

While on the subject of dye, 48oz of Evergreen Dye has been applied to the interior of my 64 Imperial. Still needs more so I ordered another 16oz this morning.

And while on the subject of my 64 Imperial, I took it for a 60-mile shakedown ride yesterday. The goal was to identify what problems I still have to address after all of the work (new brakes, power steering pump, complete exhaust system, major motor tuneup, leaking transmission fixed, odometer fixed, convertible pumps fixed, carb rebuild, new shocks – and a ton I’ve forgotten). The below is the first of five videos I took, which documents the repairs I still need to make.

None of the problems were really major — and two actually corrected themselves. However, about 29 miles into my trip I kept getting smoke looking like it was rolling out from under the dashboard. I stopped the first time and looked under the hood and under the car – but could find nothing. When I started driving again the smoke reappeared only thicker. I stopped again and looked under the dash and found nothing. As I was getting back in the car I noticed smoke coming from the back seat — and that’s when I saw my carpet was on fire. Fortunately I carry a fire extinguisher in most of my old cars — as I was way out in the sticks and had no water. After I got the fire put out — I found that the brand new exhaust was too close to the floorboards and set jute on the back of my 56 year old carpet caught fire. I order a fire mat made for Turbos and catalytic converters, which I’ll use as part of my repair — but I will have to get a new carpet. You can see the other videos of the test drive on my You Tube Channel.

Moving onto Race Cars, The Thugs now has Wheelie Bars as twice I was surprised with Wheel Stands far higher than I was expecting.

Yesterday I picked up the block to my wagon, the Screamin’ Woody, from the machine shop. After a thorough washing the crank was sent in, and then the rest of the rotating.

Also on the wagon, the cage was painted hammered gold to blend in a little with the Maple wood on the pillars.

I intend to leave the carpet black — but will make new interior door cards in a red vinyl that will match the seats going in.. The car is on the home stretch to getting finished.

I’ve had a 63 Studebaker GT Hawk for about thirty years now. It’s bounce around a couple of shops to get converted into a Mopar Powered chassis car with a 53 Commander front clip and 60 Plymouth fins — called the Mohawk. It’s come back worse from each of the shops its been to in the last 20 years — so I bought it to my shop to try to tackle the job. The body has been separated from the chassis.

A good bit of work has been accomplished since these photos. The body is wrapped in a tarp at the moment, but the chassis has been reinforced and the welds smoothed. It is about ready for paint – and then will be brought into the shop to get the all of the chassis components right. On the body — it needs to have those nasty home made rear fins cut off and a set of 60 Plymouth fins I have grafted on — and then blasted, repaired and primed.

A lot of wet sanding has occurred on the 60 Plymouth that will be my Petty Clone — but I don’t have any photos of that.

I took my Magnum XE for a shakedown ride, and it’s almost ready. I’ve had this car for a very long time and love it. Ought to be the fastest Magnum out there.

I putting a cactus garden at the entrance way of my race shop and so I picked up a couple yards of a sandy soil mix at the local dirtyard. Photos of the cactus garden to be in the next shop update.