Lisa Devlin's Racing Diary

Car Prep Update

by Lisa Devlin

Just a quick (OK, not so quick) update on what's been happening. We're going testing this weekend (and Mom is going through driver's school with Nor-Cal). The next race isn't until the following weekend up at Thunderhill.

What an adventure since the last race! I just left the car on the trailer since I had planned on taking it to the paint shop for at least an estimate if not to drop it off. Well it turns out that I can't seem to communicate with any paint shop. I tell them, "I want you to spray it with a new coat of paint. Oh yeah, better mask the windows."

They tell me, "It will be a beautiful paint job. We'll do lots of prep. It will be perfect."

I drove the car all over Mountain View and Sunnyvale and got quotes ranging from $400-$600. And this was from Miracle and Maaco!!! I had just about given up and was ready to paint the car with Krylon when I got the suggestion to call Earl Scheib. I hadn't bothered with them since I couldn't find a phone number and I figured they'd be about the same as Miracle and Maaco. Earl's was $170 out the door, done in a day!

Looks pretty decent at ten feet. My car is now this obnoxious, bright blue. The guys at Earl's said it was the first car they'd painted that color. Now maybe the track photographer will take pictures of it!

Next the mechanical. The clunk I developed in the last race was a broken front control arm bushing. Oops. I guess continually bashing the front right side hasn't been too good for it. I also figured this would be a good time to swap the tranny out of the parts car since the synchros in "the car formerly known as the white car" were shot.

I ordered parts while the car was being painted. Parts got there and everything was going smoothly... then I pulled the rotors off to repack the bearings and found the inner bearing was fried. I didn't know you could burn Red Line bearing grease. Somehow I managed.

Well, this pretty much halted production until I could get the races punched out and the new bearing races put in. I figured I'd do that Monday and be back in business. Yeah, right.

I took the rotors to Jeff at Mountain View Firestone to change the races. (I have him do it since he has the proper tools.) We'd changed them when Jeff asked if I'd mic'd the rotors lately. Nah, they were new when I put this set of pads on. A set of rotors should last longer than a set of pads.

We checked them anyway and they were 1mm below tolerance. So Tuesday, I called Mazda comp and ordered new rotors.

About this time the car goes up for sale. First offer, reasonable or not. Notice I didn't say new rotors and bearings. It didn't even occur to me to order new bearings and races.

Last Thursday, when the new rotors got here (without races) I took them back down to Firestone and Craig punched out the new races from the old rotors and put them in the new rotors (since they were the only races I had). In the process, one race got scored (I'm impressed that the other three didn't) so I had to run across two towns to the local Mazda dealer (it's now 5:35 and the dealer closes at 6) to pay twice what I would pay through Mazda comp for a new bearing and race (you can't get races separately). I made it with two minutes to spare.

Back to Firestone, race in rotor and back to the house to get the rotor on the car. About all we did that night was put the front end back together. Friday night Ted and I collapsed at 8:30 (sat down for a minute and woke up at midnight) so we got a relatively early start Saturday.

Since Mom is driving the car, she's been helping and learning. She helped with the brakes Thursday and she showed up bright and early Saturday to help with the tranny swap. Other than a tranny swap being a rotten job, it went pretty well. We got the car back together Saturday by about 5pm. The other tranny is definitely an improvement.

Mom got to drive it for the first time. We'd pull out of the driveway, look both ways and quickly drive down the block and back (It doesn't even have license plates at this point). Monday, it went back to Jeff's and I got the alignment done, and now it's sitting in the garage waiting to go on the trailer Thursday night. I can't wait for Friday!

That's it for now. I'm outta here. Off to the shop to learn how to fiberglass. A few weeks ago, I learned to weld.

So far, what I've made is best described as "sculpture." I can just see it. Me in several years, a famous welding sculptor, with an exhibit. The art teacher queries the class. "This was one of her earlier pieces. Who in the class can tell me what she was trying to say?"

Student #1: "I think she was trying to express life. She's showing how life goes in all different directions."

Teacher: "Ummm... No."

Student #2: "I think she's trying to say that the universe is exploding and those holes represent black holes."

Teacher: "Not exactly."

Very astute student #3 "I think she's trying to say she sucks at welding."

Teacher: "Precisely!!"