For the past few years I've wanted to visit Alaska, but never had the time or money. Finally this year I was able to go. Alaska is a amazing place in so many ways but car culture isn't exactly booming there, which makes sense when you consider that it is half the size of the continental US and has 5 roads total. That's not to say that there are no interesting vehicles in Alaska. The people, the land that shapes them, and the tools they use to survive fascinate me.
I would gladly live in this, down by the river.
Box by FIAT
The American Dream
NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!
A double decker for two levels of freedom.
As much as I love cars, the ultimate in Alaska transportation is not a car. It's a small plane, and because of that I feel a little conflicted. I have nothing against small planes, and I wish I could love them. I'm just afraid that if I were to ride in one I would puke like cat in a dryer.You see, I'm one of the 15% blessed with motion sickness. Once I went for a spirited drive up a canyon road and had to get out to dry heave. I hear that's difficult to do in an airplane.
Alaskan parking lot
This is not car related at all, but I have to share. Anybody who has spent any amount of time around me in the past few years knows that I love bears. Bears are the best. Bears can do whatever they want and they get to sleep through the winter. Nobody messes with a bear. And for the first time in my life, I saw a bear in the wild. Actually, I saw 8 bears. And it was awesome.
Grizzly Bear; don't care.
So now I'll finally get to the reason you actually came here (I think). This week I gave Grace some much needed attention. I think I spent three evenings with her, working at a leisurely pace but mostly just enjoying the company and a soda, sometimes hanging out with my imaginary internet friends.
As with most parts I've built for this car I had a rough sketch in my head that I scribbled on a piece of cardboard. You may have noticed I'm a hack with an angle grinder and a welder using third world fabrication techniques but if it works, it works. This week I built a transmission mount. I had the motor mounts finished before I swapped the engine and was waiting until I had the engine and subframe connectors installed to make a tranny mount. With both of those items out of the way, I could finally get the powertrain secured.
Beginnings of a U-channel
My anvil, vise, and brake.
U-shaped
The U-channel is made of some 1/8" mild steel sheet I cut out and scored with a cutoff wheel on the angle grinder. I bent it into shape but using a BBC cylinder head I plifered from Backyard Steve's old pile of junk, a harbor freight C-clamp and a hammer. A real brake would have sped up this process immensely.
smooth like a baby's bottom
I made a jig so I could match the angles on both sides of the crossmember.
The trans mount is about 95% finished. All that remains is a couple holes to drill in the U-channel for thru bolts and this job will be finished. I also started working on the driveshaft this week. If you remember, I picked up an Explorer driveshaft from the wrecking yard a couple months ago. It turns out the Explorer transmission has a different spline count than the T-5 transmision, so I had to switch yokes. I wasn't sure this would work, but I measured the u-joints and they appeared to be the same. I connected the T-5 to the Explorer driveshaft and it seemed to fit. It looks like I will have to have the driveshaft shortened about 3-3.5".
left: Ranger T-5 yoke right: Explorer yoke
Ranger T-5 U-joint
Explorer U-joint
T-5 yoke from Ranger on Explorer aluminum driveshaft
BONUS!
This weekend I went to Galco's, a grocery store in Pasadena that only sells beverages. I picked up a large variety of diabeetus. One of the best parts about this trip was actually the parking lot. I spotted a massive Cadillac that caused me to break the tenth commandment. No, for those of you who skipped Sunday school, I didn't murder and didn't commit adultery with a Cadillac. I just coveted a little. It was soooo coooool! Anybody have any knowledge of these things?
The most un-American thing I've ever done. Get hammered and sickled!
It's been a few weeks since I spent any quality time with Grace because I've been living my life on the run, on a different couch or backpacking pad every weekend. I was finally back in town so I tied up the loose ends on the subframe connector job.
subframe bracket too wide for the subframe
Connector installed with cut bracket
Both sides of bracket spliced back together
Endcap installed on bracket
Cuts in floorpan to create clearance for subframe connectors
Welds tying subframe connector to floor
Removing crossmember material
Beginning of welds from end of subframe to the tab on the right
Welds extending from the tab to the end of the subframe to add rigidity
The trans mount will connect to these sheetmetal boxes on both sides of the chassis
Vaughn trying (unsuccessfully) to attach a spare tire carrier to his trailer
Unfortunately that's all I have regarding Grace. It will be slow going for the next little while due to a lot of travel and lack of money for the old girl. But I do have a bonus section for you. These are the most interesting vehicles I spotted during the past weeks travels to Utah and Connecticut.
Ford Mustang II Cobra II. It's a bit like naming your son Robert Jr. Johnson II. I've never understood it. This baby comes from ford's glory days of the late 70s when they were pushing 140 hp out of a 302CID V8. I found it in Norwich Connecticut in the back lot of a Toyota dealer. It gave me Saturday Night Fever just looking at it, and I had a primal urge to grow a mustache and find a woman with feathered hair and bell bottoms.
This Plymouth Sedan was found on Center Street Provo, in front of my favorite Pizza place in the world. This one was love at first sight. She wasn't the least bit restored, and was perfect in every way.
You'll have to forgive the heavy Instagrammy filter, Google automatically applied it and I can't find the original. This orange shortbed Ferd F-teenthousand is the stuff 13 year old me's dreams were made of. A whole lotta years later, I still need one. Badly.
This baby was hiding back from the road in a crappy garage, by a crappy house where one of my girlfriends in college lived. I was walking by and just about had an aneurysm when I saw this. A solid axle, leaf sprung, grave diggin', kid hidin', wife hidin', husband hidin' four wheels drive 'murrican mini van. My buddy lives a block away and recieved a tongue lashing for never noticing it.
While becoming an adult generally sucks, from time to time it has it's perks. This weekend that perk was a track day. Though driving on a racetrack has always sounded like a lot of fun, I never had the money or equipment to take part in a track day. This weekend I left Grace at home, and took my Subaru out for some fun.
I think that the idea of a track day, especially on a road course seems intimidating to most people. I know it did to me. I'm fully convinced that fear of feeling like a 7th grader on the first day of middle school keeps us from greatness having fun trying new things. I have a few coworkers who have done the track and autocross thing for a long time, so when they asked if anyone was interested in joining I jumped at the chance to learn about this world I've observed from afar for a long time, but never really stepped into.
I got up at 5 AM to drive to Willow Springs International Raceway, about 100 miles away. In terms of distance to a racetrack, that's not very far at all. Willow springs is a large complex with at least 5 different tracks, the best known being Big Willow and Streets of Willow. We would be on the smaller course, Streets of Willow. After registration we had the driver's meeting and then the beginner group (my group) went out on the track and we followed an instructor at moderate speed around the track to get oriented and learn the preferred line.
During the next session they let us go all out, with the restriction that we could only pass on straightaways. This is footage of my first hot laps.
First ever hot laps on a road course
After my second session, I found an instructor named Bruce and asked if he would take me for a ride. Bruce's track car is a Porsche 911 GT3. Ho-lee-poo. Fast. Just crazy fast. Yet Bruce was so relaxed as he drove and explained the course that even though my face was being separated from my skull by G forces, I felt perfectly at ease.
My third session was not nearly so relaxing. about halfway through the 20 minutes, I got stuck behind a 2003 Mustang Cobra. I'm not sure if the driver was scared of turning corners, or if the car simply wasn't capable if it but as I followed him through the turns, I felt like I was driving at 5/10ths. Then I could have passed him 6 times. Each lap. But we were only allowed to pass on the straights so I would ride him through all the corners and then when it came time to let the faster drivers by, he would open up his throttle and start to pull away. Yet by the time I was halfway through the first corner, I was ready to pass him again. I was so frustrated after this session that I went and spoke with the organizers about being moved to the lower intermediate group. I was in the top 5 of my group so they let me move up.
The fourth session was fun, I passed and was passed. But I felt like I still didn't really know what I was doing, so I went and asked Bruce to ride along with me. He was happy to do so and I learned a lot from him about putting together a racing line.
A few laps with my instructor, Bruce
Another thing I learned about is what happens to your tires when tyou work them that hard. My old tires had bubbles in the sidewall, so I was definitely not going to take them on the track. I got new tires last week, and chose an ultra high performance all season tire. Bad move. The Goodyear Eagle F1 is likely an excellent tire with great treadwear characterisitcs. It is however, not a track tire. The front left tire especially took a horrible beating. It likely lost 25-30% of its useful life.
Before
After
All things considered I had a blast, and will return to the track. I must say I've learned that being a "racer" is far too rich for my blood. I'm a casual participant at best, but I can't wait to have a date with Grace at a road course.
