Welders stand down!

[ReZPunK]

anyone that can weld, I NEED YOU! just found out the rear half of the roll cage is not to spec and i need to make it so.

i am no welder. i have never even tried.

basically the rear half needs to be removed and then 4 new bars installed to meet Rally America section 5.5 of the rule book. i need th rear main bars and the X across the rear mains.

also i need to weld around some bolt on locations to be legal and also weld the floor mounts to the floor. right now they are bolted down.

i am willing to rent a mig all you would have to do is come to bangor area to do it.

i will also provide all the materials as well.

i am willing to pay a reasonable wage for this.

i have also contacted vermont sports car about doing the updates as to have a base price to work with.

help a fella out! i hate to be out of the game at this point, because im already too deep in to get rid of the car.

thanks!

 

[rallyXcramps]

wont you need some TIG for the cage and other close in stuff? And maybe a pipe notcher and gussetts? You might be better off going to a local race car builder guy. They'll be able to interpret the material requirements and have materials on hand that you didn't know you needed.

 

[Evan]

timmons machine in windham across from where myself and ecksjay work builds rool cages for the beechridge race cars. i'm sure they could do something for you if you can get the car there. i think a 6 or 8 point cage is like $700 from them. the work you want should be pretty cheap.

 

[ReZPunK]

thinking of asking my instructor at school. he has been building tube chassis for racing for years. he friggin welds with no mask....just thumbs over the spot and goes.

he might be my best bet

but thanks for the advice

 

[Rightseat]

don't guess at cage design--it's your butt and your co-driver's butt that are on the line. (not to mention your checkbook) cages need to be built to a higher spec for rally than for circle track. your car needs to have somebody who KNOWS this stuff set it up to both be legal and safe.

get on the Rally America forums and check in with Mike Hurst, Tech director. He'll steer you in the right direction. you're right, that LeMans needs serious updates to the overall cage structure and main attachments to the shell....bolt-in is totally verboten now. you need 1.75 main hoop tubing, yada yada.

is the car logbooked? if not, you may well have to start over totally on the cage.

welcome the the crazy world of getting an older rally car legal again somehow.

Dave G

 

[ReZPunK]

yeah the information i have regarding the cage is directly from Hurst.

i emailed him last week and gave him pics of the car and he gave me his input.

i have also purchased a Fuel Safe Fuel cell because the one that is in the car now is not FT3 or SFI spec.

i am still waiting to hear back from vermont sports car about an estimate for the updates.

Dave: will it matter if the new portion of the rear cage will be made of different material than the front? or does it all have to be the same material?

 

[Rightseat]

quote: "will it matter if the new portion of the rear cage will be made of different material than the front? or does it all have to be the same material?"

not sure, that's another Hurst question.

DG

 

[ReZPunK]

reading the rule book, it makes no mention of cage having to be built using uniform material. i will run it by him for final approval though,

i also attended to the Fuel cell concern he had by purchasing a brand new RCI 22 gallon SFI rated fuel cell with steel can. got a good deal on it.

all i have to do is get foam for it. but that's pretty cheap. like 10 bucks a block.

the old plastic fuel cell wasnt legal.

 

[Dizastical]

we do some crazy fab work at F1DYNO ! you can see our welds on our website in the picture section . give us a shout !

Dave

 

[robu]

reading the rule book, it makes no mention of cage having to be built using uniform material. i will run it by him for final approval though,

Last time I read that section, the entire cage had to be DOM mild steel tubing ( that covers quite a few alloys) unless it was an unmodified FIA cage.

 

[ReZPunK]

i think the amount of money needed to make this right is going to be more than i wanted to spend.

i am looking at recovering as much as i can out of this car and using as many parts of this car towards creating a new car.

i have made a list of all the parts i can use in the Integra and with giving it a low ball used part price i came up with about $2400 in stuff.

not bad for having about $4000 in it. the chassis and motor and the rest i will try and sell to a Speedway 95'er or Oxford 4 cyl racer.

i am making arrangements to have my car prepared by fourstar motorsports this fall.

im hoping by christmas i will have a 2006 spec cage ready to go. and by spring have the rest of the stuff installed and ready to race.

looks like debuting this year is on hold.

what i can take from the car.

OMP seats, Terratrip and probes, Terraphone and headsets, Rims, Tires, Guages(amps, oil psi, tach, water temp), Autometer shift lights, Switches, main battery cutoff switch, Foot rest, Fire safety stuff, triangles, steering wheel, battery box, skid plate, belt mounts, 180 amp Integra alternator, light pod, 4 cibie lights, MSD 6al system with rev limiters

what i have that hasnt been installed in the car yet

NEW 2010 belts,bright orange VRP's, spec first aid kit, spec spill kit,

LeMans specific stuff that hasnt been installed yet.

new clutch, new tie rods, 2 - Weber DCOE 40 rebuild kits, new RCI SFI fuel cell

i bet i could sell those carbs on ebay for a nice penny.

i think if i delay our racing for a year ill be in a better place this time next year.

the Acura is a better car in general. faster lighter better.

 

[ReZPunK]

from M.Hurst on rally america forums

"I'm often the messenger with bad news, but if this is the car I believe it is, it had a very poor reliability record anyway. You'll find that it costs just as much or more to rally a bad car as a good one, and the initial purchase / prep price is only a small part of the equation"

i always knew the car was cursed!!!

 

[robu]

Ask 'em if they can do a 2007 spec cage instead. ;D (Just kidding, but for a while it seemed like the cage rules were changing pretty fast - to weld-in only, then gussets and then sill bars, IIRC)

Sorry to hear it's been such a money pit. Hopefully a circle-track guy will buy the shell, and it does sound like you'll be able to re-use a lot stuff.

You going to build to NASA, RA or CARS?

 

[ReZPunK]

RA is the plan.

if the car is RA spec, it should be set for the others too, not too sure. i wouldhave to read the books for CARS and NASA

id love to do a CARS race or two.

i wanna try rally new york too! the late one.

 

[Rightseat]

Sorry to hear about the LeMans fiasco. You're learning about old rally cars the hard way.

Even though you've been burnt once on buying a used rally car, I'd still strongly suggest buying used instead of building a new one. There is NO WAY you can build a car for less than what a used one will cost. This is one of the proven truisms of ralllying.

Forget about building an Inegra, Focus, or any Honda product. Find a Group 2 Golf, they're readily available, relatively cheap, easy to upgrade, and go like hell on forest roads. If/when you stuff it, rebuilds aren't nearly as expensive as other cars out there. Expect to spend $5000 or more for a decent starter car, anything less will cost you way more in the long term. Collect all the spares you can...you'll need em.

Only buy a VW that has a current logbook, this will solve many of the updating issues you had with that older-gen LeMans. Your car might have been OK back in the day, but several rounds of rules updates since when it was racing have left it hopelessly out of date. Even with a current logbooked car, plan on leaving yourself 25 to 30% of the purchase price for mandated updates, replacement of worn parts, etc.

You need to know stuff like, "when do the belts expire?" "When do the seats expire" When does the fire extinguisher expire" etc etc.

Before you start shopping, know your rules, 1000% frontward and backward. Then study them again. Talk to active racers, they'll give you the straight scoop. Half-informed statements like, "if the car is RA spec, it should be set for the others too, not too sure. i would have to read the books for CARS and NASA" can cost you thousands of dollars and months of time. Reading rule books ain't too sexy, but once you get burned in a deal like your LeMans, you might find the rules books a whole lot more interesting!

In other words, research BEFORE you buy, not after.

And finally, tell the racers you know and have talked to that they should kick your butt if you try to go with anything oddball. Stick to the tried and true, it's the only way to start. People simply can't afford the costs of learning to build a rally car at the same time they're learning how to rally.

Dave G

LDR

 

[ReZPunK]

well having given this issue plenty of thought, and little sleep. i have decided to keep the car in its entirety and not rip it apart.

i will take my losses as being this. it will never run a stage, i have come to term with this. but she will make one HELL of a rallycross car.

i am making plans to rebuild those carbs, install those new tie rods and install that new clutch next week.

and i can use the car as a training aid for my introduction into codriving. it has the trip computer and there are plenty of roads up on tribal lands to map out and make some tulips, hell our tribe owns half or carrabasset valley. and we got some nice roads up there.

so i am done stressing and worrying about it and im ready to move on and make the most out of the car i have.

who knows.....if the SCCA ever gets off its but and gets the rally sprints together, the car could possibly run those.

 

[Rightseat]

congrats on your mental breakthrough, you got a car, so use what u got for what u can.

now go spank the livin bejezus outa that puppy at the dog track rallyX!

DG

 

[ReZPunK]

thanks, now its time to learn how to rebuild weber carbs.

i should be able to get the clutch in at home in the garage with no lift. if not ill take it to school and so all the work there.

 

[rallyXcramps]

I can do mig stuff if you need to go that route. Give me a couple weeks notice if you want to do that so I can prep my wife for the guys day out.