Yellow Flag = No Passing....kinda.....

So when a racer sees a yellow flag, it means something bad happened beyond the flagstation waving a yellow flag.  So there is no passing FROM the flagstation until after the inncident.  This is how every driving school, go-kart place, and racing series conducts themselves.

This is how 24 Hours of Lemons conducts itself.  Once a racer can see a waving yellow there is no passing.  Can you see the confusion? 

One: being different than the rest of the world. 

Two: where a person "sees" the waving flag is relative.  If the driver is looking way ahead he/she can see it at the begining of turn 9.  If he/she isn't they won't see it until after turn 9. 

Three: in the pictured senario, even though the inncident is at the end of the longest straight of the entire track, every one is forced to slow down to pace car speeds for the entire straight! 

Four: There have been several accidents caused by a lead car stomping on the binders in a turn because they saw a flag, the ppl behind them may not have seen it, and plow into the rear of the lead car.  This doesn't happen w/ traditional yellow flag rules, because the racer has more time to see the flag.

Unfortunatly TSB didn't realize this until 1/2 way through day two at Autobahn.  I hope any other teams out there learn from our mistake.

For instance, Aaron passed a car on the exit of turn 9, the pass was completed WELL before the flag station waving the yellow flag (Start/Finish), this resulted in black flag.

TSB mentioned in November's issue of GrassRootsMotorSports!

Team Short Bus, mentioned in this month's issue of Grass Roots MotorSports. p170. "The MAM race also marked the 1st ever LeMons wind for VW product, w/ the mkIII Golf of Teahm Short Bus scoring the overall victory."

transmission tear down...

We tore apart the transmission that was in the car. At autobahn we lost 4th gear. The gear lube was horribly nasty. When we opened up the case there was silver goo all over, it looked like watered down anti-seize. We are absolutely astounded that this box lasted over 11 hours of endurance racing. There is no reason it should have. Perhaps VW O2O transmissions are better than what people make them out to be.

4th gear? Bah! Who needs it?

Pinion gear? Bah! Plenty of teeth left! Bearings....hmmm just kinda hanging out because there is not race to keep them lined up; doh! I had a donor transmission that we also tore down. The PO said it had no 5th gear. Well he was right, the gears had NO teeth left on 5th, horribly burnt & smelly gear lube. Aparently it was a victum of a leak or low fluid. There isn't quite enough parts between the two of them to make one good one but... So off to the junk yard I go!

in car of Autobahn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn94iWW-jtw&hd=1
This video is from the Winning Neon, we unfortunatly don't have any in car...due to a camera malfunction..  :S
We are in this particular video at 6:30, lap 62.

more pics from autobahn.....

http://picasaweb.google.com/justin.deare/24HoursOfLemons2010Joliet#

http://picasaweb.google.com/AlmityDave/24HoursOfLeMonsChicago2010Sunday?feat=directlink#

Summary of Lemons race at Autobahn Country Club....by aaron

Review of the race……it was rough on us. We started out the race not having 4th gear! Not sure what happened there but….so down the main straight we would run the car up to 6~6800 rpms and skip-shift up to 5th gear. The back straight we had little choice but to wind out 3rd gear as well. Certainly this hurt us. The Golf is a torque car, not a high revving horsepower car. Although that being said, we were all amazed and how much power this car has to give. There weren’t too many cars that we couldn’t out pull down the straight.

Saturday had rain most of morning into early afternoon. Dave L. got black flagged for passing under yellow. Dave H. went 4 wheels off at the end of the main straight. Front wheel drive, no ABS, rain, and racing…apparently he wasn’t used to that mix. Barry got Black flagged for improper pit entrance, and for passing under yellow. At which time we were told to park the car and sit out for the remainder of the race, almost 3.5 hours! Saturday closed w/ TSB in 67th place!

Sunday I went out, exchanged paint w/ an Integra that wouldn’t let him by after 3 laps of sticking my nose on the inside and outside of turns and then immediately getting turned in on. Not a big deal, they got some yellow paint on their pass. rear bumper. Both of us continued. Later on during my 2.5 hour stint going three cars wide into turn 9 a Fiero went wide and hit us on the passenger side shoving the Golf two wheels off in the dirt. All three cars continued. The car appears to only have tire marks on both the front & rear passenger doors. Later I also got black flagged for passing under yellow.

Dave L. went out next and got to dice it up w/ Randy Pobst! For those of you who aren’t familiar w/ him….he is a “professional racer”, practically a celebrity amongst us amateur race car drivers. Mr. Pobst writes a column in the SCCA magazine. He was on the team w/ a cheater ex-cop car that didn’t lean on turns, accelerated like mad, oh and it stank real bad! Did I forget to mention that the Pobst team received 500 penalty laps ? Despite having a stripper pole on the roof of the car, complete w/ three dancers? Later on Aaron learned that he too diced it up Randy, except he was driving a Volvo wagon w/ a Chevy 350 swap at the time. Sweet! Randy gave praise to our humble golf and said he wanted to drive it, as he started out racing a mkII golf back 1985.

Speaking of flags….somehow TSB has done BIR w/ Chump, & IAS w/ Chump, and MAM w/ Lemons, and have received only one penalty. Somehow we received 3 black flags in the first 4 fours of the race at Autobahn! Several teams have expressed disgust w/ the flagging at this race. We FINALLY discovered where we went wrong……Lemons uses a line of sight application of the yellow (no-passing) flag were as every other racing org. I know of goes w/ the no passing zone is at and after the flag station, not before like Lemons. I will post a graphic later that shows the difference.

RESULTS: Racing with 86 other cars on a 1.46mile track wasn’t quite as bad as we thought, yes it was nuts, crazy even. Never once did I get a clean lap, always being passed or passing. TSB had the 15th fastest lap time! Dave L. turned in a blistering 1min22sec. lap. The fastest car of the day was a low 1min19sec lap time. Considering we racked up four black flags and had to sit out 3.5hrs of the race we still placed 41st out of 87. Not bad. Best of all the Golf survived w/ only flesh wound and a need for a transmission revisit.

Pictures from 24 Hours of Lemone @ Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, Il

Fortunatly this is about the only wrench turning we did....realigning the shifter linkage.

"C-Pillar cam" from the VW Quantum.........I call this one: "here comes the dive bomb!"

http://www.murileemartin.com/LC10/UG/LC10-UG.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52991939@N07/sets/72157625103541739

Preperation for Autobahn

The current car count is 87, we will be running the North course which is 1.5miles long.....I fear it is going to be more of a demolition derby than a road race.   The track has some really long straights in it, which means low powered cars (like our VW) are going to suffer.

Weather is suposed to get down to 40 degrees and a high of 60....hmmmm think we should bring snow tires along just in case?

Stuff done to the car since the last race......
-Oil change
-bleed brakes
-retention the rear drum brakes
-swapped in the spare transmission
-swapped the driver seat
-realigned
-new Dunlop tires
-new ghetto front air damn
-ghetto ram air
-cleaned the air filter
-new front Hawk brake pads
-junkyard fan control relay module (still haven't tested it)
-went over the car and retightened loose bolts
-new windsheild.....I put a small crack in it previously coming back from a rally-x....and now it goes all the way across the window....DOH!   Also need to see if we can get a replacement windshield visor.

Amazingly....that is it!  I can't believe how "good" the car has been.  The motor still hasn't been opened up....other than our transmission issues (which all started w/ some some sloppy mechanic work) the car has been rock solid.....hope I just didn't jinx us....

Big thanks to Metric Auto in Woodbury for helping.

another article about the BIR race

http://www.brainerdraceway.com/road-racing/chump-car.html

Recognition from the Folks @ 24Hrs of Lemons:

Winner on Laps, Mutually Assured Destruction of Omaha 2010, Team Short Bus, VW Golf.

Race Results

Link to photos of winners of previous races....

here is the Wikipedia on what a Lemons race is....

more pics

Blocked!

In the lead, start of day 2

544 laps * 1.4 miles = 761.6 RACE miles!!!!  Not bad for a car w/ 198,000 miles!!!!!

Our attempted spot-weld of the CV cup to the transmission shaft

working on the car...midnight saturday

at the awards ceremony

a few more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/FilthyMechanic/ViperLightRacing#

we are famous! :D

http://jalopnik.com/5624601/day-one-in-the-books-volkswagen-golf-leads

http://jalopnik.com/5624963/and-the-winner-is#comments

TSB Takes 1st place at Lemons Race @ MAM!!

1st place $1500 in nickels!!!  Heavy too!

Our Trophy!

So....after a late night's repairs Saturday...doing a bunch of hack job repair work on our tranny and taking the driver side driver shaft out of my daily driver/parts donor the car ran & drove...however it had a horrible vibration....we thought for sure the car wasn't going to make it past the 1st lap.  None the less Dave drove the car for a solid 2hrs & 45 minutes, keeping the 4 lap lead from yesterday.  During the pit stop we pulled the wheel noticed it was now leaking transmission fluid out the other side (not the side we repaired the previous night), and pouring more fluid was not helping cuz it came dripping out just as fast! 

We sent Barry out w/ specific instructions to be gentle on the car.  Turns out by that time our lead had shrunk down to one lap!  The Supra had a 3 minute refuel & driver change were as we took 9 minutes!  DOH!  For the next 2hrs & 15 minutes Barry kept drafting the Supra, never letting it out of his site.  Barry was running around 1minute 30sec lap times, 2~4 seconds off of his race pace...but the idea was to not break the car and just hold on to the lead!

The transmission in the car is not happy....we will see once we get it off of the trailer and what not.

saturday at MAM

The performaned wonderfully!!!!  At one time we were 8 laps up on the competition.  The car is eating tires, Barry came in on the tire pictured above, Dave came in doing almost the same thing but his was flat!  I came in the tire is showing signs of its demise.  We are not the fastest car, we are more like the 4th or 5th quickest lap. 

We finished 1st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Sunday we start in the 2nd part, the 5hr race in order we finished on Saturday.

We found that the driver side out put cup on the transmission pulled itself out of the transmission again!  Just like it did at Brainerd, but not quite as bad, some major hacking was done to get it back together.  In the processes the CV shaft is junk, a spare was pulled from my daily driver. 

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION OF OMAHA 2010

TSB is going to Midwest Auto Motorplex in Pacific Junction Iowa for the 24hours of Lemons race.
Saturday is a 9.5 hour race and Sunday is a 5 hour race.

The Chump Golf got a new set of front tires...205/50/15's (a bit wider than our 195's, and more grippy than our nearly free Falken Azenis).  Radiator flush....fuel pump got swapped w/ a parts donor of mine...hopefully we can go beyond 1/3 of a tank w/o fuel starvation issues!  The rear drum brakes have been adjusted.  A fresh set of Hawk Blue racing pads installed; we used up about 60% of the last pair.  This time we are running the hatch, the glass has been swapped out w/ Lexan (donated by the Alignment Guy).

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/omaha2010.aspx

As of right now there is only four of us going....we would gladly consider taking someone along as a helper monkey....errrr I mean Pit Crew...please know stuff about wrenching on generation 3 VW's.

Short Bus gets dirty.......again....

SCCA-LoL's Dog Days of Summer Rally-X.
2nd in Modified 2wd and 4th fastest time over all! 
10 runs.

youtube of the Jolf

in car of the Chump-Golf

a photo gallery...all subaru's

update & rally-x

the car has about 45 minutes of run time on the new bearings....most of which is at idle....so far so good...it still feels strong.  Adjusted the rear drums some more and a bunch of little items.

We are taking the car to the SCCA rally-x this saturday at Corcoran.  see my other blog site or scca-lol.org for details.

repair progress

Last saturday Lafavor (mostly Lafavor), myself, and Barry, replaced all four of the connecting rod bearings, and four out the five main bearings. a few of them looked bad, and not even really bad, mostly just normal for a car of its age. Dropping the 1st four mains, (#5 requires the tranny to come out) and the connection rod caps, allowed the crank to drop just enough to squeak the old bearings out and the new ones in.

More importantly we discovered a spot on the windage tray that looks like it was rubbing on the timing gear that is integrated on the crank! Right now, the car has been run for a total of say 10 minutes, and thus far it sounds A LOT BETTER! It still makes noises, and a similar chirp noise is there. Personally, I am willing to call it fixed and rock on to MAM with it. Now both rear breaks have similar stopping power!  VW drum brake adjustments are different than any other car I have seen before.

rally-x (rally-cross)

I took the short bus to the SCCA regional rally-x (just like an auto-x but not on pavement) that was held at the Isanti Co. Fair Grounds.  The track was in the grand stand area, the same area where they have demolition derbys!  The ground was hard packed clay, and they kept watering it to keep the dust down....so it turned into snot!  So very, very slick!  When it wasn't wet it was almost as hard as pavement.  The car did real well, dispite only being able to e-brake w/ one wheel, the chirpy/sqeaky motor didn't complain a bit despite being bounced off of the rev. limiter a couple of time.  I scored just shy of a one generation older rally prepared VW Golf.  Which has a real rally suspension and a quaife differential.  Not bad.

aparently no one was taking pictures....but I can share someone else's you tube video.

TO Iowa or NOT TO Iowa.....that is the question....

With several team members having scheduling difficulties, and fairly lengthy to-do list...do we go to the Iowa race or do forgo Iowa, regroup and get the car done right for Autobahn?
-------------------
So I bribbed a VW guru to give Chumpy a listen to......his diagnosis is trashed thrust bearings....aparently one can see the crank pulley vibrating side to side in sync w/ that squeak/squeal.   He doesn't think those bearings can be done w/o a complete rebuild.   He basically said it might make it all 24hrs, but prolly not, it might make it only 5 minutes....   His reccommendation is to swap in the other motor I have in it...install the higher grade valve springs into (ODBII motors had weaker valve springs that float w/ big cams and high
rpms), and swap the the cam.  We also COULD try some different snake oil.   STP has a product that pours out like honey, and sticks to metal surfaces, several ppl I have talked to says that it will stick to bearing surfaces and buy time.  Supposidly if you pull a motor apart some time after treatment, one can sill find residue on the bearings.

CHUMP CAR ISSUES:
-motor....see above
-rear passenger brake does like almost no braking -bleed brakes
-install baffled oil pan?
-install oil cooler?
-install head lights (will oems be bright enough?, I have only one  spare, what do we have for plan B?, do we need additional lighting?
-apply tint to rear view mirrors so we don't get blinded by cars behind us w/ bright lights.
-upgrade to springs?
-will that axle/output cup on the tranny hold?
-what about that FUBARed subframe bolt?
-install a rear sway bar/rear beam stiffing bar?  More rotation/less understeer would be faster.
-what to do about fumes?  (1. Hatch w/ lexan, 2. hatch w/ no window, 3. no hatch w/ roof spoiler, 4. wing on top of rear bumper)
 http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/chump-car-no-hatch-exhaust-fumes-aero/22961/page1/
-what to do about fuel starve?  New pump and filter?
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4915647-Fuel-Starvation
-what to do about hospitality?  Setup cots?  Setup a Tent?  Rent an RV/camper?  Get a Hotel REALLY close track?
-Tires: we have six very used falkens and one set of Dunlops......we
-other stuff i haven't mentioned????????

Race Day 2 @ BIR

Started out the day on the worn out azenis, Jeff started, followed by Dave H., who exchanged paint w/ the silver BMW trying to pass him on the inside of turn 12. Dave H. says he was give a wave by, but the BMW driver didn't allow him room......under racing rules the BMW would be at fault...especially since Dave did have a wheel well up to if not beyond the door of the BMW….a loud thud and both cars went off in the dirt…fortunately both cars just suffered flesh wounds, we brought Dave H. in to have a look and pull out the fender. No real harm done. We did notice that the front driver tire was cupping badly, apparently the front control arm bolt was a bit loose and allowed for some slop in the wheel! Yikes!  Check Engine light started going on and off at will, but nothing LOOKS wrong.

YouTube video  <--whoops!  that isn't how that is suposed to work!


Barry had a good bout with Jay w/ Team Mayhem’s Honda Civic. For over a dozen laps they changed positions and rode each other’s bumpers. Doing so Barry flat spotted two of the azenis, people in the pits saw the cloud of smoke way over in turn 3! During the bout a yellow flag was thrown, both our team and Mayhem got penalized “for being overly aggressive in a yellow”….which in our opinion is poor call….we were told no passing and back it down to 75%...well that is what they did…anyways….

Bob went out and spun the car in the clover leaf on his 1st lap, opps! No harm done. Dave L. went out w/o no real drama other than the rain clouds coming in meant we gambled by keeping in on the worn azenis (which are horrid in the rain). The Check Engine Light is now on constantly....I personally am hoping that doesn't mean that the motor is knocking so bad that it is upsetting the knock sensors. 

I went out for the last 25 minutes of the race after switching to the Dunlops. About 5 laps in the rain clouds opened up and dumped on us…passing on the inside of turn two in the rain at over 90mph is real scary. Lap times dropped significantly, down to 2 min 20 seconds. However having “good” tires and front wheel drive meant we were gaining on several of the competition. Wheel spin in 4th gear, drifting turn four, clipping the apex in turn 13….all good times! I believe we ended up 11th.  

Stopping every hour to hour 20 minutes, because of fuel starvation hurt us, because each time a team fuel, the car must remain there for at least 5 minutes (just over 2 laps).  Having the control arm come loose, tire changing, and fender fix issues certainly didn't help either.  The penality we recieved certainly hurt us.  All those taken in consideration we could have placed a lot better.  However that being said we had a good time, and played w/ some stiff competition.

Far as I am concerned, we won a major victory! The team held together, we took the checker both days. The car might as well be named “Thomas the Little Train VW that could”….No one thought the motor would hold together, we all figured the tranny wasn’t going to make day one. The car is only slightly wrinkled, hell we drove it back on the trailer!

Race Day 1 @ Brainerd Intl. Raceway

We arrived at BIR fairly early...enough to get a few practice laps in w/ the Slow Pokes group. The noises from the motor were disturbing, we also discovered that the car really doesn't like having it shut off via the emergency kill switch (the ECU takes a while to refigure out what is going on). It was also discovered that car fuel starves around 1/2 a tank. We debated long and hard about swapping the motor w/ the spare that night. Being lazy and generally distraught we decided to run it until she blows...each driver gets 1/2 hour in the car and keep it below 4000rpms.

Race day 1: sent Jeff out on worn out Falken Azenis, no issues, decent lap times, then the rain came so we switched to our Dunlops Direzzas (full treaded new summer tires)....after three drivers w/ the car still going strong, and us in 12th place, we moved the self imposed rev-limiter to 5000rpms and an hour stint. I went out for a 1hr 25min session, my laps times got down to 2min 4secs a lap...somehow we worked ourselves up to 5th place, out of 24 cars starting! However when I came in for my pit stop & driver change the passenger side output cup was still attached to the axle but came out of the transmission and was puking tranny fluid in the hot pits! We also discovered that one of the motor mount bolts were loose! 47 minutes later we got the car jury-rigged it back together (Ryan H. I owe you a beer & food!), and sent Bob back out on track w/ instructions to only use 4th gear, figuring the tranny was for sure to blow! Amazingly Bob did 8 more laps like this...our position fell to 11th place, but we still took the checker!

After the race we changed oil (cuz we decided that if it has run this long she is going to keep running, no sparkles were found, the magnetic drain plug was nearly clean), fixed the down pipe collector that broke and was trying to free itself, tested the transmission for leaks...drained it looking for sparkles....and said pssshhh, fill it full of fresh fluid and see what happens. Attempted to fix the rear brakes, as the passenger side rear was doing almost nothing (about half what the driver side was).

I think we got it!!!!

drove the car for the 1st time since bringing it to the The Alignment Guy's shop back in January!
So it looks more like a bumble bee than a school bus...but ehhhh..   The car seems really strong...the exhaust and the header must really wake up the old 8-valves of furry.   Truth be told there is a strange noise that COULD be rod knock.....it makes me loose sleep at night.

Final push...

ACOMPLISHED TONIGHT:
-head light covers installed
-fog light covers installed
-oil/water heat exchanger gasket replaced
-more subframe drilling
-more paint
-front tow hook done
-cooling fan works...car doesn't over heat idleing
-gastank filler tube enlarged

TO BE DONE:
-more paint
-numbers/stickers/vinyl
-more subframe drilling/rebolting
-test drive
-bed in brakes?
-install areolas
-label tow hooks?
-air damn?
-make fasteners for the sides of the front bumper cover
-sheath the oil pressure line?

I think we just might make it...

Seat is in, belts are in, window net in, new brake calipers since the passenger side one had a seal that decided it had had enough while installing the new front pads, three sets of wheels & tires prepped, the car is yellowed, kill switch works, new drum brake pads, brake fluid bleed, painted the rear tow hook, oil pressure guage installed, and dummy fog light covers fabbed.

Need to fix the broken subframe bolt, install front tow hook, apply stickers...oh and test drive it might be a good idea!  :)

<...sigh....more progress>

Jeff got the car mostly yellow....fire bottle mounted....Don got us a control arm that he cut and extended by 10mm...in hopes to fix our alignment issues....what we think is going on, is that the car in its former life took a hard hit and shoved both the unibody & subframe to the right...so even swapping in a new subframe won't work because it won't line up.  Since we don't have the money or time to send the car to an autobody & chassis puller....
Fortunatly this hack approach seems to work!!  The alignment numbers that will work...toe is factory spec-ish...and camber is slightly better than stock....not what we were hoping for but... The race is now less than 2-weeks away...soo much to do....so little time.

twisted car

So we knew when we bought this car it had a minor fender bender or two....but we found out it was hit harder than we expected.  anything other than 0 degrees of camber results in a 1/4inch IN of toe.  Pulling the jamb nut & screwing it all the way in, slotting the control arms, loosening the subframe bolts make it better, but no where near enought.  Going to try swapping in a V6 control arm since they are wider....if not have the 4cyl arm lengthened.

behind schedule

BIR Performance Driving School  is offering a team practice day....our goal was to have the car mostly ready for this event....good time to give the car a shake down and test things out...sadly we can't make it...just too much to do and so little time.

more werk

brakes bled...rear door windows have been replaced w/ lexan.  windsheild replaced by AutoGlass Professionals....who gave us a deal because of my tie w/ Ice Racing: http://iira-icerace.org/
Don...was able to fab up Jeff's new Kirkey race seat to the base of the stock Golf slider.....fricken awesome...this means we can keep our forward & back adjustment....height is another matter...

more progress

Don came over and educated me in the ways of a "roll tap"....basically a special tap that works w/ aluminum that "pushes" the material vs cutting it....magically that stud is now in its home!  Good thing to...I was not looking forward to pulling the head.

We fought getting the collector on the long tube header, putting it on and off several times to get the fitment right...what a PITA!....mocked up the used exhaust, welded the collector to the mid-section of the exhaust. 

Now the exhaust manifold bolts need tightening for hopefully the last time...we need to get creative w/ an exhaust hanger along the mid section, and put a lock washer on over the axle section.  We hacked up the driver seat, and Don developed a plan to make brackets to bolt it to Jeff's new Kirkey Seat. 

Three wheels have been sand blasted and primered.  Did i mention working on the car in the parking lot under a canopy at night in the ran, isn't the most fun thing?

progress report

long tube exhaust header is 3/4 installed....that missing stud bit us HARD....attempting to add stud #8 AFTER getting the other 7 in there and bolted down was a mistake. the threads are really boogered. We had to pull the collector off of the long tube header again, so that runner could be taken off.  A mechanic friend of mine is planning on coming down w/ a new snap-on tap to attempt to chase the threads. Dave got the water pump back in after inspecting it., and made much progress on the kill switch. Jeff got the radiator mostly in and its support/grill in & finished the battery installation located where the passengerside rear seat would normally be.

suspension choices....

Buddy Wayne sold us two and a half suspensions for $80, why?  Well wayne is an anal *@#$% and has had them sitting in his garage for over 5 years and wanted them gone.  Since we are only using one suspension, only one amount will be accounted towards the cost of the car....so are choices are:
-very used bilstien sports w/ H&R sports (apx 250lb front and 180 rear) purchased from the ice racer earlier this year for $60
-from wayne we got two front bilstien fronts, and a complete set of bilstien sports, along w/ Shine racing spring (300lb front & 200lb rear, linear rates but the nose of the car sits kinda high), and a set of H&R race springs (380lb front and 250lb rear, progressive rates, and they lower the car beyond its optimum level)

progress report

rear windows have been replaced w/ Lexan...the lexan was sourced from the dumpster from a trans am race team some 8 years ago...Jeff had ties to that race team back then.   Suspension installed.  Added more lightness......dash is back in....how many times did jeff take it out and put it back in?  :P  I am happy that we can retain the factory dash and vents/defroster.  Pulled the timing belt cover....much to my suprise it appears as if the belt was done not that long ago....it looks almost new.  Sweet!  Less work for me to do!

more progress

-removed what was left of the exhaust...sold the cat for $80 which pays for the replacement exhaust
-cage got painted (thanks Michelle!)
-beefed up radiator support/grill test fitted & painted (thanks John!)
-front struts installed
-aquired used Sparco Pro 2000 (thanks Orr Motorsports!)
-added more lightness! :D

metal cancer issues addressed......well some of them

Frame horns now have 1/8" thick metal welded in place.

galvanized metal formed to the floor secured via silicon pop rivets to cover rust holes (thanks jeff).

A Caged Short Bus!

Thus far I think Craig did a wonderful job!

Chump Golf gets caged.....

Through my Ice Racing contacts we found a cage builder in St. Peter who is very reasonable!

strip tease!

Have you ever seen TV shows like Over Haulin' or any other show where they restore a car in only a few days?  If you have, you know how they strip the car down to the shell....well we looked just like that, the three of us had interior bits flying all over....once in a while a piece would hit Dave in the head while throwing stuff though the hatch.  By the time we were done there was a very large pile of golf interior bit we consider USELESS!

stooopid metal cancer....suspose we prolly should fix that.....

car mods....on the cheap!

SCORE: Purchased an aftermarket 2.5" cat back exhaust for $90 w/ a generic cat, sold the cat for $10 to a recycler by the name the "King of Cores". 

SCORE: Purchased a set of used and rusty Bilstien sport struts and used H&R springs for $60 off of Craig's List, turns out they were on a Ice Race car.

SCORE: Good freind Toby is leaving the state, to move to California, (the bastage!), I bought his rusty and hacked Techtonics Long tube header for $40!  It may take some jurry rigging to make work but...

We have a car!

We just picked up a 1995 VW Golf 2.O, 5spd, w/ 195k miles.....it has failed control arm bushings (makes it scarey to drive over 50mph!), a very cracked windsheild, rear bumper isn't on the car, exhaust 1/2 missing, seats are trash, and it shows signs of being in a minor fender benderS, along w/ some interesting metal cancer.   Supposidly the previous owner just put a new clutch in it!  All this for $250!!!!