Thanks again to Vincent for the writeup for this past weekend’s work.
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Dog Days of Summer
Work weekend #6 actually started Friday night as Walter and I (VK) worked on fitting the A-pillar sections of the cage in the car. After a few cuts and some grinding, Walter had them pretty much spot on so we called it at 9:00pm that night.
Rise and shine Saturday! Myself, and most of the team had our noses to the ground today trying to get Dieter finished. The newest team member Bernie was the first to arrive (old sailors rise early) and dove right in by finishing the wiring on the radiator fan and cool suit pump. Once Walter finally arrived (the only old guy that likes to sleep late!) he and Bernie finished cutting and notching the bars for the A-pillars, doors and roof. We all learned as we went along so each bar fit better than its predecessor. Next I proceeded to weld everything together and sometimes having to stand on my head to do so. After all was said and done, the cage fits pretty nice and we were all proud of it.
Saturday afternoon saw the arrival of other team members Steve and Kendt who worked on completion of the face of Dieter. He now has blood-shot and angry-looking beady eyes. To top it off Kendt added the classic P-40 era nose art to the car adding to Dieter’s snarling appearance. Walter also built a plexi-glass mutt to adorn the roof complete with running rear legs and the names of all our team members. We should stand out in the crowd for sure!
With the cage in place, most of Sunday was spent with Bernie and me trying to fit these at in the car. The Kirkey seat is a quality unit for sure, but adapting it to Corbeau sliders sucked big time. It fought us the entire way. We must have taken it in and out 10 times before it was finally done. Words of wisdom if you decided to build a car with multiple drivers…make sure they are all the same height! Installing sliders (that actually slide) was the hardest thing on the entire build. The harness was not very difficult, however the angle of the shoulder belts was too great, thus possibly dangerous, and not within the safety rules. Therefore we had to fabricate a custom mounting bar to attach them properly.
After the seat and harness were done the fuel line had to be repaired before we could fire Dieter up. Why did the fuel line need to be repaired you say? Because drilling new mounting holes for that d@mn seat caused me to drill through one! A length of rubber hose and a couple of hose clamps did the trick and nothing was leaking so we called it done.
With the fuel line fixed and the roll bar padding installed, we decided this dog was ready for a walk. I hopped in (with two door bars hopping isn’t easy!) and turned the key. The battery and starter were strong, but this dog was tuckered out. I tried for 20 minutes to get it started it just wasn’t happening. I was dog-tired (pun intended) and pissed by now and wondering why the hell we started with a BMW in the first place. The Germans can surely make something simple rather complicated. Luckily Bernie has tons of experience with stubborn starting engines and knew exactly what to do. A few shots of ether into the intake and it fired right up! I was relieved to get this car started and out of my garage. I was so excited in fact that I buzzed my neighborhood before parking in on Bernie’s trailer. I’m sure my neighbors just loved seeing (and hearing) a loud-a$$ dog-themed car speeding down their quiet street!
Next up will be our “shakedown” event which is the THSCC autocross this coming Saturday July 19th. If all goes well the next time the car is driven will be at the actual event at CMP. Look for us, stop and say hi, and we hope to see you there!
. Just me and VK this time, but we got a lot done for two people on a *HOT* day.