Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sweetwater 180 Race Report

So Krawltex got the car on Wednesday at 5PM. I had to tow that car from south Austin during rush hour traffic in the rain. As soon as it was in the shop, it was a team effort to wipe all of the water off the bare chromoly chassis. The front end has received new lower arms, beam bushings, a new Kingpin style knuckle with King Kong bearings and rebuilt Wilwood calipers. All of this had been swapped over during the 6 months it has been down since the last race at Sweetwater, a few days before my last birthday. I say 6 months but in reality, the guys at Trick Racing that built the front end did not get us all the correct parts until 2 weeks ago. I'm still bitter in case you were wondering.

So the raw fiberglass panels come off. We did a preliminary once over on the car, noting hoses that need to be moved, bolts that need retorquing, steering arms that needed adjustment, and a whole bunch of other loose ends. Matt and Ted took care of wiring issues and gauges. I began the red and black base coats using only the best... Rustoleum 500 degree red engine paint and gloss black in cans. The next day, we topped off fluids. Matt taped the flames and I pin striped the lid. Ted built the Soltek HID mounts on the mirror brackets and added a new switch.

7AM came too early. We were suppose to leave by 6:30 but I slept through my alarm. After breakfast at the Country Kitchen in Lampassas, we headed to Bronte. We checked in, set up base camp and got the car teched... it was time for pre-running. As mentioned before, the entire front end is new on the car with zero break in miles. Dave and I did a few short 2 mile rips around the pit area. He had previously messed a rotator cup in his shoulder and got out after confirming the front suspension wasn't going to fail.

His brother Dwayne and I took it for a full loop of pre-running. I have driven that car and co-driven probably more than anyone on our team. After doing the entire 36 mile loop, I was really concerned the new bushings were too tight to let the front arms react quickly as they should and the suspension to dampen the way it should. There had never been a stretch of a course where I was physically sore in that car, but this was it. Previously, one person could pull up on the front nerf bar and nearly decompress the suspension by hand. At this point, it wouldn't budge. This made the geometry transfer every compression load to the rear and make the back end hit way harder than it should. At that rate driving at a race pace, I wouldn't be able to endure more than two laps, driving or co-driving.

We brought the car in and did some suspension tweaks. The panels came back on and the in cab fire extinguisher finally got moved in the right spot. We weren't sure what would happen, but decided to call it a night. We didn't want to break the car pre-running it in the dark only to fix it at the pit without an enclosed trailer this time. So we put all of our eggs in a basket and waited to see it through the race.

This morning, Charles co drove for Dwayne the first lap. There was a lot of traffic, including a herd of buffalo that were all over the race course. But Duane did his best to keep a level head and get a good feel for the course. At this point, the suspension was still very stiff and you couldn't break the rear end loose around turns. Lap 1 was 1 hour, 7 minutes. We topped it off with 111 leaded race fuel after the first lap. Ted would belt out navigation for the next two laps, passing many cars and closing the gap on our time. We got the radio to work again and his calling out race mile markers gave us a ton of info about pacing and tempo. Lap 3 was down to an hour and 2 minutes.

I hopped in to co-drive the last two laps after a 10 gallon fuel dump. After the first 2 miles I could tell the suspension had started to break in. The car isn't as plush as it formerly was, but when the two laps were done I could tell it was very close. I could certainly have sat in that car another 100 miles and been fine. In the middle of my first lap, a moose ran across our path. Another 4 yards and it would have messed the buggy up pretty badly. Duane was quite fatigued on lap 4. After talking about concentration and what our options were, such as a driver change... he rallied and got a second wind. We tidied up the few wild turns we had previously done and finished the final leg of the race at a whopping 58 minutes. To give you an idea, the $300K class 1 unlimited buggy's fastest lap was 53 minutes.

We couldn't be more happy with our successful finish. Another good weekend of driving and that front end will be completely broken in. The car should be way more responsive and "flickable" in the turns. So how did we do? We won first place out of the four class 5 vehicles. By almost 20 minutes. We finished 4th out of all the 4 cylinders, and 7th overall. Cheers to all of Krawltex and Bombshell Racing! Congrats to my friends with Hooters Desert Racing. They were a bit quicker than us in their 16-2 car finishing third out of the 4 cylinder division and first in their class.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Krawltex will be closed Friday, March 26th to race the Sweetwater 200 desert race. We will return to normal shop hours on Monday. We apologize for any inconvenience.

race car's fresh paint






Monday, March 22, 2010

Last week was such a whirlwind, I didn't have time to update the blog. Ted made some head way on the Tahoe SAS. After realizing we needed some different heims, we went ahead and ordered frame and link brackets from Ruff Stuff. They should be here mid week and work can resume. For the links to clear the frame and have a decent ride height, a front axle crossmember with triangulated upper links will be in order. It also looks like it will sit about 8" taller than stock. This means the add a leaf and block in the rear will not be quite enough to level the truck out. More than likely, the Tahoe will be getting a rear shackle flip.

Ted also built some sliders and is in the process of tying the cage in to the frame on Jason Hall's stretched early Bronco. After some foot plates are fabricated, the body will be clearanced and some extra supports will be tied in. Patrick's Runicon was in here for a leaking front diff seal and an auto skid plate modification.Looks like there is also another Strand van to knock out maintenance work. Ted should be here soon to help with the EB, the Strand van, and have the race car in tow.

Matt tackled the hydro assist on Eli's YJ, a budget boost and body lift on Paul's TJ, and a clutch on Nicholas' Rubicon last week. I focussed on book keeping, office duties, shipping out the t-case back to Inchworm, ordering materials, and reworking the front bumper on Jake's 12V.

This week we will be very busy at the shop. The Community Impact Newspaper for Cedar Park and Leander will be here tomorrow. If you get a chance, check out their website and newspaper for a full write up on the shop. There should be pics, video, and a story about Krawltex on the web shortly. On Wednesday I will be meeting with Ed about the possibility of a new class 7 desert race team through the shop. Preliminary discussions point towards a Ranger or Tacoma campaign in the Best in the Desert Series.

Later on Wednesday, I will be meeting with the autotech instructor at Vista Ridge highschool. We will be exploring the opportunity to bring in their advanced class on a weekend and teaching their best students about roll cage design. Krawltex looks forward to showing the future fabricators our class 5 buggy, as well as giving some hands on experience tube bending and notching a family cage on Marc's TJ.

Beyond that, we need to prep the class 5 for the Sweetwater race this weekend. Krawltex will be closed on Friday so we can tech and prerun the car. It has been a long time coming, with the front suspension down since October. In the mean time, we will be finishing Jason's cage work, doing a throwout bearing and possibly clutch in my Superduty, road testing Eli's YJ, fixing a Strand van, pulling every thing together for the AW4 swap in Chris' TJ, working on the Tahoe SAS, finishing out the 12V bumpers for powder coat, waiting for the rear King shocks and t-case on Ed's FJ cruiser, and possibly starting on the 5.3L, cage and full width conversion on Mack's CJ7.

Thursday, March 11, 2010
















Another busy week at the shop!










Matt has been doing great. He swapped the rear 14B and removed all of the IFS with frame bracketry from Andrew's Tahoe. We should be swapping the Dodge front axle and building the link mounts next week. Currently, he's working on regearing the front axle on Eli's YJ after building a new crossover drag link.










Ted has worked on a couple Strand vans, a fluid swap and tune up on Jeremy's YJ, the inchworm t-case install on Ed's FJ Cruiser, and is currently swapping an 8.8 in the rear of Ralph's TJ.










Yesterday I finished up the Total Chaos 2.5" long travel on Ed's FJ Cruiser. It now has a 5" wider track width and 12" of travel from the King coilovers and triple bypass shocks. While we were in there, we added the upper and lower a-arm gussets, modified the front body mounts, installed a front ARB and regeared the truck with 4.88's. Next week, the King reservoir emulsions should be in. After mounting those up, it will be on to a front engine cage.










As far as what's on the table beyond that... the 5.3L and auto should be here shortly for Mack's CJ7, we will do some more finish work on the 12V burban, build the Tahoe SAS 4 link, install a hydro assist set up on Eli's YJ, do a body and spacer lift on Paul's TJ, do some maintenance on a couple Strand vans, track down the proper AW4 for Chris' auto swap in his TJ, and pull the class 5 back to the shop to prep it for the March 27th race in Sweetwater.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Krawltex would like to welcome the newest member to our team! Matt is an ASE Master Tech leaving the BMW dealership after 8 years to fab and wrench on 4 wheel drive trucks. Before his professional start, he was a student at Wyotech with a focus on metal fabrication and chassis design.

It's 10AM Wednesday morning. Ted and I left the shop about 3:30 this morning and are dog tired. I have spent the last several days on Jeff's K5. It received boxed leaf spring mounts, a winch mount, engine cage, aluminum radiator with a dimple died adjustable mounting system, and we bobbed the front end. I shortened the grill by 22", hung the fenders on the engine cage, and Ted and I have been working on the hood. It took 6 separate pieces to follow the lines and we are doing the final fit before it is hard mounted with hood pins.

Yesterday was Matt's first day. He did a rear main on Jason's YJ and began a list of solutions for Eli's YJ... steering correction, oil leaks, and a few odds and ends. Today he and Ted will be swapping the rear 14B in to Andrew and Eric's Tahoe. After it is at ride height with 6" of rear lift, the front will come off and the SAS will begin.

Ted has been helping me with the K5, finishing the inchworm install, modifying the shifters and making a custom console piece for Ed's FJ cruiser. Today He will button up the FJ's interior, help me finish the K5 hood, and help with the Tahoe SAS.

The next couple of days after that, we will be doing an 8.8 swap on Ralph's TJ, hunting down a tranny problem on Alec's F150, working on the steering of Eli's YJ as well as a front regear, and I will be doing a long travel 2" over stock width Total Chaos suspension on Ed's FJcruier.

Next week after we finish up what ever we didn't this week... button up the interior and wiring on the Suburban, figure out a brake master cylinder alternative for it and take the bumpers to powder coat. We will assess Mack's CJ7 and start a game plan for a frame up build. It will get a 5.3L and automatic swap, a BDS suspension with the YJ spring conversion, 35's, POR15 frame, and a slew of other items. We will continue the SAS Tahoe project and work on Ronnie's Bronco II project.