Modified is finally home. I now have 2 cars that look alike. I am so pumped with the awesome wrap by Creative Edge. Steve Lyons and his team work hard to please me and sometimes I can be over the top fussy about how my cars look but Steve listens to what I want then creates a beautiful looking race car, as he did with our Late Model. We agreed to do the Mod lettering the same……now to get it ready for Flamboro on Saturday.
Thanks to two of my crew Lloyd and Louie for helping out the fast few days.
Category Archives: Late Model History
Late Model Lettered In Time For Midas Muffler Show In Cobourg
Late Model lettered and yes I am very happy. Thank you Steve Lyons and the staff at Creative Edge.
My game plan every year was to bring out a car that was a little different than the year before. This won my heart makes me happy.
I am relieved because I didn’t take a good looking car to Steve Lyons, but he made it look great.
The Mod is there now and should be ready soon.
Thanks for coming by.
Modified Ready For Creative Edge…..I’m Ready For A Snooze
It was a break working on the Modified. I assumed it would be easy, and in some ways it was but it was incredibly tedious and at times was sucking the life out of me.
Anyway it’s done now. I learned a lot working on the interior and outer panels. I love the look, the car is immaculate, a very deep luster paint job by Josh Watson and the green and black are going to be a great start for Steve Lyons at Creative Edge.
I did get some help from an unsuspecting source. I received a face book message from Louie Halliday on Thursday morning, about helping with the race car. He was wondering if I could use any help, but assumed I had a big crew and didn’t need anyone. He came over to help me with some of the panels and his few hours was so good. He is now officially on our team and will be a great addition for us.
I pick up the Late Model tomorrow and drop off the Modified. Can’t wait to see the Late Model, though it was very rough and not painted like I usually do…..like the Modified. Next the year the Late Model will be a homerun…..but I am sure it will look pretty awesome now.
Thanks for dropping by more soon.
We Made Opening Night…Broke In The Engine & Some Front End Parts….All Fixed & Loaded For Lettering At Creative Edge
The season opener was quite a night. I wasn’t prepared at all. The full story is on Diary of a Season 2016, on our Message Board.
Things didn’t go so good Saturday night but we got there and that was the main thing. Since then David dug in and really helped his Dad the past few days.
He arranged a nose and fenders for me. They were white, no choice, new ARP were not available and new 5 Star would be over $700 total. I bought paint, David sprayed them, we waited 45 minutes and put the used ones on. They didn’t fit at all. Hood mounts are not close, but my boy did some fabrication work and now it will pass. We have a Frankenstein Late Model, part ARP, part 5 Star. Not the way I wanted to start my 48th season racing but many things just didn’t fall in place for me. Next year I hope to get a much earlier jump on the season.
It goes to Creative Edge for lettering on Tuesday.
I am so thankful we got it back together so it could be lettered for a show we are doing this coming Saturday in Cobourg at Midas Muffler for Quaker State.
David is just awesome and I am truly thankful for his help.
I posted this picture of the car heading to Creative Edge so Steve Lyons can do his magic on it. He has his work cut out for him but I know he will do a great job as always.
More on that soon…..thanks for dropping by.
Late Model Ready…Thanks Ron Easton o/o Oakville Trailers
Not getting my Late Model till mid April really made things hard for me the past few weeks. Over that time I had different people put a few hours to help. some an hour, some 2 or 3. My son David was crucial to me having a chance to be ready. He helped with some tedious things. I was able to do a lot myself, but certainly not as much as having one or two extra good hands.
Ron Easton offered me to come to his shop Oakville Trailers on Friday to finish off the list I had.
I think he thought it was going to be front end set up. On Thursday night after a long day at work David came over to help with the chassis set up and scaling but a long list still existed to be ready for the opener. I took that list with me on Friday.
Ron was the main help, spending all day Friday doing fabricating with the hood mounts that were too low, fixing the bump steer camber and caster, the radiator shroud. I secured the lead and worked on the body items still left to do. Windshields secured, brake bias installed, seat leg protector installed and securing the lead. Then on the hoist Ron welded the headers and had to weld the rear shock mount and trailing arm bracket that were both not secure. The spring pocket fell out of the car at my place on Wednesday when I was working on another list.
Anyway Ron allowed me to stay at his shop, Oakville Trailers until 9:30 at night, he also never stopped working on our list. When I left, there was still a list to do, but things Lloyd and I could knock off before we went to the track.
I thanked Ron a few times and he said “I didn’t want your steak to end”. Just an awesome thing to say, thank you again Ron.
I don’t have a picture from the opener but the story is on my message board in Diary of a Season 2016. Thanks for dropping by our site and yes season #48 has officially started.
Engine Runs…Chassis Scaled…Thank You David….Next Ron Easton For Set Up
The past few days have been good but hectic. I have been very fortunate to get some help here and there. Over the past 2 weeks I have been able to get help from Lloyd, David, Brian, Ron and tonight I was at MacDonald’s in Waterdown and asked 3 young boys, friends of my grand children if they would give me a hand. Ryan, Josh and Bradley helped move tires around, and do some slugging that saved me a lot of time and a ton of energy. I have been by myself for much of the work, but there are things I can’t do alone and I am blessed to get help from different people at different times. There is still a lot to do.
Today I will be at Oakville Trailer and Ron Easton is going to help me get most of the rest of the list done. Using a hoist and welder will be perfect . The list for Friday is quite long, but having Ron’s help will be incredible for me and I am very appreciative for his offer.
The 2015 Flamboro Speedway Late Model Champion, that would be my son David, (pictured here), came over to help with the engine on Wednesday night. Most of the engine things I had done, but it takes 2 to get the car running and we did it.
Tonight David came after work and we scaled the car. I had drilled the lead, and had much of it in place but we needed to rob the Modified to get the Late Model where it should be weight wise. He sure was a huge help to me.
I am hoping to have the car ready on Friday for opening night Saturday at Flamboro Speedway although there is about 6 hours work getting the trailer geared up, tools loaded and spare parts.
Sure looking a lot better now…..more soon. Thanks for visiting our site.
List Gets Smaller Then Gets Bigger…..5 Days Till The Flamboro Opener
It’s been a tough go this year and especially now trying to get ready for opening day. I have a lot left to do on the car and now down to 4 days.
Some things left are installation of…..rocker panels, body braces, led, plug wires, return springs, oil temp gauge fitting, the annoying brake leak that keeps coming back, exhaust, start the engine, pad the seat, roll cage padding, fire extinguisher, hook up RF shock, breather for quick change, get rims picked out, tires, test radio’s and then send for lettering.
I had to cancel the lettering scheduled this week because the car wasn’t close and it still needs a lot of work. This list might not seem bad, and really it isn’t except I am by myself. The worst part is just when I get started I find something else I need to get an item marked off the list.
My goal is to make opening day, run for Flamboro points and keep our streak going…..at 753 consecutive nights now. More soon.
Thanks for visiting our site.
Getting The Drive Line In Before The Body Goes On
Ran into some issues this weekend with wrong parts and problems with the water pump. I remembered when I bought my first 604 the passenger side timing cover bolt had to be ground down so the water pump would clear and fit tight against the block. I did grind it down, but unfortunately not enough. Three hours later, after removing the belts, pump and then grinding the bolt down even more, the pump fit and did not leak. Things wouldn’t have been so tough if I had one person with me to do the fan belt for the water pump, I needed 4 hands for that job.
David and Eddie helped on Saturday for a while, and Billi and Abby helped on Friday.
The Mod has to wait for any TLC until the Late Model is done. The season starts in 6 days for the Quaker State Impala…..I will be starting much earlier for 2017….like in 5 months.
The Rolling Stone’s Hit “Time Is On My Side” Doesn’t Apply Here
More progress, but now that things are going together, more problems are popping up. That’s not uncommon when putting a car together before the season starts, but usually in the past I had 10 weeks…..we have less than 10 days now.
Special thanks to Brian Watson for his help on Thursday night and my son David, coming over today and getting some problem issues resolved. Still a long list but things are slowly being knocked off.
Coming Along Slow But Steady
Special thanks to Ken Bayliss, Lloyd Lariviere and brothers James and Jason for helping get a few things off our list today.
We couldn’t complete much of it because of missing or failed parts. The brake reservoir was leaking, never had one of those leak before, so the brakes couldn’t be bled. The water pump was hitting the bolt on the timing cover, naturally the one that was just sealed by GM. There is no fuel pump mounting plate for the Crate engine, or push rod, that has to be ordered and I
can’t find my release bearing, hopefully it might be at the high school, making the completion of the engine assembly not possible.
Good news is that Josh Watson is making great progress on the painting of the entire Mod panels and the LM parts.
We need a good week now because the Late Model is schedule to go for lettering a week Monday at Creative Edge.