May 5, 2007
Long time no update! I am happy that the Lewiston derby was moved
out to June 16th. I really
needed the extra time to work on the car.
Well I installed the fuel cell
box. This is a metal recloser enclosure
I got for free from work. I also use
one of these enclosures for the battery box.
The enclosure is hard to put in after attaching the side-irons so I bolt it in first. The seat goes in next.
I use this seat from previous vehicles;
it originally came out of a derby car I used three years ago. I had to move the roll posts.
When the team use to be out at the
old shop on the farm it use to take three people to install the side-irons on a
full-size car. Two to hold, one to
torch two holes and to bolt it to the car.
Now I use cinder blocks to prop up the side-irons.
It works pretty good as you can see.
Excess iron around the wheel wells
was removed. This side of the car is
complete. But I will have to weld the
side-iron to the car. Some people say
that bolting the side-irons is enough but from experience, the welded
side-irons got me first place. In 2004,
I collided with a car side-iron to side-iron.
My opponent only had bolted side-irons vs. my bolted and welded
side-irons, I ripped his whole side-iron off and he was forced to pull his flag
because he had no driver’s protection.
Before installing the next side
iron, I bolted into place the roll posts and secured the cross-member to the
passenger side-iron. Then I repeated
the process for the driver’s side-iron.
A secondary side-iron was installed in the inside of the car to guard against driver’s door hits.
Total money spent: $15 for a spool of welding wire.
Total time spent: 8 hours.