Well…we finally picked up the Lias Chassis yesterday. And this time, it wasn’t covered in 30″ of snow so we really got the see every detail of the car. It is quite an impressive machine and was built very well. Along with the car, we got several parts, a few that we needed for the Pistol chassis. I was dying to see what it would look like with both cars in the garage at the same time- and it’s sexier than I had imagined.
Text By AJ Hunsinger // Pictures By AJ Hunsinger, Darrel Carpenter
Although pushing the new IMCA into the garage after we got home was nice, it was even better this morning when I walked into the garage for the first time with both cars in there. The sun was out, but the garage is always pretty dark since there are no windows. I unlocked the garage door, stepped in, turned on the lights and wow, was that sexy.
Today was pretty nice though, except for maybe later on in the night when I left. My head was absolutely pounding from breathing in laquer thinner fumes for several hours. But, I did get the left side of the body cleaned up and all the nasty gooey sticky stuff off after a ton of “wax on, wax off”.
Dad stopped up today for the first time in awhile as he has been sick with the legit flu. He checked over the Lias car thoroughly. He also took measurements and marked where he wants the new pipe welding onto the white car. He even began taking the decals off of his IMCA with the ol’ heat gun. I suspect he will make me take the remaining decals off though, yay me.
Now that we know what parts we have with the new car, we can start ordering the rest of the stuff we need. We got a spare coil over assembly that is used on the right rear of our cars. The one on my white car was missing the top hat, lock, and spring. So, I swapped over the parts needed for the old coil over assembly along with a 175lb spring, and put it on the white car.
We also got another Ford 9″ rear center with 5.67 gears. We just bought a rear center with 5.29 gears for $200 last Tuesday. The 5.29 gears are a little low for my liking so I might use the 5.67’s in mine. 5.43 would be perfect, but we will have to work with what we have.
  
Dad has 5.84’s in his IMCA which are way too high, so one of the cars will have to use the 5.67’s unless we buy yet another set of gears. Since my engine is built and Dad is planning on using a 604 crate engine, it’d make more sense to put the higher gears in my IMCA as the crate motors can’t turn as many RPM’s.
  
Dad is supposed to be ordering possibly thousands of dollars worth of parts tonight from Speedway Motors, so I am hoping they come in by the end of the week at least. The first practice of the season is scheduled for this weekend. We clearly won’t make it to practice if they have it. Next weekend is the second practice, and then the following week is week 1 of racing season. I would LOVE to have my car done by the second practice, but we definitely have to be done by week 1 or else we start the season behind in points.
I made another paint scheme design. I know, I know. I seem to have a new design for you every project log update, but this one is it. It is a throwback paint scheme to my Uncle Scott’s old dirt late model. I randomly thought about doing this while sitting in a chair in the garage, smoking a cigarette, and staring at the car.
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