Going LeMons racing in a 6GC! Options

[slavie]

Hey ya'all!

A series of questionable decisions have led me to getting accepted to my first LeMons race coming up at Thompson, CT in August. Not much time left, lots to do.
If anybody is seriously interested, I'm still looking for the 4th driver. Hit me up.

The car came from 6gc community - I picked up Rymaster's 96 GT (his FS thread)
Car has an issue with the gearbox - makes really funny noises. I suspect something off with the diff. Drivetrain is already out of the car, gearbox separated, waiting for me to get wrenching on.

Cage installation is lined up for a week from now.
Need to completely redo the brakes - rebuild rears, replace fronts with dual-piston calipers, new rotors and pads.
Replace wheel bearings as a precaution.
Figure out what tires I'll use.
Finally, all the safety bs - kill switch is a must, and I'd like to plumb fire extinguisher and cool suit in if funds and time allows. If not, hand held extinguisher and sweaty balls will have to do.
Tons more crap I'm sure will come up.

Interior is getting completely gutted, so feel free to inquire if you need parts (I'll be posting a FS thread, will put the link in here). Any money I make back on selling parts I can use towards "performance mods", and I'm looking to get some decent lowering springs (no thanks to noname crap). If you have a set of such springs collecting dust - talk to me.

If you've done LeMons before and have suggestions, fire away.

[slavie]

Building a race car in a little over a month is a ridiculous undertaking. Makes me appreciate all the other folks doing big project that much more.

Ordered a ton of crap, a lot of which I put in hours of research into. The seat was a big issue (and still is) - turns out, the seat one picks if far from guaranteed to be in stock. Had my mind set on a specific FIA tagged fiberglass seat - nowhere to be found once time came to ordering. Here's a partial list of crap for the car:
Maintenance: WP and TB kit, all seals, radiator hoses, Accessory belt w/o AC, 170F thermostat, rad cap, camber bolts, brake rebuild kits, Tein springs, air filter, EBC Yellow brake pads.
Yet to order/decide: new rotors, wheel bearings, ball joints, struts

Safety items: roll cage padding (SFI cert for around helmet, reg high density for other areas), fire extinguisher with bracket, seat (ended up going with Aluminum Ultra Racing one), seat sliders, adjustable seat back brace, steering wheel (MOMO, already had NRG quick disconnect)

Radio communications: decided to build my own kit, had to order radio, external antenna & battery delete kit for car, larger antenna and headset for spotter, in-car harness with PTT, driver helmet kits (going with NASCAR style over IMSA).

Cool suit stuff: had my DW make me a shirt, but making my own cooler, so had to decide on and get all the parts for how I wanted to plumb it. Fittings, pump, quick disconnects.

Personal safety: Frontal head restraint, helmet anchors for it for all team members (will share one FHR). Had to get/make sure everyone had valid suits, valid SA helmets, gloves, shoes, SFI socks.

Got some work done on the car, too! Finished the AC delete, patched up the holes from removing evaporator core from inside (keeping rest of HVAC for now to defog windshield if necessary). Welded up the hole in the firewall (all holes must be closed). Bolted in the fire extinguisher. Replaced the dash harness and windshield vent (they're both bolted to the dash, which is not going back in). Cut off random dash brackets. Fixed hood latch (was stuck). Cutout the OEM seat brackets, and banged up the floor pan to move the seat towards the center as much as possible (helmet clearance to roll cage must be 2+ inches). Fabbed up a square tube square which will locate the seat to the floor.

Did TB and WP on the engine, along with all the seals (rear main, front crank, cam, oil pump, oil pump o-ring, VC, spark plug tube seals). All valve clearances are within spec - thank goodness. BUT, and there's always a BUTT, found metal shavings in the oil pan as I was about to stick that on and call engine done. This prompted further investigation. Took off rod caps - sure enough, hardly any bearing left, with the rest corresponding to the shavings in the pan. Took main caps off, a little better but still beyond serviceable.



Placed overnight order for rod and main bearings. RA f-ed it up - shipped day later. Then FedEx f-ed it up. Overnight order that was placed Monday morning is still not here on Wednesday night. F me.
To make matters worse, UPS f-ed up my order for seat sliders - it went from IL to MO, OK, TX, then back to PA and NY. Ok, fine, I said. Get the box - giant hole in the side of it, nothing but packing material in the box. Called the vendor (Pyrotect), and while those guys are nice, they certainly don't understand the concept or "hurry" and "urgency" - After being informed of the issue Monday, I still have not received a tracking number for replacement.
Saferacer.com also messed up my order, but at least they managed to get it straight on time.

So, I have no engine to go in the car, and no way to mount the race seat. 8 days to race. Moral of the story - 1 month for a racecar build is re-DICK-ulous as you run a good chance of getting screwed over by the vendors. Engine still on engine stand. At least the transmission is back together, and, I'm hoping here, fixed.


LeMons requires OE hood in their rules. Crap. E-mailed them about by ultra laggera VIS racing carbon fiber hood, and fortunately they showed mercy on my poor soul and said "whatever".

Other weird LeMons rules?
- Can't have any coolant, water only. Coolant is slippery when spilled on asphalt. Also, must have a drip pan when fueling. Like, wtf? Cool suit cooler must be secured with TWO ratcheting straps.

Planning to get the brakes serviced tonight, let's see how that goes.

Still need:
Well, engine bearings replaced, engine and all related drivetrain components back in the car
Replace exhaust b-pipe (flex pipe section fell off somewhere on I-95 while towing the shell home from roll cage install)
Wire in electrical cut off (must kill bat and alt) Found a build thread on SC300 where the guy wired the alt into kill switch from the fuse box rather than running wires to alt itself. Genius idea.
Disable steering lock (required)
Add tow hooks
Install springs (if I ever get to it)
Install new wheel bearings (if have time)
Hood pins for CF hood
Wiring for radio (probably going to install regular 12v socket)
Wiring for cool suit - need to have switch so that driver can turn it off
Oil pressure gauge (would be very nice to have)
Front end bolted back together (fenders, bumper, etc)
Camber bolts installed, alignment
All suspension and brake components re-torqued to spec

Did I mention 8 days left?

This post has been edited by slavie: Aug 2, 2017 - 6:52 PM