I am back

Sorry for the long delay since the last update. I have been very busy lately and there has not been much activity to report on the car.  Since the last post we have:
1. Moved our household of 29 years
2. Moved our business offices of 25 years
3. Moved my race shop and the car parts plus machine tools that I have accumulated over the last 30 years
about 70 miles from Oak Brook Il. to Valparaiso IN

In addition we have almost completed the 2150 square foot shop addition to our Valparaiso property. The building is almost done and I've built 40 linear feet of workbench space with lots of shelf and drawer storage. In addition my lathe, mill, band saw, grinders, vices, welding equipment and drill presses are now at least in place if not all fully operational.

Not only the above has been done but Denise and I towed Uggs to a gathering of friends with similar cars in the mountains of N Georgia, Tennessee and N Carolina that we call the Ambush. This took about 11 days including the travel time to and from and entailed over a week of spirited driving over the terrific mountain roads in the Smoky Mountains, great companionship with friends and good dining. In total we put well over a thousand miles on Uggs.

I have a couple of videos that I'll try to post when I have time.

The car ran great. The only issue was that I had to stop a couple of times to clear tree leaves from the radiator inlet screens to keep coolant temps under control. Gave me a chance to admire the colors on those leaves :).  Also gave me an opportunity to test and fine tune the MOTEC Data Logger temp and oil pressure alarms that have been set.  Certainly not the fault of the car.

Today Denise and I drove Uggs to the Gilmore Auto Museum near Kalamazoo Michigan. Great collection of notable collector cars. Lots of Franklins, Packards, Cadillacs, Pierce Arrows etc. but my favorites were the Hot Rods with flames and a beautifully restored 1955 Corvette. (I used to own a 54 Vette). Wonder why those cars were my favorites... :).

More to come. Hopefully soon.

Fuel Level Working on Motec

It took me longer that it should have but I now have the MOTEC digital dash/data logger displaying fuel level in the fuel tank. It has 0.1 gallon resolution and appears to be quite accurate. If I had called MOTEC's excellent tech support people when I first had trouble getting it working, I'd have saved hours. :)

The MOTEC now has alarms set up for:
Low oil pressure with different thresholds that depend on RPM and oil temps
Low and high battery voltage, with different thresholds for RPM. This monitors the alternator output
High coolant temp
High oil temp
Low fuel level
Over revs
Shift lights - (Progressive)
Knock Retard (KR) is set up for alarm but I have not yet figured out the correct coding to monitor it.  This will probably need another call to MOTEC.

E. T. In Flames?

We finally got around to taking several pictures  in semi darkness.  The goal was to show off the reflective properties of Ugg's Flames. Suddenly we saw ET! He was even smiling at us.

Uggs is no longer ugly

A while back a gentleman at a local cruise night car show commented that my D2 was ugly without a body.  I said that the body would arrive sooner or later. He then smiled and said that it was an ugly duckling but would become a beautiful swan when the body arrived, was painted and had some graphics added.

A week or so ago Chris at Friendly Ford's show car paint shop painted the body which was subsequently installed. Today Steve at Extreme Graphics finished the graphics.

See below. Uggs is no longer ugly.  The picture was taken in twilight in an attempt to show the reflective properties of the flames in red, yellow and blue. The picture does not do it justice. More pictures soon. Also lots more to do. Although I now have the odometer function working in the Motec Data Logger.

Fenders, wiper, more stuff

All 4 fenders, windshield and wiper are now all mounted.

Note how the paint color seems to change as the angle of the sunlight varies.

More windows, rear wheel toe adjustment link supports and Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) electronics installation are next. Then graphics application to begin next Monday.

More Progress

All 4 fenders are now installed. We drove the car to our new home in Valparaiso IN today to check out my new workshop which is under construction. We cannot move until "Taj Ma Shop" is completed. I could not resist a detour over some nice roads on the way back to our existing home. Almost 200 miles total today. Great fun. 

Also went to the regular Elmhurst IL Wednesday night car show but for an unknown reason it was not run tonight. ?

The next step is to reinstall the windshield wiper and finish the installation of the windows. DP provided 6 full automotive safety glass panels that are supposed to be glued in place. The windshield is presently 1/4" Lexan that I fastened with removable 10-32 screws.  I will probably use 3/16" Lexan for the other windows and also make them removable.  Lexan is about 1/2 the weight of glass and it is possible to drill thru it for the screws.

I'll post pix of the car with fenders when I get a chance.

In addition we made an appointment to have the graphics installed a week from Monday.

Please use the comment feature and let us know your thoughts about the color we chose?

Right side pod/Car Show

The right side pod is now mounted and we went to the Sunday Night Car Show at Uncle Harry's.  The left side pod mounting will be next. The epoxy  for the inlet air screen was not cured in time to get it mounted for the car show.

The fenders will be next.  Then graphics.  Lots more to do.

Nose and tail of body mounted with Pix

The body parts are painted and the nose and tail are mounted.

Got another PFP yesterday with more wiring and the screens for the radiator side pods. I'll epoxy them to the side pods and hopefully get the pods installed this weekend. Also windows.

Progress is being made.

Major Progress

Picked up the body from the paint shop yesterday.  It looks great.

Today I mounted the tail section. Within the next few days I should be able to get the nose and side shrouds installed.

At that time I will post some pix.

:)

Minor Progress

Among many other non Palatov tasks this weekend the following was completed on the car.
1. Finished removing my wiring harness. After installing Palatov's harness this was superfluous. It is much neater now.
2. Installed the new shoulder harness mounting bracket on the driver's side.
3. Reconnected my MOTEC data logger.
4. Began adapting the new Palatov dash and data logger mounting bracket to the MOTEC.

I'll post a pic of the new dash when I have the logger mounted.

Still anxiously waiting for the body work and paint job to be finished.

Body to the painter

The body is now off the chassis and has been delivered to the painter.  We have been promised a two week turnaround.

The next tasks for me are to dress and finish the new wiring harness, trim and permanently mount the seats, install new shoulder harness mounting brackets and reinstall the MOTEC data logger.

Plenty of things to do. :)

Running with a body and lights!

The body is mounted and the lights are installed:

 

At last. Hurray!

 

I have also been to 3 body shops for estimates on the paint job and expect the 3rd. bid response tomorrow. When the body shop is selected, I will remove the body, deliver it to the shop and begin concentrating on a final assembly and finishing the wiring, MOTEC data logger/dashboard install and begin working on the interior.

 

I expect the body shop to take about two weeks to prepare the body for paint and actually apply multiple coats of paint.  When I get the body back we can install it and complete the process.

Body installed

Over the weekend I found the time to install the body. :)

I had planned to take and post a video of the car driving around the neighborhood.

This would show off the lights and the car finally running with the (unpainted) body installed. All would have worked out fine except it began raining hard just before I was ready to drive it and take the video. :(

Hopefully tomorrow for the video. Also I will try to drive to a couple of body shops to talk about painting the body with a nice bright color. :)

Progress

I survived the flu or whatever it was. :)

In addition to buying a new house, designing and contracting for a new garage/workshop, closing on the house, having a grandchild graduate from college, having two grandkids get married and attending the appropriate family gatherings I have actually had a little time to work on the D2.

DP sent the long awaited lights recently and I installed them this weekend.

That was a bigger project than originally thought. This is because DP provided a very nicely designed setup of front lights with brackets, rear lights, license plate bracket with back up lights, rear LED tail lights, a new dash with leatherette covering, wiring harnesses with weather sealed connectors and numerous other items. Instead of doing the quicker install of connecting the new parts to the wiring harness I had already installed in the car for my temporary lights I decided to rip out my entire wiring loom and install the new setup. In the long run this will be a much better setup.

The plan is to get the car running with the new setup and install the body.

At that point I can drive it to the body shop of my choice, have the owner see what he has to do, get an estimate, remove the body, have him paint it, then reinstall the body and finally have the graphics installed. 

At that point I'll have an almost completed car and can begin the final tuning and tweaking that I enjoy so much.  It has been a very long, frustrating and torturous process but the resulting car will be super. I am very much looking forward to the next month or two.

I will keep this blog updated as progress occurs and time allows.

Another PFP Arrived!

As promised a new Package from Portland arrived yesterday. It contains fenders and headlights with brackets, taillights, a new dashboard with switches, upholstery, wiring harness and several other items.

HOORAY!

I think I now have the parts to do a final trial assembly, have the body painted and complete the car.

That is all good news. The bad news is that I have some type of flu or cold bug with its accompanying fever. Consequently no energy to work on the car. Hopefully I will feel better by the weekend and will make some serious progress.

When further progress occurs, I'll post another update.

Good News, I think.

I have good reason to believe that proper headlights with brackets, tail lights, turn signals, plus the front and rear fenders with appropriate brackets will be shipped. This should all arrive in my shop by the end of April. This is very good news and will allow me to get the body painted, graphics added and the car substantially completed. Hopefully by the end of May.

Much later than I had hoped for. But better late than never. Also, I think the final product will be super.

Look for another update in 3 or 4 weeks. :)

The body is here!

The crate that contained the body was picked up last Tuesday.  It is now "home" and I am looking forward to installing it and getting closer to completion of this project.

It is well made and looks really good.

Two problems though: 1) my makeshift head/tail lights and turn signals cannot be fitted with the body installed and there were no lights included with the shipment 2) the body envelops the existing bumpers. Interesting design to have the body protect the bumpers.

When the body is installed, without lights I will no longer be street legal.

Progress has been made but  I don't want to invest more of my time and money in another makeshift/homemade lighting package.  I will soon be waiting for another PFP that contains DP's lighting package.  Hopefully it will arrive soon.

Body pickup schedule

ETA for the body to arrive at a trucking depot in Bolingbrook IL is Tuesday. I will hopefully be able to pick it up then.

The body shipped today!

At long last DP shipped the bodywork for my D2 today. Don't know ETA yet but will post it when I learn it.

PFP shipment has arrived

Palatov did ship the new wheel bearings, seats and other misc. parts before the first of the year. However he forgot to provide tracking info as I had repeatedly asked.  Also there was no mention of any "for the attention of" on the shipping label. Consequently when the shipment arrived at my friend's factory, the pallet was shuffled to a spot were his car parts are normally stored and no one told me that the parts were there.  Phil's plant is an active manufacturing facility with many employees and also stores several of his collector cars. Phil is also a former Indy car team principal and all around good guy that agreed to accept the shipments as a way to reduce delivery charges because they have a loading dock and lift truck. These are amenities not available in my shop.

The bottom line is that I now have parts to work with in my shop. :)

DP's latest projection is that the body, DOT windshield etc. will ship from Portland tomorrow (Monday 1-13-14).

Still no new shipments

Despite multiple projected ship dates having come and gone, no new shipments have been sent. I am waiting for upgraded uprights, wheel bearings, seats, shoulder harness anchors and the body.

I've been puttering around with small projects like
 1) installing a pressure to dc voltage transducer in the front brake hydraulic line. This will enable data collection of brake pressure by the Motec CDL3 data logger
2) measuring front vs. rear brake pressure bias changes as the Tilton pedal bias bar is changed from full front to full rear bias.  This will make it much easier and quicker to properly adjust braking bias.
3) I ground off and smoothed the uneven welding beads on the inside of the exhaust and tail pipes plus the flanges that are welded to the mufflers. This will slightly reduce exhaust back pressure and might gain another 1/2 horsepower :). At least it was something to do.

I will also have a very minor change made to the dry sump tank. It will move the oil pressure sensor from the rear of the tank to the side, giving more clearance between the sensor and the exhaust pipe.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Is getting harder and harder to do.