15 August 2006 - Special thanks!

A special thank you for my co-worker, Matt, and my cousin, Keith, for coming over tonight to help get the engine mounted in the car. Now I just need to get things hooked up! The engine and transmission is mounted. I need to connect the trans to the drive shaft, the engine needs to be hooked to the gas lines and the tank needs cleaned, it needs hooked to the battery, and the radiator needs to be installed and hooked to the engine and heater. Then I will be ready for the start-up! Julie made an excellent vegi-lasagna that was devoured at abour 8:30PM when we finally finished hooking-up the engine. Here are a couple pics...slight issue might need to be addressed...it seems there is a possible clearance issue with the hood to the air cleaner. It also looks like a challenge to get the headers installed. Although it was mentioned that the Hooker comp headers are a good fit...we'll soon find out!

14 August 2006 - It's been a while

It's been busy as usual here with work and home. We'll be headin' home to MI this Thurs after work. Our friend Bernie is gettin' hitched! We'll also be visiting my grandparents. Next weekend we'll be attending a nearby Vette weekend in Carlisle, PA just a few miles to the north. We hope to find some needed car parts and advice from other C3 owners. Then the following weekend, 9/2 I'll be gettin' on a plane for my 2nd trip to China for the launch of one of my new products. I'll be there, missing the holiday, for a minimum of 1 week, but prob actually 2 weeks. Yup, as long as it doesn't rain...20% chance...my cousin and friend from work will be helping me put the engine back into its place in the car! I'll also try to get the trans hooked up. Then I'll just need to hook everything up engine wise, and get the brakes complete for the start-up and Julie's 1st "easy" test drive to check it all out. But 1st I'll have to finish re-doing the seats. I have 1 seat frame re-assembled after cleaning it and rust-proofing it, but I have not yet purchased new foam and trim. The bonus pic attached is of Julz and Thane. He wanted to say goodnight after his bath. When he saw me with the camera he blurted-out "cheeeeez" and did his best smile, so I just had to turn and click!

24 July 2006 - Julz in her Vette

Finally got Julz in her new-old Vette tonight. We took Thane to my cousin's church to ride horses and pet some animals, then I went for a short ride. Over the weekend I spent a lot of time finishing up the engine on the car. I'm ready to fire it up for the first time! I just need to get it mounted into the car. I'll be buying a new alternator, distributor, and water pump tomorrow. Below are a few new pics. The engine is actually complete with all the dress-up items on it now, but didn't get a pic. I also replaced the old orange bolts you see with new raw bolts (silver in color). The dress-up kit is all matte black with Chevy Orange script, which looks sweet!

09 July 2006 - Busy, busy, busy!

Well, that’s all that can be said about the last couple of weeks. The 24Hrs of Summer Solstice did not go as planned, and I was pretty disappointed to say the least. I was initially going to fill-in for a team that was short a few riders in the corporate class, then it was changed to riding with my close friends in the 5-man, but when I arrived I was placed back on the other team. I was actually going to cancel and stay home to work on the car until I was told I was riding on the 5-man team! Well, the start of the race was going great until just about 2 miles in when my chain somehow wedged in-between the granny and middle ring! It took loosening the ring bolts to get it out! I went from sitting comfortably in 2nd on the leader’s wheel to find myself having to pass what seemed to be the entire field! I still somehow managed to keep the team in 14th place after the opening lap…I guess it was the anger from the chain issue, not once but twice during that lap! Returning to camp I removed the granny ring and adjusted the set-screws, but when I placed my cranks back on the retaining bolt of the Shimano cranks failed. No one had a replacement, and the on-site Shimano mechanics stated to borrow one to draw the cranks tight before removing the bolt and tightening the crank arm. They said ride it and it will be fine. Well, my warm-up was great but on the first climb just 3 mins into lap #2 the crank arm came off sending my Achilles into the splined shaft! Man it hurt! I had to pedal back to camp to find the next rider pedaling with 1 leg. We ended up losing about 11mins, with the total from my mechanicals now close to 15mins! I was getting pissed!!! I then borrowed a teammate’s part and went out for another lap burning up the course. My anger must’ve been pretty obvious as not many from this point forward delayed at my warnings to pass, some even dove off the trail into the trees to get out of my way, and I only had to physically run over 1 guy who tried to speed up to keep me from passing until he went over the bars on a tricky downhill. Being within about 2 feet of his rear wheel my only option was to run him over! Ha! It was great! When the darkness set-in my dominance of the trail became even more prevalent as I blasted through the trees calling out passes left and right while some yelled at me “you’re crazy”…yes, I was! By dawn I had pulled time out of all of the leaders jumping the team up to 5th place, while passing by some of my fellow CMR team members’, Bernie and Mark, team “Moe’s Smokin’ Tires.” Then on my last “planned” double lap to finish the race I again suffered a mechanical. The 1st of the 2 laps was going great until about the ½ way mark when my chain started to skip. I went through each gear on the cassette to where eventually each of them was slipping. I had to bail after moving the team into 4th place and taking almost another 2mins out of 3rd. Coming into the timing tent I yelled for a team mate hoping someone was prepared for the chance of a mechanical…they were…so I handed off the racing chip and ended my strike. I was easily set on overtaking 3rd to place the team on the podium, but in the end I had to concede. If it weren’t for my mechanicals I could’ve most likely had the team vying for 1st, but it wasn’t meant to be. 4th place was the final standing for the team, Unruly Racing. This was the 1st time being on a team that I have not come out of the event with a winner’s jersey…I was upset. Oh, well. On the home front, my car has not been touched in 2 weeks! That will now change. For the Independence holiday Julz, Thane, and I traveled to my parents’ new home in SC for some R&R on the lake, but I also put in a lot of hard work! They needed a dock built for the boat, so I constructed the frame for the fixed portion of the dock. The heat was horrible, although the temp was only in the low 90’s the humidity was high. The Gatorade was, but wasn’t “in me” as it was exiting my skin as fast as I could drink it…kinda like their commercial as it shows it going in in the various colored flavors and sweating out in those colors…Haha! Julz and I still found time to get in wakeboarding and slalom skiing each day, along with a cruise at night to enjoy the cool clear evenings while the parents watched Thane. Now back home I need to hook up with some friends to acquire an engine stand to borrow to assemble my car’s engine. Hopefully I’ll have it started this weekend! My goal is to have it running within a couple of months. I’ll be calling a favor of a few friends to help me get it ready to be cranked over the first time after it is assembled. I’ll also have to get caught up on the Tour ‘de France, as I’ve not had a chance to read or watch any of it yet!

17 June 2006 - Cycling slump

I had acquired a fever Wed from Thane. He got over his pretty quick, but mine lasted until yesterday morning. With not being on the bike for over 3 days I went out last night. The legs felt like cement blocks, but the ride pace and time was pretty avg. Tonight I plan to go hit the road hard to put out some power and to simulate a race scenario. Yup, I'll be racing with my good friends back home on the A-bikes team for the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice in Bolton, Ontario Canada at Albion Hills. I can't recall the last time we raced together and didn't take 1st in our class, or 1st overall for that matter! This is going to be a blast! Julie, Thane, and I along with the dogs, will be leaving after work Friday to drive up. We'll get a hotel in Buffalo, NY or just over into Ontario, then drive the remainder Saturday morning. We will be racing as an Expert 5 Man team under A-bikes.com for Robert Parent (friend/owner).

17 June 2004 - Family and car update

Today I woke early as Nathaniel got an early start. Yesterday he had a reaction to some antibiotics he was given for an ear infection. Julz took him in again and I then went and got the new scripts. Today he is getting better and had a nice long afternoon nap. So upon waking I went outside to get a headstart prior to the flaming sun in the forecast, estimated to be knocking on 100 degrees today! I started with washing the car and truck. Then I pulled out the heads and intake for the Vette to finish the painting. They turned out pretty good despite my improvised setting and minimal cleaning elements. I'm still trying to get the front bumper brace out of the car. I have 1 bolt loose, but it is still difficult to move. I need to find a nice long cheater bar. I need to get it out to scrub it down to remove any rust and re-paint it before re-installing it. Once I get an engine stand from a new friend to borrow I will be able to assemble the engine and paint the block as well. I have a lead on a slightly used 650 carb and my bell housing is being repaired by a co-worker (had a small hole that he is welding up). I've recently joined a forum site for C3 Vettes. The people there are awesome, especially "jackson"! He's supplying me with some awesome information on what I have as well as some important resources. Here's what I know as of now: Given the info I have, it's a near certainty the 4 bolt main motor is based on a 350 build and will have 360 cubic inches. The engine is numbered 3970010 which is a 350 4-bolt 1969-1980 Corvette/Camaro engine. It has double hump 461 heads with an Edelbrock TorquerII Intake and a 4spd manual trans. L2304 060 Forged TRW 350 pistons were assembled as a "typical" 350 build, it should have about 11.5:1 static compression ratio. I upgraded the cam to a Speed-Pro CS179R specs: 0.050" dur 222*I/222*E, SAE dur 290*I/290*E, valve lift .447"I/.447"E, overlap 78*, has a published power range 2200-5200rpm with "good" idle. I will most likely have to run premium gas in this thing.

11 June 2006 - Shanghai, WV that is...

This morning I rode over the 2 mountain passes to the west of Martinsburg looking for some killer climbs. Well, I found some! Leaving Martinsburg I rode over North Mountain then over the Shenandoah to Shanghai Pass. The climbing was brutal with grades of over 14%! I was literally standing on the pedals and moving at speeds as slow as 5mph on a few occasions! It was a great ride and it is definitely helping to improve my climbing. The 2-1/2hr ride covered about 40 miles and ascended 4,600 feet! I thought I had made the top earlier this week, but I was wrong by a few hundred feet! Returning home I downed a huge glass of chocolate milk, then it was off to my cousin's son's birthday party where I fueled up on a bunch of food.

10 June 2006 - Hard day's work

Plans changed today. I was going to leave for a ride by 8:30AM, but found myself sleeping until 9 when I got a call from a co-worker about a current program. I then got up and had breakfast with Julz and Thane. Julz made some good french toast and the boy and I packed'em down. I then decided that I would work on the car while Julz cleaned the apartment, and Thane ran around thinking he was helping. However, you can see here he was more intersted in naps today. I decided to pull off the front bumpers and grill, along with all the steel parts I could from the front end. The lower left front bumper had a stripped bolt head that I had to use vice-grips on. Other than that most of the bolts were not too difficult to get off. I used a wire brush and steel wool on the bumpers and steel parts to remove rust. I then painted the parts with a black Rustoleum paint to prevent further rust and to provide a clean underbody appearance. I will also be re-doing the frame with a paint on rust stopper that actually reacts with the rust creating a coated black finish. 1st pick is with the grills removed. 2nd pic are the removed parts, all except the 1 problem bumper.

04 June 2006 - C&O Canal

Today was threatening rain, but it only sprinkled as we drove to Harpers Ferry. Julie and I took Thane for his 3rd ride in his Burley on the C&O Canal Pathway. We parked in the small town of Bolivar which is just up a hill from Harpers Ferry. We rode southeast towards DC to a small park area in Brunswick. Thane had fallen asleep just a couple of miles from there and slept while we took a short break for lunch. He then woke up about a mile after we headed back. We rode 14 miles in 1hr 37mins. Julie had a tip-over trying to climb up "that hill" from Harpers Ferry to Bolivar. Whe was going so slow that she lost he balance and just fell over...Too bad Thane and I were already up the hill waiting and weren't able to get a picture of it! :) haha

03 June 2006 - Wind, mountains, but luckilly no rain

Today started early with a co-worker arriving at 8AM for a road ride. The roads were still a bit damp due to heavy rains last night. Pete is training for a triathlon this fall and plans to compete in the Olympic distance. He's road with me at Skyline drive and today I took his legs to the point they were about to snap! I planned out a nice route that took us over North Mountain 4 times. I really wanted to put him to the test and drive him into the ground, but as you know you can't make someone go harder than they want to. I gapped him on each climb with over a 3 minute gap at the top of the 4th and final climb of the morning. Our ride time was 3hrs 15mins with 4501 vertical feet of climbing over a distance of 52 miles. Below is some of the data from my Polar for each of the 4 main climbs. Climb#1: Duration 0:23:10 Energy Expenditure 387 kcal MinHR 135 bpm, AvgHR 160 bpm, MaxHR 176 bpm Min Spd 5.3 mph, Avg Spd 12.2 mph, Max Spd 26.3 mph Distance 4.7 miles Min Cad 41 rpm, Avg Cad 73 rpm, Max Cad 102 rpm Ascent 970 ft, Avg Grade 6.3% Climb#2 Duration 0:11:35 Energy Expenditure 200 kcal MinHR 117 bpm, AvgHR 163 bpm, MaxHR 172 bpm Min Spd 4.9 mph, Avg Spd 8.4 mph, Max Spd 19.2 mph Distance 1.6 miles Min Cad 40 rpm, Avg Cad 60 rpm, Max Cad 86 rpm Ascent 665 ft, Avg Grade 8.0% Climb#3 Duration 0:09:05 Energy Expenditure 152 kcal MinHR 125 bpm, AvgHR 159 bpm, MaxHR 174 bpm Min Spd 5.4 mph, Avg Spd 7.0 mph, Max Spd 13.6 mph Distance 1.1 miles Min Cad 40 rpm, Avg Cad 49 rpm, Max Cad 68 rpm Ascent 470 ft, Avg Grade 8.4% Climb#4 Duration 0:23:45 Energy Expenditure 387 kcal MinHR 123 bpm, AvgHR 157 bpm, MaxHR 170 bpm Minimum Speed 3.3 mph Average Speed 10.3 mph Maximum Speed 26.3 mph Distance 4.1 miles Min Cad 31 rpm, Avg Cad 65 rpm, Max Cad 100 rpm Ascent 1010 ft, Avg Grade 4.7% Returning home I fueled up and tinkered with the car a bit. Placed the front end on jacks and removed the wheels. Took steel wool to the rims and I plan to check the numbers for authenticity as they look to be the original rally wheels. I also scrubbed on the convertible frame some more and used some Rustoleum paint on it. I also re-mounted one of the drawers to its track on the tool case that came with the car.