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After a long season of racing it is likely that your race car is in
need of a re-build. Even if you’ve done your best to keep the car
clean, a season’s worth the dirt and grime has built up in the places
your garden hose can’t reach. Furthermore, even if you’ve kept up with
your regular maintenance, some of the parts have worn to the point of
needing replacement. In addition to our race cars needing it, many of
us need the winter re-build as a way to fight off the winter racing
blues.
As we get ready to prepare the Speed Partz mini-sprint for the 2002
season, we are attempting to remember some of the lessons learned in
seasons past. This article is a collection of many of the tips, tricks
and practices we have learned over the past few years of doing our
winter re-builds.
Editors Note: Throughout the article you will find mention of several
products that Speed Partz carries. Sure this might be shameless
self-promotion, but we have worked hard to find the best products
possible and believe they will be of benefit as you pursue your winter
re-build.
Start Early—Finish Early
I know this sounds too obvious to state, but I can tell you that it
seems without fail all of the work that goes into re-building our car
happens in a mad dash two weeks prior to the first practice of the
season. This year we are trying to start much earlier. In fact we
started tearing down the car after the last race. If you know the date
of the first practice, it might even be helpful to set a completion
date for your re-build that is several weeks or a month in advance.
Inevitably the details and odd-n-ends stretch out longer than you
expect. If you get done a few weeks in advance, the extra time can be
used to work on your set-up program in the shop. If you are like most
weekend racers, time is at a premium. If you can be so disciplined, it
might even be helpful to set aside a night or two or even hour or two
each week that you will dedicate to working on the car.
Getting the Shop Ready
I’m sure many would argue that this should not be included as a step
in the re-build process, but for me it might be one of the most
important ones. Whether your workspace is a purpose built race shop or
the corner of your home’s garage, taking the time to get your shop
ready will make your task much more enjoyable. The first task is
cleaning your tools and the workspace. This is a task you will most
likely perform several times during the re-build. If you haven’t
cleaned your tools during the season, it is likely they are in dire
need. There is nothing like starting your re-build by reaching into
the tool box to pull-out a grease covered rachet or screwdriver. It
may seem a little anal, but believe me you will enjoy the work much
more with clean tools. This is also a great time to take inventory of
your tools. If there are additional tools you think you might need to
complete the re-build, it is probably a good time to go buy them. It’s
no fun to be in the middle of something and discover you don’t have
the right tool. It is also important to keep the floor clean. It is
inevitable that some critical small piece will find its way to the
floor, the more dirt and grime you have on your floor the less likely
you are to find it.
There might be a few items that are helpful to bring into the shop
just for your winter re-build. One item I would not be without during
this process is a folding table. In fact I would recommend a couple of
them. This table space is perfect for laying out parts. A trip to the
local used office supply store is a great place to nab a few cheap
folding tables. Likewise, a couple of folding chassis stands are great
to get the car up off the ground where you can work on it. If your so
inclined, you can easily build your own stands or different height
folding stands are available from Speed Partz. If your running a
mini-sprint / modified midget , you should probably have some anyway
since it is a good idea to keep you car up off the torsion bars when
your not running. Another must have during the re-build is containers.
Nothing fancy here, I’m talking about coffee cans, milk jugs, juice
containers or other disposable containers you can find around the
house. These containers are perfect for keeping nuts, bolts and
fasteners organized during the re-build process. Furthermore, they are
great for catching the brake fluid, oil and radiator fluid that are
sure to spill out during disassembly.
Getting the Car Ready
Just as you want to start your re-build with a clean well-organized
work environment, it is also a great idea to start with a clean race
car. The disassembly process will produce plenty of dirt and grime
without fighting additional dirt that could have been easily displaced
with a quick bath with your garden hose. During this initial bath it
is not a bad idea to get yourself a good degreaser. A pressure washer
is not a bad investment either. Our favorite degreaser is Schaeffer’s
Citrus Cleaner. Although expensive, this stuff cuts through the grime
like nothing we have ever seen. It was originally designed for
industrial applications.
Record, Label and Conquer
It’s an ailment that has plagued me since early childhood. I am much
better at taking things apart than putting them back together. If you
are similarly challenged, the prescription is a camera, a notebook,
masking tape and a marker. Once you have your shop set-up and your car
up on the stands, start snapping. Take pictures of your car from every
conceivable angle. Don’t be afraid to burn a couple of rolls of film
on this. These pictures will prove invaluable as you start putting
your car back together. They are also not a bad thing to have around
during the racing season either. They come in quite handy if you tear
something up during a race. I also like to have a spiral bound
notebook handy for taking notes and drawing diagrams while taking the
car apart. It’s helpful to be able to note the position of items
before you take them apart. I find the notebook especially helpful for
notes on the electrical and plumbing systems. Finally as you begin
taking things apart, having a little masking tape and a good marker
around to label parts is important. It makes finding the right part
during assembly much easier. You will be amazed how many parts on a
race car look alike. Although initially this whole step of recording
and labeling might seem like a waste of time, I can assure you at some
point you will be glad you did it.
Cleaning and Inspecting
Everyone works differently. It seems there are two basic strategies,
take everything apart and clean, or clean as you take things apart. I
can’t think of a big benefit to doing it either way, but there are
specific strategies and products we use for different parts on the
car.
· The Battery-Taking the battery out of the car and getting it
hooked up to a charger is generally one of the first things we do.
Whether you are running a standard battery or one of the high
performance, dry cell batteries, this step will extend the life and
effectiveness of your battery. Speed Partz offers the SureCharge
battery charger ($39.95) that brings a battery to full charge and then
monitors the battery to keep it at full charge. This prevents
sulphanation of the battery during storage or extended periods of
un-use. There are many other products on the market that do the same
thing.
· The Chain- If you are running a chain drive car, you will
want to carefully clean and inspect the chain for wear. We clean our
chain and place it in a oil drain pan full of motor oil to soak. Steve
Smith’s new Mini-Sprint / Modified Midget Technology book contains an
excellent discussion on the care and feeding of chain.
· Nuts and Bolts- This is an item I like to replace at the end
of every season. It might be unnecessary, but its one of those things
that provides a little extra assurance. The replacement process is a
good time to make sure that all of the nuts and bolts on your car are
uniform. I know our car started the year with just a few different
size bolts on it. As things broke, fell off or were crashed, often
whatever was available found its way on the car. Often these bolts
were not exactly the same size or length as the originals. It sure
makes a car a lot easier to work on when there are only a few wrenches
required. This is also a great time to drill and safety wire critical
bolts on the car. At the very least, make sure that you have a tube of
threadlock available during the assembly process.
· Rod Ends- Rod ends are best cleaned with a little WD-40. When
inspecting your rod-ends, you are looking for excessive play in the
spherical bearing. Typically every couple of years I will go through
and simply replace all the rod ends on the car. We use economy steel
rod ends so it is generally pretty inexpensive to do so. It is well
worth it for the piece of mind it provides.
· Metal Clean-Up- Regardless of the type, Aluminum, steel, etc.
I am prepared this year with an arsenal of tools and supplies that
make the task of bringing the shine back much easier. Never Dull used
to be the preferred weapon of choice for this task, however I recently
came across this stuff called Magic Mix Aluminum Brightner and Magic
Mix Metal Polish (both products available through speedpartz.com). I
later found out that they are guarded secrets of the auto detailing
industry. Despite the name, the Magic Mix Aluminum Brightner seems to
work on all types of metal. The process is pretty simple-spray the
Aluminum Brightner on, let it sit a few minutes and hose it off. Then
wipe on the metal polish-let dry and wipe off. It creates an amazing
shine, quickly and easily. The second tool in my arsenal is a
sandblasting cabinet. I used to think this was a tool that only the
professional shops could afford. I went through a company called TP
Products, and had myself set-up for less than $250.00. You can’t
imagine how nice it is to simply point and shoot and watch the dirt,
grime and paint disappear.
· Cleaning and Painting the Frame-After everything is
disassembled, I take the frame and have it sandblasted. Unfortunately
my newly acquired blasting cabinet is no where near big enough for
this task. However, with a little homework you can usually find a shop
in town that is set-up for industrial applications that can handle the
task. Once I get the frame back I give it a good once over. Since the
frame is free of dirt and paint, this is the best time to inspect the
frame for small cracks and imperfections. When it comes to painting
there are several different options. If you are on a tight budget
there is nothing wrong with the old spray can. You are best to find a
good Epoxy. If you can find Appliance Epoxy this is usually a good
choice. If you want to spend a little more, you can have your frame
painted electro-statically. This is a process where the frame and the
paint are electrically charged. The paint is drawn to the frame, as a
result the process is much neater producing little over-spray. In most
cases you can find someone with an electro-static set-up to come right
out to your shop. It also seems to cover a little better. Durability
seems to be about the same as a good epoxy spray can job. The final
and most expensive choice is powder coating. This is said to be the
most durable paint job available.
These are just of few of the things we pay attention to during our
winter rebuild. If we have time once we get finished (fat chance), we
spend time working set-ups in the garage. We have a high-tech scale
system that makes use of bathroom scales and a few pieces of wood,
however for a little more you can get a set of racing scales that make
the task a lot easier. Jimmy Sills Midget Set-Up Video (guess what?,
also available from Speed Partz) has a pretty good section on
experimenting on set-up in the garage. We have also provided free
downloadable dwarf car and mini-sprint/modified midget set-up sheets
on the Tech Tips section of our Web site that might come in handy.
If you attack the project with the right attitude and tools your
winter re-build can be an enjoyable experience. Most of all, it is a
necessary ingredient for a successful racing season. Not only should
it increase the reliability of your mount, but also increase your
familiarity with the car making those quick repairs a lot easier. Get
started on the 2002 season early with a winter re-build.
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