Lime Rock in 3 weeks

Not much to do on the car.  What is really left is just routine maintenance.  Have some work on the truck, maybe a day or two on that.  All in all, looking good.

Set of rains

At last, my rain tires are completed.  It wasn't terribly difficult, just time consuming.  My never use them, but now at least I have the option.

3 down 1 left

Finished one of the rear tires.  The other rear should been done by this Monday.

Takes about 3 hours to turn a slick into a rain. 

Oops...ran out of rubber

Started to work on the rear tire.  After mounting it, laying out the pattern, I discovered that the tire surface did not contain enough rubber to groove.  I realized I had cut into the cords of the tire.  Oh well, couple of hours down the drain.  Lucky I have 2 other rear tires that look better. 

Started out well, even the rear tire fits on the front. 
 Much easier when the tire can rotate, turn left, and then right.

As I worked toward the left grooving, that's when I started to hit the cord.  Did determine why this happened.  This tire was my emergency replacement from 2010.  Road Atlanta to be exacted.  The tire came from a fellow competitor who just purchased a new set.  I remember him telling me it was 2-3 years old and well used.

Lime Rock poster wall

At the Lime Rock event I plan on bringing the poster walls.  Have one pretty much done.  This wall staying with the Lime Rock theme.

Tire number 2 done.  Next are the rear tires.

1 completed rain tire

Considering it's my first time, I think the tire is usable.  At this point I'll work on the other 3 and have a set of rain tires just in case.

Looks like a rain tire.

 Started on the second one, now that I have a system it will go faster and look better.

It takes over 400 individual cuts on one front tire.

The smell of burning rubber

Started on my first soon to be rain tire.  There is an art to this, just takes a little practice.  I have a pattern that I made so all I have to do is measure and scribe with a yellow marker.   The tire grooving iron heats the rubber as you carve out the groove.  It does stink.  

Much easier to work with the tire mount on the car.

So far not to bad.

The most difficult part is to cut the correct line, not all get cut.

Should finish this one today.

Slave clutch cylinder

Replaced with a new clutch cylinder, not sure if the old cylinder was damage when the bolt fell out.  Not taken any chances, and this will give me a spare.  Hard to see but the 2 bolts retaining the cylinder are safety wired and loctite was applied.

Paint

Just finished painting the 4 spare rims.  I'll  hold off polishing them, in a week they would be tarnished. 

The art of tire grooving

Started to practice tire grooving.  Not sure how useful the grooving will be, can't go to deep or I hit the cord.  At best, it will produce a intermediate rain tire.  I'll try one tire, then see if it's worth the trouble to make three more.

Lime Rock event schedule

Lime Rock event schedule, our race group is 4.
Historic Festival 30 & Sunday in the Park Concours (click here).

Rim prep

Glass beading and getting ready to paint and polish the spare tire rims I got from Eric.  Oh, speaking of Eric, he did make it to Road America but continued to have engine problems. 

 

Rain tires

Back to the rain tires.  I'm working off of a couple of photos of vintage rain tire patterns.  Transferred it to paper and made a bunch of measurements.  The tire groover is being delivered Wednesday.  I sure hope all this work will make a usable rain tire. 

Once everything gets going , it should go quickly.

It should look like this when it's done.

Another fix

Noticed this problem when the car was at the Pitts-race.  The suspension piece was rubbing on the spring perch(photo below).  When the upright bearings got replaced in early 2011 by Brian.  I placed the cone piece on the wrong side of the upper suspension rod when reinstalling the uprights.  All fixed now.  

Not sure how or if it effected handling. 



This is on the right side.  The cone piece in it's proper place.

Left side, not in the proper place. 

 

Not waisting time

I wasn't really 100% ready for the last event.  Making sure it doesn't happen again.  Already ordered all the replacement parts needed and a few extra items.  Using the same gear ratio for Lime Rock that I used for Pitts.  With the 2nd gear dog replaced and hardly used, no need to remove gearbox.  High on the priority list is to get my spare tire rims ready for use.  Either for drys or rains.