30x40 Attached Hot Rod Shop

[mlyonsdc]

It has been awhile so I thought I would post an update. Since my last post I got the old garage painted and put back together and have been working mostly on the outside at this point. I got the new driveway poured and the new covered porch and patio put together. The builder finished up all the small issues and it is starting to look like a completed project. I still need to finish the yard and seed it but I did get a whole **** ton of long overdue landscaping and cleaning done so far this spring.

I got the workbench installed and redid my old red Craftsman tool chest in black truck bed liner to match the New Age cabinets underneath the workbench. It turned out nice and actually looks pretty good for a well abused 35 year old tool chest lol! The pair of HF 44" tool chest fit perfectly and are completely level where they sit. I don't think I am going to build a cabinet for them like I originally planned and will probably leave them like they are. I am planning to build a work table, 4x6 with 1/4 plate steel top, it is going in front of the workbench in the middle of the floor so you can work around it. I have to get the welders set up and running first, I just picked up a 2019 AlphaTig and pretty excited about learning how to use it. I also have a small Miller Mig and I am planning to mount both with bottles on one of the HF welding cabinets I am planning to pick up soon.

I still have a lot of stuff that needs finished like the air lines and organizing stuff in the new tool boxes and cabinets. I did tackle a few small projects like getting the boats ready for summer and fixing the fan and some other small issues with my Audi. I had the Audi apart for 3 weeks which turned out to be a real PIA with everything else I am trying to get done so no more projects until the lift is installed!! I did finally get an email about yesterday about the lift from Greg Smith. It will hopefully be here by the end of the month.

The boats fit nicely in the new garage and I am able to back them in from the original garage which worked out well, cleaning and detailing my ski boat every spring outside in the Sun was always a real chore it is really nice being able to do everything under roof. Even though we haven't seen the sun and it hasn't stopped raining here since I put the damn thing in the lake 10 days ago! I am hoping to get the Chris Craft in the water soon, it has been an 8 year project that is FINALLY getting done. Im planning to make the Conneaut Lake Antique boat show on July 13th which I have been wanting to do for the last 4 years since the boat was first finished!

The Buick is still in storage and I plan to pick it up once the Chirs Craft is out and up at the lake. Hopefully I will have a lift by then and can finish putting the Buick back together with the new motor.

I also have some new plans for the Mustang, other than selling it! I would like to get it back out again this year and finally get an 8 sec time slip with it as it sits which is should do on a decent track. I may convert it to a single 76mm turbo, I am also on the waiting list for Drag week but that is a pipe dream at least for this year. All I need now is some extra TIME to get all this **** done!

It is SO nice to finally have a garage to work on stuff it is really hard to believe I owned all this **** this long and just now finally built a garage lol!

 

[NoPressure]

Nice shop and cars! I will build a GN one day. I have an 01 Camaro with a stock bottom turbo LS deal on a 275. Plan to hand it down to my son some day (he's 1.5 yrs lol) and then build my dream GN.

Im building my 34x26x12 right now do you have a link to that ceiling fan?

 

[mlyonsdc]

Nice shop and cars! I will build a GN one day. I have an 01 Camaro with a stock bottom turbo LS deal on a 275. Plan to hand it down to my son some day (he's 1.5 yrs lol) and then build my dream GN.

Im building my 34x26x12 right now do you have a link to that ceiling fan?

The fan is from Home Depot.
Fenceham 84 in. Natural Iron Ceiling Fan with Remote Control

 

[mlyonsdc]

Its been awhile since I updated this.

Got the lift installed in July, it was pretty straight forward and not to complicated other than no instructions and they changed the design some. It is an Atlas from GS. It is nice and will get the job done but in hindsight if I were to do it again I would have gone with a slightly nicer lift. People at Greg Smith were fantastic to deal with and I have zero complaints with the customer service.

A few issues I encountered on the install. They are shipping them with PLASTIC leveling shims. Not sure how they think that was a good idea but GS sent me steel ones. The baseplate measurements are different than the online manual they have on the site which was confusing when laying out the columns.

The lift I got is a baseplate lift, I only have 11' ceilings. As you can see in the pics a Buick at full lift is still has plenty of room. I have not had my truck on it yet but my guess is it will still go plenty high enough. The baseplate is a bit of a PIA to roll a car over on your own, but the ATV makes short work of it lol!

 

[mlyonsdc]

It November here in Ohio and I finally got the heat up and running. Finding info or anyone in Youngstown Ohio who knows anything about hydronic heating isnt exactly and easy task. I got a lot of good info from this place but it was in many different threads. I took the easiest simplest way, I purchased a Hydrosmart 120 control board from Menards. I got aTakagi tankless hot water heater which I believe is the same unit Hydrosmart sells as a micro boiler for close to twice the money. I ordered the boiler, vent kit and manifold from an online plumbing supply shop. Install was pretty straight forward, bleeding the system was not so simple. Everything seems to be working it is keeping the floor temp at 67 and air temp is 64 for now. Pressures are still a little high but coming down as more air continues to bleed out of the system.

 

[mlyonsdc]

I did tackle a few projects this summer. I put the Buick on the lift in July with all intentions of putting it together for the Buick GSCA Nats in October and it is still sitting there untouched lol. I did make it to the NATS just to spectate.

I did build a new road bike which I am pretty excited about. I have a nice tri-bike I usually only use for racing and spend most time on my road bike which was getting long in the tooth for a replacement. I found a good deal on a S-works frameset and put together a complete bike with Di2 shifting disc brakes and all the latest tech. Bike is stupid light at 15 pounds with pedals and all equipment. The frame is also super stiff, Specialized S-works is about as good as it gets.

I did manage to get the Audi to a SCCA track night but ended up having issues overheating. Only because it is an Audi to replace the fan you have to dsiassemble the entire front end of the car so while I was in there I tackled a bunch of small issues which allowed me to get the tune completed. I have been working with a tuner since June of 2017, chasing leaks and a bunch of issues I was able to finally fix with the car apart. It is running really good now, It is probably a low 12 high 11s car like it is. This on 100% pump gas and 21 psi, 6-speed and AWD makes this car by far the most fun street car I have ever owned. I am planning to some fuel system updates and will be switching to E85 soon. I also need to remove the CATS and fabricate a new mid pipe exhaust and downpipe set up.

I got the welder set up and running and started practicing with it. I am planning to build a steel top project/welding table here soon. I am not planning a lot of fab work until my Buick is running again though.

I also tackled some upgrades on the F150. I lease the truck but decided to keep this one and bought it out so time for some mods lol!. I put a 2" level with Bilstein coil overs, Fuel 20" Sledge rims with 296/60 Falken Wildpeak At3 tires. Anzo headlights with LED bulbs which I wish I would have done a long time ago as I can actually see at night now.

Whew, looking back it has been busy this summer. I am really enjoying have a garage to do this stuff in now I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. Even if I just watch football and drink beer with the neighbors most of the time lol!

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Very nice setup.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[sean Buick 76]

The lift looks great! I am also super into Buicks and my twin turbo Buick 350 Skylark may tickle your fancy LOL!

 

[mlyonsdc]

Thanks guys

Sean the Buick is very cool can't wait to see the finished project with the new heads. I was looking at those heads last year at TAs tent in Bowling Green they make some really nice stuff. I have their V6 heads and will probably build a motor with one of the alum blocks at some point.

BTW having a lift is what started this whole garage project lol! I was stuck in should we build a new house with a nicer garage or just add on to our existing for years. After deciding to update my T-type and laying underneath it in my old very cramped garage I had enough and pulled the trigger on building an addition. Now that it is up I(and the Buick still isnt running lol) I am very pleased with it and enjoy using it even for small things it is nice to have a place to park your cars and a separate place to work on stuff.

You should bring that car to Bowling Green next year it is a lot of fun and Beach Bend is a really nice track.

 

[zmotorsports]

The workshop turned out great. Looks like a nice place to work.

You had mentioned that you were going to build a work bench/fabrication table to place in front of your other bench. Great idea, I love my fabrication table that I can not only walk 360-degrees around but I can move it anywhere in the shop for various tasks. More importantly, I like the height. At only 32" tall from floor to top of work surface I can sit in a comfortable position when TIG welding or stand and work on transmissions or whatever necessary without it being too tall. Back when I was fabricating ATV sand drag chassis, I could have one fixtured up on the table and still be able to stand in a comfortable position without the chassis being too high to work on. My suggestion is to not make the table as tall as normal work benches.

 

[TylerRNEMT]

Love the Garage!!! And I’ve got a soft spot for New Edge Mach’s!

Here’s mine....obviously not as extensively modified as yours but they are great little cars especially for their time!

-Tyler

 

[el Pedro]

I did build a new road bike which I am pretty excited about. I have a nice tri-bike I usually only use for racing and spend most time on my road bike which was getting long in the tooth for a replacement. I found a good deal on a S-works frameset and put together a complete bike with Di2 shifting disc brakes and all the latest tech. Bike is stupid light at 15 pounds with pedals and all equipment. The frame is also super stiff, Specialized S-works is about as good as it gets.

Love the s-works. I need a road bike for group rides. I have a QR tri bike but it's not ideal in group rides.
Where did you get your components from? I see good deals on frames but I'm worried I'll spend twice as much on components as I would buying a complete bike.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Absolutely love the garage expansion. This is the type of design I need to implement at my house.

Why did you choose to orient the lift perpendicular to the garage doors? I've never seen someone do that before, especially not in a *relatively* small space.

 

[mlyonsdc]

The workshop turned out great. Looks like a nice place to work.

You had mentioned that you were going to build a work bench/fabrication table to place in front of your other bench. Great idea, I love my fabrication table that I can not only walk 360-degrees around but I can move it anywhere in the shop for various tasks. More importantly, I like the height. At only 32" tall from floor to top of work surface I can sit in a comfortable position when TIG welding or stand and work on transmissions or whatever necessary without it being too tall. Back when I was fabricating ATV sand drag chassis, I could have one fixtured up on the table and still be able to stand in a comfortable position without the chassis being too high to work on. My suggestion is to not make the table as tall as normal work benches.

Thanks for the advice. You have a link to a pic of yours I am still looking for ideas. I am only 5'7" so how tall the table is going to be important. I was planning on wheels and leveling feet for sure and probably 3x5 or 4x6 in size.

Oh yeah, I am planning a Jeep project sometime soon too. I have been wanting one for awhile now.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Nice Mach! I am a diehard Buick GN guy but also like that year Mustang. I bought a new 2003 Sonic Blue Cobra and actually traded it in a deal for the Stage 2 Buick GN I raced for a bunch of years and posted pics of. The Mach 1 I have now was a buddy of mines car he also purchased new and did all the mods to, including the gawdy paint job. I had the car up for sale for awhile but probably going to tear it apart for a re-paint and to go through it and update everything. I may also switch to a single turbo set up as I think it would be easier to race. For some reason this car has always had spooling issues. I was going to put a new boost controller on it and take it back out this year as soon as my Buick is back together lol!

 

[Old Junk]

Pretty cool setup!

 

[mlyonsdc]

Love the s-works. I need a road bike for group rides. I have a QR tri bike but it's not ideal in group rides.
Where did you get your components from? I see good deals on frames but I'm worried I'll spend twice as much on components as I would buying a complete bike.

Thanks, the bikes are an addiction for sure. My first two tribikes were QR, I liked them and almost bought a PR6 at one point. Components aren't cheap that's for sure. I have a friend with a bike shop who is building a turbo S10 pickup and needs parts for that I have so we worked out a trade for most of the Di2 stuff. Even getting the parts at his cost they were expensive. Best deals I could find are on ebay from over seas. They buy as a manufacturer and sell direct on ebay. Shimano has restrictions on selling in the US for European shops so ordering online is hard too.

Actually, call Boris at Roys Bike Shop in Brooklyn NY, he is legit and has REALLY good deals on stuff especially Di2 components. (718) 648-1440. I found him on Ebay and he is well known in the cycling world. He is also a gearhead and may remember me if you mention the Tarmac and Twin turbo Mustang. I purchased the CLX40 wheelset and the Sworks powercranks from him. Both brand new shipped for $1400.

I found my frameset on Ebay too from another reputable shop. It was a brand new in the box Sworks Tarmac 2016 model for $1250. Good luck and LMK what you decide to build.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Absolutely love the garage expansion. This is the type of design I need to implement at my house.

Why did you choose to orient the lift perpendicular to the garage doors? I've never seen someone do that before, especially not in a *relatively* small space.

I was originally going to just put a pull down ladder to get stuff in the attic for storage, that turned into a staircase and now I wish I would have just made it a second story. Once we put the staircase in I would have had to move the lift to the left side of the garage next to the old garage. Otherwise it would have ended up in the middle of the new garage taking up a ton of floor space. I didnt want to move the lift over since I would then lose the use of the 14" I beam that was between the old and new garage.

So I turned it and it actually worked out well. I can drive my F150 in from the old garage and use the I beam to load unload stuff. I can also drive any car on to the lift from the old garage. The old garage is 600sqft and 22' deep. You can see the beam in the pics of the lift I posted. Hope that makes sense?

Here is a pic of the old garage after I painted

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Makes sense, yes. Love it man.

 

[mlyonsdc]

I thought I would post an update on what I have done since my last post. Hard to believe how much the world has changed since 2019!

By the end of 2019 had pretty much finished the garage and it took no time at all for me to fill it up. I finally got the heated floor installed and working. I also finished installing the air lines and bought a new Quincy air compressor. I used my LAR discount with Lowes who gave me a discount and delivered it to my door for $40! I also added a new parts washer from Tractor Supply, very nice set up only updates I made were a seal and stop **** for the drain.

I built a new bench and repurposed the New Age counter tops that came with my kit. I was originally going to use it as a place to work on bicycles but ended up repurposing it for my new hobby this year more of which I will post on later.

 

[mlyonsdc]

In early 2020 it was time to tackle the project that started the whole garage build to begin with my 86 T-type. I could seriously write a novel about this project. I have had the car since 2005 did a complete frame off resto-mod I finished in 2011 traded the car for a Twin turbo GN then bought it back in 2016. It sat for two years and in 2018 I decided to pull the motor to update it and fix a few issues it had. While lying on my back in my tiny house garage staring at the transmission I realized I was almost 50 and still didn't have a nice garage with a lift. I literally got out from underneath the car called a buddy of mine who is a contractor and off we went.

At this point the Buick was in pieces so I boxed it up loaded it on my trailer and stuffed the whole thing in storage. By end of summer 2019 the garage was mostly finished and I finally got the lift installed and brought the Buick home. Now in early 2020 I am starting to put the old motor back together to sell along with the new motor I plan to put in the car.

For you Buick guys, the original motor I built was a girdled "109" block 249" stroker with seriously worked iron heads with a bunch of custom work done to them. I pulled the motor mostly due to an oil leak from the girdle but I was also having issues with one of the headgaskets so the entire motor had to be torn down. After freshening it I sold it to another Buick guy who finally got it running a just a few weeks ago in his GN.

The new motor I built for the car has a very rare 3.8 off center Stage 2 block. These blocks were produced by Buick Motorsports in the 80's and developed for racing. The older off center blocks are highly desirable since they are almost a direct bolt in for the Turbo Buick and come with steel 4 bolt main caps and 14 headbolts vs 2 bolt cast mains and 8 headbolts plus the entire block is just beefier. Buick later replaced these blocks with an on-center version which will still work in a TB but requires a custom intake a bunch more fab work. An off-center block in good shape are extremely hard to find in nice shape since they were built for racing an many made there way into 1000+HP turbo cars that got used and abused. The one I got was from a friend and was only .020 over no issues sleeves etc. It was built with a stock stroke BMS crank, Oliver billet rods, Wiesco piston, Champion heads. We made a custom oil pump pick up to retain the factory style oil pump and made a custom drain for the turbo oil return.

 

[mlyonsdc]

I am making a lot of changes to the T-type and not just a new motor but really converting it to a cool pro-touring car. My goals are high 9 sec 1/4 mile ets on E85 with a road race/autocross suspension set up in a car that is still relatively stock appearing all steel with all factory accessories and a nice stereo!


The fuel systemt is from Racetronix with twin in tank set up capable of 725 LPH along with larger PTFE AN fuel lines and fittings and 160# fuel injectors.

I have been a long time user of the Accel Gen 7 and had it on the GN I drag raced heavily up till 2010. I also had this system on my T-type and it worked quite well as I had it dialed in perfectly for the car. It was hard for me to decide to switch but this new set up from TurboTweak is just awesome. They took a Megasquirt MS3-Pro system and repackaged it and programed it to be a PnP system for the TB and it is pretty awesome. The one advantage it has is that I can now run a flex fuel sensor for E85 and the computer will automatically adjust the fuel table based on the ethanol content of the fuel. I am still learning the new system and didn't actually get the car running till December so I haven't had a chance to get the car out to drive around and tweak the tune.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Very excited to read about the T-Type.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Very excited to read about the T-Type.

Awesome and I have plenty to share! Turbo Buicks have been a passion of mine since 1986 when sitting in class in HS arguing with a buddy of mine about the fastest production car made and he whipped out the famous 1986 Car and Driver magazine on the Buick GN. I bought my first one in 1989 and have had one ever since.

Here is where it sits today

 

[Sifan]

Local legend and Buick https://competitionplus.com/drag-ra...ll-the-day-modern-technology-scared-pro-stock

 

[mlyonsdc]

I currently have 3 hot rods I will be posting on, plus other various garage projects. The Buick was first on my list to get done once the new garage was up. The other two are the B5 Audi S4 which I drive on nice days but I have a few projects planned. The other is the 04 Mach 1 twin turbo Mustang with the crazy paint job. I actually shipped that car out to be painted and hope to have it back really soon.

But first I would like to share some of the other things I did in my garage this year and what my newest hobby is since hot rods, road racing, drag racing, triathlon, boating, skiing, cycling weren't enough to keep me busy lol!

The Ttype was pretty much completely assembled by the end of the summer but I didn't get it running till December due to other hobbies and projects. We spend a lot of time in the summer at our place on Conneaut Lake boating. I did manage to upgrade the boat this year and take up wake surfing with my daughter. I sold the Moomba pictured earlier posts and bought my buddies Ski Centurion which is a wakeboard boat.

The Buick was on the back burner by the end of the summer. I had trained pretty hard from Nov 19 till June 20 for a half ironman triathlon in Williamsburg that was canceled along with just about every other race in 2020 due to Covid. In July/Aug I had backed off the heavy training but in Sept it looked very promising that the Challenge Daytona race was going to happen so I ramped up training again and went to the race which was IN the Daytona Motorspeedway. It was by far the coolest race I ever did. We swam 1.2 miles in lake Loyd, road the bike 2.5 laps around the track before doing an out and back to complete the 56 mile ride, then ran the 13.1 miles around the track and road course. Unfortunately for me I had an incident with an idiot on the bike course that caused me to go down pretty hard at mile 25 on the bike. I hit a cone at 22mph and went over the bars into the concrete. Amazingly enough I wasn't hurt that bad other than bleeding all over the place from the road rash and cuts. Helmet did its job and definitely saved my life as my head took a pretty good smack. I got lucky and was able to get some first aide to stop most of the bleeding and was able to fix the bike well enough to ride it, so I did and still finished the race. Not quite the race I planned to have after training for an entire year and being in the best shape of my life but it was an experience nonetheless. I have some repairs I will need to make to the bike and may be updating a few things on it too which I can post about if anyone is interested.

I also built a new bike rack for the truck which worked out really well traveling back and forth from the cottage we can keep all our stuff in the bed under the cover and dry with the bikes on top.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Local legend and Buick https://competitionplus.com/drag-ra...ll-the-day-modern-technology-scared-pro-stock

Love it, watched it several times, he was WAY beyond his time and a genius to say the least.

 

[mlyonsdc]

I have been working on bringing this thread up to date on all my garage projects this last year along with hobbies and this is the last post to get up to current times. The latest hobby I decided to get into this last year is competitive shooting, specifically 3 gun and more recently shot gun clays. Holy **** can it be a lot of fun!

I realize guns can be a sensitive subject so I am going to limit what I post on the topic, along with pics of guns, what I do and don't have and what was lost in that boating accident lol.

Unfortunately I decided to get into this early 2020 right before everything went on lock down and it started to become impossible to buy stuff. By Aug I was running out of ammo and it was becoming increasingly more difficult to buy it so I started collecting components and reloading equipment. By October I was up and running with reloading and started learning more about the process and have come to really enjoy it. I've loaded about few thousand rounds of 9mm that I have shot and tested. I am now working on a few different loads for the guns I am using to compete. Ammo has now become stupid expensive and with what I have spent on components and reloads it has more than paid for the press and all the new equipment. Even with some of the inflated prices I have paid for primers.

I think I like building guns almost as much as shooting them, I built a custom Glock to compete with but ended up switching to a CZ Shadow 2. More recently I had a custom Accushadow built by CZ Custom with a SRO optic that is just fantastic to shoot.

I repurposed the work bench I initially built for bicycle repair as a reloading bench. I have a Dillon 750 and a Lee AP press for processing brass. I am probably adding another Inline rail wall mount above the one I have. I loaded and shot a lot of the 9mm but still working out all the details on how to load rifle rounds specifically prepping the brass. Ive loaded and tested a few rounds already but still looking for a more efficient way of doing things. I have come to really enjoy the hobby almost as much as I do the cars.

Up next is suspension update on the Ttype and the new additions I just added to the car collection this weekend!

 

[fermentedwaste]

That’s a really sweet setup!

 

[mlyonsdc]

OK back to the T-type I bought this car in 2005 as a roller to build a decent driver out of and it just snowballed from there into a full blown frame off resto The car was a super clean shell when I started and it is an interesting car since the 86s are much more rare and this one was a Canadian model to boot and was imported into the US so the dash is in KM and the HVAC in Celsius. What is even more rare for a northern car and it still wears all its original sheetmetal and is entirely rust free. Even all the metal in the t-top roof is still original and didn't need any rust repair.

Plans for the car today are 9 sec timeslip on E85 and sub 1:10 lap times at Pitt-race north track! I have been building, tuning and drag racing these cars since 1989 so the timeslip will be the easy part for me. The road race and autocross stuff will be the learning curve.

 

[mlyonsdc]

I completed the frame off in 2010 and traded the car to a car collector for the twin turbo GN in 2012. I posted pics of the TT GN previously. He kept the car till 2016 when I bought it back so he could make room for another Corvette he purchased, a 63 split window, more on that later!

I posted on the motor update previously. I just completed the suspension upgrades. First up the rear suspension. I originally had HR part 1.250 rear anti roll bar with matching UCA and LCA with Comp Eng drag shocks. I replaced it with Viking double adj coil overs and UMI brackets along with UMI 3/4" road race sway bar. The HR parts and UMI bars both use an end link set up that bolts to the frame and I thought it would be an easy swap since I already had the holes drilled in the frame for the HR bar. Not so, ended up the UMI mounts are wider and I ended up making a spacer to make up the difference.

 

[mlyonsdc]

For the front suspension I went with the Ridetech Truturn control arms and their muscle bar front sway bar along with Viking double adj coil overs. If I had to do it again I would have gone with the UMI LCA its a beefier arm and has adj bump stop along with the ability to drop out the bottom for different spring CO configurations. Plus the ridetech LCA was designed for use with the ridetech coil overs which are only single adjustable and not what I wanted. I had to fab some .375 wide bushings to make the Viking CO work with the ridetech LCA.

I do like the ridetech UCA it has an extra 3 degrees of caster built into the arm and uses these slick alum slugs that make the arms infinitely adjustable for caster without having to use a huge stack of shims to get the alignment where you want it. The arms also come with a proforge upper ball jt that is longer than stock to correct the camber curve. The kit also came with the bumpsteer kit and outer tie rods. The front sway bar is HUGE at 1.5" and a three piece design with endlinks. The only thing I question is the size of the end links the joint seems small for the bar size but the guy who spec'ed it for me has been running one on his car for 7 years without an issue so we'll see how well it holds up.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Ok this update brings me up to this past weekend!

Front brakes and wheels. I went with a Baer SS4 bolt on kit that came completely assembled with spindles which makes it pretty nice to just pull out of the box and bolt on. I previously had S10 2" drop spindles on the car that were a PIA to fit with the GTA wheels I had on the car originally. The drop spindle also drops the tie rod which contacts the outer edge of the wheel with a 16x8 and 4.5" BS. The Pontiac GTA rims are the early model wheels with the nice two piece design that looks identical to the GNX wheel. To fit them on the G-body you typically run 4 fronts as the BS on the rear wheel is to deep at 5.5". I tried to make the rear wheel work with a custom spacer and hated it so I found 2 fronts and sent the four fronts out to be refinished in the charcoal grey to match the car. Well when I got the car together I realized the fronts didnt work with the drop spindles I had on the car so instead of replacing the spindles I decided to send the rears out to have refinished and also had the center cut out and re-welded to a 4" BS which worked. Only problem is the tire now rubbed on the outer wheel well when the suspension bottomed out going over bumps and bridge abutments. So after spending a stupid amount of money refinishing the GTA wheels I broke down and bought the Jegs SSR wheels with traditional fatties and skinnies and the rubbing went away which is how the car looked when I started.

Now with the new suspension and brakes I need to run a 16" wheel so I put the GTA wheels back on. I used the four fronts which now fit perfectly with a stock style spindle and hopefully the tire will clear and not rub going over bumps. With the coil overs I can now get the ride height exactly where I want it and I am really happy with how it has turned out. I have to still bleed the brakes, replace the pinion yoke seal in the rearend and chase down a small oil leak on the motor and the car is ready for spring!

 

[komalakustoms]

Oh yeah, least I forget the B5S4 Audi which I drive more than any other hot rod I own. Its a K04 S3+ with many upgrades. Still tuning it but it should be in the 450hp range on pump gas. Super fun car to drive and the primary reason my Buick sits most of the time. Buicks are fun to drag race but not the greatest daily drivers lol!

I've also been into bicycles and racing triathlons since I got away from drag racing in 2012. The Audi makes a nice little triathlon transition unit! The pic is from my last race in Sept 2017 at Lake Placid 70.3. I didn't race at all in 2018 but hope to get a couple of events in this summer and maybe even another half ironman if I can find time to train. I can't swim for **** and I am ok runner but I LOVE the bikes! They are a lot of fun and really neat hot rods with a lot of cool gearhead technology going into them.

Super jealous of the B5...I've had some A4's myself but not an S4. I would like to own a wagon one day in Nogaro....

 

[mlyonsdc]

Ok last post before I go back into hibernation.

The next project I will be tackling is the Mustang. I am having the car re-painted the factory white and getting rid of the graphics which IMO were a bit much. There is a lot of little things on the car that needs attention and I am hoping to finally get the spooling issue resolved with the new boost controller. I am hoping to have it back in the next 2 weeks.

I also added few more to the stable. The guy I traded my T-type then bought it back from is a collector and he is in the process of downsizing so of course I had to see what he was parting with. I ended up buying three of his cars 2 87 GNs and one 1967 GS. The one GN is a moonroof car with a highly modified engine that makes 700hp at the tires. The other is a 60k mile GN with some basic mods that has a show quality paint job and was a frame off resto. The 67 is a hot rod with a mildly built 455 TH400 and 12 bolt rear. It previously had a monster BBB running 10.40's. It is a California Special edition and is super clean and pretty much rust free. I am selling off the two GNs and may be keeping the GS as I have wanted a A-body BB car for awhile. They might not be as fast as the turbo cars but man are they a blast to drive around in! Now to figure out where I am putting everything!

 

[mlyonsdc]

Super jealous of the B5...I've had some A4's myself but not an S4. I would like to own a wagon one day in Nogaro....

I've owned 3 B5S4s and have really been a fan of them except when I have to work on them lol!

Still one of my favorite cars to drive even with the new suspension on the Buick it is still a mid 80s GM car. I have some updates I will be making to the S4 soon and plan to have it out on the track early spring. My daughter is close to 15 now and I think this is going to be her car, at factory boost levels of course lol!

 

[komalakustoms]

I've owned 3 B5S4s and have really been a fan of them except when I have to work on them lol!

Still one of my favorite cars to drive even with the new suspension on the Buick it is still a mid 80s GM car. I have some updates I will be making to the S4 soon and plan to have it out on the track early spring. My daughter is close to 15 now and I think this is going to be her car, at factory boost levels of course lol!

Ha! No Joke! They're such a pain to work on! Which usually happens pretty often

That funny you that it seems we have similar tastes in cars. I have a 79 Malibu I'm working on for myself. Had it about 5 years I think now.

Digging your projects you have going on. I'm subscribed and will keep an eye on what you got going on.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Well I have been busier than ever in the garage with hot rods and really enjoying myself. Time to get stuff done is going to get much more thin as spring is here. I am taking a break this week while on vacation in Florida along with what seems like the rest of the world! I have been coming to Clearwater for spring break for the last 5 years and don't recall ever seeing this many people on the beach. Anyway I have some time and thought I would make another post.

I have the T-type pretty much done and ready for the Buick Nationals in May in Bowling Green, Ky. Which I am super excited about going too. I went every year from 1996 to 2012 when I took a break from racing and just recently got the bug to return. I finished up the suspension and brakes and finally got the T-type back out on the road to start sorting it out and dialing in the tune. Of course it has been fighting me along the way with oil leaks and stupid stuff but I have been tackling them one at a time and have most of it knocked out. I had a really bad oil leak from the oil pump cover housing. I still can't figure out why it leaked to begin with and think it had something to do with having the front cover ceramic coated. I ended up swapping covers and using a thin coat of anaerobic gasket sealer to get it to stop. I also had to design a breather tank system to contain crankcase oil spraying out the breathers under boost. I got a nice Ebay two port breather tank and some Jegs -10 black nylon AN line which worked well. The Jegs brand line was actually pretty nice for cheap AN line and fittings. I just screwed 3/4:NPT lower pipe to -10an fittings into valve cover grommets and connected the lines. It works well looks good and was cheapish to build so I am happy with it.

I am still plugging away on the punch list of small detail items like fixing the speedo, chasing rattles and fixing the passenger pwr window motor. I am also going over the paint which was done close to 11 years ago. I had to re-wet sand the tops of the car to fix a few small defects but still need to polish and buff the sides. I am also going to try a ceramic coating which I have never really used so if anyone has suggestions.

As far as performance I have the tune on the MS3pro dialed in at least up to 22psi. This MS3pro with auto tune has been one of the easiest and fastest systems I have ever dialed in and I have been tuning these standalone ECU since the early 90s. Drive-ability is fantastic, cold start is getting better with the ethanol. I am tickled to be able to roll down to the local gas station and fill it up with pump E85 at $2.20 a gallon. Especially when to make these cars live and run well would typically require a steady diet of VP C16 which is close to $20/gallon these days! Right now the pumps still have winter E85 which is actually E70 but the flex fuel sensor and ECU automatically adjust for it!! I have a new pair of Toyo 275/50/16 drag radials on the back of the car which are absolute toast at any speed when you mash the gas which is kind of fun lol. I will have to get the car on the track to dial in the rest of the WOT tune. At 21psi the **** dyno is telling me it is definitely in the 10s and the tune is still very conservative. The sweet spot for boost will be in the 25-30 psi range so there is a lot more to go.

I did also get the three new Buicks home, well almost, lol. I sold the 67GS and the 700hp GN to two friends of mine pretty much the day I got them. I passed along the GN to my best friend who I go racing with and sold the GS to my trans guy who was super excited about it. I still have the 60k GN which is an incredibly nice car and I will be making a post specifically on that car as soon as I have time to go over it and fix some minor detail items.

I do have the Mustang back from the body shop and it is all white again I am starting to like the car again. I tore into fixing all the issues with the car and it is like opening pandora's box. I just need to decide how far I want to go with the car. I will be making another post on the Mustang next.

 

[el Pedro]

The Buick was on the back burner by the end of the summer. I had trained pretty hard from Nov 19 till June 20 for a half ironman triathlon in Williamsburg that was canceled along with just about every other race in 2020 due to Covid. In July/Aug I had backed off the heavy training but in Sept it looked very promising that the Challenge Daytona race was going to happen so I ramped up training again and went to the race which was IN the Daytona Motorspeedway. It was by far the coolest race I ever did. We swam 1.2 miles in lake Loyd, road the bike 2.5 laps around the track before doing an out and back to complete the 56 mile ride, then ran the 13.1 miles around the track and road course. Unfortunately for me I had an incident with an idiot on the bike course that caused me to go down pretty hard at mile 25 on the bike. I hit a cone at 22mph and went over the bars into the concrete. Amazingly enough I wasn't hurt that bad other than bleeding all over the place from the road rash and cuts. Helmet did its job and definitely saved my life as my head took a pretty good smack. I got lucky and was able to get some first aide to stop most of the bleeding and was able to fix the bike well enough to ride it, so I did and still finished the race. Not quite the race I planned to have after training for an entire year and being in the best shape of my life but it was an experience nonetheless. I have some repairs I will need to make to the bike and may be updating a few things on it too which I can post about if anyone is interested.

Sorry to hear about your Daytona experience. I had a PR that day, awesome course. I saw a guy go down hard on the circuit, he was trying to go up on the bank for some reason... I did challenge Miami and planning to do Daytona again this year.
Interested in hearing about your updates. I'm awaiting a new bike which should be arriving any day now!

 

[mlyonsdc]

Sorry to hear about your Daytona experience. I had a PR that day, awesome course. I saw a guy go down hard on the circuit, he was trying to go up on the bank for some reason... I did challenge Miami and planning to do Daytona again this year.
Interested in hearing about your updates. I'm awaiting a new bike which should be arriving any day now!

Thanks, awesome job getting a PR at Daytona! It is an awesome course and a lot of fun despite the crash. I almost went back to do Miami too but it was in the cards as far as time off to go and train. There is a very good chance I will be there again this year too. I have to make a decision on Williamsburg when I get back since I have a deferral from 2020. That race is in June and I have to get back in the swing of training if I plan to be in shape for it. Right now I have a lot of other stuff going on on top of cool car stuff I plan to do this year. I started lifting again with my daughter who is really getting into working out and looking at trying out this cross fit gym.

The tri bike is a wall hanger at the moment. I had to source new brake components for it which wasn't easy to do since I have the Magura RT6 hydraulic brakes and the parts are unobtanium. I threw a wanted ad on Slowtwitch and found what I needed to fix the bike just have to get it down and look it over. I checked the frame out which is fine but other than that I just put it away. Not sure the base bar and one aero bar are not going to need replaced.

FYI I also PR'ed at Daytona even with the bike crash lol. Not saying much for my HIM PR to begin with for some reason that distance has been a real bear for me to finish well. I have done 6 or 7 of them at this point and everyone seems to be a disaster for some reason or another. LMK what bike you get did you order something new I thought you had a QR? We will have to meet up if I make Daytona this year.