How's the Celica going, Dave?

[David Leikvold]

Yeah, it'd be nice to have some optional ratios for the gearbox but I'm stuck with the standard setup. For some reason there isn't much performance gear available for old Camrys! The auto box has slighter better ratios than the manual 5 speed. Assuming it has a lockup torque converter it should do about 25mph per thousand revs. The standard engine redline is 7,100 rpm with the standard ECU fuel cutout, which I won't be using. If I can get it to pull the gear it would justify putting a parachute on a hairdresser's car. When I can afford to rebuild the motor properly I'll go all out and maybe run the fuel class with methanol for great gobs of boost and horsepower and maybe stretch that redline to 8,000rpm. That's a theoretical 200mph.
And as I said to Rob that Yamaha street luge is still playing with my head. Today did not help that go away! I've still got plenty of methanol compatible two stroke oil.

[Rob]

Geeze Dave,

and here's me got offered a free Sillycar today (89 model) and thinking about leeching all your "experience"

Don't spread yourself too thinly or you'll lose focus and momentum. Ask how I know.

Cheers,
Rob

[David Leikvold]

Run away, save yourself while you still can! Don't take the Celica! Seriously though, only you can decide which it's going to be, the tank or the Toyota. But consider this, everything I've written about my car has been about compromises brought about by trying to make it something it was never meant to be. The tank will be the same but on a much lesser scale. You are almost starting with a clean sheet of paper, your only constraint will be fitting it all in. If I'd had a proper place to build a car instead of just under a tarp I would have built a streamliner or a lakester for sure. Maybe after running the Celica for a few years I'll try something else, but it definitely won't be a salt luge!

[Rob]

Nah don't worry Dave, if I took the Sillycar it'd be running 2 litre production and then just to fill in time. It's almost a shame really, it's all there, straight, AC, sunroof, black on black but a quick look on Ebay shows they're worth nothing.

Tank or no tank there's a streamliner in my future.

How'd the pressure washing go?

Cheers,
Rob

[David Leikvold]

I just Googled "1989 Celica" and got a picture of a Datsun 240Z! The second attempt was more successful. I think I like the ST162 fastback look better. How fast do you think you could get the 2 litre going without spending more than just a few grand? My major priorities are fast and cheap, good I'm always trying for but it has to be cheap. I want change from 10 grand when I'm finished. So far I've got the car, the V6 engine and gearbox, good brakes, half the suspension, most of the instrumentation and I still haven't spent $2,200. At 3 grand I should have the engine mounted, driveshafts in and the wheels and tyres. $200 will have the wheel tubs in, the next few hundred bucks goes to the steel for the rollcage so I can finally call it a race car. Then it's just everything else!
I raised a few eyebrows at the tethered cars yesterday when I mentioned to Lynchy and Matt S that I was thinking of putting wheelie bars on the car. The general consensus was that I was mad (I hear that a lot!) but any car can take off if the right amount of air gets under it. The tiny tethered cars use them and some also have strakes under the body to tidy the airflow under the car. Good ideas are everywhere.
The Karcher was a big success, the wheel arches look good enough to cut up, the floor is only partially done, it isn't high enough to get at properly (only two besser blocks) so I'll do it later, probably when I'm working on the belly pan. That sounds like a three besser block job!

[Rob]

I had a deal sorted on a 260Z a few years back but was shafted. If you've already done one an SBC is an afternoon's work not counting ancillaries.

I hope that couple of grand includes personal safety gear or I'm over budget No idea on speed, Google says around 120-130hp standard and the body isn't exactly non-aerodynamic so I'd expect the ton and hope to be surprised. I'm unsure what production class it'd be in G/??C but most are open records anyhow.

Be bloody careful resting anything on bricks, blocks, pavers etc. When one breaks the wall comes tumbling down. At least put timber on top and try to put it in between. When I was installing "trailers" in the US this was the legislated method for doing piers. I know 2 blocks isn't high but when they bust they'll be lower than your scone and we'll have to change the topic to "How's the Dave going Celica?" Anyhow, cleaner AND lighter.. Woohoo.

Cheers,
Rob

[XDXR6T]

David, do yourself and your family a favour and buy yourself 4 good quality stands. The family of a good friend of mine found him under his pride and joy with the diff pumpkin thru his chest. You can imagine what he looked like. Its certainly not something you would want your loved ones to live with.
I have several sets of stands. The car ones can be a bit narrow at the base sometimes, particularly if your are working in the yard. Ratchet truck ones have a decent base and will take a lot more pushing and shoving than the car ones. I know its a bit of money out of the budget, but at least you will live to enjoy the fruits of your labour.

[David Leikvold]

I knew I'd get a few bites when I mentioned stacks of besser blocks! Thanks guys, you're quite right of course, I shouldn't be using them but it isn't as bad as I made it sound. I have 4 small, good quality stands under the standard jacking points sitting in top of thick wide hardwood timber on top of just one block laid with the holes vertical. The load is well spread over the block faces. All 4 blocks are as new, undamaged and are solid, i.e. no cast in splits to make the ends easy to knock out for a blockie putting reo in a wall. I also have all the old road wheels and tyres from both cars in pairs with more hardwood under the sills too. It isn't ideal but the car cannot drop more than a couple of inches if a block shatters. The engine and trans aren't bolted in yet so that considerable weight isn't part of the equation yet either.
And by the time I get to doing a belly pan the car will be almost finished with road wheels and tyres mounted and be sitting in a proper shed with a flat floor. I'm not sure yet how I'll get a decent working height for that job, maybe I'll find someone with a two post hoist instead who'd like his business name on the car. That could be the roll cage bender, the turbo manifold guy, the dyno shop or even the tyre shop. Don't ask, don't want, don't want, don't get.

[David Leikvold]

Peter, I apologise for not expressing my condolences for the the loss of your friend. Your advice has been heeded. I will not get under the car until it is safer.

[Rob]

G'day David,

Wouldn't it be easer to do the job now? Raise one side and leave the other on the ground, wash then reverse the procedure for the flip side? A car stand on a besser block should give quite a reasonable angle to wash under. I have visions of you with your sou'wester and gum boots laying in the mud and no, mardi gras is long over thankflly

By the way, this thread needs pictures!!!

Cheers,
Rob

[David Leikvold]

Sou'wester and gum boots? Takes me back to reading Paddington Bear to the kids!
To be honest I'm too lazy to drop the car on one side and then the other, I'll just put on overalls and a raincoat and get down and dirty. I'll just attack it from both sides, that should get it all. I might pull the fuel tank out while I'm at it. As for pictures, well I've only just mastered texting! I'll get my son to help, he's doing IT at uni now. Everyone will be so impressed with my slick setup. NOT! I'll see what I can do on the weekend, a good friend of ours from Alabama will be visiting for the first time in years. We used to race karts together so I expect a bit of bench racing will be in order.

[Rob]

a good friend of ours from Alabama will be visiting

Can he pressure wash??

Cheers,
Rob[/quote]

[David Leikvold]

He's a man of many talents so I'll offer him the job! He'll be thrilled. When he retired from flying helicopters for the US Army he built a Rutan Long EZ which he flies all over the 48 states. I think I'll just pick his brain for ideas for the Celica.

[Rob]

I went to a few fly-ins in the US and saw more experimental aircraft at those than I knew existed. There's a Vari-EZ at Hoxton Park, I saw it on the hard stand last Sunday.

Cheers,
Rob

[David Leikvold]

If a fella wasn't racing the pilgrimage to the lake would be much nicer in a closed cockpit ultralight. Even something that had a ground speed of 100 knots would make the journey quick and fun. For my 40th birthday (so long ago!) I did a trial flight in a Skyfox out of Redcliffe. I wasn't impressed. Apart from being slower than a wet week it flew nose high which was really annoying. We were trundling along at 1,000 ft and I just pushed the stick forward so I could see. The VSI said dropping at 100ft per minute, what the hell, I could pull it back up in 5 or 6 minutes no worries! I didn't take any more lessons because I knew I could never afford to keep my hours up.
I did a couple of nav runs with a student pilot friend of ours but nothing much else. He now flies twin jet charters internationally. He once said he'd put me in the right hand seat for a flight to Hawaii but he was grinning and he hasn't called back. Somehow I don't think I quite have the skills required!