Springfield Flyer.

[floydjer]

I am happy that you are happy Mike...🤔 I would not want to have to fly over to S.A. to rake your yard.😂

[tauruck]

Well, I got stiffed both ways on the timing chain set.
Nasen messaged from PRI so I told him about the part. He said give me the number. Done.
Sonya was either playing me or couldn't order online which I find strange.

Nasen gets back but I never asked if he got the part because his mom passed from this new virus variant. RIP.

A week later I decide to ask. He didn't buy the part. I can't win. It's a $133 part!!!!!!.
I wasn't going to charge him for the mold. He could have told me while Sonya was still in Austin.
I charged him for the mold and now he's not getting the Toyota parts at cost. I'll use the bucks to import the timing set myself.

I'll do anything for my buddies. Not having a rant but truth is truth. I build a pile of cool custom stuff for Pete's Navara truck free of charge. He borrows my MX bike in late November.
He's gone. Supposed to return it after the weekend. Kev was rebuilding the motor in my Volvo wagon after he said it "SLIPPED" a few teeth on the timing belt. I'm sitting here with a new head, turbo and modified exhaust. He sold the car as scrap and moved to the Cape along with the 6 grand upfront money.

Great start to the year. Am I upset?. Not one bit. People are who they are and have to live with their decisions. 

From the age of 13 I have never lost a fight, never started a single one but finished them all on the ice, in the street or the ring. This LSR project is a 15 round bare knuckle deal and the opposition have baseball bats and there's a bunch of them in the ring. LSR FOR MEN ONLY!!!!!!!.

[kiwi belly tank]

I hear ya M8. My ex-best friend screwed me over last year causing me to not be able to run at the July test & tune. He had six months to take care of programing the twin ecu's & turned up two days before it was time to hit the road then tells me he can't make it work. I haven't spoken to him since! I went down & got it numbered & teched but then the China virus came to visit, then the rain came & that was it for 22.
I'm an old fart, I don't have enough years left to waste one!
  Sid.

[tauruck]

Sid, I have 2 mates left.
Kate was the woman who gave me my start in composites and she passed last week. She was better than my male buddies.
Derick and Gebi left. Great dudes I can rely on.
Locally people suck. My buddies in the US whom I've never met are way better.
All you guys help me and don't BS. Without all of you I'd have canned this deal.

Sorry you had a bad run there mate. Hopefully this year you'll get to the salt. If anyone deserves to run it's you. 🙏🙏🙏👊👊👊👊

[tauruck]

Now that I've confirmed both my 351C blocks are the Australian "heavy wall" castings I'm going ahead.
It was a worry but hey Ak Miller won 8 Pikes Peaks with a twin turbo Cleveland so that's good enough for me.
Guys I'm not trying to be George!. I'm in South Africa and have the only long car on the continent.
Buying bits and bobs as I go.

I called Brent at Klingspor Abrasives to apologize for taking so long to finish the liner. His response was he didn't care if it took me 15 years, he's still behind me 100%.
Going in tomorrow to collect a bunch of stuff. What a sponsor!!!!!. So many good dudes helping me on this build. Yeah I'm losing my mind and not sleeping well but it goes with the territory.

[Stainless1]

Mike... it's an obsession... almost everyone I know involved with LSR is obsessed with going faster...
It's also an addiction... mentally and physically... there is no 12 step program... but there is a 5 mile temporary cure...
Make sure you are having fun... building a car can make you crazy unless you remember you are doing this because it is fun and very few people on this planet get to have this kind of fun. 
Hey if it was easy everybody would be doing it...
But it's not easy... having friends help makes it easier... and having friends helps make it easier

Hello everyone, my name is Stainless, and I have a problem... but I'm working through it 

[tauruck]

You're a great friend Stainless and you aren't the first to say if it becomes a chore it's a problem.
I have developed a deep mistrust of my countrymen. I'm a hard grafter and a poor decision I made in 05 set me back.
I lost all my customers in the motorsports industry because I took a break to go do a job for a friend at the coast. 2 months turned into a year
and the guy stiffed me.
These days work is hard to find but I'm hanging in there. Things are going to change drastically soon and I'm going shopping.
Some hard decisions to be made and this liner is way overdue. I'll email you. I need some assistance and I think you're the guy?. 

Thanks for the encouragement brother and BTW those front runners are in my bedroom. I can smell them. Nothing like the smell of rubber in the morning.

[SPARKY]

Well there is something-- sunrise over the Wasatch

[kiwi belly tank]

Well there is something-- sunrise over the Wasatch

Yeah the lake effect inversion layer is like no other! 
  Sid.

[tauruck]

This liner should be renamed roller coaster.

I walk away at least twice a day and 40 times mentally.
No money, big dreams and SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!!.
Can't win here. 18.40/$1. Gas is 25 bucks a litre.

My engineering sponsor has to machine about 60 components and he wants CAD drawings.
The only guy I trust is in Utah but sometimes logistics don't work. I don't have micrometers and large industrial verniers either.

I pray a lot, mostly for forgiveness because I lose it out of frustration but then the miracles arrive.

My neighbour had a blowout on his Isuzu truck and the plastic wheel arch was destroyed. Older model and no used parts so he finds
one off a 4x4 and it fits but the fender rolls under more on his truck so he asks if I can modify the new part to fit.
These plastics have an oil additive in them so bonding is a huge problem and I don't do plastic welding.

I call my resin supplier to see if there's an adhesive I can use and during the conversation she's giving me all this info on safety etc.
so I tell her I've been working with composites since 87. She says her son has a side hustle making Carbon parts for Ford Focus cars
and he's getting whipped. I know the feeling. Starting out without knowledge is a pain so I said I'll give him some pointers.

Jason calls me and he's the coolest young guy. It turns out that he's an Olympic Shot Put athlete. Day job is doing CAD drawings for engineering components.
Short story is I'm giving him about 70% of my molds because I don't have use for them and he'll make a few bucks more. He's doing all the CAD for me and he's become
a friend. I like his old school manners and he just gives off good vibes. A giant of a man and by his own admission he's a Teddy Bear.
I get on well with the giants. Miracles do come in XXXL. 

[WOODY@DDLLC]

Great news Mike! 
Just remember - shot putters have cast iron balls! 

[manta22]

Good for you, Mike. You deserve every break you get! Many times one's own attitude makes all the difference between success and failure. Too many people just crawl back in bed, sniveling.

Btw, your mention of his being a shot-putter reminded me of a friend back in high school who was a shot-putter, Floyd Gross. He could throw it 56 feet. He played football, basketball, & ran the high hurdles. Floyd was the best natural athlete I ever saw. I heard that later on he became head of the Security Police at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Another nice guy.

[tauruck]

Thanks guys.

I've been the runt all my life but I fight.

In hockey my mentor was Allan Vick a Canadian giant and he was like my big brother. In the army I had Brian Snashall who was a dead ringer for Bull from Night Court. Jason is cool and is probably the biggest I've met in my life. The Covid had him bad and he's still fighting to get back to full fitness. This boy has had a hard life and just getting to the Olympics was a miracle. South Africa is weird. It gives you NADA.

I've been making small parts for the motor like the fuel pump block off plate and a special plug to fit where the distributor used to fit. Another big thing in my life is that I'll be starting to weld Aluminium. No one here anymore I can trust so like everything else besides machining I'm going all in. That dang inlet manifold took me about six months to set up and it was perfect until that guy ruined it. Podunk made such awesome runners. I gave him a paper full scale drawing made from the port and the Ford Boss inlets aren't exactly rectangular. They have weird radii and his runners fit perfectly. Thank God I only have to replace the top plenum plates. IMHO the guy is a genius.

I'll post pics of those small parts tomorrow.

[floydjer]

Mike....You play hockey??? Stan Mikita was Patti's uncle.

[tauruck]

Stan Mikita #21. Black Hawks and played with Bobby Hull.
How did I get into composites?. Making goalie masks for my kid brother when I was 13.
Yes I played hockey despite my size and was earning $100/game at 16. Scouted to play junior A in Sudbury but my mom was adamant I wasn't going anywhere.
I had my idol. Bobby Orr. Then Bobby Clarke came on the scene!!!!!. Today I love Brayden Point of the Lightning. I was raised by Canadians and know all about "Newfies" and the "Quebecois".

Hockey made me Jerry. Everything I do came from the confidence I got from being a great skater and according to the "South Africans" I was banned overnight worldwide for misconduct on the ice.
No formal hearing. Just some random decision made by a "committee" at 2AM but in secret. 

I was already 2 years into race driving and the hockey was something to do after hours. It was a comeback of sorts.

These days I fight the LSR demons. Tough team. They'll cross check you, slash you, trip you and check you over the boards into your own bench.