Springfield Flyer.

[floydjer]

Nice stuff Mike.

[tauruck]

Thanks Jerry. How are you doing?. Good?. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[floydjer]

Doing just fine Mike. Going to follow Dr.'s orders to the finest degree and let the bride tend to my needs.😍 Carry on JB

[tauruck]

Doing just fine Mike. Going to follow Dr.'s orders to the finest degree and let the bride tend to my needs.😍 Carry on JB

Thank the Lord.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✝✝✝

Getting luckier by the day. It's unreal.
As you all know I live this weird existence.
No bucks but boy am I determined!!!. I don't give an inch.
I've supported my resin/fabric supplier since 88 and never asked for any help.
I should have because my mate was the co director. They sold to an American conglomerate before I could ask for sponsorship.
I get hold of Gebi and he tells me to speak with Brian because they regularly throw out "expired" stock or redundant systems.
Some of the prepreg Carbon for aerospace has a use by date just like the resin. This is all good for another 18 months.
I know from experience.

Brian says he'll check for me, Boom!!!. I got 40kg of Revowrap 190*c Epoxy. Not for DIY but I've used some samples in the past.
It's not popular and was ready for disposal. This is enough for all the body panels and floor tray where required.
This is a 43% by weight mix. Average is 25%.

I'm on a high so I call a company that took over Schaeffler Bearings (FAG). Schaeffler was one of my first sponsors.
I had called before but some lady stonewalled me about 18 months ago.
Something says try again. This little voice in my head.
Short story is Esmarelda says here's the director's email. Get in touch.
I mailed Moe and never pulled punches.
It was Schaeffler invested big money in my project and I refuse to let this relationship die or brand my liner with a logo I don't use yada yada yada.

Not 10 minutes later I get a call from a number I don't know and I never answer those but the voice said DO IT.
Moe is airfreighting 12 rod end bearings from Germany. He says I'm covered and he'll organize the sew on patches, decals and any other bearings I need.
Done baby!!!!.

Tell me this is all by coincidence??. Prayer "The breakfast of Champions". 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✝✝✝

[tauruck]

THANKS!!!.

I want to thank each and every one of you for all the inspiration, motivation and support.

You guys changed my life. This journey is the GREATEST adventure ever. When I came here the first time it was by chance.
I was looking for wisdom. I saw the ages of the members and two thoughts came to mind. These are older guys but that quickly changed to why???.

In racing 40 is old. That's a fallacy!!!!. Someone informed me the guys are old because that's how long it takes to get a record. He was right.
Never ever met a 25 year old Wizard in my life.

This is Wizard HQ. I'm not done yet but I've been steered in the right direction from day one.
I've done crazy things in my life but nothing compares to this. Nothing.

Tiny kid from South Africa with big dreams. At 12 my dad passed. Grandma spoiled me rotten. This is no joke. In 67 our currency the Rand was 3/1USD. I was taking 10 bucks to school every day.
Growing up next to the oval track I was a Sprint Car freak. I used to spend every afternoon sitting in the grandstand just staring at the track listening to the metal roof creaking and the Sparrows fighting. I bought magazines in bunches. They were 75c. I had Hot Rod, Car Craft and all the rest. Covers always showed Big Daddy smoking rubber and getting the front wheels airborne.
I swear I thought they ran the quarter on the rear tyres only!!!!. My brother and I discussed this over and over.

I kid you not. I had a full size Swamp Rat in the back yard built from light weight tubing that was pinched by hammering flat and bolted. The cage was bent using a gap between the garage wall and a cast iron vent pipe. It was kinky so a bunch of foam rubber covered the "blemishes" followed by 100s of rolls of insulation tape. It never turned a wheel because I couldn't figure a way to get a long bicycle axle through the cockpit.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It had body work on it and black paint. East Street was the dream. It was long and the steepest around. I even had a chute with a spring in a bag.

I'm 12 again but now I have Wizards!!!!!.

I had huge dreams. Still do. God Bless you all.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✝✝✝👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[SPARKY]

  Mike  I just love your enthusiasm when you are on a roll it just takes my systems to a higher level!!!!

[tauruck]

Thanks my brother.

I wear my heart on my sleeve. I tell it like it is.

When I tell people I have ZERO budget they think I'm lying.
Zero budget in America is bad but in South Africa it's 20 times worse!!!.

I prayed for a sign 12 or 14 years ago and got an answer within hours.
When this is done people will turn to Christianity in droves.

You could call these events miracles but I call them answers.
I meet this guy when I was on Linkedin before they banned me for being a man and standing up for a kid with Downs Syndrome. Some guy called her mother an abnormal baby making machine so I called him out. He couldn't take a light scolding and was offended so I got the boot.
Back to the guy I met. Theo from Craft Hydraulics in a town called Welkom. I have a special place in my heart for Welkom because of the track there. I did a Bill Elliot. Got a lap down in the pits and went on to win by 32sec.
Never met the guy. I was telling him about my floor jack not working. He says he wants my address?. He sends his driver 200 miles to collect the jack and it came back like new even with fresh paint and rubber handle.

I'm never averse to doing favours. I help wherever I can but this guy is special. He deals with the engineering sponsor who jerked me around for a year. He asked how things were?. Not great.
He says get the stuff back and I'll do what I can to help you within my budget. Go to Heathcote Engineering and get a quote. Heathcote is a CNC production shop. They don't do one offs.
Once a week Theo sends a WhatsApp. Go get another quote. We're still under budget. Heathcote made 16 injector bungs. The quote made MY eyes water. He just Okayed the making of the two front wheel hubs. I supplied the billets but I was still holding my breath. Theo goes get hold of Heathcote and give the go ahead. We're still in budget.

You think I met a total stranger on Linkedin by pure chance??. And then he becomes a benefactor!!!.

This just one example of many. This is Divine Intervention!!!!!!. There is no logical explanation for all these wins.
I'm not doing this alone that is 100%.
All I know is I give thanks, keep my head down and take one day at a time.
God Bless you Sparky and all the guys here. You stuck with me and I'll never let you down.✝✝✝✝🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[tauruck]

Progress in Springfield Flyer territory.

A while back I posted a photo of the male mould I made for my cone and a mate in the US called Kerry Alter said it looked like a flower pot.
I promised him it would be known as such. "THE KERRY ALTER FLOWER POT".

The cone goes from the Y junction on the turbo cold side to the throttle body.

The mould was made on the drill press using high density Styrofoam, my eye and the Vernier callipers.
The crazy thing is when I test assembled the throttle body, the flower pot and the Y junction there's zero misalignment. Unbelievable!!!!!.
I built in the flange for the BOV and worked around it. I first had to fabricate a Stainless washer to fit the contour of the cone. Stainless loves me for some reason.
It came out perfect and it got welded to the flange. After a few layers of Carbon I bonded it the flange base with the strongest adhesive known to man.

[tauruck]

This part turned out awesome IMHO.
It was one of the more difficult parts I've made.
Carbon drapes pretty well but there are so many contours it made sense to use smaller cuts as opposed to one go around.
That I can't pull off but this part is Level 10 on the bulletproof scale. It has glass, Kevlar and every different Carbon fabric in my arsenal.

Getting the part off of the mould was a lot easier than you think. A small cap of Acetone poured down the throat dissolved the Styrene and all I had to do
was use a sharpened piece of ABS plastic as a pry tool to get the single layer of glass and filler to crack and the pieces just fell out.

[tauruck]

One side has provision for a Viton O ring with 8 imbedded bolts
and the small side has O ring and built in female threads. All metal and built into the structure.
The sanding for clear coat was a total nightmare. If you think glassfibre can make you itch then step up to the king. CARBON!!!.
This is the nasty property no one ever talks about. I've suffered in my life but this Carbon is by far the worst. Arc eyes is a joke compared.
Guys say use a vacuum cleaner while you work. Near impossible. I paid my dues on this one.😫

I'm happy and now on to the next piece. Thank the Lord.
She's coming together now!!!.🙏🏻✝

[Stainless1]

Yes Mike, Stainless does love you... and your work... Keep the faith 

[tauruck]

Thank you my brother. I'm all Stainless now.

It's like the lights just got turned on.

Things are crazy here.
My benefactor Theo put me on to a world class CNC shop.
The guy WhatsApped me early yesterday to say they were machining my front wheel hubs.
A few hours later I got the photos. They're beautiful.

Tomorrow I'm getting a roll of S glass to make the floor pan and body work.
That 190* resin I got was a system no one in the country could master. The label says for professional use only.
I must be that pro. Brian says test it before you go big because the other users complained it cured hard and later went soft.
Flexible F1 wings was my immediate thought. A resin that could change properties back and forth??. The Holy Grail of composites.

I made a half round section about 4" long with no fabric in it. It must be 1/2" thick. Anyone with a little strength should snap it. Nada.
I've cycled it through temperatures and it's the hardest I've ever encountered. The gel time based on the speed I work at is just perfect.
If I asked for a special blend I couldn't have gotten better.

Tomorrow I'll find out if Renaldo has nuts for the ARP NASCAR wheel studs Chris Raschke sent me.
I have a catch can in the works but filters are crazy stupid expensive here so I came up with a home made trick one. Some little cylindrical pit bike Chinese thing is R450.
No China junk here no matter how insignificant it might be.

Throughout my racing past I had two problems. Tyres and hose fittings. I couldn't afford rubber and AN fittings seemed to suffer from crew finger trouble. Besides that for some reason the guys that sell them aren't good people. I get attitude from gear cutters but the hydraulics guys are off the charts. I can't deal with them.

I'm going to solve one side of the fittings issue. You guys will all balk at my idea but trust me. Pics to follow.

I'm eliminating all the negative personalities I encounter. You meet a guy and within 5 seconds I've read him. There's no middle ground. I'm the "beggar" in this situation but I'll walk from good products rather than deal with a negative person.

I'll transfer the hub pics from the phone to the PC once it's charged and post later today.

God Bless you Bob and thank you for all the help both materially and mentally. 🙏🏻👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻👍🏻👌🏻✝

[tauruck]

Two pics of my billet front hubs I got from the CNC shop.

[floydjer]

Nice looking parts Mike....I too have an ability to weed out the morons at first meeting. Probably why I have no friends. Carry on, JB

[tauruck]

Thanks Jerry.
Picking them up today.

All my real friends are in the States and Australia.
Guys I haven't even spoken to on the phone.

I have one new buddy here. Came as a client for a small job but he's great.
The rest are people I know. I'm short one dog and it's hurting but the other 4 keep me sane.

Is this called a "long car" because of the time it takes to build??. 
No duck side eh?.
I'm having a blast here brother.