Nov 29th and I thought I was done ! HA

Ok another 8 hours spent prepping, stripping deadner and sealer from everywhere including engine compartment.





I just CANT, CANT paint over shit that looks like my 6 year old put on with a mop.





So the deed is done, and its well over 15 lbs. I quit weighing at that point. A lot ended up in the shop vac and as anal about details as I am Im not sifting through the shop vac (although I did consider it)





Had a great conversation with fellow Drag Pak owners Marc Jacobs and Mack Reeves today. I like Marcs approach on a lot of things, and he knows his stuff, knows the vendors and knows the players, a good resource to have in your corner. I only hope I can be as much help to him as hes been to me.





Us DP builders are going to HAVE to share and learn SOME things , Im not talking about Sanders Secret Herbs and Spices, we all have our "tricks" and items we hold close that we think will make us competitive, but Drag Pak items that can be shared well, we need to, we are up against very stiff competition from the Ford camp with the SCJ and certain things I would think we need to share.





So Ill share my thoughts on something, all the crap in the nose of the car needs to go, the shrouding for the grille, the air directors, all junk, all sloppy passenger car stuff , anything that can go should go. The fan unit that comes with the car is HEAVY, an aftermarket Dual shroud and fans with BOTH, weighs less. (Yes Ive weighed them) and to counteract the shroud behind the grill that takes up to 35% of the cooling area and effectivley negates it, a pusher type setup MAY be an option for some, and its legal as I read it. (its pretty clear)





So just some thoughts, I had hoped to have sealer on today but Im feeling a bit under the weather and havent eaten....so Pizza first then sealer....maybe.





I leave for Georgia tommorow to meet with the people doing my custom fuel system, that should be fun :)

Ok...pizza and home 12 hours on the road tommorow is enough work.

Nov 28th Finished with Sealer and Sound panels

Wow what a nasty job, I was relishing the thought I had new iron to work with right until the point I had flashbacks of stripping 70 years of Ziebart off my 49 Plymouth Coupe :)

This wasnt quite as bad.....and well over 15 POUNDS of Crap, not including what ended up in my shop vac (Yes I actually saved and weighed all of it) I will be selling the removed sealer on ebay in Key Chains so people who want can actually have part of a Drag Pak ..... (I am kidding of course)

Sooooo.....lots of scraping and wire wheeling and its looking goood, clean as a newborns arse.

Now for Cage paint, then undercarriage paint, Im going Grey with that semi gloss, then urethane sealer on the interior, Im not going to clear the interior it seems like such a waste of time (and a few lbs of dried clear)

All in all Im about 2 days behind where I wanted to be, time to hire more help....Until today Ive been flying Solo, one of my helpers has had a better paying gig, but hes done now so well get ahead of schedule in no time I hope.

Thats all till tommorow

Nov 27th Drag Pak stipping continues

Ok, my hand is bruised, from scaping off the body sealer and sound deadning panels, Im about 2/3 done and at over 10 lbs of shit.

Its slow and painful, (to my hand and shoulder, I knew I should have had that rotator cuff fixed)

But it goes.......Got my chassis, and cage paint today as well as my Base coat for the engine compartment, my goal is still to have it in paint by Sunday.

Leaving Monday AM for Georgia to our Fuel Harness to be built on the SRT8 Challenger (with the DP manifold) I am going this route so its done quicker (without the need for them to have our DP car) and will be a standalone harness.

The old man started laying out and mapping out the wiring today, good thing he can eningineer a computer from scratch (he has actually done that) and build it himself, including etching his own boards, I sure as hell didnt get this gene from him........last car I wired was ALL in Red (hey it was the only color I had :)

Nov 26th TURKEY DAY !

Well happy Thanksgiving.

I left the house at about 5 and came to the shop to strip all the shit that wasnt supposed to come on the car. The sounddeading and sealer. I wonder who at Mopar I can bill for this ? False advertising ? Its on the spec sheet that it dosent have it.....ugh....just irritated.

In case you as another DP owner are wondering how much is REALLY there ? Well, over 5 lbs in the trunk alone, most of that the deadener panels, (about 2/3)

Im going to assume 10 lbs at least overall probably closer to 15......Thats 15 LBS I can relocated and do the car the way it was SUPPOSED to be, this stuff is hard as a rock, heat gun helps, the corners in the trunk are the hardest, my suggestion is cut chunks out there with a razor knife, and I am using a sharp wood chisel about 3/4 wide, a paint scraper is useless from what Ive seen. Maybe if yours dosent flex.

So tommorow more scraping, Saturday Trunk, Undercarriage and Interior H2K urethane sealer.

Sunday BC/CC on Trunk and Engine compartment, well it only took 4 hours to do the trunk right.....ugh...

Wed Nov 25th Ordering and teardown complete

Well, not to jinx us and its only been 4 working days the car has been back, but were ahead of schedule and under budget.

Today the last of our items were either shipped and the final pieces parts were ordered. Then again we live 20 minutes from Summit Racing so little items are a run away, and you have to LOVE Summits return policy, pretty much they take it back as long as it hasnt been molested. Even a year later, seriously, I cleaned off my shelves of RB items I never used a couple weeks ago.

Thanks again to Marc Jacobs (Another Drag Pak owner) for pointing me to among other things a starter from RobMC . Slick unit good price, parts available....gotta like that, thanks Marc.

Today also had one of those oh boy am I a dumbshit moments. After finishing the teardown for paint and pulling the dash. I was taking the steering wheel off and made a mention to the old man, "Wow that would be cool if this had an airbag in it" his response was , "Yeah in hospital bills when it blows up in your face" My head was over the wheel as I pulled the 2 bolts that hold it in....Needless to say it didnt as I expected have one in it. But if there is someone to be injured by an exploding bag its me.

Lights out, dash out, all trim stuff.

Everything dropped off for powder coating, be done Monday.

Transshield ordered, Steering wheel, release, Starter, Flexplate, and all the other final decisions made on alternator and water pump drive. Our headers and driveshaft and were set minus the trimmings.

Im still unsure on who is going to wire it, I may end up doing it, good thing Ive got a fire extinguisher :) I really dont want to, and Ive got someone I would like to do it it all comes down to timing now.

We also got our hands on the last new alloy spool for an 8 3/4 35 spline rear I know of. Why noone makes one anymore is beyond me (Mark Williams does but for MW 35 spline only not regular 35 spline)

Friday will be scuffing cage, cleaning trunk of body sealer, sealer on trunk , undercarriage and interior. Saturday B/C on trunk and engine compartment, Monday Atlanta for a Harness on the SRT8 using the DP manifold for our custom rolled (and YES NHRA approved) ECU system.

Tue 24th Getting prepped and more phone work

I am amazed at how much phone work is involved in racing, it has always been this way, with the Vintage Motorcycles in a way it was easier, more time tracking items down but there were only a few sources.

Today I managed to track down what I think is the last new 489 case on the planet (aftermarket) these are backordered big time, and have been. I managed to find one sitting on a shelf of a semi retired rear end guy in Montana thanks to Cass at DoctorDiff. He also pointed me to Jeff an engineer at Strange to get a custom alloy spool done for us and good news on that front, until I got these items squared away I was having serious thoughts about my choice on the 8 3/4 Moser unit if for no other reason than parts availablity.

So ..... got all the fuel injection pinouts to the engineers working on the ECU. All good on that front.

And managed (thanks to Mike P at MPR again) to get a GOOD answer on headers and he put me with someone doing what I think is the right approach.

Taking an early day off for tommorow to prep for paint tommorow and more interior tear down.

I still havent decided on a cage color (yeah black I know) but I think Im going with a superfine metallic grey that matches the interior color.

Monday Nov 23rd Teardown begins

We started the teardown for powdercoating and paint on the Challenger on Monday, after getting a very close and long look at the work Mike at MPR did for us, I couldnt be happier, his work is stellar, bar none. I couldnt be happier about our choice to have to him do our car. Everything went without a hitch.

Engine is out, trunk cleared for paint, rear off to be coated tommorow.

And all that and I forgot to have Moser put on a drain bung.

So 30$ later at summit and some tig work (not as nice as Mikes...but few are) and our rear is ready for coating.

Friday NOV 20th the Drag Pak comes home

Friday our Challenger Drag Pak #24 came home for a spell to our shop in Barberton Ohio.

The return trip from MPR in Almont Michigan was uneventful other than 4 broken straps and the car coming loose in the trailer after hitting the doosy of potholes in Detroit.

We unloaded, sat in the car , made vroom vroom noises and put her to bed for the night.