Lemons South Fall race- Who else is in?

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:12 am

A few updated pics of our build:

Here’s Ryan removing the paint for welding the main hoop mounting points:

Of course there are no flat spots in this car, and there are wires and lines to work around so we had to make the base plates special:

Removal of the driver’s door guts to allow room for the door bars:

Randy Melton stopped by and came up with an ingenious method of removing the rear glass using a sawzall blade with the teeth removed. It worked great!

Here we are using my new bandsaw to cut the extra length off the main hoop legs:

The halo bar needs to sit way up in the roof so Ryan used up no less than four of my cutting wheels removing the extra double-walled metal:

Here I’ve added our team’s official badge (courtesy of Mike Westerfield) to the front fenders and to the hood:

We have been told several times that our B20A engine will suffer damage easily if it’s over revved, or even driven on the redline for any length of time. Therefore I mounting a shift light last night to help us. The inside of the lighting surface was black so I masked it off and painted in bright silver (didn’t have any white) to make it brighter. Then I swapped out the standard #194 incandescent bulb to the new SMD-style LED that I’ve used in the gauge lighting in my car. I did a test with both and the LED is at least 2X as bright as the standard bulb. Here are a couple of shots, one of the light housing itself (using the flash) and one with the light actually on. It’s pretty darn bright! We should have no trouble seeing it even in bright sunlight.

Hopefully we will finally get the cage installed this weekend. Stay tuned….

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:37 am

Well we had a pretty productive weekend on the cage installation. It’s 95% complete, at this point. Here are the build pics from this past weekend:

First, nothing ever fits the way it should. Here you can see the main hoop legs are being drawn inward with a ratchet strap to get them to the correct dimension. Notice the horizontal bar laying there? Yep that had to be cut and re-notched as well.

Here we have tacked the halo to the main hoop and the A-pillar legs in place to see how it would all fit and added temporary braces to hold it all in place.

Chris and Stephen take it for a test fit in the car. Will it fit?

H*ll no! The halo bar needed to be about 2” shorter so we had to cut and re-notch it as well.

Here the assembly is sitting in the car and held in place to the roof with a ratchet strap. Stephen is cutting the door to provide clearance for the NASCAR bars. In the last pic you see the door latch had to be relocated due to the modifications.

The B-pillar had to be notched to provide clearance for the NASCAR bars also. Here Stephen is using the grinder and sawz-all to GIT-R-DONE.

We had to build plinths for the front legs so the A-pillar bars could be dropped later and fully welded. Here the NASCAR bars along with the A & B pillars are tacked in place and marked.

After we lined everything up and marked it, the main hoop and halo assembly was removed so all the joints could be fully welded.

Would the horizontal bar on the main hoop work correctly to mount the harness? Of course not! We had to make our own. Here Ryan is cutting the notch and I’m welding the bar in place.

Once all the welding on the main hoop was done we set it all back into place.

After tacking the A-pillars to the halo, we were able to slide the whole assembly backwards and off the front plinths. This dropped the halo enough to provide access to fully weld the A-pillar bars to the halo.

Next we set the entire assembly into the final position and welded the main hoop and A-pillar down bars to the foot plates and plinths. Notice in the second pic how you need to be an octopus to weld some of these joints.

Last step (for yesterday) was to weld in the door bars. Again you need to be able to weld standing on your head at odd angles.

All that is left on the cage is to add the rear supports to the main hoop. We will finish that up this coming Saturday and call this major portion of the build done.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Mark Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:50 am

The car is looking good and coming together. September 12th will be here in no time.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:51 am

very nice VK.

gotta love that Honda adaptability. :twisted:

if only BMW would make it so easy to transform their cars into race cars. :roll:

Brown looks about worn out. has he decided to go back to Crew Chief duties yet? :lol:

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:55 am

Mark Barnes wrote:

September 12th will be here in no time.

No doubt!

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:08 am

Ryan Holton wrote:

Mark Barnes wrote:

September 12th will be here in no time.

No doubt!

Amazing how it sneaked up on us. It was about 2 weeks ago when I realized, "Holy crap, we are about month out and the cage isn't in the car yet!" It's all coming together though. I think one solid work day next weekend and the car will be ready for a shake down.

Between this and getting ready for our HPDE at CMP in October.....I'm looking forward to not picking up a wrench in Nov/December.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:25 am

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Amazing how it sneaked up on us. It was about 2 weeks ago when I realized, "Holy crap, we are about month out and the cage isn't in the car yet!" It's all coming together though. I think one solid work day next weekend and the car will be ready for a shake down.

I think there are many misconceptions (by others) about LeMons. First, building a car that will run for hard 12 hours and be safe for $500. Second, you can do it in no time. Third, the cars are all POS’s that were just slapped together with bailing wire and zip ties.

I can tell you from experience that our expenditures (and most other teams) are near $4,000. That $500 POS car figure is a little misleading to say the least. We have spent a TON of hours on this car. It takes a LOT of time to build a car for these races. Aside from hacking away at certain pieces of metal, we have built this car no different (quality and safety wise) than we would any car. Besides, I’m not sure I even know how to do something half-a$$ed.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:29 am

well rest up big guy, because come January the "No Wrench Turning Dorifto Dogs 4.0" begin work on Klaus.

and we would be honored if you helped.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:32 am

steve remchak wrote:

well rest up big guy, because come January the "No Wrench Turning Dorifto Dogs 4.0" begin work on Klaus.

and we would be honored if you helped.

I could be heard several times this weekend saying "Why don't we build a race car in the winter?"...while I was sweating my @ss off in that welding helmet.

Mark Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:34 am

I agree as our numbers are about the same. You just spend less time on the appearance but more time on the overall car. Since you start with a basketcase, takes a lot to make sure everything is in order for the race. You also have to pass tech so you have no room for error. Nobody wants to discover something needs to be redone the night before the race. Safety is key too. Just because the car is cheap doesn't mean hitting something at 75mph won't leave a mark...

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:36 am

steve remchak wrote:

"No Wrench Turning Dorifto Dogs 4.0"

steve remchak · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:52 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJZ9EWhj ... re=related

:lol:

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:58 am

Vincent Keene wrote:

Besides, I’m not sure I even know how to do something half-a$$ed.

I know this is a lie, for seen you autocross

J/K of course. Nice work on the car. - AB

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:06 am

Aaron Buckley wrote:

Vincent Keene wrote:

Besides, I’m not sure I even know how to do something half-a$$ed.

I know this is a lie, for seen you autocross

J/K of course. Nice work on the car. - AB

LOL. I guess I should have 'I’m not sure I even know how to BUILD something half-a$$ed.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:11 am

steve remchak wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJZ9EWhj9gY&feature=related

:lol:

Lemme guess, Harry got you some special tires, matched stagger spec. You can hold it flat Cole

God I love that movie

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