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For those of you that do not follow us on Facebook, and have not been following our project,...we decided to do a complete refresh/restore of our 914 race car Papa Smurf. Engine was due for a refresh, transmission needed to be re-geared and lsd installed...so...while everything was out and at Dawe's Motorsport, why not tear it down completely and rebuild it right? After Nadine and I completely disassembled it down to the chassis, we took it to our fabrication guys at Skin & Bones Soda And Media Blasting and Fabrication for stiffening and to tie the cage to the shock towers. And of course, they then proceeded to tell me how 'not safe' our cage is and that they could/should make it much better...they were right of course. We do some things with SCCA and the cage was NOT very SCCA legal (not at all to be honest)...so off they went rebuilding the cage, fixing cracks we found in the chassis, fixing/filling holes from years of changes, etc. After all the welding was done, it got media blasted (today), and the whole chassis is going to be powder coated next week.
Gotta give a shout out to the guys at Skin & Bones. Excellent workmanship and attention to detail.
If you ARE on Facebook, you can follow along on our page http://www.facebook.com/naroescapemotorsports where there's a photo album. But here area a few pictures I've taken as the work has progressed. :
Oh, and PLEASE help us out buy purchasing your track gear stuff from us at NaroEscape Motorsports so we can afford to pay for all this!! (sorry...shameless plug!)
Disassembly
Disassembly
Almost stripped.
As delivered to Skin & Bones
As delivered to Skin & Bones
front shock tied to cage
cage tied to front suspension
working on rear area
rear tie in to suspension and new shock top for spherical bearings
new rear horizontal and angled bar with tie in to B pillar
What’s funny is everyone says “can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s done”
It will look exactly like the first picture. It should PERFORM better and last longer, but it’ll look the same..
yeah...I know...it started as a simple refreshening...got a little out of hand....
But we really wanted to fix a lot and replace some things with more of the items we carry, and make it a better marketing tool. As you can see from some of the first pictures, it was worn out and beat up. It’s been 17 years since it was built with this body kit and painted, and it’s gone through a dozen or so iterations. Plus we found a few stress cracks in the chassis that needed to be addressed...and we needed to make the cage better and safer (we ARE a safety supply company after all) and stiffen up the chassis....so.... here we are.
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yeah...I know...it started as a simple refreshening...got a little out of hand....
But we really wanted to fix a lot and replace some things with more of the items we carry, and make it a better marketing tool. As you can see from some of the first pictures, it was worn out and beat up. It’s been 17 years since it was built with this body kit and painted, and it’s gone through a dozen or so iterations. Plus we found a few stress cracks in the chassis that needed to be addressed...and we needed to make the cage better and safer (we ARE a safety supply company after all) and stiffen up the chassis....so.... here we are.
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I'm actually doing something similar right now (well someone else is). All my formula bodywork has been nicely repaired and is sitting in primer right now. And a whole lot more mechanical work than anticipated. LOL.
Don't make the car so purty that you won't drive it!
I'm actually doing something similar right now (well someone else is). All my formula bodywork has been nicely repaired and is sitting in primer right now. And a whole lot more mechanical work than anticipated. LOL.
Don't make the car so purty that you won't drive it!
I see what you did there!
I'm really looking forward to the new gearing, LSD and handling of the car - especially the new rear shock points with poly-bronze bushings instead of 45 year old rubber donuts - so it will certainly be driven! We drive our cars. GT3 has over 105k miles on it...
Planning on MidO, VIR and Summit PCA Vintage class races, MAYBE Road America if business is good enough up to then (i.e. We can afford it!), and few DE's and maybe an SCCA TT or two (Nadine likes doing TT and it always gets me seat time).
I'm really looking forward to the new gearing, LSD and handling of the car - especially the new rear shock points with poly-bronze bushings instead of 45 year old rubber donuts - so it will certainly be driven! We drive our cars. GT3 has over 105k miles on it...
Planning on MidO, VIR and Summit PCA Vintage class races, MAYBE Road America if business is good enough up to then (i.e. We can afford it!), and few DE's and maybe an SCCA TT or two (Nadine likes doing TT and it always gets me seat time).
Update....so we decided not to powder coat. I’m a bit disappointed but there are a few reasons:
1) seam seal. this is something I’ve thought about since we made the call to powder coat. The powder coater THINKS it MIGHT be ok, maybe...he said we could probably bake/burn it all off at higher temp, but would it damage anything? Plus we do have a lot of holes and duct areas blocked off with aluminum “caps” epoxied on. They would all come off or melt...or if the powder coat DOESNT stick on some spots, it will look like crap.
2) color. we couldn’t find a powder coat close enough in color to Olympic Blue...the original color of Papa Smurf and one of the colors of the outside. So we’d have to go with a different shade...meaning it won’t match and we’d have 3 very different blue colors on the car. Not what we want.
3) and...this is a race car. Powder coat or not, it’s going to get beat up a little, just general wear and tear. How do you touch up small areas and spots? Matching the color would be close,but not exact, so in the end it will look like crap.
So with so much uncertainty and so many opportunities for it to “look like crap”...we’re going the traditional route and paint it. That actually makes it easier for some things, so it’s the best direction we felt.
Once we start putting it together, I’m going to start a blog on our website documenting and highlighting the install of all the products we carry that are going into the car. Many we’ve always had in the car, some will be new.
Good call. I'm not a huge powder coat fan especially for large complicated parts that have a lot of angles. Once it starts chipping it never stops. Many of the current epoxy primers and paints are just about as strong as old school powder coating and can be touched up more easily but most of all won't chip chip chip.
01-03-2019, 06:49 PM
Papa Smurf 914 race car "Refresh" Winter Project
(sorry...shameless plug!)
