October 1st weekend –
I took Friday off as the car lift was to be installed that morning. Two guys showed up around 9:00 and got busy cutting away shipping material from the lift. The installation took several hours and included a lot of connecting this and that and pushing up the two 600lb+ posts. The guys left for the day around 1:30; the electrical work to accommodate the lift hadn’t been done yet so they would have to return another day to finish the installation.
Our pal Jonathan Nagel dropped by at 2:00 to pick up a set of our old and worn racing tires. We had a nice long chat about racing, housing, and life in general.
On Saturday morning I managed to get back to sleep after taking care of the dogs. This was kind of amazing as I rarely can fall back to sleep after I’m awake.
After finally getting out of bed around 10:00 we had our coffee and went off to buy electrical parts. Alvin had given me a short list of things to purchase which we found at Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Once back home I worked on running the thick power cables around the garage. The original plan to run the cable was to go straight up from where the existing power comes in from the outside power panel but the wheel guides for the garage door blocked access.
I drilled holes through the studs and then pushed the power cables through the holes. Eventually I had to utilize our tall ladder to reach the rafters which was an uncomfortable experience. I took my time running the cable out to the middle of the garage and down to the lift.
Because of the change in cable routing we barely had enough length to make it work. I was going to buy a shorter length but Susan fortunately convinced me to purchase extra just in case. We ended up needing all 60’ minus perhaps a foot that we looped by the lift’s power unit. It was a close thing indeed.
Alvin and Kari came by later to eat BBQ and for Alvin to finish the electrical work. Alvin does much more complicated electrical work as part of his day job and had no problems helping us out. It took some time and an additional trip to Lowe’s but eventually Alvin wrapped up his efforts around 10:00. We did a test and the lift lifted! We were ecstatic.
Susan and I were simply out of productivity and had ourselves a nice and lazy Sunday. I did manage to finish editing the video from the Lemons race so I guess I did do a thing in the end. We watched streaming of the SCCA runoffs (their biggest annual event) most of the day. It was the first time we’d watched any of their coverage and we were enthralled. A great weekend to start October for sure.
October 9th weekend –
Once again I managed to get back to sleep for a time after taking care of the dogs. This newfound ability to go back to sleep is still amazing to me.
After coffee Susan and I went to the garage to do more organizing. We put up more shelves and moved around this and that. By the time we were finished the garage was looking pretty darn good and close to its ideal in our eyes.
In the early afternoon some friends came over to eat BBQ and discuss the possibility of forming a new endurance team. Most of those who joined us were seasoned racers and interested in my plan. They brought their own ideas which was great as well. I have a tendency to dictate the outcome of such gatherings so I tried to limit my input as far as I could stand to.
We had a really nice time and are hopeful that something will come of our discussions. Me being me I will be keeping the plans moving forward until everyone is sick of hearing from me and/or we establish a team.
On Sunday we slept in a bit before heading to the garage to use the new car lift for its intended purpose. By the end of the day we had changed the oil in five of our cars (Flo, Jack, Tia, Scrappy, and the NC) and diagnosed a few mechanical issues we will need to address in the near future. It’s amazing what one notices when walking underneath a car. We had to make a trip to Walmart to buy more oil-changing supplies and food stuffs in the early afternoon. While performing the oil changes still amounts to “work” the process is simplified with the car lift.
On Thursday night Kari and Alvin came over for dinner and for Alvin to cut a chunk off of our non-rolling Miata chassis. I had told Alvin that he needed to come claim his metal soon as I am planning on junking the “car” soon. It was nice to hang out and the chicken and zucchini I BBQ’d came out splendidly.
October 16th weekend –
On Saturday morning I slept in a bit before taking care of the dogs and heading to the garage. I loaded up three of Scrappy’s wheels and went to Family Tire. They wouldn’t touch them (one was showing its cords) so I went back home where I added some caulking to cover the damage. While the patches dried I worked on Scrappy.
I had a list of things I needed to do and the first was to install a new clutch disk. This was the first time I had pulled a transmission utilizing the new lift and the process was smoother than in the past when I utilized jack stands. I still had to undo the same bolts as before but found standing to be much more comfortable than laying down on a piece of cardboard.
After I had the transmission out I woke up Susan to take a look. Normally when I do this sort of work I don’t drag Susan under the car to see what I’m up to but with the lift she can easily see what I’m doing. It’s interesting stuff for sure.
With the caulking on the corded tire dry, Susan and I took it and the other two wheels to Walmart’s TLE. They agreed to swap the tires around like we wanted and Susan and I left to catch lunch at Qdoba before coming back to do some shopping. Once we were done with our eating and purchasing we picked up our wheels and headed home to continue the work on Scrappy.
Earlier we discovered a power steering line had split and was leaking fluid down the length of the car. The pipe’s location was directly under the oil pan and above the steering rack. Initially we weren’t sure what we could do in such a cramped space. I really did not want to pull the engine just to access one small pipe. Plus we didn’t know if we had or could obtain a replacement pipe.
Our red parts Miata came to the rescue as it had power steering and the needed section of piping came out somewhat easily. With a viable replacement in hand I set to finagling the split pipe out of Scrappy. It was slow and messy work but eventually I swapped out the power steering pipes. Thankfully the pipe from Lil Red didn’t leak and, after some strategic and careful bending, it was clear of the various stationary and moving bits in cohabitating its location.
After our success with the power steering fix I reinstalled the transmission and installed a new slave cylinder.
Dinner was yummy BBQ’d burgers and we spent then evening hanging with the girls on the couch.
Sunday I slept in just a bit before I made the mistake of attempting to wake Susan up right after I washed my hands. Apparently my hands were still a bit wet and cold enough to give Susan quite the shock. I felt bad enough that I let Susan sleep for another hour before I jostled her awake again (gently and through the blankets this time).
While I worked on replacing Scrappy’s front brake calipers, Susan patched up windshields on three of our cars. She had to fend off Oliver who was in “attack-mode”. Susan then climbed in Scrappy, which was still on the lift, to help me bleed the brakes, power steering, and clutch. I attempted two fixes on Jack while Susan spent time cleaning up Oliver’s shed. It was a busy and productive day for sure.
I BBQ’d chicken and zucchini for dinner as we sat and watched the sunlight fade. The leaves were starting to turn on our neighbors tall cottonwood trees and were pretty to look at. Another great weekend in the books!
October 23rd weekend –
I was up early on Saturday and, as usual, went to the garage to work on Scrappy. I wanted to replace the front wheel bearings but found that I didn’t have all the proper parts. I had to make a run to Lowe’s and a few car parts stores to obtain what I needed.
I attempted to wake up Susan after I got home and went to the garage to finish up. I wasn’t quite done with my work when Susan came out to inform me coffee was ready. Soon after our caffeine ritual was complete, I managed to finish up my work.
We were to have guests over for BBQ again so we made a quick trip to Safeway for food stuffs before cleaning up the house and garage. Fortunately we’ve been having folks over regularly this month so the required effort to prepare was minimal.
Our friends were all fashionably late but we didn’t mind much. This was another meeting to discuss forming an endurance team and the timeline wasn’t something we really cared about.
When Case and Ryan (two of the three we were expecting) arrived we hung out and chatted about racecars, racing, and the new team. Eventually Alvin showed up and everyone ate my BBQ while the conversation continued. We didn’t necessarily finalize anything but we were all basically in agreement on how we thought things would go.
After everyone had left Susan and I finished prepping Scrappy and loaded it into the car trailer. We also drained our large oil catch can into several smaller oil containers to transport to the track. We were pretty beat at this point and headed to the couch to relax for the remainder of the evening.
On Sunday I was up early and hung out until it was time to wake Susan up to leave for the track. We made our customary stop at King Soopers for gas and food before arriving at the track around 10:00.
The weather was incredibly pleasant with temperatures in the upper 60s and virtually no wind whatsoever (this is very rare for HPR). We unloaded Scrappy and checked in.
The timing was such that we had a few minutes before the next run group was to start so we emptied all of our oil jugs into the HPR oil collection containers. These are large plastic tanks HPR has which are there for this purpose. Once we were finished with our task we set to having fun on the track.
Scrappy is an absolute blast to drive in its current iteration. I managed to take almost five seconds off my previous personal best which is quite a thing. A second or two is a lot on a race track so I was very happy. There were few other cars out on the track as well which made our experience that much better.
We didn’t stay all day as that corded tire I had Walmart flip the previous weekend had me worried. Even though we left early it was a great time.
We unpacked and fed the dogs when we got home and immediately left to go to Walmart to buy food for the next week. The store was packed for unknown reasons but we were in and out relatively quickly. A quick stop at Goodwill and we were back home.
We BBQ’d bratwurst (turkey for me, pork for Susan) which was pretty yummy. We then sat down with the pups to do our regular electronic thing. I also edited video from my quickest lap which then I uploaded to YouTube. Such a great weekend. The beautiful weather, hanging out with friends, going to the track, and being a bit productive. Loved it all.
October 30th weekend –
We were up early on Saturday to load up Scrappy and head to the track. Well, not super-early for this day was the first of the winter open lapping season. During the winter lapping season the track opens later. Thus we were able to sleep in a smidge and arrive well-before the cars were allowed to drive around the track.
We pulling into the track a little after 10:00 and lucked into parking in our preferred spot which was super-nice. Very close to the track exit and entrance as well as a good spot to snap pictures.
We wandered around while the drivers meeting was going on and chatted with a fellow Lemons car owner. I had no doubt that the poorly painted police-retired Crown Victoria was a Lemons car. It was fun to reminisce about our Lemons experiences. The Crown Victoria was one of a handful of Lemons cars at the track that day. There was also an orange RX7, another black Miata, and an old 280Z out there testing as well. It was fun to see for sure.
The day went well for Susan, myself, and Scrappy. The car ran well and the other drivers were generally polite. Susan’s run groups had some very novice drivers which slowed everyone down a bit. New drivers usually join the slow run group but they usually aren’t as slow as they were on Saturday. Such is.
We did have some minor drama in that one of the exhaust mounts unbolted. Fortunately I installed two very sturdy mounts and the surviving mount easily managed the full weight of the exhaust. Also fortunate that the mount itself was still wrapped around the exhaust pipe so we will only need to buy new nuts to fix. The mount coming off was just another reminder that racecars vibrate a lot.
I also had a major off-track experience in turn three. I turned in too early and bounced off the inside curbing which caused me to point off the track. I was going around 80MPH at this point so didn’t fight my new path. Luckily the ground is flat in that area and I was able to get back on the pavement without any issues besides partially filling the car with grass and dirt. Amazingly Susan managed to snap a few pictures of my excursion which looked pretty neat.
A recent Miata track-pal of ours, Matthew, was there in his grey Miata and significant other. I rode with him for most of one of his stints to give him some tips on his driving. Not something I generally do but I had fun and he was receptive to my feedback.
We vacated the track at 3:00 after deciding we’d had enough racing fun for the day (I also wanted to be home before dark). Once home we quickly unpacked and took care of the dogs before heading back out to buy the things that get us through any given week (wine, food, and whatnot).
Dinner was BBQ’d burgers which were supremely yummy. We hung out with the dogs on the couch to finish out the day.
We slept in a lot on Sunday morning. Mostly Susan but I also managed to get some extra sleep. Our only definite plans revolved around having a late lunch at Saltgrass and we were in no hurry to get moving.
On the way to Saltgrass we stopped at the Parker Costco to buy some TP. We left empty-handed as their only offering wasn’t septic tank friendly. The Park Meadows Costco was the same way. Seems shipping woes from California are the cause.
We enjoyed our Saltgrass experience. The food was just about perfect and the service was great. We left the restaurant with extremely full bellies.
The rest of the day had us watching streaming TV and hanging out with the dogs. The only real thing to note was an issue we had with the clothes wash machine. I was doing a load and found that the door would not unlock once the cycle was over.
Uh oh.
Susan Googled the problem and found out that there is a filter that is supposed to be cleaned every two months. We didn’t know such a filter existed and, I suppose, lucked out that we hadn’t had any problems in over four years of usage.
There was a small emergency drain hose that we utilized to drain the water out. We had to use short containers and made several trips to dump out the water before we were though.
The filter wasn’t clogged but had hair binding it so it couldn’t spin and let out the water. We ripped off the hair, cleaned the filter piece and its home in the washer, and the wash machine once again functioned properly. It was fun to fix the wash machine together and an interesting way to end the weekend and month.
October was a great month for our home. The weather was generally fantastic and we BBQ’d dinner outside almost ever single night.
Oliver hasn’t been on his best behavior lately but that’s ok with us; we accept him just the way his is.
Pebbles, Mel, and Bella have been their normal cute selves. I finally restarted my early morning workout routine which I thought would have the dogs bugging me less before my alarm goes off. This was not the case. Instead of bugging me at 6:00 before my 6:30 alarm the dogs bug me at 5:00 before my 5:30 alarm. Pretty annoying but they are also pretty cute so what can one do.
We’re looking forward to November and hoping that we get a few more weeks of mild temperatures before the chilly times begin.
