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So, I get a phone call last week from a friend that runs an RX2 in vintage/SPU down here in Fl. Car is a show stopper, super straight, super clean, super fast. My friend is on the phone as he leaves Sebring telling me his hood just did The Whaleshark impression that I had warned him about. He didn't get to have much fun with his fresh Mandaville 12A P-port.
At about 125mph heading into the hairpin the hood lifted about a foot in the middle. It's not too bad he says, he thinks I might be able to staighten it out.
I pick up the hood and check it out. I cut the inside frame that is bent up at about 30 degrees just outside of the hinges. Did you know there are only four spot welds that hold the skin on the frame? Four welds and a bunch of dots of space age adhesive from the 1970's(that dries out and no longer has any "adhesive" property).
I work the skin a bit with a hammer and dolly and pull the frame out of one of my hoods that was screwed up by the guy I had do some media blasting on them. It lays out perfect(hood was a surviving NOS piece when the car was built) and I made a mold on saturday. I pulled the mold on sunday and did a little prep for the first part.
Next I'm making a mold for some of the under frame because the guy that let me use the hood wants to be able to bolt it on and use hood pins on the back edge only.
Pics to follow, got home late from the shop, didn't have camera with me.
3 years in the making on that hood now huh? I get first dibs of course... lol
Sorry, second dibs! First dibs go to the guy I got the 'good' hood from. It will be on the track in a couple weeks on his car. I'm making the first hood skin on sat, making the underframe mold tomorrow night.
Don't laugh but my other hood that was warped by the blaster is still leaning against the wall in my neighbor's shop. When I told him that I found a great candidate for a mold he laughed and said, "Don't worry, I'm not heartbroken"
I hung the prototype f-glass hood on it this evening, delivering the part to my friend tomorrow so he can go racing this weekend at Sebring. It bolted right up but it will need a little trimming of the hinges to get it perfectly aligned. It lays just a little too far forward and the body gap at the back is about 1/8 too fat. Over all I'm happy with the results of my first jump away from pure race car body parts. Version 1.2 will fix a couple issues that showed up during the bonding of the skin to the under frame.
I'll see if I can get some pics of the hood on my friend's car tomorrow.
The only updates I have are from the hood construction. The duece is still perched on the frame rack while all kinds of other stuff happens in my shop. Three Miatas, 2 RX7's, my Bugeye and now a Triumph Spitfire that is getting a 2.0L Duratec w/ a 5 speed stuffed in it keep me busy. The worst part is only one of the RX7's and one of the Miatas aren't mine.
Here is a shot off the central florida SCCA site called The "Checker". If you want to dig for more, look under photos and then look for events that list 'vintage' as part of the event. Richard Kraus is the owner.
Hey Landon, I remember. Did you and the little lady find a property yet?
sen2two, I didn't build that one as light as I could. The owner has been through the whole 'add more lightness' route on race cars. He won the Runoffs in GT5 a number of years ago and this car is built to be durable and low maintenance. IIRC the stock hood was 29 and mine was mid teens. Just a skin for hood pins could probably be built under 10 pounds.
Hey Landon, I remember. Did you and the little lady find a property yet?
sen2two, I didn't build that one as light as I could. The owner has been through the whole 'add more lightness' route on race cars. He won the Runoffs in GT5 a number of years ago and this car is built to be durable and low maintenance. IIRC the stock hood was 29 and mine was mid teens. Just a skin for hood pins could probably be built under 10 pounds.
Hate to stay off topic but yeah we did! Up in Hudson on 2.5 acres, w/ a poll barn & steel building already built. We're closing Jan-15! We'll try & stop by soon!
Tease post.. updates soon. New cage, body panels all on. Picked up a friend's race car last month as a driveline donor. Weber carb'd, street port, ceramic, 12A that I built last year for previous owner.
Can't help ya myself, maybe someone here can though.
As for my project... Shortly after my last post I ruptured my left bicep tendon and I've been very limited on any kind of physical work. Just started being allowed to use my arm for any kind of lifting.
So what is the first thing I do? Move my shop! I moved in with a friend that has a set of tools as awesome as mine but totally different. He builds kilns and has all kinds of thin metal working tools like power shears, breaks, multi-head punching machines, slip roller, CNC mill and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember right now. I have the same 1500 sqft, its just half of a 3K space now.
I still need to move my lift but it is all taken apart and ready to go. I was able to roll the RX2 to the new space with it still on the frame jig.
This time, I swear there will be updates coming soon.
Can't help ya myself, maybe someone here can though.
As for my project... Shortly after my last post I ruptured my left bicep tendon and I've been very limited on any kind of physical work. Just started being allowed to use my arm for any kind of lifting.
So what is the first thing I do? Move my shop! I moved in with a friend that has a set of tools as awesome as mine but totally different. He builds kilns and has all kinds of thin metal working tools like power shears, breaks, multi-head punching machines, slip roller, CNC mill and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember right now. I have the same 1500 sqft, its just half of a 3K space now.
I still need to move my lift but it is all taken apart and ready to go. I was able to roll the RX2 to the new space with it still on the frame jig.
This time, I swear there will be updates coming soon.
So bringing back an old thread. I’ve recently bought 2 former rx2 race cars. One looks a lot like one posted by Jgrewe. Might be a team mate? The other is Jim Downing’s original rx2. That one is in rough shape but the #32 car is hopefully going to get worked on and be back on the track in the next year or two. Just wondering if anyone had any history on it? And does anyone have contact info for Jgrewe? Not been logged on the forum for a while. I tried a pm to him in case he got an alert, but no such luck.
Thanks. I’m pretty excited to get working on it. The rx3 was raced in IMSA RS by Chuck Ulinski back in the day. I bought it as part of the package but a good friend of mine really wanted to race it so he’s now the owner and will start the restoration shortly. He’s on Facebook as Group 56 Racing if you want to check it out. The red and white rx3 was bought by another local guy who already has a pair of rx3 race cars and added a third one. Just so happened we bought cars in the same area at the same time so they managed to ship together.
