space-junk

iTrader: (1)

A little more of the same is OK by me!

someone really beat on that rear suspension, didn't they? Im loving the history lessons, but any clues from its later life as to why its so hammered?

ewong

By the way

If you (RacersOnly) ever decide to have some fender/hood molds made, please let us (YotaTech) know.
Im probably not the only one that would get a set.

Racersonly

Space-junk: A little more of the same is OK by me! someone really beat on that rear suspension, didn't they? Im loving the history lessons, but any clues from its later life as to why its so hammered?

Best guess is that far south in Mexico they were not lucky enough to have specialty type fabrication done (In 1988) so they used up every part until it could not be used any more. Tommy Morris told me the rollers on the rear suspension seemed to only be good for around 2-4 races before needing replacement.

Ewong: By the way, If you (RacersOnly) ever decide to have some fender/hood molds made, please let us (YotaTech) know. Im probably not the only one that would get a set.

We will HOPEFULLY be making a mold of the front clip and with blessings from the owner we can make them available to whom ever wants a set. I've already got the molds for the rears so someone could purchase an original PPI body form the 001 & 002 chassis. Stay tuned...

The Holidays has slowed down the work being done at Collins Motorsports but they are back on it again (this was expected), most likely heading to Vegas next week to check out the progress. In the mean while another History lesson.

History Lesson: Race #10.

the 1985 SCORE Great Mohave 250 held in Lucerne Valley was the 3rd stop on the SCORE/HDRA schedule. Ivan Stewart and Frank Arciero would finally get their much anticipated front end upgrade since moving to the unlimited classes. The class 7 trucks were limited on the front end but not with the unlimited rules in class 1 & 2. Tommy Morris and the PPI team replaced the front a-arms with longer arms for more wheel travel. With this addition they also needed to change the front clip because the front fenders were not wide enough. This change, for me personally, is one of the main reasons I fell in love with these trucks. The change really made the trucks looks so much meaner and they were able to attack the terrain much more aggressively. Look at the example pic's below.

Front fenders before, notice the bulge in the front fender rounds off back towards the door. Photo credit Jeff Furrier.



After upgrade, notice the back side of the front fender now is pushed out and steps back flat about 3" to the door. "Speed holes" were added, which might help air escape through the body work. Photo credit Centerline Photo...



PPI did an easy fix to the rear by adding 3" spacers to the hubs to make it wider. It seemed to work just fine since I can't seem to find any issues during races with them.

Now to the race: Ivan would start #105 but would once again be plagued with transmission problems. He would fix it and go on to finish 8th in class. Frank Arciero would also have transmission problems and finish well back in the field. PPI would be scratching their heads again as the trans issues kept rearing their ugly heads.

Quick look at the rest of the race.

Dusty Times magazine, May 1985 issue.

Willie Valdez and Malcolm Smith earned the cover of Dusty Times for their wins at the 1985 Great Mohave 250 race. Willie raced in class 7s while Malcolm Smith raced his newly built ORE Renault powered buggy to the class 2 unlimited win.



Larry Noel took class 1 with his Chaparral chassis buggy...



Dave Shoppe beat Steve Kelley and Walker Evans in class 8...



While Greg Diehl won class 5 unlimited in the DirTrix Baja bug..
.

Manny Esquerra continued winning class 7...



Current chassis builder Kent Lothringer won class 5/1600...



And Rod Hall once again topped the 4 wheel drives in class 4...



Here's the rest of the finishers...

Racersonly

Just got off the phone with Billy Goerke at Collins Motorsports. Waiting on a few more pieces of material to show up so he can start the bushings, so while we are waiting for those they have started on the rear buds for the cantilevers. The buds have been mocked into place, then they will be placed on the lathe so they can be hollowed out to the correct diameter for the torsion bars to fit through...



The tubes that were thrashed at the ends of the cantilevers have been pulled out and new ones made...



More parts that have been welded up from cracks...



And finally some shots of the rear end, now sitting in place under the truck. Billy and Robert almost ran out of welding rod filling all the cracks but they got er' all finished up...







I'm soooo thankful the rear end wasn't junk, that would have been another set back. No biggie, I will get this thing done no matter what, it just takes a little longer to complete. One thing these builds do is make you patient. You can cut corners on a few small things but you HAVE to spend the money on the important things...it's cheaper in the long run. Speaking of money, here's what $450 in wheel bearings look like. I'm not complaining, 4 bearings and races for Summers Bros outboard hubs on the DirTrix ran $1200....



This will be the last update for 2016, hopefully have some updated pic's of the rear suspension together sometime next week....crossing my fingers. Hope you all had a great Holiday, New years weekend is coming up, be careful out in the desert while enjoying your toys.

Racersonly

Made the trip up to Las Vegas yesterday and was able to get some work done. First order of business was to try and get the old brass bushings out of the cantilever arms so new ones could be made. You really don't think stuff like this will take too much time so sometimes NOT planning for it bites you in the A**. To get both bushings out took approx 3 hours but 2 1/2 of those hours were using the normal methods.

Method 1: Using a cut-off wheel on a die grinder, I made 3 cuts every 1/3rd around the bushing. This was for the punch to have something to grab from the back side...



This did not work as they were in there pretty good. I next tried Method 2: I tried to heat them up to see if that would help break them loose....no go. Turns out the arm I was trying to get the bushing out was the same one they were having problems with for the tube that slides in for the rollers. I grabbed the other cantilever arm, made the same 3 cuts in the bushing and tried to break that one loose....no luck.
Method 3: Slide hammer and heat. There was 2 small openings at the base of the bushing that the claw could grab hold of so I tried that. First I had to mount he cantilever to the table so it wouldn't move...



We tried heating it up and everything but no luck.
Method 4: Finally after trying for an hour Robert Hamilton said "try the dremel". Within 10 minutes I had the first one out...





With the bushings out, Robert was then able to start on the new ones...


Those bushings will end up riding on these buds that house the torsion bars (you can see the new bushings for the torsion bars next to the buds)...



These washers will go between the end of the buds and separate the buds from the cantilever arms...



I'll post more tomorrow, we made a lot of progress today believe it or not. It's amazing how much time gets used up on what you would think would be simple stuff.

bootscootboogie

iTrader: (1)

Man you have some real deal patience. I cannot wait to see this thing in action.

Racersonly

You pretty much have to with these type of builds. Patience was not in my vocabulary 10 years ago but these builds MAKE you slow down....hahahaha.

Part 2 of my trip to Collins Motorsports. As you can see they have a full shop this time of year as they are getting ready for the 2017 season. Currently they are working on everything from UTV's, NORRA vehicles, Trophy Trucks, 7200's, rally cars and building prerunners...







The photo's about are just of the main shop area, there are 3 more vehicles in the "Fabrication area" located behind the Toyota (red doors).

Robert was still busy making the cantilever bushings on the lathe...



Earlier in the day he had started on the sway bar bushings...



and here is the finished product...



As of right now the majority of the machining is complete except for the aluminum plates that hold the cantilevers into place, they will need some massaging. Here's one of the original pic's of the rear suspension (photo credit Chris Hukill/Lance Barron) and you can see the aluminum plate holding the cantilever in place.



Update on the ball joints. I was hoping to have them finished by now but there has been a delay on getting material in a timely manner. The ball joint material is now in and hopefully they should be done next week...



As for the ball joint cups, still waiting on the material and then there will most likely be another wait to have everything heat treated......UGH!! oh well, all part of the process.

Racersonly

History lesson: Race #11....The 1985 MINT 400

The MINT 400 was a HUGE deal back in the 1980's (with all due respect to the new MINT 400) and was just as important to win as the Baja 1000 was to manufacturers. Billed as the roughest and richest off road race in the world the 18th Annual MINT 400 would live up to the hype. Racers would transverse 4 laps around 105 miles of Nevada's worst terrain. Some facts about the 1985 running:

Total Entries- 374
Total finishers- 101
26% finished the race
Race distance 425 miles
Fast lap of the day Jim Temple/Ken Cox, #203- 02:00:42

Ivan Stewart would be in the hunt for the first 3 laps staying close to the leaders but some front end damage would slow his progress and he would end up in 7th place. Frank Arciero would only make it 2 laps before parking it for the rest of the day...



The PPI Toyotas were having a hard time finding the reliability out of their trucks due to the fact they were not originally built for the unlimited class and they were overweight and under powered compared to the majority of their competition. It was back to the drawing board for Cal Wells, Tommy Morris and the rest of the PPI crew but they were up to the challenge.

The rest of the results from the MINT 400 as told by Jean Calvin @ Dusty Times Magazine.
Photo's courtesy of www.tracksidephoto.com



Jim Temple and Ken Cox would take the physical lead early on lap one and never give it up, finishing first in class 2 and 1st Overall in the 2 seat Raceco.



Mike Lund would originally finish 2nd in class 1 to Jack Johnson would inherit the win after Jack would receive an illegal tow within 1 mile of the finish line.



Dave Richardson solo'ed the Steve Sourapas Coors Light Raceco to a win in class 10 and a cool 2nd Overall.



One of my favorite Baja bugs from the 80's was Jeff Jordans class 5 unlimited. He would win the class as he holds off a charging Larry Ragland....for the moment.



Andy Devercelly won class 5/1600 while Manny Esquerra won another race in class 7.



2 more guys use to winning, Rod Hall in the class 4 Dodge and Larry Schwacofer in the class 6 55' Chevy.



One of the most popular classes in the mid to late 80's was class 8. Steve Kelley was running 2nd behind Walker Evans all day except for the final 10 miles when Walker blew a motor. Jerry MacDonald would slide into 2nd place in the Joe MacPherson Chevy.



Some impressive entry numbers to ponder....

Class 1- 37
Class 2- 52
Class 1/1600- 31
Class 2/1600- 41
Class 3 4x4- 23
Class 4 4x4- 16
Class 5- 25
Class 5/1600- 24
Class 7s- 14
Class 8- 13
Class 10- 62 (Dave Richardson walked off with $7180.00 in prize money.....IN 1985!!!!!

Racersonly

Moving right along, Collins Motorsports is just about finished with their end of the work and I couldn't be happier with how well it's coming together. Billy Goerke just finished getting the rear end pieces in place and getting ready to cycle the suspension for the tube lengths on the Cantilevers. Robert finished working on the bushings with only a few minor ones left for the aluminum plates.

Here is a shot of the new bushing for the inside of the cantilever that sits on the chassis spuds...



Here's the cantilever sitting on the spud with the torsion bar in place (passenger side)...



Here is the bushing that sits inside the torsion bar and separates the cantilever from the aluminum plate...



And another machined piece that slides into THAT bushing that sits in the aluminum plate that holds/centers the cantilever/torsion bar in place...



And finally with the aluminum plate in place. They still need to machine the tubes for the lower plate hardware but they are waiting on material...



Only thing left is cycling the rear suspension so they know how far to place the tubes into the cantilever arms at full droop, then some minor odds and ends. I'm hoping to pick it up late next week or early the following week. Time to call Bear race cars and see how those ball joints and cups are coming along...

For you viewing enjoyment, a not-so-great copy of the 1986 Baja 1000 with some pretty good footage of the 001 Toyota...

Racersonly

Norm Francis was able to get the www.bilsteinus.com shocks painted this past weekend even though he has been juggling a few projects lately. If you remember the outside of the shocks were in pretty bad shape.....



I then took paint stripper to them and then finished getting the rest of the paint off with a thin wire wheel. The shocks were then sent to Bilstein to be taken apart and the cans sent to Norm for paint...



Norm finished prepping them and put on the first coat of primer...



Since Norm restores off road cars too, he had the right color yellow for the shocks and has re-painted MANY over the years, including in his class 5/1600 days. Norm gets his work station ready for painting...



After a full day fighting the weather Norm finished up the shocks, and I think they turned out GREAT!!!



Next step is to let them completely dry for a day or so then package them up for delivery back to Bilstein so Juan and the boys can finish putting them together with fresh oil, valving, hoses and uniballs. I'm hoping to have them around the same time www.collins-motorsports.com is done with the rear suspension and Bear Race Cars is finished with the ball joints and cups. Crossing my fingers on the timeline for this but I'd guess right around the Parker 425 weekend. It's time to get back in the garage and clean it out so I have a freshly cleaned shop to start working out of before it explodes with tools and parts.......again.

On a side note, I remember having this magazine and drooling over it for hours back in 1984. I absolutely LOVED the way they shot the cover with the "Cut away" layout. That magazine is long gone but I know there is a few being posted on Ebay every once in a while. Thank you Dave Baldwin for sending me this image a while back, I'd almost forgot about that magazine...

Racersonly

History lesson: Race #12....The 1985 Baja internacional (Baja 500).

Car/Truck Entries- 157
Total finishers- 67
42% finished the race
Race distance 447 miles
Temps were as high as 115 degrees on Diablo dry lake

The PPI Toyotas had there best day out in the desert since moving to the unlimited classes. Frank "Butch" Arciero got Toyota their first win in the unlimited class with a 1st in class 2. Fighting with Malcolm Smith, Bob Gordon and Corky McMillin all day, Frank had the least amount of problems and got to the finish line first (5th Overall) by 3 minutes over McMillin (6th Overall).



Ivan Stewart in the 001 PPI Toyota would also have a good run with only a couple flats late in the race slowing him down. Ivan would finish 2nd in class 1, 4th Overall, even ahead of his team mate Frank Arciero on time. I'm not sure but I think Frank enjoyed this win over Ivan as to have bragging rights going into the next race. This was huge for Team Toyota after having a less than stellar year so far. Here's a shot of Ivan at one of the water crossings early in the day (Trackside photo).......



The rest of the race as covered by the July 1985 issue of Dusty Times magazine.
Story: Jean Calvin
Photo's: Trackside Photo

The class 1 and overall winner was the "Flying Dentists" of Ron Gardner and #ORMHOF'er Bud Feldkamp in the Funco...



Class 8 and class 10 winners....



Class 5 unlimited winner and another one of my favorite Baja bugs...



Class 5/1600 winner was another #ORMHOF'er Johnny Johnson along with Mark Steele (Cameron Steels dad). Check out those old school Jackman wheels...



Classes 7s, 9, 4 and 7 unlimited...



And the rest of the finishers as reported by Jean Calvin...



Hoping to have a REAL update on the truck soon, maybe by the end of the week. Stuff is happening, just taking a little longer than I would have hoped. Stay tuned...

Racersonly

Couple quick updates on the Toyota.

1. Collins is just about finished with the rear of the truck, all the bushings are in place but one of the Aluminum plates needs to be remade. Billy is drawing it up in CAD and should be done this weekend. The only other thing needed to be finished is cycling the rear suspension so they know where to drill the holes in the new tubes for the rollers. That too should be done today or Monday. Looking to go pick up the truck on Monday or Thursday next week. The aluminum plate in question...



2. Norm Francis finished painting the Bilstein shocks and packaged them up for delivery. Bilstein has them and is currently building them as we speak. They found a couple slightly bent shock shafts so they are waiting on those odd ball sizes to show up s they can finish them up. There's a possibility they will be finished for Parker and delivered but won't know till the middle of next week.



3. Ball joints and cups have been kicking Bear's butt over at Bears race cars. The new CNC machine is working great but the cutting tools needed for the Ball joints and cups have been a challenge. Seems that when he orders the tooling for this particular job the wrong tool or size shows up and puts us another 2 weeks behind. Bear seems to think he has everything he needs now and has started cutting material but Parker has sidelined the project as Garry Messers race car needs to be ready for the 425......totally understand.



4. And finally we get to the Transmission. Jeff Field and the guys at www.transaxleengineering.com are almost finished with the gearbox (and rear end). It took a little time to try and find the right parts for this trans since Richmond gear doesn't make these gear stacks anymore. It's possible the trans will be finished by next week and Jeff is also thinking he will have enough parts to build a 2nd trans, but maybe not as stout as the 1st....again, parts are hard to come by.



Between Darryl Putmans shop and Collins Motorsports, the truck has been in Las Vegas since August of 2016 and I'm itching to get the truck back in MY race shop. If that seems like a long time to get the cab and rear suspension done, you're right. With that being said it is NOT the fault of Collins Motorsports nor Darryl because I have held them both up for one reason or another. I appreciate the patience they've had with me and doing such an OUTSTANDING job on what they have been tasked with. This was some very tedious work that needed to be done and done right. From here it will make it a lot easier for me to start putting the truck back together. I still have a few more things to figure out like some missing tubes in the engine compartment and front suspension shims, but that should be much easier then mounting a cab and the nightmare rear suspension fiasco.

Racersonly

Great day for me yesterday, drove up to www.collins-motorsports.com and picked up the Toyota....WooHoo! Looking at the truck you wouldn't think much work was done, especially with all the update pic's. They had some issues with the front a-arms when trying to weld up the cracks as the welds would "Pop". Seems there was a little rust on the "Sleeves" so those pieces needed to be cut off and new ones welded into place...



Here's Robert getting busy on the smart end of the Tig welder...



And the finished product...



The only thing left on the rear suspension will be drilling the holes for the 5/16" bolt holes that hold the tubes into the cantilevers. We can't do that just yet because we need the trans bolted in place to cycle the rear so we get the droop and compression settings just right...



Well over 100 hours were spent on machining all of the brass bushings on the rear suspension, not counting all of the other little things needed to get this rear end as good as it was when it left PPI for Ivans next race. The truck was loaded up and finally made it back home...



Unloading it was just as fun as it was loading it 5 months ago. i really need a forklift, or at least @philofab could drop his off for the day and let me borrow his! Haha...



#001 now sits patiently in "Her" spot waiting for the next phase. I might wait until i get the trans back from Transaxle Engineering so i can put everything back in the truck to do another test fit before i tear it all down again and start painting the frame. I also need to start thinking about the motor and making a decision on what way i want to go with it. I have the motor that came with the truck which is similar to the original Engine Ivan used. Maybe TRD will be interested....we'll have to see. Until then, I'm back at it...

flg8r22

iTrader: (1)

Subscribed! Man what a cool truck to restore. I can't even begin to imagine the cash going into this project but applaud you for your efforts. I'm old enough to remember seeing these truck race on ABC Wide World of Sports. Keep up the good work. Hopefully you will tour with this truck and show the world. Tony

Racersonly

Thank you sir. The plan is to race the truck in the vintage class at the 2018 NORRA Mexican 1000 and possibly the MINT 400. After that we will be making sure it hits the road for places like SEMA and the Off Road Expo for people to check it out.

History lesson: Race #13....The 1985 Fireworks 250.

Ivan and Frank's race: Ivan would have a pretty good run for the #001 Toyota even though the Toyota's seemed to have better results in the vast stretches of Baja. The rougher tracks in California, Arizona and Nevada seemed to really take their toll on the Toyota's since they would have to run harder to keep up with the lighter, more nimble single seat and 2 seat buggies.



*Ivan would have a few issues on his way to an impressive 3rd place finish (7th Overall).
*Frank Arciero would not have the luck he had in Baja as his Toyota (#002) would break a spark plug in the head of his overheating engine resulting in a DNF.

Car/Truck Entries- 268
Total finishers- 95
35% finished the race
Race distance approx 240 miles (Four 60 mile laps)
Temps were around 108 degrees with some scattered clouds.

August 1985 issue of Dusty Times. Words: Jean Calvin Photo's: Trackside Photo

With the SCORE/HDRA series combining at the beginning of the year, entries were on the rise but no one expected 268 race cars showing up at Barstow in July! Class 2 unlimited would be the first group off the line (30 entries) followed by class 10 (34 entries) and then class 1 unlimited (19 entries). Funny how the class 1 cars were now being shown as the 3rd fastest class in off road racing....that was about to change. Tom Koch started behind 66 cars but ended up taking class 1 and the Overall win at the Fireworks 250...



Bob Richey in the RCR plumbing Raceco won class 2, John and Rick Hagle won class 10 in the Raceco/ORE chassis while Rob Tolleson won the 1/2-1600 class with 57 entries...



Walker Evans won again in class 8...



Roger Mears got a 2nd in his new Nissan...



As Jim Conner got 1st in class 7 while Mark Steele and Johnny Johnson won class 5/1600...



Here are the rest of the finishers for the 1985 Fireworks 250...

Racersonly

Couple little updates:

With the racing season in full swing my stuff that is out at the vendors has been put on the back burner so that guys that are racing Parker and the MINT can have there stuff ready. As much as I want my stuff finished I totally understand I would want my race stuff done before i guy who is not planning on racing till 2018. Kudos to the vendors who are working with me and also helping me out $$$$$ wise.......so no arguments here!

Jeff Field and the guys at www.transaxleengineering.com have recieved the final hard-to-find parts to complete the trans build. We are still looking to make sure we have the right tail shaft but besides that I'm hoping to see it completed next week.....possible delivery to the MINT???







Bear race cars has been struggling with tooling for his new CNC machine as they have sent him the wrong tooling for different jobs a couple times now. Of course when that happens race time gets closer and then he has to shift his time towards getting Gary and Troy Messer's class 10 finished . Again, totally understandable and I have been involved in enough restorations now that I know this sort of thing happens all the time....especially when you have work being done by quality shops/people. It's worth the wait in the long run so i stay with the people who I know can do the work right the first time. Here's the finished Ball Joints for the front of the Toyota, all i'm waiting for now is the cups and the front end is ready for assembly...



Hopefully I can move on from "Ball Joints, Transmissions and rear suspension" talk since I know I've sounded like a broken record over the past 4 months. How about a little teaser YouTube footage of the truck in action from 1987.....

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Love the detail in the build, admire you dedication and will admit to a bit of jealousy since your budget is a bit bigger than most of us
Is the Youtube of the same truck? It is a regular cab in this video but you are doing an extracab.
I am sure they had multiple bodies for the truck.

Racersonly

@Dropzone, PPI originally made 4 trucks that were identical suspension wise but 2 were extra cab's (Desert racers) and the other 2 were standard cab trucks (short course). They were numbered #001 & 002 for the extra cabs, and the short course trucks were #003 & 004. I own #001 (Ivans truck). The desert trucks were built first so they were actually used in a few short course races until 003 & 004 were finished. Thanks for the compliment, it's a horrible obsession that is very expen$ive but usually I sell a race car to help pay for the next. This one I'm going to need to sell a few more race cars that I don't currently own to finish this one....LOL.

rattlewagon

Wicked. Awesome read, keep up the good work!

Racersonly

Sorry about the wait for the latest update guys, i've been a little busy with other things. Here's the latest.....

Ok, here's the latest on the Ivan Stewart Toyota. As I stated in my last post I have been a little busy with Ed Maurin racing the Ex-Larry Ragland Woodstuff Chaparral at the MINT 400 (and winning...yay)....



and now doing a 4 corner prep on it to have it ready for the NORRA Mexican 1000 in 3 weeks....



With that being said there is still work being done on the Toyota, just not at my shop. The seats are in Indianapolis at www.mastercraftsafety.com getting some new padding and fresh covers for the restoration. The seats are original MasterCraft seats which is great because this is the 3rd straight restoration I've done using them and i couldn't be happier with their product and service.

Bear Race Cars is still working on the ball joint cups with much frustration on his side. With a new machine it is trial and error and has turned into mostly error. In a busy shop it is hard to just work on one thing all day and not get anywhere so he has had to walk away from it a few times and get other stuff done. Luckily for me I understand and he has been spending time after work trying to get it to come out right. First there was the new head for the CNC machine...



Then he made a model...



Then started working on the cups..

.

They look great but he was having some problems with the upper cups with some "chattering" so those are now garbage...



As of today he seems to think he has it figured out and will do another trial run to see how it comes out. The lowers are done and are off at heat treat so we are moving forward. Bear has done a lot of work for me and this is the first time he has had issues getting anything to me. I don't hold it against him because I know he is working with new machinery and will have it figured out soon. I won't hesitate to have him do anything for me in the future, he's a good dude and knows his I failed spelling.

Sean Hoglund was nice enough to deliver my transmissions to Collins Motorsports during the MINT 400 and I picked them up from Collins last week. Jeff Fields Transaxle Engineering killed it on the rebuilds and had enough spare parts to build me another one...



Jeff also finished up the 3rd member and it's ready to bolt into the housing...



Last but not least, Joel Amaya down in Constitucion, sent me this photo of the fuel can that was for the Toyota. Joel is the guy who helped me close the deal with Hugo to get the Toyota and said Hugo told him that he had forgotten to give me the fuel cell can...



This is awesome because this saves a lot of time and money trying to guess how large to make the fuel cell because i didn't know how far it dropped below the frame, now i know...



I will pick it up on my way home from Cabo during the Mexican 1000 next month...



So, there you have it, the latest update, even though it's not much. Don't worry, we are still working on the truck and will not stop. Sometimes there is a little bit of a break in between phases, this is one of them. As soon as i get back from NORRA there will be more frequent updates and more progress. Stay tuned.