Boy Scout Crew 35 Off Road Race Truck Blog: 3/2/08

Well, things have been pretty crazy now that we've moved the truck to Rory's shop. Now that we're right down in Ellington we're in, on, or under the truck a good five days a week. We've got the living hell stripped out of it now. Absolutely nothing in the cab but the wheel and the pedals (and the crash sensor for the air bags). Even the little bit of heater box/AC system that was left from the Clayton strip is gone. Under the hood, there's absolutely nothing left but the engine itself. The transmission and drive shafts are gone, largely because we're going to put in a new tranny (new is a relative term. It's from a 1993 Explorer). Sway bars are gone, rear shocks are gone. I mean that sucker is stripped.

So, good, bad, ugly. Let's start with the bad. The bad was the transmission we removed. Don't get me wrong. The transmission works great. But man, that sucker was a massive pain to get out of the truck. In the end, it took three days of work to finally extricate it. Murphy was rocking in full force. From stuck bolts, to rusted bolts that wouldn't come out, to a transfer case that even with all bolts removed needed to be chiseled off the tranny. It was the most difficult thing we've had to deal with thus far.

The good. Well the biggest good is that our wheels and tires came in and look badass. For those who don't know, American Racing sponsored us with eight Teflon coated rims designed specifically and solely for off road racing. And BF Goodrich sponsored us with four Baja T/A tires, with more coming before our first race. So right now the truck's sitting on a good three grand of swag. And it looks AWESOME!

The ugly? That would be my finger. Rory, aside from being a desert racing guru, is apparently a little bit psychic. He said to me "sooner or later you're going to bite yourself with that angle grinder." About ten minutes later I did exactly that. I managed to tag myself pretty good on the left index finger right at the lower knuckle. While not a serious injury, it was bleeding profusely enough that I had to go outside because I was bleeding all over Rory's floor. I ended up just putting a "shop bandage" over it and going back to work, but I couldn't bend that finger for about a week. I've almost got full motion back now, though it's still a tad stiff from the swelling.

Right now the truck's at Speedway Expo, which I'll expand on in tomorrow's blog. Fortunately this place has wi-fi, so I've been able to upload all my photos and such, which, for those wondering, is why I hadn't blogged sooner. I've been having some hardcore photo upload issues.

Well, gotta go sell some raffle tickets. As always, thanks for reading, dudes.