It was a good day…I mean really good

Friday the 29th of august was a begining of a great weekend so I started off the day by welding up the exhaust for the shop truck that we have. Its a 1991 toyota truck that litteraly ran head on into a tree. Its in good condition…except for the exhaust, so here are a couple pictures of the welding that took place.

 

looks like fun yeah?….well heres what else we like to consider “fun” at the shop.

 Lets take out the mini bike for a spin and see what we can do.

 

Collin bustin out the back end…

I dont think this is how you are suppost to sit on this thing, im not really sure tho because either way it was a blast

So check it out- we work hard, therfore we play hard…ill have more pictures of us having a good time, AKA playing some paintball. If you guys ever wanna get down on the fun and excitment you know how to get at me. Hope you enjoyed the pictures, I appologize for the lack of captioning on the pictures, but as you can see the pictures speak for themself.

almost forgot…kids dont try this at home

Grease-orama

Last weekend the rat rods were out in full swing down at the Merriam drive-in. Plenty of completely custom rides showed. From choppers to Beetles and everything in between.

Labor Day Weekend

I guess I was wrong to assume that Labor Day was a holiday……I was informed by my wife, that Labor Day actually means not only a day to labor, but a weekend to labor.  This struck me as odd, as most days seem like that, so I tackled a project I have been meaning to start for some time……the garage.  Normally my garage is a fairly clean 2 car garage that actually….yes…houses 2 vehicles every night.  One thing I can’t stand to see is a garage with boxes of crap piled to the ceiling…..after all, that is what a sub basement is for 🙂  With my 951 undergoing some suspension changes over the last few months, it has either been shoved far in the corner, or at the shop, which has allowed my lazy butt to start piling boxes, tires, parts, etc in it’s place.  Well, my plan is to bring it home this week, so the garage needed some attention.  With all the spare car parts, lawn fertilizers/chemicals, cleaning supplies, etc piling up on open shelves and the floor, I decided to venture to Lowes where I purchased a bunch of their basic white storage cabinets, so things could be hidden behind closed doors and out of sight.  Since I am not real big on everything being white, I decided to paint the body of the cabinets red, and the front doors a nice granite grey.  So a quick easy project of assembling and hanging cabinets, turned into a lot of watching paint dry.  I will be epoxy painting the garage floor this fall with a grey colored epoxy, so I thought this color combination would look nice.  You also wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a can of grey spray paint that isn’t primer…..go figure.

Cover your eyes, it is a mess as construction is half way completed.  So far I have hung a cabinet for all the lawn chemicals/cleaners/etc, which use to be all out on an open 2×4 shelf.  Then I hung 2 of the front cabinets for motor oils, car cleaning products, etc, which well, use to be in boxes along the walls.  I still have 1 of the same sized cabinets to hang up front, which will surround the toolbox eventually.   What I did find out though, is that builder grade anything is bound to be crooked.  I hung the first cabinet dead level, took a step back, and realized that my entire garage is built, well….crooked.  Go figure.  At least things won’t fall out of the cabinets.

The cabinet doors are obviously not on yet, as the final coat of paint is still drying on them.  They will be mounted in place sometime this week.  This cabinet is mounted on the same wall that my wife’s driver’s door opens on, so it is mounted higher than normal, which keeps it out of the way when getting out of the vehicle……and since it is filled with the lawn items, it keeps those chemicals out of the reach of any little ones that might stop by.

A few of the front cabinets mounted in place.

The final coat of paint drying on the doors…..

With at least one track event left this year, at least a few of the hoosiers stacking in piles will be used up.  The other ones will be stored in the sub basement over the winter, along with all the spare Porsche parts, which get categorized and stored, or sold.  My plan is to add a free standing 6 foot cabinet where the left tire stack is (which will house the jack stands, various bags of fertilizer, salt, etc), and a set of lower cabinets with a short counter top will reside where the table saw currently is.  Another cabinet in the corner where the torque tube is standing, and the toolbox in between everything where the Porsche flag hangs.

Stay tuned as the garage continues it’s transformation

High Style through Eye Style

Sunglasses define your personality on first glance.  Take a few of the options available through Porsche:

These Porsche Carrera sunglasses were worn by Yoko Ono on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1980s.  Huge on style, sporty and not for the shy personality:

 

1980s version Hollywood glam Porsche sunglasses.  Very chic…

Porsche Carrera aviators.  Retro charm, current style – the whole package:

For the more subtle female Porsche driving fan, this style designed by Professor F.A. Porsche himself may be more you:

And then there is always the updated but classic aviator style Porsche sunglasses.  These are made from titanium and contain no lens screws to loosen up as you wear them:

Porsche sunglass styles can be found by the dozens.  These are just a sampling of a few unique and classic statements.  Whether it’s Porsche automobiles or Porsche fashion, you know you are getting top of the line materials, craftsmenship and cutting edge style.  Happy shopping!

 

Downtown KC Airshow

The air show last weekend turned out to be pretty good. Though we didn’t get to see the AV-8 Harrier jets like last year, there were still plenty of great jets in the air. Unfortunately my camera’s battery died about half way through the show so I didn’t get the good stuff. Right after the F-15 went up (when my battery died) The F/A-18E Super Hornet went up for a tactical demo. Right after the gear left the ground he made a steep, full-burn climb, disappeared for a good five minutes, then showed up screaming out of the north-west, breaking the sound barrier right above the runway. I was stoked to say the least as I have never seen the sound barrier broken in person. That alone made it worth standing in the hot sun all day.

BMW Hallett DE

The Kansas City region BMW club (in conjunction with the Sunbelt club) put on a DE event down at Hallett Raceway in Oklahoma this weekend, so we migrated down in a group to support their club, and get ready for the PCA club race down there in October. The funny thing was, there were more Porsche’s than there were BMW’s, but I think everyone had a great time. There were actually cars of all sorts out…..3,5 series BMW’s (and older), Audi’s of various shapes and sizes, mustangs, camaros, GTI’s, and of course a large mix of Porsches. While the track could really use a resurfacing, it is a lot of fun. Unlike most racetracks where turns are on camber and sloped into the turn, most of the turns at Hallett are off camber, which takes some getting use to. If you have never been, Hallett is definitely worth the trip. You can find it about 30 minutes west of Tulsa.

The pumpkin between run sessions:

Since my 951 is undergoing some changes, my ride for the weekend was the #121 car I maintain. The extra weight and less horsepower took some getting use to, but the Moton suspension really keeps the car planted and made for some fast laps. With Hallett being a rough surface, we dialed down the suspension a little, which kept the car from hopping through the rough turns.

A Gayman in action

A BMW going through turn 1 (My second favorite turn)

Looking back down the front straight towards the tower.

A couple of IA cars chasing down a Mustang coming out of my favorite turn “The Bitch”

oldskool road trip part 2

Today a small group of friends of mine and me took a road trip down to Pittsburg Kansas for the H.A.M.B. drag’s.  The morning started off raining and clouds that looked like it would be a horrible day to take a two and a half hour road trip in a 1927 ford model T roadster.  No top open wheels and a ford flat head V8.  The H.A.M.B. drag is a time for some old nostalgic dragsters,  they also have open time trials so you could run ur old hot rod down the quarter mile surrounded by corn fields.  There were a lot of cars to look at vendors and a impressive amount of High boy dragsters. While most of these cars were rather slow compared to most of the cars we work on here at the shop there were a few that were in the 150mph club running about 9sec ETA’s. 

 there was a very nice 60’s F100 unibody with a 427 checy powerplant that he had cramed two massive turbo’s in and he drove it in this was no trailer queen!!!!!

These races are held every year at the MO-KAN Dragway just out side of Pittsburg Kansas so if you enjoy looking at some old skool dragsters head down next year.  Also next weekend t the Kansas Speedway the Goodguys car show is in town some of the best cars from the midwest will be there. 

Here are some pics of the race and with all the fun I forgot to get pics of the 27 Roadster I will get some and update later otherwise the guy that owns the car might get a little upset!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

KC Air Show August 23-24

It’s that time of the year again. It’s time to put the tax payer’s money to work and waste gas in the most exhilarating way possible. This weekend the downtown KC airport will be  overtaken by F-15s, Hornets, Thunderbirds, and more. Afterburners will be at full blast and there will be plenty of high-G maneuvers. An array of static aircraft will be on display on the ground as well as a healthy list of performances in the air:

“Red Star” L-29

Jet powered glider “Silent Wing”

Heavily modified Pitt Special

“Extra-300S” aerobatics

“Angel 7” L-39 high speed demo

Jet powered School Bus (?)

F-15 Strike Eagle tactical demo

P-51 Mustang demo

British Strikemaster

F-16 Thunderbirds demo team

F/A-18 high speed tactical demo

F-4U Corsair demo

The line up is much better than last year. Of course we may be in store for a few unexpected guest like last year. We were waiting for the F-15 to take off last year when a pair of AV-8 Harriers came in fast and low, demonstrated some speedy maneuvers, and then finished by doing some hovering tricks. So you never know what’s in store

Mishmash Monday

With the rug rats back in school, we can get down to some serious business now. Saturday we had a kids day and swap meet here at the shop that we a lot of fun. Lots of people stopped by to pawn their space taking spare parts off on someone else, and the kids had bike races, remote control carts, a giant inflatable bouncy thingy…..anyways, I am sure someone will blog about that this week.

Sunday I came in and finished my 997C2S project so the owner could come get it in the afternoon. With a day of cure time on the paint, I slapped it in place that morning.

Sunday of all days, you would think you would be safe from Shop Supervisor Tia, but wouldn’t you know, she was there to inspect the work.

Giving the car the final walk around……

After 10 minutes of being certain there was an invisible rabbit hiding under the car, the shop supervisor decides the work meets spec, and is ready to go.

Some final shots……

It was a glorious sound as Rick roared down the street from the shop…..then down the frontage road….and I think I heard him getting on to the interstate about a mile away as well…….

Thursday we will be heading down to Hallett Raceway in Oklahoma for the BMW DE, so we will be able to see what this thing sounds like at full throttle on the race track!

89 930 EFI Conversion returns

I hate to see any car we have built get into the hands of people that do not fully understand or appreciate the workings of a converted CIS to EFI turbo Porsche. This car was based on a 89 930, we quickly stripped the motor out of it and converted it to a 3.4 twinplug, Custom cams, large valves, headers, HF2 turbo and full Autronic SMC EFI system. We set the ignition up with M&W components, custom built the inlets off of the 3,2 NA intake fitted to increasedd TQ. The car originally laid apx 540 RWHP on our dyno.

 

 

After changing owners twice since I built it the newest owner who is a previous customer (we built his 79 930) showed up with it at our door. I had spent many hours with the shop in his home town trying to fix the issue. The issue was on going and kept the car from idling or running correct. Getting stuck in the middle of the intersection with a Porsche is never any fun. People will go out of their way to honk I swear.

We have a way we can read the computers and it was giving me several errors. All related to the cam and crank sensors. So I replaced the crank sensor and current plug system. We then upgraded the hall sensor to a much stouter version. This required the oil pump housing to be modified and fitted with the new sensor. Some more rewiring and the sensors were in. Additionally we rewelded the inlet pipe which was damaged when the car hit boost and pulled the line off, we also rewelded a bracket to the intake to ensure the originally integrity was there.

An oil change, valve adjustment and AC recharge and the car headed back to St Louis with a very happy owner. Nothing like a 830 cab that will walk sideways through 80 MPH!!