Desert Dingo Racing

Category: The Car

  • Naval Jelly and a new transmission


    Fun with power tools.

    I missed Saturday’s work day thanks to a cold, but Cary reported in:

    Shawn came over. He went and bought Naval Jelly to kill rust with. He also got an awesome wire wheel to remove the undercoating with. So we stripped the pan down even more.

    Elecktra came out to help and worked on the backing plates for the front brakes. I took over where Shawn left off after he went home. He hasn’t had a day off in 21 days. I went to Bugformance and spent a while learning about front trailing arms and transmissions. Bob has a tranny from a 72 Super Beetle that is a single side cover (it is a stronger case) and as luck will have it it will fit our car!

    I also couldn’t leave Bugformance without leaving some money there so I bought us brake shoes and a hardware kit for the front end.

    Check out photos from the day’s work.

  • Working on Father’s Day


    Note Cary attempting to set his pants on fire with the grinder.

    It being Father’s Day, we had a light crew on Sunday but made good progress. Cary installed the second King Kong adjuster on the front suspension, Charlie muscled the seat rails off the body and I scraped sound-deadening tar off the pan. The one benefit of it being oppressively hot was that the tar was a tad softer.

    The good news is that the car is completely stripped and we now begin the process of rebuilding, probably starting work on the roll cage next week.

    A handful of photos from Sunday’s work.

  • Installing the torsion bar adjuster

    Still life, with VWs

    Cary, Skid, Scott, Charlie and I got together on Sunday to continue prep in advance of starting on the roll cage. The torsion bar adjuster will give us more front end ground clearance. Skid towed the pan over and we started work removing its front suspension. Charlie prepped the body panels for primering. I cowered in the shade and edited Charlie’s video from our trip to San Diego and Mexico.

    Here are some photos from the work day.

  • Wisdom from the Master

    I spent 40 minutes on the phone with Eric Solorzano, nine-time winner of the Baja 1000 Class 11 category. As Charlie said, “It’s like having Michael Jordan teach you how to shoot baskets.”

    One page of questions turned into four pages of notes. Best part is he invited us to come down to San Diego to go through his car and he’d teach us some driving techniques.

    Highlights from the conversation:

    Class 11 VWs take a different line through the course than the other vehicles. Stay out of ruts made by other tires.

    Change drivers before you get tired. When you’re tired you make mistakes. The helmet gets heavy after a while and when it’s hot, your head swells.

    Hydrate in the days leading up to the race. He drinks Pedialyte when he’s in the car.

    Install a 14-gallon fuel cell up front and a five-gallon fuel cell in the back seat. Only use the five-gallon one for emergencies. (We’d been thinking of a 22-gallon fuel cell in the back seat, but Eric said that it would put too much strain on the rear suspension and just try getting a car out of a silt bed with a full load of fuel in the back.)

    He runs 235/75/15 tires all around. You can go larger, but you lose engine power.

    Eric has a glass windshield (I’ve seen a lot of class 11s that don’t). “It gets cold at night and your body uses a lot of energy to keep warm.” He uses a Parker Pumper air system.

    He installed the auxiliary oil cooler on the roof just above the rear window. “What about rolling the car?” “I don’t recommend that you roll the car.”

    “You want a big amber light and a big red light to tell you if something is going wrong.” One for the alternator(?) and one for oil warning light. “You’ll never check your gauges because you’re focused on driving.”

    His chase car carries a spare engine, spare transmission, a complete front end and a complete tie rod assembly. And a spare fuel pump, compufier(?), coil pack and distributor. Jetting for the carb, nuts and bolts, clutch cable and drive belt. And spare air filters and tires.

    Never changed an engine. Changed a transmission once. Broke four or five spindles. You’ll get flats.

    He also carries about $1700 worth of tools. “You want to carry the right tools so you can disassemble the entire car.” A cordless impact wrench is a must have.

    We’ll probably fly down to San Diego in mid-May to go over his car.

  • Front end work

    Well, the good news is. . .well, there is no good news. The left front spindle (axle) is bent. The drum brake drums are too rusted to use, right on the edge of spec and no larger than 9.114. Damn! OK the good news is we started welding the spot welded seams on the front beam, the temporary seat frame is built and ready to install.