Saturday Was A Great Day Pt2 (Lassiter Mtn)

For the past few weeks I've had the TV at work on Speed Channel as background noise. Every morning a show called "Pass Time" comes on. If you haven't seen it you should it's a fun game show based around guessing the E.T. of drag racers. I guess that show has reignited my love of drag racing because I have the bug this year. Not so much to do it, but to see and especially hear it. The Saturday was opening day for the 2013 season at Lassiter Mountain Dragway. I haven't been to "The Mountain" since the early 80's so I figured it was time to check it out. The new owners are doing a lot of work and the place is looking great. It still has the feel that it did before, but everything is in better shape. So I showed up and started to wander around and take pics. A lot of folks said they would try to make it, but life gets in the way and Charles Cole is the only one who could swing it. That's OK we had a blast talking hot rods while I was busy taking pictures. Most of these were taken from the top of the bleachers, but next time I plan to move around a lot more and maybe see if I can get down in the staging area to get some cool shots. I'm not going to say much about the cars other than the basics of the make and model type stuff, because I don't know much about them except for a little I learned on facebook about them when I posted a few pics. I will say that a lot of work went into these rides and they were very entertaining to watch. It'll be a few weeks before I can make it back, but I do plan on going again soon. If you can make it I highly encourage it.

S10 heating up the tires.

My first drivable car was a 73 Vega so I have a soft spot for them.

This Toyota truck and the Vega next to it were my favorites. The truck because it was SUPER clean, pretty damned fast and did the best wheelstand of the night while I was there. The Vega because it is the same model as my first one. I just WISH I could have tubbed mine out and put a V8 in it.

1955 Chevy for my friend Mike Kendrick, he used to race one on the Mountain back in the 60's.

Starting to line up in the staging lanes.

Best picture I got of the Toyota doing a wheelie, next time I'm going to get with the driver and make sure I get a good clean shot. The other car was pretty damned fast too, it's just not my style.

Another S10 making tire smoke.

One of the fasted damned cars of the night. The '68 Camaro was a blast to watch.

It may look stock, but this Trans Am had a little power under that hole in the hood.

This Pinto was another great car to watch, he could get the wheels up too and was really fun to watch. I want to get more pics of it next time as well.

That's it for this time, I have one more post to make about Saturday night's racing.

Saturday Was A Great Day Pt1

Had a great weekend, Saturday more so than Sunday, but it all worked out good. Saturday I met Bill and Ian at Ross' house so we could go for a ride. Everything started out great, we made a short ride over to Champy's to fill up our bellies before hitting the road. The food was good and worth the effort. If you like fried chicken or catfish, check em out you won't regret it. After eating we took off to make a nice couple hour loop of the area. We made it about 3 miles down the road when Bill's bike started coughing on acceleration so we pulled over to check it out. We could see a big chunk of crud in the fuel filter so Bill cleaned that out but it still wasn't right so he decided to head to his house to fix it. Once he was on his way we loaded up to continue the ride. We were not even through turning out of the parking lot when Ian's bike just died. Total electrical deadness. We got to the side of the road and checked the battery and wires out, but couldn't figure it out so Ross went to get the truck and trailer. Once we got back to Ross' we figured out that the chinese ignition switch was bad. I followed them up to the HD shop to get a new one and then took off for the house. It turned out that Bill's bike was a piece of crud in the jet of one of the carbs and the new switch fixed Ian's bike so everything ended up OK. Those 3 guys are doing the El Diablo run in May so these shake down rides are very critical. I'm glad they all seem to be down to dealing with little stuff so that they should be fine on the run. The rest of my day was pretty cool too but I'll tell you about that in the next post....

In the parking lot getting ready to chow down!

Time to head inside.

The bikes were looking great I just wish Whitey's Triumph was parked out there with them.

Some art outside the restaurant.

The artist did a pretty good job of figuring out how to recycle that junk to make this.

Taking off....

And that's where the ride pictures end. I decided I wasn't going to take pics of my Brothers on the side of the road. The cool thing was that the corner where we were stopped turned out to be a cool place for car spotting. A really nice 69 Camaro came by but I didn't have the camera ready. Then this sweet 68 Firebird cruised by. The car had a nice thump to it.

My brother used to have one like this, but he didn't have any engine parts poking through the hood.

This also rolled by, but for once I don't have a clue what it is. If you know then post it in the comments.

It's a very nice looking ride, I'd love to go for a ride in it.

That's it for now, the next post will be about Saturday night and my fun evening at Lassiter Mountain Dragway to see the King of the Street races.
Stay Tuned...

Hung Out With Bill Saturday

Saturday was a pretty good day. It was cloudy but warm and I took advantage of it. Went in to the warehouse where I work do get some stuff done on my projects. Talked to Bill that morning and he said he'd come over and hang out for a bit. I got there early and got some stuff done on my oil tank mount. I'm gonna wait to post pics of that until I get it pretty much done and am sure it'll work out. Otherwise I just hung out and sanded on the bed of my truck so that I can hopefully get it painted soon. Bill finally arrived and I gave him the grand tour and piddled around a bit. By this time I was finally hungry so we headed up to Bluff Park to eat. We wanted to eat at the Tip Top Grill, but we got there 5 minutes too late so we ended up at Mr. P's. The food there is GREAT but ya sit inside and at the Tip Top ya don't. After we ate Bill headed on down the road and I went back to finish the days work on the truck. Sunday was a family day so there's not much to show you there. Life is picking up the pace with the time change and the warmer weather so maybe I'll get back to regular updates on here soon.

The bike on the lift still. Maybe within the next few weeks it'll fire up.

Bill finally found the place.

and pulled up to the big garage door.

Sand, sand, sand.....wirebrush, wirebrush....sand sand.....

Primer, primer, primer.....hopefully soon I can lay down some satin black on here.

Rollin' through the woods going to find some lunch.

That XS just rolls right on with no complaints.

Did some touch up painting of the trim in the grill area.

There she sits, one more days work toward looking good again.

A New Project In My Driveway.

Well after all these years I have finally rejoined the ranks of the cage owners. I didn't go hardcore and buy a new Prius or some other crap like that. I bought a 34 year old Chevy truck. One of the owners of my company is a wheeler dealer who has his fingers in everything.  He uses the building next to the one we're in as well as the yard around it to store stuff for his Victory dealership and old cars and trucks that he's in the process of dealing with. For a while this poor girl was sitting outside the building looking sad. My Boss was being funny one day and told Dudley that I was interested in the truck and asked how much he wanted for it. Dudley replied with a crazy price, but then added that if it was for me he'd let it go for a much lower price. I was leery because the truck was rough and I had only been considering getting an old truck sometime this year, not right now! When this took place the truck had been there for a while and one of the people who work on the old cars had taken the trim off as well as the grill and all the lights PLUS he had taken the dash pad out and sprayed the truck with primer. Like I said it was ugly. I jump started the truck the next day and drove it around. Other than having to wait for the torque converter to refill with fluid it seemed OK, just topped off the oil and transmission and took off. I decided I wanted it and started to mess with it. I put the grill and lights back together after polishing them a bit. It was looking better already. I also drove it around some more and every time I drove it the ol' girl got better. Finally we struck a deal and I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks. I pulled the seat out and scrubbed all the old crud off of it. Other than some fading and stains it is in GREAT shape. The carpet under the mats was like new even if the the rest of it had faded from red to almost white. The interior is now clean and I have a used steering wheel to install (the original has SCOTCH tape wrapped around it and a stretchy cover over it. I'm afraid of what is under the tape). I got the wheel at Pull-A-Part along with a wiper switch and a mirror. I plan to get a left front fender soon. I think the rest of the stuff will have to be replaced with new repop parts.  The outside has been going well. I pulled the tailgate off during a rainy day and worked on it in the warehouse during my breaks, then primed it black. This weekend I got the trim clips on the left side drilled out and sanded off the glue residue from the ancillary trim clips. I'll weld up the holes soon and do the same to the other side then I'll paint it satin black and try to bribe someone to give it a little Von Dutch style striping. That's it for now, check out the pics and be sure to check back, I hope to actually do some bike stuff soon that I can share.

How it sits now.

The tailgate is ready for paint. I sanded and painted the bumper this weekend too.

You can see how both sides looked. 35 year old adhesive rubber stuff is a pain to remove.

Driver's side looking clean.

Had to drill out a LOT of these damn things and still have a bunch to go.

At least the wheels and tires are clean on this side.

Dots, dots, dots...

Dots and clips, clips and dots.....

AND busted mirrors. I found a drivers side mirror, hopefully I can one for this side soon.

And here is how she sits today!

Hopefully before too long she''ll be black and beautiful!

A Nice Sunday Ride With Some Custom Cousins

It seems that everyone has been tied up with stuff lately so it was a great thing for us to be able to get away and ride for a little while this Sunday. Bill and Whitey couldn't make it, but ya gotta take care of the family first. Ian, Ross and I met at Ross' house and after catching up for a few minutes took off for some fun.

Ross showing off his new "cruise control" he picked up for his bike. He and Ian are gathering all the goodies and making all the mods they need to hit the El Diablo run with Bill in May.

Ian checking out one of the 10 million cool pieces Ross has made for this bike.

Ross' frame table is almost done and ready for Ross to begin building his CB750.

Ian's shovel sitting at the curb waiting for the latest shakedown run. Ian is trying to get as many miles as he can on the bike to work out all the bugs before he gets to Mexico.

And away we go!

Somehow caught up with Ross. Actually he held it down to a nice pace today.

Following my Brothers down some fun country roads.

Starting to find a few curves.

And some more of them.

We stopped to take a break and to check for loose parts. We did pretty good, one exhaust nut had fallen off Ian's shovel. Not bad for a bike that was in a million pieces not that long ago. I must say that it was nice to ride behind an old FLH with the full fender and bags without seeing the rear fender and other parts shaking all over and in different directions. This bike is proving to be a good solid build.

The place Ross led us to was a cannonball factory during the Civil War and today is a nice park with some of the parts of the factory grounds recreated. Across the street is the remains of a mustard gas factory from WWI. I plan to get back out here with my Wife and our cameras so you'll see more pics later.

About ready to ride again.

The ride back.

We went through Columbiana on the way back. It's a nice small Southern town with lots of old south charm. After this we got back to Ross' where we hung out for a few then headed on home to get ready for the new week.

I really like how the parked pic of Ian's bike came out so I played with it a little and thought I'd share.

That's all for now. Catch ya later!