944 Racecar - Crash Repair 2006-2007
The web server holding my earliest postings into an uncaring universe quietly expired a while ago. Rather than replacing it, I'm posting the content so it will live on forever in the cloud, polluting my little corner of it. Enjoy.
Waking up from the Coma
So, one minute I'm 3rd in the Saturday Qualifying race for the 944 Cup Championship at Mid Ohio, and then it's all a blank. So what happened? Ah yes it's coming back to me - something like crash, crash, wait... crash, and then boom and fire.
(All rights, here's the video, then come back ...)
And with that I was done with Mid Ohio for the year. Done with racing for the year. Just plain done.
But that was 2006, it's 2007 now. No updates on the website but the car is showing back up on the podium, what gives?
What gives is a new job in 2007 (less time); a car that turned out to be much more f*ked up than thought at first glance (more time rebuilding, less for web stuff). But I did take pictures throughout the process, so let's journey back in time and see what we missed.
Here's the first point of impact. Jeff Solinger hit me pretty dead on at an angle with his right front on my right corner. That flipped Jeff around 180 degrees and his left side walloped my right rear corner. The rear didn't look all that bad, only sheet metal, but that turned out to be a wrong assessment. Jeff was kind enough to leave me extra orange paint all over my fender in case I needed it later.
Closer look at the right corner. Notice the bent tie rod, and oil everywhere. You can't tell from the picture, but the tub and frame rail is moved over a fair amount, several inches.
In pulling the fender well inserts in preparation to remove the fender, I discovered where my ABS lives.
With the front spoiler removed, the overall front of the car is not a happy sight. Everything is bent or twisted. My body shop guys, Scott and Brian from Vintage Motorsports, keep telling me: (spoken in a soft Kentucky drawl) It's not too bad, just a little sheet metal. That'll pull right out on the frame machine.
Here's looking down at the frame rail. That should be lot closer to vertical in the picture than it is now. The rail moved in on the oil filter and crushed the filter and the oil cooler takeoff plate. That break caused the fire when I tried to start the car and move it off the hot track. You can see where it melted the wiring to the coil. That was the principal fire damage before the fire system snuffed it out.
The parts collection keeps growing
I also got hit on the left front corner. You can see the blue paint from Ryoji's car. He hit me pretty straight on with his 944's left front and spun off. It drove the left front corner back; the hood went into the windshield cracking it. You can see the frame rail is a lot more straighter than the other side. It's still an inch or two off, but nowhere as bad. It's more rearward than side to side.
Left front strut is toast also. Off to Ebay looking for a Porsche M030 strut. I got lucky, a BMW shop in NC had one laying around their shop and auctioned it off. Once I got my hands on it, both front struts had to go to TrueChoice for a rebuild and re-valving. They ran out of parts in the middle of the rebuild and they sat. Luckily they finally showed up 1 week before the Mid Ohio race.
At this point I have just about everything off the front end: no radiator, no spoilers, sway bar off, no fenders, etc. I bolted on some old shocks, mounted some tires and winched it into the trailer for the trip to the body shop.
Back from the Body Shop (1st time)
I missed my chance at taking pictures on the frame machine. I'm sure that was fun, Brian is a wizard on the frame bench. He told me having seen the video of the crash helped him visualize what needed to be done. Basically he reverses the crash forces as he pulls and tugs. So no pics.
Looking purty with the new fender
Rear quarter was cut off a donor car and re-welded onto mine. This is the result.
Right front after pull. Looking a lot better. Not OEM, but not bad.
Left front after pull. You can see a little buckle in the rail, but it's not really structural. My body shop guys told me, next time ... we're going to drop the engine and just cut the front off and attach a new clip. Hopefully there won't be a next time ...
New rebuilt struts from TrueChoice. They look purty also.
Rebuild moving right along. Radiator, struts and other bits being fitted onto the car
Trouble strikes
Mid March 2007 - Round 2 of the 44Cup season is on the VIR Full Course at the end of March, beginning of April. This is the same week as PCA Road Atlanta but this year, I decided to run with the Cup guys. The goal from the beginning of the rebuild was to be ready by this weekend, no matter what the track, and that drove the process. I harassed my body shop guys, spent long nights in the cold garage tearing apart and then putting the car together again. And I'm finally there. All (needed) bits are on the car. It needs to go to a shop for a final look over by a (real) mechanic; get an alignment and a new windshield.
Here's the plan:
It's Monday night and I need to have the car at the shop Tuesday morning. Windshield guy's scheduled to be at the shop tomorrow. I'll come back from New Jersey Tues night, pick up the car at the shop after hours, stuff into the trailer and leave Wednesday morning for the 6-7 hour tow to VIR, ready to go racing. Simple eh?
I know the motor works after repairing the fried wiring, it fired up last night like it was just turned off seconds ago not 6 months. Cool! So let’s change that old oil and make sure there's nothing nasty flowing through the system. Out with the cheap and in with $40 worth of Mobil 1. Ok, let's put this baby on the trailer. I fire it up and let it idle for a few minutes while I get ready to leave.
Hey the engine note's kinda funny. What's that knocking? Look under the car! Holy shit! It's Exxon Valdez time all over again. I kill the motor and step back. Man not again, there's oil everywhere. Looks like I lost about 2 quarts. I clean up the mess, refill it and call a friend to come by and help. He fires up the car and I watch. Oh yeah, shooting right out by the oil filter like a fire hose. We kill the engine and I pull the filter and the mystery is solved.
When I changed the oil and filter I didn't notice in the dimness of the engine compartment but the seal from the original filter stayed behind. It probably hardened and stuck from the fire and dried out. When I screwed on the new filter it was a rubber to rubber connection and it kinked as it was torqued down.
When I relate this tale to real mechanics they all start shaking their heads, yup, yup, happened to me in (fill in date) with a (fill in car brand). And they chuckle and always end with: And since that day, I always check for that seal. This is one of the secrets of the mechanic's guild that they never tell you about. But now I can gently shake my head, gaze into the distance and say, yup, yup, happened to me in '07 ....
Back to the present, or the near past. It's only 10pm, plenty of time to get it to the shop across town. I back the car out of the garage and up the driveway. Pretty cool, this is the first time the car has moved under its own power since the crash. Make a left at the top of the driveway and head to the trailer 50 ft away. I start hearing a clunk/grinding noise and as I approach the trailer a Snap! and the car comes to a halt at the ramp. The car won't move, looks like I broke something in the tranny. I attempt to winch the now dead car into the trailer but the winch battery is dead. And, of course, the trailer lights don't work either. And it's a moonless night. Damn.
Hmmm, batting a 1000 here. Finally with the help of some walking-by neighbors, my wife, a makeshift come-along fashioned out of my trailer tie-downs, and my WRX's headlights acting as our light source, we get the car into the trailer. No point in taking the car to the shop if the tranny or diff is gone. It's midnight anyway. I close the trailer door on the car and end the day by having a beer (or two).
Giving up on making the race, I let the car sit all week in the trailer until I could take a look at it next weekend. In talking to Gregg Wilson, Pcar mechanic extraordinaire, he's of the opinion that most likely it’s a snapped CV joint, not the tranny. I check and he's correct as usual. I order a new axle for next weekend. Usually swapping out an axle is pretty straight forward. But not this time. For some reason, even with all the bolts removed, the axle just won't come out. It won't clear the tranny flange. I end up using a scissors jack to spread rear strut to get the old axle out and the new one in.
So what's a little mechanically difficulty eh? What doesn't kill us makes us strong right? Back to my plan. Car still needs to go to the shop for an alignment and looksee. Up the driveway, make the left and uh-oh, here it comes again, clunk, clunk, grind and Snap! This time it’s the left CV Joint. Winch it into the trailer - I recharged the battery - and back online to order CV axle #2. A week later, it’s installed, using the scissors jack technique again - detect a common theme here? I decide to look at the rear end a little more closely.
Here's the left side trailer arm connecting into the torsion tube. Looks good, nice and healthy.
Here's the right side. Uh Houston, we have a problem. See how the right side flange is bent? And the arm bushing doesn't mount up nice, tight and flat to the ears? Something’s going on. It's time to go back to the body shop for a little bending on the rear methinks. They didn't catch this.
There we discover the torsion bar tube is bent from the crash. This beefy tube runs from side to side of the car and the trailing arms are bolted to it. That's why the axles are sticking, and why the right side wheel is two inches from the fender well, while the left side is nearly flush. That was a stout hit on the rear. It did a lot more damage than we thought. We finally source a used one from a Porsche S2 and get it replaced.
Of course that means the whole back end of the car has to be removed to replace it. Meanwhile time is marching on. With VIR gone, my next goal was the Mid Ohio PCA race in May. And it's fast approaching.
Finally the shop gets the tube in and the car buttoned up. They deliver it to Cignatta Motorsports so a "real" mechanic can check out my work and also make sure that when the body shop guys put it back together nothing got forgotten.
While the body shop guys didn't forget to bolt it back together, they did bolt it back together wrong. The rear was so far jacked up it looked like a Chevy Impalla drag car with no room for adjustments. I can't really complain about Scott and Brian though. It was their first 944 that they put the rear back together and it's a tricky process. But the rest of their work was great and they way undercharged me for their efforts. So no complaints. Meanwhile at Cignatta's, the rear end had to come apart and be put back together again. This meant it didn't get to the alignment shop on time but sat on the lift over the weekend.
Tick Tick Tick ...
Now it’s Monday afternoon and I'm leaving for Mid Ohio on Thursday whether or not the car's ready or not. I need some vacation and I'm out of here. I get the car back late Monday. Tuesday morning has a new windshield installed. Car has to go back to the body shop to get hood pins installed since I don't have a hood locking mechanism anymore. Wednesday night finds me back at the body shop where the finishing touches are done. I make it back home Thurs at 1am. Grab a couple hours sleep and it’s off to Mid Ohio 8 hours away, bright and early.
Will the car make it through the weekend? It hasn't traveled more than 150 feet since the crash. I'm treating the weekend as an extended test. It's going to be on the track where I'll find out what's really wrong with the car. All of this has just been foreplay. Ready or not, Mid Ohio I'm coming back.
Waking up from the Coma
So, one minute I'm 3rd in the Saturday Qualifying race for the 944 Cup Championship at Mid Ohio, and then it's all a blank. So what happened? Ah yes it's coming back to me - something like crash, crash, wait... crash, and then boom and fire.
(All rights, here's the video, then come back ...)
And with that I was done with Mid Ohio for the year. Done with racing for the year. Just plain done.
But that was 2006, it's 2007 now. No updates on the website but the car is showing back up on the podium, what gives?
What gives is a new job in 2007 (less time); a car that turned out to be much more f*ked up than thought at first glance (more time rebuilding, less for web stuff). But I did take pictures throughout the process, so let's journey back in time and see what we missed.
Here's the first point of impact. Jeff Solinger hit me pretty dead on at an angle with his right front on my right corner. That flipped Jeff around 180 degrees and his left side walloped my right rear corner. The rear didn't look all that bad, only sheet metal, but that turned out to be a wrong assessment. Jeff was kind enough to leave me extra orange paint all over my fender in case I needed it later.
Closer look at the right corner. Notice the bent tie rod, and oil everywhere. You can't tell from the picture, but the tub and frame rail is moved over a fair amount, several inches.
In pulling the fender well inserts in preparation to remove the fender, I discovered where my ABS lives.
With the front spoiler removed, the overall front of the car is not a happy sight. Everything is bent or twisted. My body shop guys, Scott and Brian from Vintage Motorsports, keep telling me: (spoken in a soft Kentucky drawl) It's not too bad, just a little sheet metal. That'll pull right out on the frame machine.
Here's looking down at the frame rail. That should be lot closer to vertical in the picture than it is now. The rail moved in on the oil filter and crushed the filter and the oil cooler takeoff plate. That break caused the fire when I tried to start the car and move it off the hot track. You can see where it melted the wiring to the coil. That was the principal fire damage before the fire system snuffed it out.
The parts collection keeps growing
I also got hit on the left front corner. You can see the blue paint from Ryoji's car. He hit me pretty straight on with his 944's left front and spun off. It drove the left front corner back; the hood went into the windshield cracking it. You can see the frame rail is a lot more straighter than the other side. It's still an inch or two off, but nowhere as bad. It's more rearward than side to side.
Left front strut is toast also. Off to Ebay looking for a Porsche M030 strut. I got lucky, a BMW shop in NC had one laying around their shop and auctioned it off. Once I got my hands on it, both front struts had to go to TrueChoice for a rebuild and re-valving. They ran out of parts in the middle of the rebuild and they sat. Luckily they finally showed up 1 week before the Mid Ohio race.
At this point I have just about everything off the front end: no radiator, no spoilers, sway bar off, no fenders, etc. I bolted on some old shocks, mounted some tires and winched it into the trailer for the trip to the body shop.
Back from the Body Shop (1st time)
I missed my chance at taking pictures on the frame machine. I'm sure that was fun, Brian is a wizard on the frame bench. He told me having seen the video of the crash helped him visualize what needed to be done. Basically he reverses the crash forces as he pulls and tugs. So no pics.
Looking purty with the new fender
Rear quarter was cut off a donor car and re-welded onto mine. This is the result.
Right front after pull. Looking a lot better. Not OEM, but not bad.
Left front after pull. You can see a little buckle in the rail, but it's not really structural. My body shop guys told me, next time ... we're going to drop the engine and just cut the front off and attach a new clip. Hopefully there won't be a next time ...
New rebuilt struts from TrueChoice. They look purty also.
Rebuild moving right along. Radiator, struts and other bits being fitted onto the car
Trouble strikes
Mid March 2007 - Round 2 of the 44Cup season is on the VIR Full Course at the end of March, beginning of April. This is the same week as PCA Road Atlanta but this year, I decided to run with the Cup guys. The goal from the beginning of the rebuild was to be ready by this weekend, no matter what the track, and that drove the process. I harassed my body shop guys, spent long nights in the cold garage tearing apart and then putting the car together again. And I'm finally there. All (needed) bits are on the car. It needs to go to a shop for a final look over by a (real) mechanic; get an alignment and a new windshield.
Here's the plan:
It's Monday night and I need to have the car at the shop Tuesday morning. Windshield guy's scheduled to be at the shop tomorrow. I'll come back from New Jersey Tues night, pick up the car at the shop after hours, stuff into the trailer and leave Wednesday morning for the 6-7 hour tow to VIR, ready to go racing. Simple eh?
Knock-knock ... Oh hello Mr. Murphy! Come on in, have
a seat, it's going to be a long night in the Alpine garage.
I know the motor works after repairing the fried wiring, it fired up last night like it was just turned off seconds ago not 6 months. Cool! So let’s change that old oil and make sure there's nothing nasty flowing through the system. Out with the cheap and in with $40 worth of Mobil 1. Ok, let's put this baby on the trailer. I fire it up and let it idle for a few minutes while I get ready to leave.
Hey the engine note's kinda funny. What's that knocking? Look under the car! Holy shit! It's Exxon Valdez time all over again. I kill the motor and step back. Man not again, there's oil everywhere. Looks like I lost about 2 quarts. I clean up the mess, refill it and call a friend to come by and help. He fires up the car and I watch. Oh yeah, shooting right out by the oil filter like a fire hose. We kill the engine and I pull the filter and the mystery is solved.
When I changed the oil and filter I didn't notice in the dimness of the engine compartment but the seal from the original filter stayed behind. It probably hardened and stuck from the fire and dried out. When I screwed on the new filter it was a rubber to rubber connection and it kinked as it was torqued down.
When I relate this tale to real mechanics they all start shaking their heads, yup, yup, happened to me in (fill in date) with a (fill in car brand). And they chuckle and always end with: And since that day, I always check for that seal. This is one of the secrets of the mechanic's guild that they never tell you about. But now I can gently shake my head, gaze into the distance and say, yup, yup, happened to me in '07 ....
Back to the present, or the near past. It's only 10pm, plenty of time to get it to the shop across town. I back the car out of the garage and up the driveway. Pretty cool, this is the first time the car has moved under its own power since the crash. Make a left at the top of the driveway and head to the trailer 50 ft away. I start hearing a clunk/grinding noise and as I approach the trailer a Snap! and the car comes to a halt at the ramp. The car won't move, looks like I broke something in the tranny. I attempt to winch the now dead car into the trailer but the winch battery is dead. And, of course, the trailer lights don't work either. And it's a moonless night. Damn.
Hmmm, batting a 1000 here. Finally with the help of some walking-by neighbors, my wife, a makeshift come-along fashioned out of my trailer tie-downs, and my WRX's headlights acting as our light source, we get the car into the trailer. No point in taking the car to the shop if the tranny or diff is gone. It's midnight anyway. I close the trailer door on the car and end the day by having a beer (or two).
Giving up on making the race, I let the car sit all week in the trailer until I could take a look at it next weekend. In talking to Gregg Wilson, Pcar mechanic extraordinaire, he's of the opinion that most likely it’s a snapped CV joint, not the tranny. I check and he's correct as usual. I order a new axle for next weekend. Usually swapping out an axle is pretty straight forward. But not this time. For some reason, even with all the bolts removed, the axle just won't come out. It won't clear the tranny flange. I end up using a scissors jack to spread rear strut to get the old axle out and the new one in.
 |
| cv joint missing its inside bits - all turned to splinters |
So what's a little mechanically difficulty eh? What doesn't kill us makes us strong right? Back to my plan. Car still needs to go to the shop for an alignment and looksee. Up the driveway, make the left and uh-oh, here it comes again, clunk, clunk, grind and Snap! This time it’s the left CV Joint. Winch it into the trailer - I recharged the battery - and back online to order CV axle #2. A week later, it’s installed, using the scissors jack technique again - detect a common theme here? I decide to look at the rear end a little more closely.
Here's the left side trailer arm connecting into the torsion tube. Looks good, nice and healthy.
Here's the right side. Uh Houston, we have a problem. See how the right side flange is bent? And the arm bushing doesn't mount up nice, tight and flat to the ears? Something’s going on. It's time to go back to the body shop for a little bending on the rear methinks. They didn't catch this.
There we discover the torsion bar tube is bent from the crash. This beefy tube runs from side to side of the car and the trailing arms are bolted to it. That's why the axles are sticking, and why the right side wheel is two inches from the fender well, while the left side is nearly flush. That was a stout hit on the rear. It did a lot more damage than we thought. We finally source a used one from a Porsche S2 and get it replaced.
Of course that means the whole back end of the car has to be removed to replace it. Meanwhile time is marching on. With VIR gone, my next goal was the Mid Ohio PCA race in May. And it's fast approaching.
While the body shop guys didn't forget to bolt it back together, they did bolt it back together wrong. The rear was so far jacked up it looked like a Chevy Impalla drag car with no room for adjustments. I can't really complain about Scott and Brian though. It was their first 944 that they put the rear back together and it's a tricky process. But the rest of their work was great and they way undercharged me for their efforts. So no complaints. Meanwhile at Cignatta's, the rear end had to come apart and be put back together again. This meant it didn't get to the alignment shop on time but sat on the lift over the weekend.
Tick Tick Tick ...
Will the car make it through the weekend? It hasn't traveled more than 150 feet since the crash. I'm treating the weekend as an extended test. It's going to be on the track where I'll find out what's really wrong with the car. All of this has just been foreplay. Ready or not, Mid Ohio I'm coming back.
Just another episode in the life of a club racer.
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