Race Prepping Your Car

[thinkmonkey]

I was curious what kind of 'restoration' you guys do to your z cars when you do race prep them for competition? Do you just shop for a rust free arizona car, or do you strip and dip the unit-body first?

-David

[hmsports]

There are a couple of things to consider when pre-prepping a car to build a race car... but most importantly is safety.

I've seen Z cars raced where there was virutally no repairs performed on the rusted rails/inner fenders and you could see where the front cross member was pullling away from the rail. It was just a matter of time before a major failure could happen.

As far as dipping/stripping, that is a matter of preference. Two advantages of starting with a stripped car is that there is not 30 years of crud stuck to the bottom. The second advantage is it is much easier to determine where a fluid leak is coming from.

I guess if you were able to weigh the crud and original paint you strip off a car and compare that against what you put on you might save a few pounds... although sprung weight isn't the most advantageous place to save weight.

Since there is a fairly good chance of crunching and dinging when wheel-to-wheel racing, it isn't really worth spending a huge amount of money on a primo prep and paint job (although I've seen those kinds of cars out there -- usually the guy has more dollars than sense).

A good way to judge is by using the 50/50 rule. Does it look good at 50 feet and 50 miles per hour?

To get back to your original question, I have always found the most solid tub I could and repaired any rusted floor and frame rails. On my second car I had to replace the whole right frame rail with a new one and do about 40 hours of floor pan repair. Ended up being the best and fastest car I had.

[26th-Z]

Hey Rick,

Glad to see you back from vacation. I sent you money today BTW.

I have built a few race cars in my day and concur with most of Rick's thoughts. I tend to be a cleanliness freak and fully believe that a clean car is inherently faster than a dirty car. In any high performance situation, the chassis is the basis of the car and is just as important or more important than any other component. By the time you get through aligning and strengthening the chassis, you might as well strip it clean.

One does need to have a good mind for it though, because all race cars crash. That's just part of the game. Once again, a well prepared chassis is safer. I, too, have seen bondo cars. I once saw a guy get hurt flipping a bondo MGB. Pulled the roll bar out of the body. It all boils down to where you want to run in the pack. Front runners have well built chassis'.

[240Zdragon72]

Rick, what would you say the best way is to strip the crud and paint off of the car? I was going to sandblast and weld all the holes in the chassis and frame. (trying to build a comp. car for track races) Any advice would help me speed up my decision.

Thanks:

Brian:alien: