Build Update: Learning experience

With the build progress getting close we have been waiting for a lot of parts. One of the main things is a fuel cell. Man, we made a bit of a mistake with that from the get go. Thinking we had it all under control we ordered a fuel cell. After fabricating the mount, cutting the hole and just about getting to the final welding we discovered, it wasn’t SCORE legal. AHHH, crap. Well, I suppose this is what we have to go through to learn as we go right? Well, after we spent many hundred more dollars we now have the right fuel cell and it looks great. It is, of course, 1/4 inch longer on one direction than our previous cell so that means we have a bit of fab work to redo.

With the material coming in order to finish this fabrication we are on to other odds and ends. So what else do we have? Well with borrowed harnesses we are looking at our harness bar and seat position. Turns out our harness bar is about an inch or two high so we need to move it down a bit. We anticipated this however so fortunately this is simply tacked in place and we are just doing a bit of final fit work to get everything in place.

Wiring is well under way, we are doing an initial wiring layout and once it is all finalized we will go back and do a few more connectors in order to make this simple and clean in the field. One of the things we learned from the USA 500 is a rats nest of wires may make sense to the guy who built it, but it sure doesn’t make any sense to anyone else. With resources like BFG Pits and Baja Pits we figure that everything should be as clear as possible to save time anywhere and everywhere we can.

With our front suspension buttoned up, we have been tinkering with our rear suspension. Matt Fisher had a crazy experience with our bump stops where a spark made its way under his helmet and all safety gear and managed to burn his eyeball. Yes, EYEBALL. Man, we don’t want that to happen again, but fortunately he was just fine without any infections or anything.

With that little debacle behind us, fabrication commenced on the bump stops and they appear to be complete. We’ll have some pictures for you later on those, but the camera is having a bit of a tough time fitting under there.

In the spirit of our motto “if you do it once… it’s wrong” we have been adjusting our seat mounts a bit. Just a bit more forward from our original location. Yeah, if you wonder whats taking us so long. well, what can I say, rookie mistake! Regardless the car is coming along nicely and we have a crew of guys that are ready to be done with the initial fabrication and out on the dirt!

We’ll be back in a week or two with more updates, so check back regularly and keep up with our build!