The Road to Nitro, week 7, The Boss is Back!

The Road to Nitro, week 7, The Boss is Back!

 So I am going back to work on Aug 21^st after my burn accident. No, I am not the Boss, I am just a regular worker but the statement “The Boss is Back” is just a tease so you will read on. The statement has meaning!

 I haven’t been able to do much except to dream because even though I have been feeling pretty good lately I did not want to work on stuff while on workman’s comp and have to explain to them why if I got hurt.

 I did get to go and watch Bryan run his AA/FA and that was allot of fun. Winner, Winner! Yes, Bryan won the Pepsi Nightfire nationals at Boise which is a huge event for fuel altereds. And he won his first Wally! That was a real accomplishment and he now is the car to beat in AA/FA!

After next Monday it is back to square one on the “Road to Nitro”. There have been some updates since the last installment and the weeks have grown into months but I will keep on as if it is only week 7.

 Since the last time we talked you know that the Hall Bros roadster was funded from the 39 Merc fund and this will be a true Hall Bros looking roadster. Cliff went back and picked up the new car and he, Bryan and Billy got it in the garage and ripped and tore. I watched as Lisa took video. You have probably already seen it if you are on this page. It is now cut down to 118” wheelbase and just needs the new front end parts welded on.

 Just to give you a little history about the Hall Bros original race team we were always Ford guys. I started thinking about all the engines that we have raced and we have raced almost all of them. Dad (Ray) raced a Y-block 292 and a Hi-rise 427. Mark raced a 351C and 427s. Russ raced 427s and still has a Mach 1 with a 351W that he races! Lee raced small blocks and 351C. Cliff has raced Windsor’s, Windsor strokers and still racing big block 460 strokers. Even Bryan, Rickey, Shantel and Kelley raced a Ford.

 So I started thinking about it and it just doesn’t make any sense to run anything but a Ford even though I got off the reservation for a bit when I ran blown BBC. That was mainly because there was just not that much aftermarket Ford stuff back when I switched to blown. But things have changed. 

 I forgot to mention that I had a Boss 302 car when I was a kid and I also raced it. Boy was that a learning experience. I built it like it was going to run 10,000 rpm but only had valve springs to go about 7,000 which by the way is when those really start to move. It was fun and I have always liked the Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustangs.

 And now on to the big news. The statement the “Boss is Back” has meaning! Remember when I talked about all the Ford engines the Hall Bros have run well there is one we never did so here it is!

 The Hall Bros. are going to run a Boss 429 on Nitro! 

That’s right, there are plenty of aftermarket Boss 429 parts out there and they now make solid aluminum race Boss 429 blocks with replaceable sleeves. And there are also solid race Boss 429 Heads!

This will probably be the only Fuel Altered with a Boss 429 so that will be fun to interact with all the Ford fans. Lisa and I had allot of time to talk about it while we were on Bryan’s western swing and we are both excited about it!

And as a (AA/FA) AA Fuel Altered it really needs to have a name, and the name will be…..

”The Boss”

 I really like the looks of the Boss 429 and I will be putting 429 below the Boss in ghost letters so I can’t wait to see how that turns out.

 It will not be as cheap as running a Chrysler but after adding up all the parts it is real comparable in price so the tribute to my Dad and the Hall Bros race team will be worth every penny. I can’t thank Les Stripe enough for the tremendous amount of help he has given me to get to this point. I still have to sell off all of the old race parts to fund this and Les says he has a garage full of goodies we can sell. I can’t wait, this will be fun!

 I will keep you updated on the build as it goes along with some shorter blogs. I came up with a great idea for a Fuel Injector today when I was looking at some Boss 429s and it will be different than all injectors out there! I will keep that news for another blog so stay tuned! It will knock your socks off!

The Boss is back Baby!           

The Road to Nitro, week 6, a bump in the road!

The Road to Nitro, week 6

 I still haven’t gone to get the new car as some of you know I was in an accident at work on May 2. I got 2^nd degree burns on 18% of my body when I was sprayed with racing fuel. To say the least this has put me a bit behind. I am healing pretty good but I still have my good and bad days. The last few days have been pretty painful for some reason. Today is the first day I have felt like writing something. Yes I have quite a selection of meds and a spread sheet of times I take my pills. Thanks to Lisa for that because when you are med’d up it is hard to remember when you last took a pill!

 I did however put a hold deposit down on the car and let him know I would come to pick the car up as soon as I felt like I could make the trip to Utah to pick it up. My mind has been going a hundred million miles per hour but my body says just lay right here.

 I am selling a few things off of the car and we did have one guy come look at it. Bryan had to come over and deal with him as I was just hurting too bad to go out there. Bryan and Don came over and got it out of the trailer and made it presentable.

 I am scheduled to be off work until Aug 2^nd so not much will get done until after that. The good news is I have plenty of time and am not in a real hurry. When I get the car here I am going to first shorten the car up to 120” or so. That will keep me busy for a bit and won’t take much money to complete.

 I have a look that I want to achieve with the car so I will take my time. Maybe something cool like the shot of this old car below. My old blue car was a neat looking car also and the guys on the starting line always called it the bucket! That actually sounds like a good name for a car, "The Bucket"!

 As I sell parts off of my car then I will buy parts for the new one.One thing nice about having some time to sell off the parts is I can hold my ground on the prices. The stuff I have sold so far have been good prices for me and the customer. It is not like I have to fire sale it! Oops,bad pun!     

The Road to Nitro, week 5, the shocker on Lillian Lane!

The Road to Nitro, week 5, the shocker on Lillian Lane! 

 Remember when I wrote last week “Why is it you find the best deals on stuff when you don’t have any money!” Well I missed the screaming deal on the dragster with the blown nitro motor for sale and it sold to a fellow 7.0 Pro racer who is also moving to the Fuel Altered class.

Then there was the inexpensive funny car for sale that is a McKinney car. The price is ultra-cheap also and the guy is willing to sell it for $8,000 and all I need to do is sell something to work up the cash for it. I have every part priced out on my car to sell it piece by piece to get that funny car in my garage!

So here is how the shocker went down on Lillian Lane!

 We were all at my mom’s house on Lillian Lane for her birthday. Doing a pot luck Chinese food and presents. We ate, sang happy birthday and took some pictures, kids, grands and great grands. There are so many of us there is no way that we would all fit in one picture.

 So after that was all done Cliff said he needed to get everyone back in the living room to talk about something. I gathered up everyone and Cliff started talking about my”Road to Nitro” blog. I thought what the heck is he doing? He said that him, mom, Russ and Lee all got together and decided that the money from the sale of Dad’s Mustang after he passed away was to go to buy the funny car!

 I just about freaked out. Lisa came up and hugged me and it was everything I could do to keep from crying. To think that Dad is still involved with me in Drag Racing through my brothers and my mom is overwhelming. Dad always liked Funny Cars and roadsters and this car will be both!

 A couple of other funny things also happened before the shocker. We were out looking at Cliff’s new race car trailer and I said well I know where the car is so all I need to do is sell some stuff and Cliff said “well you never know when some money will fall in your lap”. Then Bryan brings out a Chinese fortune that says “You will soon receive an offer you cannot refuse”! Now that is a timely Chinese fortune!

 This is the ultimate shocker and I still can’t believe it! I will be getting that car home as soon as possible and continue with the sale of the old car and this thing may happen sooner that I thought!

The Hall Bros roadster will ride again with all the Hall Bros! It will be old school with #23 on the side of the car just like Dad’s old roadster!

  

This is getting real and I can’t wait to go C to D!

The Road to Nitro, week 4

The Road to Nitro, week 4

Why is it you find the best deals on stuff when you don’t have any money! There is a screaming deal on a dragster with a blown nitro motor for sale that could be bought and I could sell off the parts and end up with a free nitro engine!  

 I also was reminded of a very inexpensive funny car for sale that is an older McKinney car. The price is ultra-cheap also. I could possibly end up with a funny car and nitro stuff for about 15K! 

And they both are OBO! Of course!

Well I guess that is the way it goes. There will always be good deals. I am starting to get more hits on my stuff as I have listed parts of the car for sale along with the car as complete.

More ads, more ads, more ads!

So I was just thinking if I could get a funny car then I could have two classes to run. CIFCA funny cars and AA/FA.

CIFCA is a real nice organization that runs about 5 races a year. Funny cars on Methanol on a 7.50 index.  You get the car in for free and 4 crew members and they pay tow money .25 a mile up to 1000 miles. Plus they have allot of contingency and special payouts like best burnout! I could have an altered body for a couple of AA/FA races a year also.

Doing lots of thinking here!  

The Road to Nitro, week 3

The Road to Nitro, week 3

The sale of the engine to the rock crawler guy fell through. He needed a water engine and heck I don’t even have freeze plugs in mine since we don’t use water. Oh well, plenty of time right? I have 97 weeks left if I am to get this in under 100!  

 Hopefully with good weather right around the corner and everyone getting their taxes out of the way it should open up the market for sales of cars and parts. I guess I could start cannibalizing it a little at a time to get rid of it in smaller chunks. I already stole the battery out of it for the motorhome!

I can use the Bird Catcher so that doesn’t have to be sold. Blowers sell pretty easy so I can mark the engine price down a bunch. Don’t think I will take it down past the intake manifold. Cars are also easier to sell minus engine and trans so that is the next step.

 One good thing about not racing right now is I have been able to get more engine and blower jobs finished. I am building a blown Pontiac right now.

I would like to finish up all outstanding jobs so I can concentrate on our rental yard business. We now have a permit to construct small yards to rent out on our commercial property. It has been a long process to get to this point including 440 feet of drain pipes, about 6 feet of fill dirt and a killer neighbor friendly fence to complete permit process. The extra money from the rentals will help out with the added cost of building a new car.

This next week will me more race car ads!

The Road To Nitro, week 2

The Road to Nitro, week 2

So more of the backstory on the road to Nitro. You remember the $450 check for getting 2^nd place at the March Meet in 7.0 Pro? Well just to add insult to injury I should mention that I work with Brian Strange who comes from a racing family. Brian is racing RC cars right now and recently he got 3^rd place at an RC event and earned 500.00! We had a good laugh about it at work and it gives me more resolve to move on.

So how is the sale of my 7.0 Pro stuff going? Well not too well. I have one guy interested in my engine. He races a Rock Crawler Racer and recently blew up his engine when he was sideways on the gas and lost oil pressure trying to dig out. He has a Discovery channel film date coming on April 23 and I thought he might buy it but nothing solid yet. One other is interested in the trans but he is all the way in Georgia.

 So who knows how many weeks this will take? Hopefully it will be under 100!

 Bryan made what he calls his “pitch” to me to rethink the 426 deal and put a Donovan 392 in it. He says we can use each other for spares if one goes out or DNQs. That is a good idea and he already has a good tune-up so sounds good to me. All that is needed now is sales of BBC parts and trade the green pieces of paper for Donovan parts. 

I will miss the wheelies!      

The Road to Nitro

The Road to Nitro

Who? Me at 60

What? Yep, switching to the Nitro AA/FA 6.0 class

When: One week at a time, hopefully 2018 sometime

Where? Wherever Nitro is allowed! Bakersfield, Boise, Sacramento?

Why? Because it is Nitro!

How? That is the question I will answer one week at a time in this blog

So I was this happy little camper running the 7.0 Pro class and it was allot of fun. Then I get to the finals at Bakersfield March Meet and get runner-up. I get my check and I won a whopping $450.00, whew! My crew spent more than that getting in! Then to add insult to injury I find out that NE-1 which is a slower class gets twice as much for runner-up!

 Now…., not that I run for the money, but really now, when I don’t even get back my entry fees for getting 2^nd place then I guess I am just stupid. So I thought about going back to the 7.60 class but it is that old adage, you can never go backwards.

So I talked it over with Lisa, Les and Cliff and here we are! A weekly blog of how I am going to switch to the Nitro AA/FA class. It might be a long process as I don’t really know which way this thing is going to go, but I have a general idea.

First things first, sell the car I have now. Well at least the parts that I won’t run in AA/FA so I can buy a 426 Hemi. Yes I toyed a bit dreaming about making a Ford engine run nitro but I just don’t have the funds to do it. There are plenty of used 426 parts out there as the throw away Top Fuel stuff can still be run in the lower classes.

 I will sell the car but I am not going to give it away. I don’t want to chop it up to make it shorter for the Nostalgia AA/FA class but I will if I have to. The car is such a nice car for NE-1 or 7.0 Pro I hate to do that so we shall see. Stay tuned, I am in no hurry.

Every week I will put up a short blog about my thoughts and what I want to run.

The car, engine and trans are up for sale on different sites right now.

Stay tuned!