Super Yugo

Another project joins the team. One of my most favorite cars from Europe is Renault's R5 Turbo 2. It was the original pocket rocket. A small lightweight car with an awesome power to weight ratio made this car dominate many racing venues. Renault took a simple and very economical front wheel drive car with just over 45 horsepower the LeCar and gave it a musclecar makeover. They took their 4 cyl 32valve engine from their racing division and had them install it in the LeCar only they put it in the hatch and made the car rear wheel drive.

Sure it wasn't as easy as that but what they ended up with was a compact car putting out 235 - 300 horsepower to the rear wheels that would dominate its racing catergory. We are going to recreate a similar car only using a car with a very tainted past - the Yugo GV. The formula is the same, a small underpowered FWD car only we plan on building a tube chassis. Yes we could just bolt a FWD engine and tranny in a cradle and mount the whole thing in the trunk but I really want this thing to handle and the only way is a fully adjustable suspension.

As for the powerplant, that's still up in the air. We can go with a newer Civic Si unit that would give us 200 hp and a six speed. Maybe a GM Ecotec four with a supercharger or how about a 2.4 SRT4 turbo motor? Ultimately weight will be the deciding factor with reliability a close second. But one thing is for sure, this baby should go like gangbusters and make the R5, for which it is based proud.

Rats!!!

Rats, rodents or some sort of marsupial is what I have in my garage. I saw what appeared to be signs of rodents gnawing at some bags I have in the garage. So for the past couple of days I have been scattering poison and they have taken the bait. Now this weekend I hope to be cleaning up before I tear down the Goldwing and I hope I have got rid of them for good.

I have finally received the side cover and some back problems sidelined everything but it looks like
everything is a go for this weekend.

Victory is mine!

For days I have been trying to score a used battery side cover for the GL1200 ( Goldwing) on Ebay only to have those cursed Ebay ninjas strike with 13 seconds left and steal it out from under me. But victory is mine at last! I am a proud owner of a black ( the color isn't really important) battery side cover complete with emblems that is being shipped to me from Tennessee.
For those that do not know, Honda has discontinued many parts for the 1983 - 1986 Honda Goldwing, with these side covers being one of them. The problem is that as the rubber grommets that hold the cover in place get older they tend to dry out and no longer have a grip on the covers. That means while your tooling around on the freeway you can have one of your side covers fly off and usually get run over by the car behind you. The trick is a neat little teather made out of fishing wire to keep you from losing them. I will go into detail in a future post as this project gets under way. Finally.

Coming Soon

Here is a glimpse of future posts and projects (yeah, it didn't look right to me either when I typed it).
A 1984 Volvo 245DL wagon (the brick). I got it for a song ($300) and with over 265K miles it still runs like a top. Only now running is not the problem, stopping is. It has developed a problem in the power brake booster and it loses the power assist randomly ( you'll want to remember to bring a change of underwear when you drive this one). We are looking to do an engine swap with this one, possible even go with a rotary and a 5 speed tranny (we'll see or should I say you'll see).
A 1983 Mustang GT convertible ( the widow maker). As seen in the background in one of the previous posts. This car is an original GT but has a transplanted long block from a '91 along with the T5 and and 8 3/4 rear diff. I have replaced the fuel injection with a Holley 750 double pumper and Edelbrock intake. Future mods to this car will include a roll cage, fuel cell and lots of bodywork. I would like to take this car to SCCA and Autocross events in the future.
A 1985 Honda Goldwing Aspencade (the new scoot). I picked this one up after I sold my wife's Ninja 250R. She wanted another bike and I know she still wants a crotch rocket but this is one we can both ride on for long trips. It has 102K miles on it so I will have to do some mechanical maintenance, but the motor runs very well. Unfortunately, the bike has seen a lot of weather over the years and it shows. So new chrome, a seat and some bodywork have to happen before I can lay some paint on it.

Re-Buell

After a couple of months I wanted a different, more simple look for the Buell so I had taken the paint down to the primer and started fresh. This time I sprayed a copper base coat for the burnt orange topcoat. Then I airbrushed some diamond plate graphics down the center of the bike.
I wasn't in too much of a hurry to finish because I had worn the rear tire down and it no longer was holding air. I did not get chance to finish the bike the way I wanted before my friend begged me to put it back together so I would ride with him. He bought me a new rear tire so who was I to refuse.
I was in such a hurry to put the bike back together that never I
had a chance to finish the graphics
or the clear coat for that matter.


So it was no surprise when I started to get blisters in the finish. This prompted
me to get into refinish number three for the Buell but this was
going to be the last time (for a while at least).
Now I had some inspiration to go with a cafe racer look so I ordered
some Clubman bars and a cafe front fairing.
Of course the bars didn't fit (as any Buellers would know) the
triple tee was too wide so I had to cut them and weld in a
piece of tubing to widen them. I also had to remove the factory air
box (C-ya!) to clear the grips so you can actually steer
the thing. Once all the mods were done ( which included
powder coating the wheels black, for those that
noticed) I sprayed down some epoxy primer/sealer then
a couple of coats of 2007 Chevy Cobalt tangerine. I wanted
the bike to stay true to its roots so I kept the Harley theme
going by applying some black and white stripes down the
middle of the bike including the front fender. Billy a friend
from Pompano Harley Davidson/Buell ordered all the factory
decals for me so the bike would look like a factory custom
model.
All in all I am very happy with the way it turned out and best
of all now I can focus on the next project(s).

Let's re-cap.

Unfortunately I do not have some of the photos of all my projects so I can only recap the last one I have done. I love motorcycles, yes they are dangerous, yes you can get killed in an accident. But if I had to choose between dying because I slipped and broke my neck while taking a shower or getting killed while riding my bike, you get the idea. Enough with the morbidity already lets recap.
My first two motorcycles were Buells, I knew I wanted one the moment I sat on one in the showroom and when they started it up and you hear that Harley rumble, well that just sealed the deal.
My second Buell was a 2001 Cyclone M2 in Molten Orange fresh out of the showroom with just 4 miles on it. Which kind of sucks because as any good gearhead will tell you, you have to break it in. So for the first 500 miles (450 - I was too impatient) you should not let the revs go beyond 3000 rpm. I have to tell you the freeway ride home was a horrific 50 mph at 2950 rpms. I have attached a photo a similar bike for reference.
After about three years I finally got the courage to tear it down and put some graphics on it. I had just opened my shop East Coast Hot Rod Factory and I wanted to show case some of the paint I would be selling.

Let's make a deal.

I have made a deal with my oldest son Joseph. I told him that I would buy him a car for his 15th birthday so that by the time he learned to drive he would have his own car. Now for the conditions, like I said we are on a very limited budget as I am sure many of us are.
I told him that he would get to pick out his car, but it had to be a fixer upper, no showroom beauty and certainly no monthly payments. In exchange I will help him restore and fix up the car. I didn't say I'd do all the work either, he has to do most of the work himself but i will be there to help and guide him. I know he is a big late 70's Camaro and Firebird fan but the price of gas has him re-analyzing his choices. At the same time I have a '83 Mustang GT that we will blogging about later and I know he doesn't want to get beat by his old man.

Here we go!

Yes, that's right, there is nothing in there or is there? For as long as I can remember I had this thing for cars, trucks, motorcycles, pretty much anything with an engine was cool to me.
When I was five years old I used to ride around with my grandfather after dark ( don't get any sick thoughts, it was after he got out of work ) and tell him what make car was following just by the headlights.
My dad used to buy me Tonka trucks and Hot Wheels every other day. I painted my first car when I was 14 years old. I used to collect car magazines like CarCraft, Hot Rod, Hot Rodding, heck I would even save old Auto Traders just so that i can keep tabs on the prices of certain models ( sick, I know).
My first car was a 1970 Pontiac LeMans Sport with a 350c.u. engine, 3/4 cam (old schoolers remember this term) ported heads, reworked Quadrajet connected to a TH350 with a B&M shift kit. I remember driving this car to school on racing slicks (kids, please don't try this) at 15 years old.
Now that I am a father of four, three boys "the guys" (ages 14, 13 and 4) and one girl "the princess" (age 6) I want to try to pass some of my knowledge and experiences to them. It won be easy as I have to battle it out against Playstations, Nintendos, television and the internet.