This year, we picked up a car for the challenge at some point. I can't remember when but it's somewhere in the March-May window. Those of you who have built for the event know it's downright insane to try and start your build 4-5 months out. In the back of my mind was the Datsun, knowing it would be the backup plan should I not have time to complete the extremely ambitious build. Come June, I knew it was time to push the other car to $2018 and get the Datsun ready for this year. Torque converter was changed out twice, once because I was in a pinch to run the Roadkill ZipTie Drags event at Norwalk, which ended badly, and a second time for budget reasons because I scored a $$$ FTI converter for $135 on clearance with a coupon at Summit Racing. Once the driveline was buttoned back up, I turned my attention to the appearance. Black and white is boring, and I was bored with it. However, I loved my black hood and nose. So I waffled. I was going to go full on different paint scheme, bought paint, realized it was not happening under budget because I literally was repurchasing items and swapping them out with identical new parts because the price had fallen significantly on 2 major fuel system components in 2 years.
We had a wind storm, which deposited some new sheets of coroplast in the ditch in front of the house, and all over the grass. nobody picked them up, so i grabbed them. Couple those with a salvaged 2x4 and me being a carpenter, and we've got the makings of a spoiler.
I had fiberglass mat and resin left of the $12 clearance fiberglass kit I purchased in 2015 to repair the warped hood
Now, the spoiler was all well and good, but the car needed something else to get the look I was going for. Enter ebay, and some flexible flares. Problem: 14x5.5 wheels and tucked 205/55 tires don't need flares. Enter the list of craig. I found a guy about an hour and a half away who had advertised new M&H racemaster drag slicks in the size that is right for the car for super cheap on wheels from his SRT4 neon. Like so cheap that they were either stolen or they had a hell of a story behind them. It was the latter. Seller goes on for 10 minutes about how he built this awesome SRT4 and got the slicks and wheels brand new to go to the strip. Being not so smart, he was getting pulled over and decided to lead the police on a high speed multi county chase, resulting in impound of the car and fees that he could not afford. So the wheels and tires sat in his house for a few years before he decided he needed cash, and why nobody jumped them quicker is beyond me. They had been up for over 2 weeks when I saw them, for $100 all in. This still doesnt help me need flares. A couple days later I find an ad for 15x8 american racing 4 lug multi bolt pattern wheels. $200 or offer/trade. I stop on way home from work. Wheels are corroded and dinged up, but solid and I take a chance on bolt pattern being right. I offer the wheels from the SRT4 slicks deal straight across because he has a car they fit. I gather 2 wheels you can use is better than 4 in the backyard, so we shake and i come back and swap wheels. unfortunately he makes me take the junk tires that go with the wheels even though i offer to dismount and bring back. So now we have 15x8 wheels with stretched 185 tires. These require flares. And proper tires.