JThw8
SuperDork
6/21/10 7:37 p.m.
Everyone is now looking forward to the last leg of our adventure on the "Trifecta of Crap" but there is a little internal debate which we are choosing to leave up to the readers and staff of GRM to decide.
The plan was to now strip the car down, finish the bodywork and give it some paint with whatever we can find left in our budget...well that was my plan.
Overwhelmingly everyone else seems to think we should leave it as is, tagged up from Lemons, rough and road weary from BABE and let her marks tell her story. She certainly does tell a story.
So I'll leave it up to you, what would you rather see at the challenge and (hopefully) in the magazine. A more polished version of what she is today or the race marked, story telling, patina'd beast that she is today?
I'm not touching her for at least 2 weeks so we'll give it 'till then and count up the responses. I will abide by the majority vote.
mndsm
HalfDork
6/21/10 7:45 p.m.
I'd rather you left it at is. No need to hide battle wounds. Chicks dig scars.
I think it was during the '08 or '09 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the announcers were discussing Corvette Racing's gutsy move to pull the car into the garage with an hour left to give it a good cleaning, once the win was a statistical certainty. There was the obvious thought process that they should cross the finish line as professional and clean as they could, as many, many pictures would be taken at that moment.
The other school of thought, though, pointed out that the car had just endured arguably the most challenging road race in history, and should damn well look like it, tire chunks and dirt and all.
I'm with the second part. The car has earned all it's glory up to this point, it should look as seasoned as it is.
If you have room in the budget and are already past the caveman class.... spend the rest to do what you had thought you might do... ie: paint/cleanup.
Finish it. It will earn fresh scars at the Challenge.
JoeyM
HalfDork
6/21/10 8:05 p.m.
depends on how much money/effort you can spend on it at this point.....it looks good as is. If you can make it look even better, go for it. If you're not sure there's enough time and money to shine it up, leave it as is.
Finish it. Every race team cleans up their cars before the next race.
minimac
SuperDork
6/21/10 8:13 p.m.
Leave it, recuperate, and pay some attention to Mrs. JThw8........
JThw8
SuperDork
6/21/10 8:18 p.m.
To address some of the questions. Budget wise we can fit the $200-$300 in materials. Time wise, realistically with the standard to which I'd want to finish it Im looking at somewhere from 400-600 man hours to complete. Photos lie, it needs ALOT of finishing. All the fender rework is just tacked at this point. I would probably have to compromise with a "photo ready" finishing (ie, close enough or as we all sometimes call it a 10/50 job, good from 10 feet or 50 miles an hour)
Either way I will be stripping the whole car down the chassis and starting over, so any time invested now is "wasted" time. But I'm also not fully into "patina"
Is there a photo of it since completing LeMons ? I'm all for patina, just how dented is it? Without a pic, I'd say lay some flat grey on it. I think the stretched wheelbase and Porsche wheels would look cool with a decent coat of paint.
JThw8
SuperDork
6/21/10 8:29 p.m.
DeadSkunk wrote:
Is there a photo of it since completing LeMons ? I'm all for patina, just had dented is it? without a pic, I'd say lay some flat grey on it.
No dents no damage, just stickers, tagging and wear. I'll try to get some pics up when I can, she's hibernating in the garage right now and we both dont want to see each other right now.
Flog it and leave it, bring it with the character.
NYG95GA
SuperDork
6/21/10 8:32 p.m.
JThw8 wrote:
... She certainly does tell a story.
I understand one of the principle reasons the Challenge is held is to supply editorial content for the magazine, and I'm pretty sure that editorial content and story telling live in the same house.
Another vote for patina. You might even place well in the concours (sympathy votes).
If you intend to redo the whole car in the future, you'll satisfy me ! Take it to the challenge as is, and then you can do it "right" later, to whatever standard you want, without concern for the Challenge budget. Start thinking about a WRX engine and a nondescript flat colour.
JThw8
SuperDork
6/21/10 8:42 p.m.
DeadSkunk wrote:
If you intend to redo the whole car in the future, you'll satisfy me ! Take it to the challenge as is, and then you can do it "right" later, to whatever standard you want, without concern for the Challenge budget. Start thinking about a WRX engine and a nondescript flat colour.
Final iteration will be 2.0 Turbo WRX with either a Mendolo built transaxle or I just got a line on a 914 donor for a nice 5 speed.
Body off (again) and finish off the chassis to a show level (its close now) body in either Mercedes pearl grey and cream 2 tone OR satin blue, slightly darker in tone than it is now with custom striping OR a light green color we saw on an old Datsun 610 this weekend, again 2 tone with cream color.
This is the car I've always wanted to build, completely unexpected, weird but old school hotrodding in a modern vein (use what ya got and make it fast) So it may be long term but I will eventually finish it to a much higher standard.
However there is also a small chance this may take one more shot at Lemons at a special event with a VERY special guest driver. Waiting to hear on that, if its a go then I have to leave it be and sort the demons so it can roll on one more time.
Finish it. The Babe and Lemons are over...the history doesn't change with paint.
Leave it and do it up right after the challenge
I like the mercedes colour idea. This thing is like a 4 cylinder, resto-mod to me. Can't wait to see the finished product. !!
The GRM challenge is a completely different event than babe or Lemons and as such the car should be treated differently. Honestly I find your inclusion of the challenge under the title of "Trifecta of crap" quite insulting to the event, its competitors and to yourself and the work you have already poured into the wartburg.
Babe, Lemons and chumpcar are about the cars, seeing how far a crapcan can take you.
The challenge is about the people, about what people can do with ingenuity, frugality and sweat. Seeing how far the people can take the crapcan if you will.
If you were in it for the challenge you would finish it.
AS IS! earned battle scars are HAWT.
JThw8
SuperDork
6/21/10 9:12 p.m.
ditchdigger wrote:
The GRM challenge is a completely different event than babe or Lemons and as such the car should be treated differently. Honestly I find your inclusion of the challenge under the title of "Trifecta of crap" quite insulting to the event, its competitors and to yourself and the work you have already poured into the wartburg.
Babe, Lemons and chumpcar are about the cars, seeing how far a crapcan can take you.
The challenge is about the people, about what people can do with ingenuity, frugality and sweat. Seeing how far the people can take the crapcan if you will.
If you were in it for the challenge you would finish it.
While I understand what you are saying you should really come on BABE or come to Lemons. It's nothing about the cars and all about the people. Our crapcans would not survive these events were it not for like minded individuals who work hard to support each other and get the cars and teams through the events. The Challenge is the Crown Jewel in the Trifecta, its the ultimate event but also the least stressful one overall for me. 3000 miles on the highway, running 7-9/10ths on a track, those blow up a car, and autcross and a drag seem like a walk in the park.
While not all BABE and Lemons cars rely on ingenuity and sweat MANY do. The 3 events are much more closely related than one may believe. Between us our team has been represented in all the events. Lemons and BABE are very closely related in that you spend all day driving and all night partying, only difference is the scenery changes daily on BABE. GRM takes the good nature of the party and combines it with a test of all the skills that would make one survive the other too.
Im not "in it" for anything. I never set out to win anything other than to prove we could run all 3 events in one year in one car, an idea I put out there years ago and even offered a 10 year subscription to GRM to anyone who could do it before me and noone tried so we just decided to do it. The last minute addition of the Wartburg just made it slightly more epic but we never set out to be competitive, just to have fun :)
The car already represents ingenuity, garage engineering and creativity to the max. Finishing just makes it pretty, that doesnt require ingenuity, just time.