Hanta Virus

Last weekend Bob and I drove up to Vernal and picked up a spare parts car. The owner had told me many times, that the car was pretty scary and that it wasn't worth much, now I believe him!

This weekend Andy, Bob and I got together to do a plethora of damage to the car. Little did we know that the whole interior, trunk and fronk of the car was full mice urine and feces, a perfect breeding ground for the Hanta Virus. Well I do feel muscle aches, especially in the large muscle groups-thighs, hips, back, and shoulders. No Wait that's how I feel every time I work on cars.
With guts, determination and lacquer thinner to kill the smell and hopefully the virus we persisted in our quest. I am very impressed with Bobs determination to learn as much as he can about cars. We let him loose on taking the engine out of the car, Andy explaining a few details about the wiring harness and axles, and between Bob and Andy they had the complete engine and transmission out in about 3 hours. I got the wonder full job of taking out the interior, trunk, and fronk junk out. The mice had stolen insulation from the farmers house and filled in areas of the car to create nests. I compared it to being on a version of "FEAR FACTOR" waiting for mice or even rats to start invading the shop, didn't happen. The engine will need to be taken apart, it seems that the previous owner had taken a spark plug out and never put it back, I wouldn't be to worried except for the fact that the car has been sitting in the high desert for the last 4 years. The car was covered with a nice coating of red sand.

So what did we get done?
The engine and transmission are out, trunk, engine and fronk lid are off.
Interior carpet, seats, console and garbage gone.
Doors are off and a list of parts started for future Ebay consideration.
Fluids drained and radiator removed.

What's next?
The suspension needs to be labeled, taken apart and boxed.
Master brake, clutch and slave cylinders drained, removed and boxed.
Draining the gas tank and removal.
Removal of dash gauges and other possible sale-able parts.
Front clip including fenders removed and stored for possible damage replacement.
Last but not least, taking out the saws-all and going crazy on the rest of the body for recycling.
Anybody that may need parts let me know, I will check our list of needs and wants to see if we can possibly do some trading or gifting.

Lunch with Larry

So Larry from team V-ram/Snow speeder and I had lunch today so that I could pick his brain about the Thunderhill race. Larry said there was no comparison between T-Hill and the previous Altamont race. T-Hill is nice and open, and you have less chance of playing bumper cars, which equals less car damage overall. The track was a lot faster and you really felt more competitive, although he did say there were quite a few more yellow flags. Having said that, he has a few good suggestions that we will be following at Reno.
Fueling was a big issue for us at Altamont because all we had were the 5 gallon store bought tanks that ended up being sloppy and a little dangerous because of spillage. Larry suggested using a 35 gallon tank with a hand pump to fill with, he said it was quite a bit quicker to fuel with and a lot safer.
Overheating, During Altamont we had major problems with overheating due to not getting all the air out of the system. I think we have resolve that issue. Larry did mention that having a separate switch that turns the radiator fans on manually does make a big difference in cooling while on the track.
We will be trying to park next to Snowspeeder, V-Ram and Free range racing at the Reno event.
Larry thought that having teams that drive mr2s close together helps a lot especially when one team runs into trouble. It's all about being a team and assisting our bretheren when they are in trouble. Thanks to Larry for taking the time to share the input.