Garcia Family - Daytona Coupe

This one was fun, but also something that created a little trepidation and a deep inhale before we started.  Other builders warned that this was a struggle to install due to the frame design. For those that don't know what a rear differential is here's a grossly over simplified description.  It takes a spinny force (driveshaft) and turns the spinny force 90 degrees into the axles and eventually rear wheels.  Also pretty sure "spinny" is a word even though my auto correct is trying to change it. We found our first "oops" when we tried to install the sleeves into the differential bushings.  Don't worry if that sounds like gibberish, just know that we made a mistake.  Two of them fit perfectly and two were clearly the wrong size.  We had inadvertently installed the wrong bushings into the steering rack because they were close enough that it seemed to fit well, but just enough off to not work for the differential.  Blah, blah, blah, so I spent an hour and ...

I haven't felt like writing much lately, but it was time for an update so here it is! There's no anecdote, just some actual car building and a whole bunch of research happening in the background because there are a lot of decisions to make.  Some of those decisions may hold us up in the near future so I'm trying to get ahead of things. With the parts painted we installed the rest of the front suspension  For those that understand what you're looking at, the upper control arms are very adjustable to dial in camber, caster, and toe once the car is ready for an alignment. Here it is again with the wheel bearings (hubs) and steering rod connected.   The brake rotors are two parts each and held together with 12 bolts that have to be tightened to a very specific torque setting.  This is true of lots of the parts we are installing.  In addition the bolts on these rotors have holes for safety wiring which is only a requirement for race cars, but we did it anyway be...

The Garcia family is still here!   Distracted by life, by health, by fun, by friends, by activities, by sitting on the couch and breathing.  It's been a long winter for many reasons.  Reasons we can control, and those out of our reach.  Along for the ride sometimes desperately trying to put on the brakes, to pause, to wrap our heads around what is happening. But there is a light.  There's always a light, just sometimes it feels so very very far off.  Beyond that figurative light, it's amazing what the actual light in our sky can do for our souls.  Slightly longer days, slightly more warmth, slightly more energy to tackle the million little distractions thrown at us.  And somehow this makes the figurative light feel just a little closer. Working on this car already has been and I hope will continue to be a nice respite from the daily struggles that we so often want to pull away from.  Part of what has always driven me and pushed me forwar...

We haven't been working on the car very much due to a variety of distractions.  Snow blowing, shoveling, the usual day to day, building a bouldering cave (indoor climbing wall) in our basement, and building a small spray booth for coating small car parts.   So based on all that... it's time to digress again.  I've decided you all are fine with my off topic ramblings.  You're welcome, and thank you.  And if you're not?  I'll never know, you just won't read this.  And that's OK too. AI has been on the brain, as is true with most people.  We begin to see it more and more in every corner of our lives.  I've been ruminating on the subject. The difference between creating something with your own hands, and letting AI create something for you?  When AI creates something it changes the world we live in, in some small way.  When you create something?  It changes you forever in a way that ripples through your social circles, your fa...

The nice thing about building a car is there are roughly two billion steps plus or minus 3.  Some of those steps have a very specific order like getting ready for work in the morning.  You could drive to work before you got dressed but it's not recommended.  Just like you could try to start the car before installing the gas tank, but probably without much success. However there are plenty of other steps that can happen at various stages throughout the build, so if we get stalled in one area because we're waiting on a part or just got confused or bored we can move on to another area. And so... that's kind of how we've started this build.  A little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  Some of what follows may read as "blah, blah, blah", and if it does then please enjoy the pictures.  The take away is we're making progress on the car! First up was the steering rack and lower control arms.  With the steering rack, there's a funny little stainless steel ...

There will be a need to move the Coupe around as we work on it, and while a car dolly is not a unique idea our version is a departure from what most Factory Five builders create.  For some it's a simple wood platform with casters, others leave it immobile on jack stands, and then there are those fortunate enough to have a car lift.  Ours will be on wheels with adjustable height and a low enough frame that we can still crawl under the car. Here are some of the first pieces before welding. The goal is to be able to wheel the chassis out into the driveway to make room in the garage for other projects as needed.  Or maybe it's just a beautiful day and working outside sounds better.  As we're currently feeling the effects of winter the Coupe will likely be staying inside until mother nature gives us a hall pass. Another shot of in progress welding The upside to this creation is most of the material is free scrap metal.  There are benefits to working for a company tha...

 I feel the need to post something as my goal was a weekly update.  However my concept of a "week" has stretched from the commonly accepted 7 days to the more unusual 14 or 21 days... There's nothing terribly exciting to report, but we did manage to remove the body and store it in the shed as it will not be needed for quite some time while we work on all the mechanical bits. This also necessitated finding storage for the rear hatch window and the windshield which is a little nerve wracking as they're large pieces of glass that I'd rather not replace before we even install them. The whole process of removing and storing the body involved some contortions, but it now has a cozy new home with the mower, snow blower, and other random implements.

This will be news to exactly no one.  But life has a way.  A way of twisting itself into a complicated sticky mess.  And that mess has a way of postponing, delaying, sidelining projects that don't fill a basic human need.  No one needs to build one of these cars.  So when life presents itself in difficult ways... the car will take a pause.  We've been pausing, but are ready to hit play again. Here's Jack and Lena prepping the engine on a stand for some of the next steps. We mentioned that purchasing the engine was out of order and doesn't typically happen this early in the process.  The reason?  Exhaust.  Or more specifically exhaust designed for a race car with no real considerations towards civility, decibel levels, comfort, and so on.  Does it sound amazing? Yes.  Does it still sound amazing after driving for an hour and your ears are bleeding?  I don't need to answer that. The stock setup is headers straight out the side of...

Not much new to report this week.  So if I can.  If you'll allow me.  If you wouldn't mind too terribly much.  I may digress. It's about cars, yes.  Of course, this is a blog about a car.  But this is also a story about us. A story about where we've been and where we're going, and this car?  This car is just one step in that adventure.  That adventure I wouldn't trade for all the anything in the world.  The stuff is fun and vaguely amusing, but the memories.  The relationships, the stories, the adventures.  That's the treasure.  For me this ridiculous thing with wheels is a way to create memories.  When it's done it will be a fun toy to have, but it's the journey that got us there.  And then the memories we will create with it, the places it will take us to, the people we will meet just because they want to stop us and say "Woah! Cool! Tell me about this" I started this blog with a statement about my love of wheeled t...

 54 pages and hundreds of parts.  Factory Five suggests going through every box and taking full inventory of all the parts to both familiarize yourself with everything and to make sure nothing is missing.  This step of the process was oddly satisfying, and while most of the parts were easy to identify there were a few mystery pieces that took a minute and some internet searching to decipher.  The box with the side pipes?  Easy, check.  The box with thousands of fasteners... that one took a moment.  Also while I have worked on cars, I've never touched the HVAC system so that entire section was a little confusing. There are now a variety of boxes scattered all over the garage, but we've done our best to label and catalog all the parts so when it comes time to install we should be able to located them. Fortunately I had some willing helpers for this task, which went smoothly with only a few parts not included.  Elizabeth was especially helpful in add...

Nothing can describe the excitement, the anticipation, the nervousness of this moment.  This had been built up in my mind for nearly 30 years, and even now the morning of delivery it still didn't feel real.  The Driver was texting periodically as the time approached to give me updates.  He was coming. To our house.  To deliver our car.  But still... still it didn't feel real.  Not until it was firmly planted in our garage and the driver had left would it feel real.  The site of this truck stopping in front of your house for car guys is enough to make a grown man act like a 5 year old on Christmas morning.  Proud to say I didn't do anything too embarrassing.   The kids are glad too. The driver Mark was every bit the kind patient gentleman I'd heard the Stewart Transport drivers would be.  They've been delivering these cars since the beginning 30 years ago and have the process down to an exact science.  Lena and Elizabeth kept in...