Mayor West's 09 SS/TC Ext. Track Turbo #191 [South Carolina] [Registered] [Sold]

Mayor West

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
For the first time in a few weeks (and since I put Opel Injectors & S2 ZZP cams in) I took the gobo for its first spin.
I have a lil twitchy throttle and torque mgmt ramping to adjust in the tune but it's running very well, no backfires or hesitation. Thanks to @OptimizePrime for helping me by sharing his tune. I'm really glad it's doing well. Alignment is decent enough for 50-60mph but I'm sure it could be fine-tuned with a professional system.

My RMS leak appears to be fixed now (finger's crossed) as well as my water pump cover leak. I do have a very small coolant leak but I can see where it's coming from and it appears to just be a hose that needs tightening. Temps were all under 198 degrees and AIT was 75 degrees or less. It's 69ish outside right now so I'm happy enough with that (I wasn't rompin' on it, just casual driving). I didn't scan for some reason so I don't know about knock or fuel trims or whatever.

Very happy with the fact that I did the cams and timing again without screwing it up... three cheers for me and my wallet.

I'm sad I didn't get to bring it to the NC meet with @OptimizePrime , @Wes , @Rauq , @KSLunsfo , and @baustin last weekend. Next time, I'll be there (unless I blow something up).

I have two months of paternity coming up so I'll have some time to fine tune everything...

Up next on the to-do list:
  • Real alignment
  • Slight tune adjustments
  • Fix my manual steering, it's very loose feeling inside the joints... it vibrates a lot and just isn't that great. I'm considering using the stock DF steering but making an adapter plate to move it more center, as well as removing the power steering part of it.
  • Wire dash cam, also move it to another spot because it's mostly useless on the top rack as-is...
  • Replace one of the seals in the brake reservoir
  • Figure out a better brake light situation, sometimes they just don't work.... that potentiometer mess is garbage.
  • Figure out if I want to use my windshield or not.
  • Find a neat solution for the side panels, thinking running paracord around everywhere to make it sort semi-solid or something
  • Find a neat solution to the roof/sun issue. I like what others have done with tarp-like shades, but I can't sew so I'm not sure I can make it look nice.
 
Mayor West

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
OOPS :(
You can add me to the list of people who built a car too spicy for their own good.​

Last weekend I (low-speed) hydroplaned my kit into a tree, ripping off the front wheel.
Thankfully, I am 99.994% unharmed physically and only took a mere 700% kick to my ego and feelings.

I was test driving my kit after fixing the e-brake and replacing an axle seal on the transmission that was leaking. After a few minutes of warming it up, I went for a very short cruise because the weather has been absolutely amazing, and this was also my birthday weekend (yay me). I have yet to experience WOT (let alone boost above 2-3 psi) so on a small offshoot road I figured I'd goose it a tad. As expected (hindsight is 20/20) I immediately kicked the back tires out and within a fraction of a second I was sideways into a field beside the road.

I was only going about 25-30mph but because it had rained recently there was a slight soggy puddle I ran in to causing me to hydroplaned across the grass. I missed the road sign but in doing so, sideswiped a tree.

I took a direct hit to the front-right wheel, which was completely removed. I bent the side of my frame a tad and ripped off the front-right a-arm post. I ended up in a ditch, but I was doing fairly slow at this point so I sorta just rolled into it, which cracked my hood a little bit.

Good news is, I'm completely safe. I was wearing my full harness & helmet. Bad news is, I ripped off my front wheel and bent my frame. I had to be towed home.

I wanted to thank @Adam and @Lonny and the rest of the DF crew for building a safe and enjoyable kit car. I hope to work with them in the next year or so in rebuilding/fixing/etc of my kit. I budgeted to build a pretty nice kit car, but not two... so this means I'm gonna be out of the loop for a few months while I figure this out.

Like many others have done in the past, I messed up. The car quickly got the best of me, and thankfully I didn't pay a hefty physical price for my mistakes. Only racking up a hefty bill :(

Please be gentle, I know I'm an ******* sometimes but I really do love this community. My birthday was Monday so this really put a gloomy cloud over my weekend.

Stay tuned for eventual updates: Keep the kit & rebuild it, or part it out and recoup a small percentage of what I have in to it?
 

Attachments

Mayor West

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
JSATX said:
I would be willing to bet DF would sell you only the damaged parts. Even if that’s the entire main frame it’s probably the best option. Or just chop out the bent bar and replace it.
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I sent an email to Adam asking for his thoughts and options, like bringing it to DF and having them straighten the frame and weld in that piece that broke out or just ordering a frame by itself and swapping parts over. I know there's a huge backlog of people with new kit orders so I don't expect to get anywhere with this any time soon, but I did want to get a feel for pricing and what options I had ahead of me.
 
R

r3drckt

Goblin Guru
Agreed, glad you're safe. Really, all you need is the stage 1 kit and then move everything over (plus a new wheel). be cheaper to rebuild this time instead of a complete build again.

Curious what insurance is going to pay out for the car (assuming you had it fully insured).
 
Mayor West

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
r3drckt said:
Agreed, glad you're safe. Really, all you need is the stage 1 kit and then move everything over (plus a new wheel). be cheaper to rebuild this time instead of a complete build again.

Curious what insurance is going to pay out for the car (assuming you had it fully insured).
Click to expand...
I didn't have it fully insured (only liability), because it didn't make sense. After discussing with my provider it didn't really make sense given how much of the car is custom... valuation on it was not something I wanted to go through incase I had issues, plus the price sky rocketed.
 
Brett

Brett

Well-Known Member
I am glad that you are physically ok. Things can be replaced, people cannot.

Looking forward to seeing your rebuild and what you do differently.
 
Joebob

Joebob

Goblin Guru
Mayor West said:
Got my driver seat in yesterday and now all of that's settled and looking nice.

Yesterday I also bought new control arms because I didn't want to have to deal with getting a press just for these bushings, and well as the other bushings having 130k on them and I just noticed one of the ball joints was damaged from the donor's wreck. Did not like spending 300$ on them from ZZP but after buying a press and new bushings it's about the same anyway.

Today I received my blow-through MAF tube (from Amazon) - I got the 2.5" version because I'm going to have to have my MAF tuned anyway for blow-through.
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I too am glad that you are ok and the frame kept you safe. Did you check to confirm that you got FE5 control arms or did you end up with FE3 control arms as the FE3 ball joint diameters are smaller and can be loose in the TC knuckle?
 
Mayor West

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Joebob said:
I too am glad that you are ok and the frame kept you safe. Did you check to confirm that you got FE5 control arms or did you end up with FE3 control arms as the FE3 ball joint diameters are smaller and can be loose in the TC knuckle?
Click to expand...
I ordered legit FE5 arms from ZZP.
 
Desert Sasqwatch

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Thankful you are ok, that's the most important thing. Your Goblin will live again, just needs some hospital and recovery time to get it back into shape. Let's all be careful out there.
 
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