LaunchPad's Super Stalker

[LaunchPad]

Ladies and Gents! Typically, since starting our Goblin project OldB1 and I dedicate our Wednesdays to working on it but this last Wednesday we took it off so I could wrap up the remounting of body panels for the Super Stalker and get it to a show on Sunday. the car was posted on some other threads here in unpainted. . . . but NOW. . . After a lot of work here is the car with its paint.

There are still a few items to go: the hood SCOOP will be wrapped in black with "92" inside a transparent circle race style and a 92 will be put on each side. The paint is still "curing" and there was not time to generate the files for my vinyl cutter. The side mirrors need replaced because the mirror glass is delaminated om the back sides. I need to 3d print a clamp for the center mirror to grab the top of the windshield because it is quite wobbly. the head lights will and mounts will be changed out for more "Cat-like" projector lights lower and to the front of the front suspension. But all that can wait until winter because my specialty car insurance says i only have til 1 Oct to drive it.

 

[LaunchPad]

I am going to give a HUGE shout out and public THANK YOU to forum member Dale E for all the help and advice he gave me over the cooling issues I was having and the last-minute radiator replacement/conversion.

Thank you, Dale! i would not have made the show again this year without your help!

 

[Sebnuts]

Looks sharp! What does it have under the hood?

 

[LaunchPad]

Here is me at the show. I think I recall the announcer saying there we over 400 cars registered. This is an annual show in Nebraska City, Nebraska during their "Apple Jack's" festival.

OldB1 had to come bail me out because driving the car for the longest trip (29 miles) I have made in it to date we found the bolts that I missed Loctite on. the adapter from the transmission to shifter knob came loose right as I pull to the final stop sign to enter the show. Pretty humbling experience to have folks push me into my parking place while I mashed the clutch!! I was kind of stuck in second gear until he showed up with some tools.

It didn't help I parked next to a cranky old hater with a primer covered mustang missing door handles, interior and marker lights that told me he hated foreign cars and mine was the ugliest he had ever seen.

OldB1 was very unimpressed and had some words of his own about the folks (sadly greater majority of the cars) like the guy here across the street from me posting his window sticker- AND having trailered his car. . . .

i say to each their own cause at the end of the awards ceremony the announcer waived a picture of MY car over his head and said it was the one he most wanted to drive ANYWHERE.

 

[LaunchPad]

Looks sharp! What does it have under the hood?

thank you!

Super charged GM 3800 attached to a "T5 WorldClass"

 

[LaunchPad]

I never was a fan of the "dune buggy" style headlights so i whipped up something a bit more fitting to the stalker look while waiting on goblin parts. what ya all think?

i ran into a few issues. . . apparently i had the hood open sooooo darn long that it warped the shape of the fiberglass so now it is not sitting right on the frame rails- so a fix to that needs to be handled really soon. Also, I used trailer marker lights for my front turn signals - turns out over the road trucks WHITE is the ground. soooo i had to re-wire that circuit TWICE. And as you can see the car is still waiting for my "Stalker" decals and wrap for the hood.

 

[LaunchPad]

Stand by. . . in next few days some big mods for the Stalker. . . i am using a Donkervoort for some inspiration. . . all my needed parts are out for delivery to add all the aero effects (diffuser, and both wings) . . . later after the meet up around mid oct the hard top should be wrapped up as well.

here is what i am talking about:

i know i am partial. . . but i think mine looks better. LOL

 

[Rttoys]

Those handle so well. Looks good

 

[LaunchPad]

About 830 pm I got both front and rear wings mounted just in time to drive an hour North to the other house for a "cars-and coffee" event scheduled for 7AM this morning. Many of the parts only arrived the day before at 5pm. So, the whole project was a bit of a rush. The lighting isn't the greatest and the setting could certainly be a bit better. After the "shake-down" drive I have some more alterations needed in addition to actually painting the parts. . . but here is how it worked out so far:

The rear wing feels pretty high. . . .but according to my seated height with a helmet (I am 6'3") it would only be like an inch above a roof line. . . oy! and the front wing makes it so I can only pull into the other houses driveway in reverse. . . the smaller parts of each wing also need some support near the position of the main mount points. If running with any downforce the smaller portion deflects and resonates above 70mph. The car scoots really nicely tho!

The defuser is only at the pattern stage so far and all the cleanup/paint work is going to have to wait for a few weeks due to other critical daily driver obligations and this epic move happening between now and mid-July while immersed in a re-model of the destination house. <sigh>

 

[LaunchPad]

Well as bad as my week with building the Goblin the Stalker grill came out nice. The next speedway motors cars and coffee is Saturday. I need to mount this on the hood and re-install the supercharger and front wing. maybe get some paint on the rear wing bits too. . .

 

[LaunchPad]

The Step daughter washed up the Stalker and got me some photos so i can put together the next business Post card. So here us the sneak peak to that project/top selection:

I still have parts to pull off to paint and if you looked in the seating area I have a foam mock up of a center armrest glovebox I have been driving around with to see if I can tolerate it before cutting/bending the metal. not sure it will ever truly be DONE but I am chomping at the bit to have my Goblin this far along too!

At the August Speedway Motors cars and coffee event Saturday the official photographer told me the car should be up on their Instagram on the 29th of August for the car of the month.

 

[LaunchPad]

Yesterday was "Applejacks car show". one of the regions largest shows held in Nebraska City. The Stalker received the last and largest trophy awarded much to my surprise. I actually had to call for a truck to get it back home. LOL

 

[LaunchPad]

Following Goblinfest I determined that I really wanted more braking power for this beast and power brakes are not going to be a thing without some major re-fabrication of the engine compartment. . . so waaaay back around November 20th after a whole lotta research on preferred parts I ordered the new wilwood master cylinders and a rear disc brake conversion for a GM live axle from Speedway motors. I NEVER thought it would be this much drama. . . . . .

This is my personal car- not a business car. . . Part of the selection process for the parts had to do with I already have wilwod components and this needs to be a direct swap. I am just changing piston sizes on the master cylinders. you know unbolt and replace . . . no new fabrication involved and something I can do from the house garage not needing to free up space in the shop - and hoping it could be done on the coldest of the winter parts where it just wasn't too feasible to heat the whole shop anyway because the house garage is much better insulated and heated.

So for the record I live in NEBRASKA a whole 35 miles from speedway motors- and pretty much- only one turn between my place and theirs. I've been at this place since 2016 and I order a LOT of stuff from speedway and have my daughter pick it up at the parts counter when she gets out of her college classes or I have them ship to the house (if its free shipping). The Stalker is even their featured car for the month of August 2025!!! (all over the various media channels) so its not like they don't know me and never shipped here because even a local pick up has my current address in the system.

Now 2012-2016 I lived in New Mexico for an Air Force assignment and maybe ordered 1 thing from Speedway motors while out there.

So since November one of the master cylinders has been in: "order received status" even the customer service couldn't tell me what that really means but the computer screen they look at has nothing to give but "out of stock". so. . . .even going directly to wilwod. . . uh no longer available thru them. grr. so today I pulled the needed cylinder off of one of MY business production cars' clutch because it happened to be the same cylinder I needed. paperwork nightmare for my "business" AND I suppose the production side needs to be RE-worked for a whole different brand? Tilton? grr. just headache all around.

The second master cylinder that I needed - they shipped me the "mico" version as a substitute - definitely NOT the part I ordered and they won't take it back . . and it certainly won't work as a direct replacement either! grr. thankfully I can go pull one from my Business stock but then this whole crossflow between business stuff and personal stuff just drives me nuts in the accounting and integrity department! I know lots of folks probably won't blink an eye and that is ok for them but I just don't like to fly that way even up to my own detriment.

So those bits relatively minor compared to what happened to the rear disc brake conversion parts. . . no once, not twice, but 4 times speedway shipped the entire conversion kit (discs, calipers, brackets, lines, etc- bunch of boxes each time and HEAVY) to the address I had over 9 years ago in New Mexico!!! and they were made aware of the mess up in shipping each and every time. . . tracking just says "delivered"- not to WHERE it was delivered. kinda lucky for me-ish. . . my former landlord lives in the house he used to rent to me and recognized my name and gave me a text asking why soooooo much stuff was being delivered to his place with my name on it. he as getting VERY agitated because each time he had to load this stuff up and head down to UPS store to ship back to Speedway. And speedway wouldn't refund my money until they got the parts back that they miss-shipped so I had THOUSANDS tied up with parts they just could not seem to get to me to save their lives!! After the 4th time shipping to an address that each time I was assured was NOT in their system I had to cancel things. . . and I finally got my refunds- Nov 20 thru Feb 5th sure glad that isn't a car for a customer!!!!!

Sooooo. . . tomorrow (they ain't open on weekends) I get to take a good part of the day and roll on in to the parts counter at speedway to pick up the rear disc conversion. (daughter says tooooo heavy and too many boxes for her VW bug) ugh- kids these days!

On the plus side. . . . I got a bunch of hardware installed on the Goblin and figured out several mystery wires. lots more to go tho closing in on the first start.

 

[Rttoys]

 

[LaunchPad]

speedway motors continues to disappoint in an epic manner but we'll just skip that bit.

the rear disc upgrade on the Stalker was anything but straight forward. . .

So after pulling the drums. . . and test fitting the provided hardware for this disc upgrade "KIT" it became obvious that there was going to be a space issue with part of the rear frame and body. Basically the parking brake part of the caliper need 3 inches that didn't exist. sooo off to do some fab work.

so new brackets made to clock the caliper to a more favorable position and some body trimming "should" get me 2" of travel before ugly things start happening.

So this is the final "physical mount" i came up with. I still have a hard line to re-make and to refill the diff . . . . and the BIG job is to tighten the parking brake the entire drive shaft has to be removed. Then will enslave the step daughter again to be my brake pumper while I bleed things.