Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 17:23:07 -0800 (PST) From: Mike West Subject: Fluff Article, Destruction & Mayhem This is just filler to fill the void we have on the week-ends. Either these other people have full, adventurous lives or they are playing the list while at work. Vermin in any case. :-) My latest find is a machine tool supply guy. He has just started a type1 super engine and is heavy into dune and brush buggies. He has gone from an open framed vehicle to a full vdubb body on his sand rail. I just gave him a body for his baja brush machine. It may have something to do with the weather. He had a fan shroud out back of the shop with all the duct blades and linkage on it. I asked if he was going to strip them out, as I need about 4 sets now. "No, he said, since I got the baja I hardly drive the Suburban any more so I want to leave them in for those short cold morning trips". He'll end up driving a stock restored Oval at the rate he's going. Wearing a tie and stuff. He has every catalog known to man. All those $5-10 jobs. CB Performance has a nice one. He's polishing and porting a set of CB Perf's heads for the "super fly". Little shop in the back, including a lathe and mill. " He's never had a friend like me". Hydraulic case and 86mm crank. Berg of course. I think he's using 92mm c/p's but I didn't commit to LT memory. He didn't get the case full flowed so he's going to use one of those combo rigs, pump/filter. He tells of blowing up one engine due to machine chips in the front oil relief valve. He tells of putting wider brake shoes and bigger brake cylinders in the stock drums. His sand rail has no front brakes and disk rear brakes. Bucks. This bug I gave him in a sense is a "no title" job. It's clean and not really impossible to get title. Just very difficult. He's going to take the front end and tranny out for me and he keeps the rest. It's a '70 std. Has pop-out rear windows. :-) My brother had taken a torch to the rear clip so he could remove the engine easier. He's a monster. Has an acetyline rig. This car also has 5 lug drums on the back from somewhere. Don't feel sorry for the car, it several steps up from the dumb farm boys who my brother got it from. They had put baja fenders on, big tires but that's all. Then they ran the poor thing till the bearings, as in all, were so bad it ruined the case. I have never seen the like. It had over-heated and frozen up dozens of times from it's appearance. They must have push started it with the tractor. Getting back to the New Friend, he also tells me that the stock bug transmission is fine for under 2 liters. When he put a 2085 in, it blew up. We're talking sand rail here and they take a hard beating. He also hates "Transform", for those who recognize the name. It was a bad gear in a tranny but he ran it for a year and a half anyway. What he runs now is a bus tranny beefed up locally and close ratio third and fourth. He has also destroyed a "super differential". The impression I got was it was a cheaper, welded, increased spacer - - - etc. Another case of you get what you pay for. He now uses a custom machined expensive, I didn't record the name, differential set-up and has never had a problem. I imagine he has also learned not to go over cliffs at that angle anymore too. "Education is painful" Now all I have to do is figure out all the ways to exploit this relation-ship. Quid Pro Quo, of course. west