What are you doing to get ready for Carlisle?

Might get a hair cut.

Whatever you do, DO NOT get any on your knob & bollocks!!!

See Troy's cautionary tale under 'Anything Goes'.

Danny,
As long as it is Silver Patron we have a deal! :) Got a new set of tires for the Spyder. Just took it to a show last weekend so it is ready to go! Finishing up gathering items for our Raffle boxes we plan to bring, pulled out the car trailer, hoping for beautiful weather!

Thanks SG. I have to clean it for this weekend anyway. The local PCA wants to spotlight my little pretender at their Spring Breakout and BBQ. So it needs to be cleaned up by this Saturday!

My punchlist is pretty much knocked out. Still waiting on the windshield and top, but I've been driving the car as a daily driver for so long now it's largely irrelevant. I get wet, it dries off. Repeat as required.

I put a manual switch in for the fan, hex-bar fix cured the carbs and I've changed the oil. Good to go. Counting them down. Ten to go.

Noooo! You haven't done the clay bar and wax stuff yet! Get on with it ;-)

He probably took the clay bar to the chassis, already.

Oh, of course. How could I forget?

All kidding aside, I really do need to deep-clean the chassis. This driving it every day has resulted in a very fine coat of dust and grime from driving in the rain and schmutz.

The bottoms of the axle boots are the worst for it, and they're practically black. The front of the chassis isn't so bad, but the back has been splashed on, the engine itself isn't very happy-looking and the cockpit is particularly worse for wear. Like trashed-out, kids-had-a-party, wrecked-looking. Not that there are hamburger wrappers or anything, but there's pine straw, leaves and dirt ... there are bug guts everywhere and there's probably a little guano on the paint.

Should I leave it that way for Carlisle, and park right between Lane and Kelly? Maybe throw my leather helmet and gauntleted gloves on the dash like I just arrived from the N

I like your jack stand sox.

Nike or Adidas?

For all I know, they could be Chicago White Sox! :)

I just finished planning the legs for my Carlisle trip returning via Arlington, VA and it's a total of 2,426 miles not counting riding around Carlisle. Looks like 87 gallons of gas and about $320.00.
Plus maybe 2 quarts of Brad Penn.

Tomorrow clay bar and wax gets done and assembling trip supplies assembled to be loaded after a car show Saturday.

Can't wait to hit the road Tuesday morning meeting up with Hoss in Knoxville that late afternoon.

Looking forward to seeing everyone plus our left coast contingent!

Jack, tell me about your clay bar and how you use it.. I am hearing about these bars and the wonders it produces.. can you please talk to this point here my friend... and post pix if you have before and after shots?

Speedster "D" Claymation!

Clay barring is really no big deal, here's one video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfEfLGL59GI

Griott's Garage Speed Shine is another type of lubrication to use with the clay. It's real simple, just basically polishing with pad of clay.
No big mystery. It just cleans and polishes the surface before waxing. Try it.

David---thanks to Richj--the video was really good and explains it better than I could.

What I like to do is to wash the car, then polish it which removes most of any contaminates then follow that with claying. This way you don't load up the clay piece with dirt because the finish is nearlly dirt free after polishing.

Then wax and admire!

After a trip the detailer and microfiber cloth does a great job of restoring the clean finish.

I am happy that a Speedster is a very small car ---I'd hate to do all that work on a Humvee!

Since I'm not attending this year, I'm assuring that the weather will be spectacular for you folks that are. Congratulations and enjoy it!

Yup, weather there looks good. The weather for my 3-day drive up, however, looks a bit iffy.

I clay-bared Pearl last year. Didn't notice much of an improvement in shine (with that pearlescent paint she's always mega-shiny) but BOY! Did that process ever make her feel smooth! Like polished glass or, as they say; "Smooth as an android's bottom".

Didn't like anything on TV last night, so hit the Garage and checked the valves on Pearl - everything looked good, threw on new cover gaskets and o-rings and should be good to go. Now to program up a Carlisle playlist on the iPod, get the requisite beef jerky and 'fronion' rings a'la Jerome Smith program up the GPS (Kathy calls him "Rufus" - he's a 'good ol boy') and we're good to go.

ATTN MUSBJIM: I have an HD camcorder (it produces .mov files) which I'll bring along with the interface cables. I'll get some footage of the NE Caravan's upper leg before you catch us up, so you can download them for your video, ok there, Cecil B.?

Hope Cory has everything done before he comes this year so valuable space isn't taken in the tent. :)

There's ALWAYS something, Stephen. Now I have a goal; find something to do under the tent ...

Well... You could always drink beer.

Gordon - Cool! Thanks for that! I'll contact Joel Abraham and see if its possible for us to hook up with you guys somewhere after the I-81/I-78 interchange. I think Joel might be passing through a little earlier, though. I'll work on the logistics!

Just confirmed my reservations for the Holiday Inn Express in Christiansburg, Va and at the Courtyard Marriot in Harrisburg, Pa. Weather forecast looks good until Sunday.

I'll be pulling out from home headed North Tuesday morning, will probably stay somewhere in Georgia that night and arrive in Christiansburg Wednesday afternoon. Anyone between Fort Lauderdale and Christiansburg want to join up?

I washed, vacuumed and treated the leather with Lexol. I didn't wax because the water still beaded up very well and the luster was fine. I did the hand test I saw on the Griot clay bar video and I didn't seem to feel the roughness that they talked about. The finish felt pretty smooth to my hand so I'll hold off on the clay bar treatment.

A couple of days ago, I set the tire pressures, cleaned the air filter and mass air flow sensor. I've been running a little rich, so I hope this will take care of that. If not, I'll have to settle for 32 mpg instead of 36 and deal with it when I get back home.

Tomorrow I do the detailing and I'll be ready to go. Looks like I'll be getting rained on during Tuesday's drive, but it'll be easy to wipe it down afterward.

Spent most of the afternoon trying to adjust the Raydyot mirror on the passenger side. Had to remove the door panel, and get my arm in an awkward position to loosen the nyloc nut hold the mirror.

Tried a number of times to adjust it, but it would not adjust sufficiently to be useful. Finally, I took the mirror off the base, dremeled the chanel the adjusting bolt goes through to lengthen it, and now it works just fine.

There's always something to do on these cars.

But, I did have a chance to take the car out today and open it up.

It goes along nicely.

My wheels came in and they look killer. Discovered the front rotors were drilled off center so ordered new ones from CPI. Got them in and now I need spacers and extended studs. I ordered them....called Friday to see where they were at and was told they are on back order. CRAP AGAIN.(said they were in stock and would be shipped out the next day) Ordered them from Arizona and paid another $50 to get them here on time. Now I'm holding my breath till Tuesday. My rat rod is sittin in the corner of the garage saying...Take me! I'm not givin up yet. Tom

Tom - Bring 'em both, your son can drive the rat rod. :>)

I believe I'll be ... Hmmm ... doing nothing with the car but continuing to drive it between now and then. I'm supposed to get rained on Tuesday, so I suppose I'll deep-clean it Wednesday.

Everything else is more or less done. Hoo-YAH!

Fixing the e-brake cables. One of the shorteners let go and now seems to be toast...

...and the VW Rat Rod Tom has is frigg'n awesume !

Yea Yea Yea Alan and your still first on the list if it ever goes for sale! It's kinda cool havin a car you don't have to wax. Tom

Okay, can't stand it. I like hotrods too...photos please.

Just another reminder to make Cory's Carlisle Garb Delivery System easy...pack your order receipt, present it to him, get your order. He's got better things to do than mess with you forgetting the easy part.

Trying to remember what I'm going to forget to bring.

A straw hat and beer coozy, Troy. The sun here is murder.

I cleaned my fuel filter last night as a three-month maintenance. I've got a calendar for that sort of thing, since my memory isn't always so keen. The results were mind-blowing for only having been since February; there were black pieces of the NEW fuel cell foam in the filter in such quantities as to probably restrict fuel flow by a huge percentage.

That screen looked like it was choked with debris. If I hadn't just cleared it before I started tearing into the carburetors three months ago, I would have thought it hadn't ever been done. There was a notable difference in performance, too.

The pictures are on the SOC Facebook page.

Spent yesterday doin' a Kelly Frazer-style detail job on the car. Other than loading her up, I'm ready to hit the road.

Bruce.
My OCD for symmetry is kicking in when I look at that hotrod picture you posted. Isn't that grill tilted a little to the left?

Troy, I believe the flames are just a tad hotter on that left side causing a natural lean in that direction and it's out of his control.

Nah, the grille is straight as an arrow. Must be how the camera was held.