vectorsolid

Without getting to much into the rules in this first post, we're building a car for the CHUMP car series. We like the idea of a LOT of seat time, making it a great bang for the buck, as race car events go. CHUMP is like LEMONS racing, but you don't have to cover your car in **** carpeting and dress up as Obi-Wan Kenobi to get entered. More next level than lemons, but not as serious as NASA and the Honda challenge. Much more flexible. Our first event will be in Spokane may 5-6th 2012. It's two 8 hour endurance races. 8 hours on Saturday, 8 hours on Sunday. Gotta have a minimum amount of drivers and nobody can be in the car for more than 2 hours at a time. Pit stops, race radios, lots of traffic, and some of the best tracks in the country. Look into it here. http://www.chumpcar.com/dev/cms/

We picked up this 93 EG Coupe in Wyoming with a d16z6 in it. Had a lot of drivers side quarter panel damage and the main seal is leaking like a sieve. Gonna shave the head a bit, new head gasket, clutch, and a valve job. Put on some fresh shocks and ebay coils (it's a rules deal on expense is what you're up against with certain "low buck" parts). Pop in a containment seat and hit the track with an engine that has 188,000 miles on it... what could possibly go wrong?

Safety equipment they do not put an expense limit on, which is good, so we'll have excellent seat, belts, cage, fire suppression, etc. Most guys I talk to, if they are honest, it ends up being a $2000-$4000 car.

I wish we had more pictures of it at the start. Here we are in the gutting process. let's see how it goes. We have to be in Spokane, at the track 30 days from NOW.





I'd actually done a bit of work to pull the rear quarter into a rough position at this point. Just so it didn't look so bad. It's flat black, so you just cant see the damage.


Was smashed in about 4-5 inches before this pic.


Had air conditioning, pulled it. Gonna pull the power steering as well.

vectorsolid

I don't claim to be a body man, but for amateur, race car work, I can fake it.

Randon, painstakingly removed all the interior undercoating tar. Looks great now and will paint up nice when we paint the cage and interior.


Here's the 1/4 after a few hours of metal work, hamer/dolly.


some work with heat to eliminate the high spots.


Got the sheet metal pretty darn close. I didn't want a lot of bondo adding weight to the car.


working it.


ready for primer.

vectorsolid

Friend of ours from Lee's Precision paint helped us out. I didn't want to buy a bunch of primer and crap, so I told the guy, next time your priming a car, I'll flip you $100 to throw 3 coats of good sandable primer on the car. Just call me when you're gonna prime something and I'll be there in like 10 minutes.

So we got the call and headed out to Lee's.


Here we are, back at the shop, with 3 heavy coats of sandable primer on it. WHOOHOO!


I'm super happy with how it turned out. just needs a LOT of wet sanding and maybe primered again. Lot's of deep scratches from the finishing with 40-80 grit paper. But now it will be straight enough I can get proper race decals to stick.

vectorsolid

Wheels and tires got here.

Falken Azenis 615k's on Drag-dr44 wheels. 205/50-15

racerdud17

that is a beeeefffy looking 205. mine dont even look that big

Flak

gunna keep up with this build.

johnjw

wow! you are miles ahead of us. looks good, that rear fender looks perfect. you're the new chumpcar body man?

we've only secured 3 drivers so far, so a bit hesitant to register. we hope to make it but we maybe fooling ourselves and go on to the July 24hr. But I have not lost all hope. We will have a cage by this weekend and the motor and tires and brakes and....and.... is next lol

Best of luck dude with the rest! Looks like you have a solid start!

vectorsolid

Don't look at it close. There's a line between acceptable for a race car and un-acceptable for a street car. This is right in the middle. Lot of deep scratches, but good from 10 feet. I'm happy with it. Will look better now, shine up, and now hold a sticker so it will look like a race car. I don't care how beat up it gets at the track, I just want it to start out looking good.

I'm hoping to have the seat here in the next 48 hours so we can start on the cage. All that crap will be done by Monday. 2 days, on the cage, tops. I'm gonna cut the roof off to put the cage in. I'd never do it on a street car, however...

Then we work on wiring and engine bits. Gotta pull that funky aftermarket intake mani and put a stock one on. Don't need the AIV hit.

miamirice

If you need a paying driver go on the forum. I have done 7 race weekends with chump and they always have somebody there looking to buy seat time. It's a fantastic event. Enjoy.

mattEG

Awesome build!

We've had moderate success in Chump with a 94 hatch in the past. My old team is campaigning the EG at Spokane as well. Look for Rusty Igloo & Beaver Domination. I'm no longer participating with that particular team but they are a nice bunch of fellows and they've got my old car.

I'm sure you've built plenty of racecars before but with the civic in Chump your only struggle will be horsepower. Make up for the lack of it by removing every bit of metal that you can. Not sure what you're running for brakes but we had super good luck with Hawk DTC-60's. They were quite cheap and we got two weekends out of a set with good brake cooling.

vectorsolid

Have to keep that in mind, I think I have one driver that might be flaking out.

Seems that way doesn't it. I've mentioned this before. I don't drink, smoke, hang out in the bars, belong to any clubs or organizations, hunt, fish, own a boat, nothing. I just play in the garage. you'd be amazed at what gets done if you don't have a life... ...lol... 4 hours here, 8 hours there, next thing you know, you built something.

Cool, appreciate the tips. We thought about the weight as well. I'm in the there with a sawzall like I don't have a conscience...

redzcstandardhatch

Awesome

Much nicer than my 84 crx lemons effort. Lol

Billy Elliot

Doesn't your $100 primer job count towards the price of the car? Why wouldn't you just rattle can primer/paint it? It's just a race car after all. Repairs are another rattle can down the road.

My rally car is far more beat up but it follows the 60/60 rule just fine. Looks good at 60ft while going 60mph!

I'm looking to tackle my Integra LS project this summer and making it a track beater with future LeMons/Chump events as well. I may or may not try to make it out to the Road America 24 Hours of LeMons race. I plan on building it as close to H2 rules while being within the $500 budget. Will have a LeMons/Chump spec suspension and then an H2 suspension that I swap between events.

miamirice

Painting, fancy wheels etc doesn't affect car price in chumpcar. Only if you start putting on performance mods will you get hit with penalty laps. Love the 60/60 rule!

Billy Elliot

That's good for Chumpcar rules.

I was annoyed the two years we ran LeMons as pretty much anything but fuel lines was considered in the price. Even all your goofy theme related stuff. That included new wheel bearings/bushings/etc (which now are free and considered safety components). We pretty much blew the majority of our budget replacing bearings/bushings/tie rods on our Protege and then whatever we spent on several cans of flat black spray paint. Luckily we got the parts at a discount through one team member working at the local Midas. The remaining bits of our budget were then spent on getting replacement struts (Midas again) and a replacement radiator at cost (1-800-Radiator sponsor).

vectorsolid

It's going to get beat up. No two ways about it. For the first race, I want it to look as good as we can. From then on out, it's primered fenders, and hack body repairs.

no hit for paint cost, it doesn't add performance. Although our paint job, like an eBay cold air intake, will surely add 40whp!!!

vectorsolid

After door gutting, latch was floppy, put some gussets in there. Looking back, I kind of wish I hadn't been so overzealous and cut the flange off for the rubber trim. If it rains, it's possible we're gonna get water coming up from the front of the door and the bottom edge. The idea of racing in the rain is foriegn to us, so I treated like a dry day car. It's different, I'm starting get more of a feel for the concept. Something to keep in mind on your doors. I might cut up another door and start over. NOT!

I've done Honda doors like this before. Normally I take a bit mroe time on it. I'm trying to do these quick and in a chumpworthy spirit. Normally I'd have done these a LOT cleaner (see my thread on gutting a door for a track day car). the door opening rods, I'll run to the front of the door with a big loop on them, so you can open them from inside if you like.

Notice all the tubing on the ground? YEA BUDDY!

Seat brackets are in, get the seat mounted tonight and start on the main hoop.





Fixing the massive hole left by removing the door bar. Had to put something there to bring strength back to the door.




Seat got here:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7076/7...989448ed_c.jpg

vectorsolid

AND, because I must be mentally impaired in some way... We started on a second car.

Busted *** EG hatch. I picked it up for an honest $100. Front end was smashed over about a foot. Popped it on the frame rack and 7 hours later, not to shabby.













and now we gut it and cut it up. Front end frame rails move back over about 1/4", I'm told that's common. The metal takes a set. None of it is messing with the suspension or motor mounts, just how the hood-fenders-bumper cover align.

welfarepc

do these need roll over protection? looks fun!

vectorsolid

Yes, full cage with dash bar. basically an 8.50 NHRA cage will get you on the track. But with road racing or (nascar door bars)

vectorsolid

Got the main hoop bent, fitted, and welded up. Halo bar is bent and needs notched. Agonized a bit over the diagonal bar. Decided to follow Nasa rules, no further out than 12" from the corner. It's at 10" out on the top behind the seat. Read a few things that said cage "punch through" in a violent 80+ mph rollover is "quite common", so I decided we're gonna adopt the NHRA policy of a 6x6x.125 floor plate. The rationale is that it should stop punch through. And "in theory" if down the road we want to drag race this thing, the cage will cert 8.50, seemed like a good compromise.

Tim2179

iTrader: (2)

How much will this weigh and any plans for a B-series swap? I've seen B-swapped hatches do well at Chump.

Billy Elliot

Why are the feet so far in from the sills? That main hoop looks awful close to the 180° +/- 10° for the total angle of the 4 bends. but nice clearance on the top of the main hoop.

Also, a way to fight "punch through" is to tie the plates in with a plate welded to the sill. Like this:

vectorsolid

B series about impossible to fit the rules unless it's an LS motor.

To much drag racing cage builder in me. Just cause that's how we've been doing it, doesn't make it right. I'm working on improving that, I agree with you. The bar is only 1.5" from the sill. I cam3 up with that number because it's easier to get the mig torch in there. It's about 3" from the sill in the back.

I've made improvements to the front as you'll see. Perfect, no, but better.

vectorsolid

seat mount. Lot's of triangulation.


able to rock the cage to get the tops of the tubes put in.


seat in.