Saw this tonight, It would fit in real well with my business. Would need a ton of rich clients to afford it though
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A thousand excuses have left my project sitting on the jackstands. So that I can actually get some miles on it this year I have decided to leave the K-member and front suspenders alone and just install the brakes. I did a marathon session removing the stock systems (complete with 2001 rubber hoses) and shimmed the new calipers into place. To be honest these were purchased as much for looks as they were for performance. . .we mostly drive this car on weekends to get ice cream. Ive not had it on a race track since I began the heavy modifications.
This is the first time I have been in the garage in 6 months so its a little dirty. I wasn’t sure this system was going to fit in my wheels because its hard to trust measurements alone due to the complex geometries that need to roatate past one another. As it turns out, I have about triple the minimum clearance to the stick-on brake weights inside my wheels. Speaking of wheels:
Sorry that the whole car is so filthy. I never got a chance to clean it after pulling it out of storage last year. I am really liking how the whole color scheme has worked out with this build. Check out how the calipers even match the badges in Strange axles. Sure it’s only visible when the wheels are off, but it still looks cool!
I also installed this little master cylinder brace. It is supposed to improve pedal feel by helping to reduce flexing of the firewall. I cannot wait to try out these brakes. I think this car is finally coming along, haha. Well, 18 years of building on it and it’s finally getting to where I dreamed it could be.
Hey one final feature of these brakes that is pretty freakin cool is that you unscrew one nut and can pop both brake pads out. This will be really handy for switching pad compounds at the track. . .assuming I ever have time to go to there.
It was good to be in the garage today. Sorry to babble.
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I have been very absent so I should have started off with a hearty hello to yall. Howdy!
Hopefully the fact that it takes me half a year to do a brake job on this car illustrates how busy I have become with unimportant nonsense. I blueprinted and hand-built the engine in the same time period several years ago. But I have traveled across the country many times now in the same time, literally LA to vermont with many stops between…and I think I could apply for California residency at this point.
In addition to the travel in these last 6 months I have undergone a medical transformation. Almost exactly 18 years ago I was involved in an accident that cost about $0.5M of then-money in medical bills, I was 23. In my late 30s I had four cervical vertabrae fused in a 6 hour surgery. The surgeon built the most beautiful neck one could imagine when viewed in the x-ray, but I was crippled with pain. Eventually I was on fentanyl and my prescription was spiraling upward while my zeal for life faded to black. Thankfully I was able to taper off of fentanyl with the help of medical cannabis. Breaking fentanyl’s addiction was unlike anything Ive experienced, and over 18 years I have experienced some heavy drugs.
Fast forward to my most recent travels to CA and VT as I mentioned. During my stay there the tissues in my shattered leg began to separate and function properly. . .after 18 years! I could fully use my leg again! When I first got on legit medical cannabis I got steady enough supply and sufficient test results to find strains that combined with a over the counter supplement called Neprinol. The two combine to break up frozen tissues and scar tissue in my body. Within two days of using neprinol with cannabis parts of my frozen spine began to “dissolve” and the joints started breaking free. After 4 months the large scar on my neck had shrunken sufficiently that I didnt nick it, as I had at every shave for the preceding 4 years. Now at 15 months the scar tissue around the compound tib-fib fracture in my leg is breaking up. My ankle flexibility gives me cat-like agility and my neurological pain is definitely in a different league, far less than it has been in the last 18 years. I am very weak, but honestly yall I truly believe I have been miracled. I had absolutely no plans for living past 50 until very recently and now I feel as good as I ever have. I do not have words for how thankful I am and continue to believe that I really am the luckiest person ever.
I apologize for the TMI and its probably a terrible strategy for me to blurt something out like this career-wise. But you guys have endured and supported me pretty much since the day of the surgery, so I kinda wanted to say something. You know me, all drama. Haha
The recovery itself has been a crazy adventure. But at least for the time being I am operating at a pain level that I can well tolerate. After 18 years that is nearly unbelievable to me.
I stopped nicotine and vaping entirely about 8 months ago. But I am still about and I do think of yall on the regular. I even read a bit but have been locked out of my account and too busy to recover.
I wish you all good health and apologize for the over-sharing. I am truly grateful to so many of you. I dont know how long I will leave this message up. I hope forever. Cheers.
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This project has sat for 6 years needs wiring finished and brakes bled. Custom built from scratch CR 125 shifter kart. Estimated speed as setup over 100 mph sitting one inch off the pavement. =( soon I have to finish this!
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Wow, what you went through is heartbreaking. But you made it so far you can make it to 50 then 60 is entirely possible. Day by day I know you know that. Congrats =)
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Thanks man! I really do think so now, before I was down to weeks or maybe days, Being in horrendous pain for that long. . .I started to write about passing out during my commute from pain. Almost daily for many years. But hey I feel great now and I dont see any limit at all.
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Oh wow. . .so you must know I am a total poser. Karts is real racing. I am sooo slow on four wheels that I generally look like a fool racing. Id sooner get on a crotch rocket than get in that kart but I sure do love a full-on engineered for racing machine. I admire that hub! Wow!
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I gave up bikes 20 years ago. I was Drag racing professionally it could have been a real career for me. Karts are a great replacement. If Id of stayed on bikes I would be dead by now…I’m crazy and fearless on those things. But I just sold one of these =) loved it too, but alas it was on a mission to kill me as well !
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Great to hear from you good sir.
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You make it hard to make Mopar jokes. You and I may have similar personalities, poor bastard. I’ve very seriously considered making my license plate MYCOFFN…that’s all the letters we get here. As a reminder to me each time I drive how many near misses I’ve had in it. Thank God I don’t live anywhere near Mt. Palomar.
The SS has a 102mm throttle body and Tony Mamo heads, cam, intake NA 347CI. This makes the throttle wicked sensitive and it’s way torquey and proned to spinning despite the small displacement. “Explosive” is the way I describe driving it. You have to have a precise foot and I just found out my ankle was half-frozen for 18 years 
…maybe I’ll do better this year. Did I mention this car was bought in part with insurance money from the bike?
Speaking of bling…I wanted to post the lower control arms I’m putting on along with a tubular k-member but can’t find them…so you get the prettiest flexplate ever, haha! Cheers
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Very nice ride my friend and so glad you took the time to post about it.
Your second post is a very touching story and I am glad you shared it. Personally did 15 years of narcos but 4 years ago I went the same route you did and although not pain free I can now tolerate the pain much better then while doing the narcos.
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That’s me stopping a previously built shifter kart…thats the cops coming after me ( headlights) they couldn’t catch me but they could hear me ( like a 1\4 of a mile away) he stops and gets out…I’m thinking oh shit now its over! He “says nice kart! How fast does it go? And finally after several minutes admiring my creation he says” you can’t ride that on the street you know" and leaves
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