A History of the Blue Demon (Page 9/17)
Fierochic88 JUL 12, 02:31 PM

quote
Originally posted by kslish:

Ok, now I feel old.....I don't have any gray hair in those pics....

Missed seeing the car at Carlisle. Had a little incident with a farm tractor that day that prevented the family's attendance.



We definitely missed you! Hope to see you next year or at Neffsville in September!
Fierochic88 JUL 12, 02:44 PM
While all the machine work and front compartment work was occurring, I also began a project of powder coating nearly everything possible! With the help of my father, who did the glass beading, and Jason Haughey, who provided the powder coating oven and knowledge of procedure, I set about on my task. After several trips to Jason's shop, and several frustrations, the task was finally completed and everything looked great in blue and silver!



With the block back and the parts on order Dad set about rectifying the starter hole situation. Luckily a co-worker, who also happened to be Dad's welding teacher, had just the set-up we needed and offered to assist Dad in making the repairs. A short time later the block was home and ready to be put back together while we prepared the rear compartment to be sprayed. Dad even took the time to make a custom fuel adjustment/regulator to save me the $ 150
from Jegs.
Fierochic88 JUL 14, 12:17 PM
It soon became evident that the car wasn't going to be ready for Daytona. I ended up going that year and taking my Dad's 85GT. We had a blast and it was good to step away from the project for a few days.

Other things continued to go in the background. Dad rebuilt the 4 speed transmission, which I wanted to stick with for its gear ratio and my goals (at that time) for the car.



We also began the process of reassembling the interior, a portion of the project that our friend, Dave Berkey (Fleabitdog) was instrumental in pulling together. We switched it over from the light gray, torn up stock interior to the darker grey later model interior from 86-88. This included the installation of a new dash, installation of ACC custom carpets on the floor and door panels, a new headliner and some much healthier looking OEM seat skins.





[This message has been edited by Fierochic88 (edited 07-19-2021).]

Fierochic88 JUL 15, 07:12 PM
The engine was quickly assembled and ready to be put in several weeks before Carlisle.











Fierochic88 JUL 16, 01:50 PM
Putting it in was a somewhat tense situation, but when the thing started and ran (after some adjustments), I've never seen such a sigh of relief from my dad.






Unfortunately. that relief was short lived ... after several days of running intermittently on the blocks while the timing and other things were adjusted, we heard the knock. For the first time in my life, I honestly thought my dad was going to blow up a car.
Fierochic88 JUL 16, 03:49 PM
Amidst my tears of frustration, we yanked the engine back out of the car. Time was ticking and Carlisle was less than two weeks away. Apparently there was a miscommunication between my father and the machinist, and neither one had measured the bearings before they were put in - .1 really does matter! Thankfully, the situation was quickly rectified.

[This message has been edited by Fierochic88 (edited 07-17-2021).]

Fierochic88 JUL 18, 10:58 PM
Meanwhile, Fleabit dug in and helped to install my new ACC carpet and dash from Mark Hoagland. My intlerior was really moving along ! The addition of the AusFiero carbon fiber stickers made it look even sharper.
Fierochic88 JUL 19, 05:29 PM
With about a week to go, the engine was finally back in the car and we took it for a ride! Boy did it run! Now it needed tires. This should have been an easy process, but like anything else on the car it was far from it! On the way to the tire shop the first time, the lug nuts nearly fell out of the wheels! More frustration, but within two days the tires were on and the car finally inspected and aligned. We were almost ready for Carlisle - just a decklid to install and we were ready to roll...or so I thought...
Shho13 JUL 21, 04:52 AM
This is an awesome documentation Jen! Cool to read about the history of your Blue Demon!

------------------
"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!

Let's Go Mets!

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Fierochic88 JUL 25, 09:18 PM
We last left this story with only a deck lid left to be installed the night before Carlisle 2002. The car had attempted to be a holy terror up to this point but Dad and I had managed to not strangle each other and to create a well-running, decent looking machine. After painting the underside of the deck lid to match the car and the engine bay, we had left it off the car overnight in order to dry.




Finally everything was in order, and with a house full of guests we were ready to put the deck lid on, wash the car and hit the hay before cruising to Carlisle the next morning.

At about 8:30 that evening we put the deck lid on the car, with the assistance of Fleabit and Jncomutt (Jon Cromer). The lid lined up perfectly and latched quickly. Wonderful! (or so we thought).

I was now ready to clean up the car to take it to the show! So I went to pop the trunk....and all I heard was a clicking noise! Okay, something was obviously not wired correctly right? No big deal, I just took out the keys and went to unlock the trunk. Un-fortunately this would be no easy solution! The keys weren’t working! Now what? The newly repainted underside was on the car and it wasn’t opening! Mass panic set in. Dad was ready to pry the trunk open with a crowbar, or even worse, light the car on fire! At the urging of the helpers, and through my tears of frustration we were able to loosen the trunk bolts (luckily the grills were not yet in!) and pry the trunk upward with minimal damage to the new paint. When we finally managed to get the deck lid off, we discovered that a piece of newspaper was jammed into the lock mechanism from when we had painted the deck lid. We took it out, refastened the lid and Dad decided he was done with the car and went to bed.

[This message has been edited by Fierochic88 (edited 07-25-2021).]