Ivan Stewart's 1984 PPI Toyota SR5 restoration

[Wardy]

Well, the good news is the truck will be ready for pick up tomorrow. From there it gets delivered to Collins motorsports across town to get the rear cantilever arms worked on and a few other odds and ends. I'm hoping sometime before the Baja 1000 the truck will make it back home so i can start stripping off all the paint from the donor cab and chassis. I still need to make mounts for all the fenders and a few more fabricated pieces before I send it off to paint. Anyways, here's some shots of the truck as it sits now over at Darryl Putmans shop. There are a few things missing like A-pillar mounts (to the cage) and a few other minor things that you can't see but pretty much done.

Front drivers side corner...

Passenger side lower rear corner...

Drivers side lower rear corner...

Drivers side rear window...

Passenger side door opening and extra cab area...

Passenger side front A pillar...

Lower passenger side front corner (A-pillar door jam)...

So far I'm very pleased with the work done. As with any fab shop it usually takes longer than you would like but I go into it already knowing that and Darryl was very close on his completion date so no worries on my end.

 

[Wardy]

Here's a few more pic's of the finished product out of Darryls shop. Darryl was responsible for placing the donor cab on the chassis and thats it, i still have to get some body work done but it's in pretty good shape except for about 2-3 little areas. Here's a close up on the inside A-pillar with all the dimple die bracing...

Here's a shot of the bracing in the extra cab area...

More.....

1984....

2016....

We loaded the truck up and off to Collins motorsports, but first I had to stop for lunch! Thanks to Collins Motorsports for letting me borrow the TT trailer, my new trailer won't be finished until the week before the Baja 1000.

The PPI #001 Toyota is now resting in a familiar spot for our restorations, Collins Motorsports. I can't do it all and i know my limits, that's why i bring my stuff to the best in the business when i need something done. The Goerke brothers and the rest of the Collins Motorsports crew have taken good care of me over the years, that's why i keep coming back. Chassis #001 will probably sit here for approx 1 month while they work their magic on the rear suspension and some very important machining work.

 

[Wardy]

Little update on the Bilstien shocks. The guys at Bilstien took all the shocks apart and are getting ready to be rebuilt. Before that happens I wanted to get the cans repainted so everything looks (is) brand new again. Enter Norm Francis (Retro racing). Norm's a good friend of mine as we both share the same love for Vintage off road racing. Norm offered to pick up the cans from Bilstien and paint them yellow again. Norm made Juan pose for a picture when he picked up the cans last week....

It will be a few weeks before the cans are painted because Norm has to button up the old Tracy Valenta owned Funco driven by Marty Tripes back in the late 70's, early 80's. Some of the drivers that drove this car include:
Roger Mears, Ted Nugent (yes, that Ted Nugent), Ivan Stewart, Marty Tripes, Monty Crawford, Brian Harbor and Bob "Hurricane" Hannah.

After the ORMHOF ceremony in Las Vegas, Norm will get to work on the cans and have them painted up and delivered back to Bilstien. Here's a few shots of them sitting in Norms shop...

Still a lot of work to go but we're knocking stuff off the list which is the important thing.

 

[Wardy]

Well, here's where we stand right now.

Collins Motorsports: All the cracks in the suspension parts should be welded up this weekend and then Billy Goerke will be mocking up the rear suspension, weld new bungs for the cantilevers and making new bushings. Hoping that will be completed sometime after the Baja 1000.

Cantilever bung shown on original build photo....(Photo credit Lance Barron)

Bear Race cars: Getting a quote for the front Ball joints for the A-Arms, should hear something next week. Also, the steering pinion needs replacing and that one off piece will cost anywhere from $500-$700 to be replicated.

Ball joints...

Steering pinion...

Transaxle Engineering: Jeff Fields is handling the trans, seems like out of the two I gave him they should be able to make 1 good one. Parts don't exist for these transmissions but he has a ton of spares to look through and we should be fine. The under drives are worry some because Jeff might not have any parts for those. To have a couple gears made of each gear would be EXTREMELY expensive....refer to steering pinion....LOL. My goal would still be to have one spare trans but not sure if it would be a full blown race trans.

Bilstein shocks: Norm Francis is almost done painting the shocks, then he will deliver them to Bilstein in Poway so they can put them back together with new seals, rod ends and valving...

Lots of oars in the water, just nothing happening here at the race shop until we get the truck back from Collins Motorsports. I did get up to the SEMA show in Las Vegas this past week and got a few contacts that I've been trying to get, it might help down the road sometime soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me...

 

[Wardy]

I was up in Las Vegas the other day and stopped by Collins Motorsports to see the progress of the truck/parts. Billy Goerke took some time to explain to me his plan of attack for the build and then began working on welding up the rear suspension parts...

Here's an example of the cracks that have been welded up, as you can see the cracks for the most part are not very long but only a few here and there....

Below is a picture of the "Bung" that SHOULD be attached to the frame but was cut off by the prior owner. I'm guessing this was because they were gearing up to chop off the rear suspension and make a 4 link out of it and were not going to need the Torsion bars anymore. Billy is working on the bungs and also ordering material for all the bushings...

I'll try to post another update before the Baja 1000 but not sure if I'll have time or anything to report. After the 1000 I'm hoping to hear back about the trans, ball joints and a few other parts being fabbed/machined.

 

[Wardy]

On a side note, I finally took delivery of my new Yiro trailer yesterday and i couldn't be happier. My last trailer was very nice but not built for heavy vehicles (Full size trucks). I have had 4 different trailers in the past 7 years and this one has everything I want in the way of size, weight and function. My last trailer was perfect for the DirTrix but I would have maxed out the GVW with the Toyota and spares for Mexico. Not only that the width was 102" and that can get troublesome when heading south on the tight roads in Baja near Catavina to Santa Rosalia.

The Yiro has a 20' deck and is 96" wide, 16" wheels, 2 spares (that don't take up space on the spare tire rack for the race car), #7000 axles, lockable front storage box and railing down the sides. The trailer also has been upgraded with brakes on both axles, 10 tie downs located on the deck along with 6 rings located down the outside of the trailer and we decided to go with the color red to go with the Toyota when finished. I hope this will be the last trailer i need for at least the next 10-15 years.

The measurement between the wheel wells is 70 1/2" and 93" between the frame rails. It's a bit heavier then my other trailer but also has a lot more material for the 10,000 GVW.

 

[Wardy]

Today I made a trip up to Kingman Arizona to drop off the original Ball joints for William Haywood (AKA Bear @ Bear race cars) to make for the Toyota. Most of you might know him better as the main guy behind Gary Messer's green 7200 truck that has been cleaning up in the BITD series....

Bear has done alot of work for me over the years which includes the TT Killer, odds & ends for the 4 seater, Challenger IV and now the Toyota. Bear has also expanded his shop x4 over the last couple years and has some very impressive machinery including this automated bender...

And his latest toy which he will be using to make the custom ball joints and cups for the A-arms...

He has probably had it for a month or so and has been playing around with it making parts here and there, like these weld on AN bungs...

and some Chess pawns, he was playing around....

Bear is ordering material as we speak and hopefully should have it after the holidays next week. In the meantime he will be drawing up the parts in his computer to get ready to cut them out.

 

[Wardy]

History lesson, Race # 8:

Cal Wells and Tommy Morris officially started the SCORE/HDRA season in class 1 (Ivan Stewart) and class 2 (Frank Arciero) figuring the trucks seemed to be competitive enough to run with the unlimited vehicles if starting closer to the front of the field and not fighting their way through dust/traffic. Unknown if this had anything to do with it but trying to rebuild the trucks to make them class 7 legal might have been too costly as PPI was waaaaaay over budget already (my opinion only).

The 1985 Parker 400 would be a very tough race for all the racers as they would have to contend with something they rarely ever have to deal with.....snow. Ivan would start 18th in class 1 and have a pretty good run on the California side finishing the 1st lap 3rd in class while Frank Arciero was right on his tail, 2nd in class 2. They loaded the trucks on trailers and headed to the Arizona side to finish up the two 95 mile loops. Ivan would be slowed with transmission problems and finish 8th while Frank found a rock in the sand wash and tore off the drivers side front spindle. The race did show some promise as both vehicles were challenging for the lead in both classes while running.

Photo credit Trackside photo.

Photo credit Lance Barron/Chris Hukill

The rest of the race as told through Hot VW's magazine By Lane Evans. Photo credits Trackside, Centerline and Lane Evans.

Jack Johnson and Mark McMillin were having a great race in class 1. The cold weather was icing up the throttle linkage on most vehicles, which slowed them down....Except for Jack Johnson. Jacls throttle was stuck wide open on his type IV Porsche motor but he just used the on/off switch on the dash to slow him down which resulted in 1st place in class 1 and Overall! Mark mcMillin would finish 2nd about 11 minutes back...

Jerry Penhall and Ron Gardner had a great run in the class 2 Raceco, finishing 3rd Overall and 1st in class.

Jack Irvine and Kit Trenholm beat 46 other vehicles to win class 10...

Malcolm Vinje and Mark Hansen continued their winning ways in class 5 unlimited taking class 5 unlimited...

Steve Kelly was in a new ride (for him) as he took over Parnelli Jones seat in the Miller American class 8 truck and ended up with a 1st place...

Continuing to add to his long string of wins in class 4, Rod Hall gets another one at Parker...

Mario Alesi beat 6 other mini trucks to the finish line in class 7...

And last but not least, Larry Schwacofer and Sid Spradling won class 6 (B) in the 55 Chevy...

Check out the list of winners/finishers below, you'll see a few familiar faces...

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving update, have a great Holiday everyone. Rory

 

[Wardy]

This update is a little scattered but this seems to happen a lot during a restoration. First off, Bear Race cars has drawn up some new Ball Joints for the front end. The cups on the other hand might be a little more complex due to the heat treating involved and would most likely have to be ground down to make the tight fit back into the cup holders in the arm. Have been talking to a few people including Bill Savage and Billy Goerke and they seem to think the original cups should be just fine....although we are going to get a 2nd look at them before we make that call. Here's the new Ball Joints...

Upper...

Lower...

Luckily for me I have a guy like Tommy Morris who has been a Godsend so far on the restoration. Between him and Cal Wells remembering material types, manufacturers and contacts, this complicated restoration has gone a lot smoother than the Challenger IV build since i didn't have as much input from the original builders.
Example: I sent feelers out for the front fiberglass for the 001 Toyota since I knew someone out there might have a set....including some old employee's of PPI. Turns out Tommy remembered someone that was building an prerunner Toyota and thinks he might of had some original fiberglass on his truck. After a few emails and phone calls I get these 2 pictures send to me...

The rear fiberglass is NOT from the 001 but the front glass LOOKS to be, and if it's not it is EXTREMELY close. I'm hoping to take a trip to Cali some time in December or early January to go look at it and "IF" the owner will let me I'd like to make a mold of the front clip.

It's stuff like this that makes these restorations a blast to do. You never know whats going to show up from one day to the next in your email inbox or text.

 

[Wardy]

Still at it. Lots of phone calls and cleaning of more parts. Slight hold up on the ball joints as I need to pick up the a-arms in Las Vegas and deliver to Bear race cars so he can test fit the ball joint cups and also the taper on the uprights for the ball joint ends. I'll be making a trip to Vegas tomorrow so i can get that handled.

While in Vegas a couple weeks ago I took a Ford 9" 3rd member i got from @philofab to use as a mock up for the rear end to make sure it is straight....

I had to drill out the 3/8" holes to fit the 7/16's studs on the rear end....

After this was all done I noticed that the studs were approx 1/4' off in a few places while others were dead on. I couldn't tell if some of the studs were laying over a little or not. I know I was using a stock Ford 9" but the rear end took a Strange 9" but the bolt holes should line up. I was scratching my head so lucky for me Bill Savage was in the shop that day and told him of my issue. He told me that back then it was hit and miss on all 3rd members lining up perfectly and they would have to "alter" some of the holes and make bigger so the spare 3rd member would work. It was such a problem for him that he started designing his own stuff to fix the problem. The original 3rd member was still at Transaxle Engineering getting prepped. With a quick call to Jeff, he threw the 3rd member in a box and shipped to Collins motorsports so we could use the correct 3rd member to make sure the rear end is straight, then ship it back to him so he can finish lining up the ring and pinion.

While on the subject of Transaxle Engineering, I got these sneak peak pics of the trans coming back from the tumbler...

The trans almost looks BRAND NEW again! I should be getting more pics of the trans as it is being put back together, hopefully within the next couple weeks.

Someone out there sent me this little nugget of the 001 Toyota on the cover of the Downey catalog...

 

[Wardy]

Another trip to Las Vegas today and more stuff to do at www.collins-motorsports.com . I found some spare ball joint cups and thought i would bring them up to show Billy Goerke, he seems to think they will make good spares so that's a plus. Jeff Fields sent the 3rd member to Collins so they were busy making the billet spacers to bolt into the rear end....

Richard on the lathe...

Here they are completed and sitting next to the steel rod that they are made for. The rod slides into the spacers once in the rear end, then they can see if the rear end is bent. Holding my breath for the results which happens tomorrow...

and mounted in the 3rd member...

While those were being made I was working on the rollers for the rear suspension. These were used and seem to have been on the truck the last time it was running and had some sort of catastrophic failure back there by looking at the brass bushings. One side was beat all to H E L L while the other side was paper thin and completely gone. Here's a comparison of what they should look like...

and now....

So the bushing is completely destroyed and jammed in the roller. Hacksaw time...

and B O O M ! !

Notice how paper thin they are on one side. They should be about 1/8" thick throughout. Tomorrow a trip up to Bear Race Cars to drop off the a-arms and uprights to have them fitted for the new Ball Joints.

Attached Files:

 

[Wardy]

I have a love/hate relationship my my buddies up at Collins motorsports. When ever they do work for me it comes with some hazing. Enter Billy Goerke: He calls me yesterday to give me the news about the rear end. Mind you, I have been worried about his phone call ever since i got the truck because I know how expen$ive the rear end would be to have copied with all the mounts for the rollers and this, that and the other. So here's how the phone call goes....

Me: Hey Billy, whats up?
Billy: Uh, well, got some bad news.
Me: Shut up Billy, stop messing with me.
Billy: I'm not. How big is your budget for the rear end?
Me: Come on Billy, stop it.
Billy: No really....
Me: Ugh...well, does it really matter then? Whats wrong with it.
Billy: Well, one of the snouts needs to be replaced and also the passenger side axle tube....
Me: long silence....."$#%&! Well, ok I guess"
Billy: Haha, I'm just messing with you, it looks pretty good.

With that info you love and hate the guy. Turns out the passenger side is bent a little but also needs some welding on the same side. Billy seems to think that the welding will help pull the passenger side back closer to where it needs to be. The drivers side was only a smidge off. For Ivan Stewart to abuse this thing the way he did for 4 years and then get beat on in Mexico for another 5-10 years, i'm pretty stoked with the findings. Kudos to PPI on building a very stout rear end!

Here's a pic of the rear end with the rod through it to check for bends...

You can see here how close to true the drivers side of the rear end is...

Here's the passenger side, see the difference?

Even with it being that far off Billy said he didn't think it would make that much of a difference, he has seen alot worse on TT's and has seen teams run them without blinking an eye. Good to know, and i'm only going to be pushing around 200-250hp at the rear wheels (im guessing).

Bear texted me yesterday and has started on the ball joints. I love getting these kind of texts to see how things are going. I'm sure the ball joints will be done in the next day or so, then it's time for the cups to be made which might take a little more time after getting heat treated...

Almost done with the trial cut on the first one to check for fit on the upright and the a-arm, then off to the real thing!

How about another action shot from back in the day, this time of Hugo Bojorquez from the Loreto 400, possibly 2002-ish....

 

[Wardy]

History lesson: Race #9.

The 2nd race of the SCORE/HDRA desert series took place on the banks of the Colorado River for the 2nd annual Laughlin Desert Challenge. The 55 mile course would be a tight and technical one with many sand washes and not a lot of straight a ways to stretch the legs of the more powerful vehicles.

Ivan Stewart would get the luck of the draw and start 1st off the line in the 001 PPI Toyota. Ivan would only make it 3/4 around the course before transmission issues would sideline him. 4 hours later he would get it fixed and head out for his 2nd lap, a good one, but trans issues again would have him running out of time and retired.

Frank Arciero would also start 1st in class 2 (behind the 20 class 1's) but his day would go no better. Frank would put the Toyota on it's side early and then had a 5 hour 2nd lap, and then parked. Not a great outing for the Toyota's as they were still trying to get the reliability out of the drive train.

The rest of the race as told by the April 1985 issue of Dusty Times.
Words: Jean Calvin
Photo's: www.tracksidephoto.com

Frank Snook and Eric Arras would earn the cover of Dusty Times with their class 1 and Overall win. Jack Johnson, Larry Ragland and Larry Noel were strong contenders for the win but all fell victim to problems.

Jerry Penhall was running 3rd most of the race behind the Tom/Steve Martin Raceco and the Mike Goodwin Raceco, but the Martins blew a motor close to pay dirt while Goodwin threw the win away with a roll over but continued on to finish 2nd.

The class 10's were competing for the Overall on the tight course with only 14 minutes separating 1st and 3rd Overall.

Rob Tolleson working on his Championship 1985 season.

Malcolm Vinje continued his winning ways in class 5 unlimited.

Walker Evans won class 8 after most of his competition had issues.

Jim Dizney won class 9 (Not the Challenger class 9's) and Rod Hall had his way with the class 4 field.

Spencer Low won class 7s and father to the Overall winning class 1 Raceco was Henry Arras winning the class 5-1600 class.

Here's the rest of the finishers.

 

[Wardy]

Getting close to Christmas and hoping to have the Toyota back in the shop by then. I remember this part of the build for Challenger IV and it was a little nerve racking not having it at the shop to tinker on whenever i wanted but this is part of the process if you can't do all the work on your own.

Norm Francis (you know, Retro racing) is almost done painting the shocks. He has a very unique way of doing things but after seeing the finished product on his Funco SSll, Chenowth 1000 and Tracy Valenta's Funco I don't even give it a 2nd thought. I called Norm and said "hey, send me some photo's so i can update my thread". This is the first couple photo's he sent me...

WHOLLY $#&% NORM, tell me your wife isn't home! jajaja. Norm said he has been cleaning stuff like this (before paint) for well over 30 years. After he cleans everything up, he rinses everything and runs them through the dish washer. "Hell, my spaghetti pans have more grease on them than those shocks do"! Funny, I never saw the "shocks" setting next to "Pots and Pans".

Next up was laying everything out to get ready for paint...

The primer was then laid down...

Norm was hoping to finish today but the weather is not cooperating. Hope to see some Bilstein yellow tomorrow sometime and then they are off to Juan and the crew at Bilstein to do the final assembly.

Meanwhile, Bear was waiting for some tooling to show up and it finally arrived. That's a "reem" tool for the taper for the ball joint...

Got a call from Billy Goerke, he said they were having alot of fun trying to get the tube (that the rollers sit on) out of the cantilever arms. The one side came out ok but the other side was giving them fits!

Heat, slid hammers, soaking in liquid wrench, welding on stuff to pull it apart, then repeat. Finally they were able to break it loose...

This restoration is really starting to take it's toll on everyone involved....hahahahaha....BUT I LOVE IT! Most likely a little more of the same next week.

 

[Wardy]

The Holidays has slowed down the work being done at Collins Motorsports but they are back on it again (this was expected), most likely heading to Vegas next week to check out the progress. In the mean while another History lesson.

History Lesson: Race #10.

the 1985 SCORE Great Mohave 250 held in Lucerne Valley was the 3rd stop on the SCORE/HDRA schedule. Ivan Stewart and Frank Arciero would finally get their much anticipated front end upgrade since moving to the unlimited classes. The class 7 trucks were limited on the front end but not with the unlimited rules in class 1 & 2. Tommy Morris and the PPI team replaced the front a-arms with longer arms for more wheel travel. With this addition they also needed to change the front clip because the front fenders were not wide enough. This change, for me personally, is one of the main reasons I fell in love with these trucks. The change really made the trucks looks so much meaner and they were able to attack the terrain much more aggressively. Look at the example pic's below.

Front fenders before, notice the bulge in the front fender rounds off back towards the door. Photo credit Jeff Furrier.

After upgrade, notice the back side of the front fender now is pushed out and steps back flat about 3" to the door. "Speed holes" were added, which might help air escape through the body work. Photo credit Centerline Photo...

PPI did an easy fix to the rear by adding 3" spacers to the hubs to make it wider. It seemed to work just fine since I can't seem to find any issues during races with them.

Now to the race: Ivan would start #105 but would once again be plagued with transmission problems. He would fix it and go on to finish 8th in class. Frank Arciero would also have transmission problems and finish well back in the field. PPI would be scratching their heads again as the trans issues kept rearing their ugly heads.

Quick look at the rest of the race.

Dusty Times magazine, May 1985 issue.

Willie Valdez and Malcolm Smith earned the cover of Dusty Times for their wins at the 1985 Great Mohave 250 race. Willie raced in class 7s while Malcolm Smith raced his newly built ORE Renault powered buggy to the class 2 unlimited win.

Larry Noel took class 1 with his Chaparral chassis buggy...

Dave Shoppe beat Steve Kelley and Walker Evans in class 8...

While Greg Diehl won class 5 unlimited in the DirTrix Baja bug...

Manny Esquerra continued winning class 7...

Current chassis builder Kent Lothringer won class 5/1600...

And Rod Hall once again topped the 4 wheel drives in class 4...

Here's the rest of the finishers...

 

[Wardy]

Just got off the phone with Billy Goerke at Collins Motorsports. Waiting on a few more pieces of material to show up so he can start the bushings, so while we are waiting for those they have started on the rear buds for the cantilevers. The buds have been mocked into place, then they will be placed on the lathe so they can be hollowed out to the correct diameter for the torsion bars to fit through...

The tubes that were thrashed at the ends of the cantilevers have been pulled out and new ones made...

More parts that have been welded up from cracks...

And finally some shots of the rear end, now sitting in place under the truck. Billy and Robert almost ran out of welding rod filling all the cracks but they got er' all finished up...

I'm soooo thankful the rear end wasn't junk, that would have been another set back. No biggie, I will get this thing done no matter what, it just takes a little longer to complete. One thing these builds do is make you patient. You can cut corners on a few small things but you HAVE to spend the money on the important things...it's cheaper in the long run. Speaking of money, here's what $450 in wheel bearings look like. I'm not complaining, 4 bearings and races for Summers Bros outboard hubs on the DirTrix ran $1200....

This will be the last update for 2016, hopefully have some updated pic's of the rear suspension together sometime next week....crossing my fingers. Hope you all had a great Holiday, New years weekend is coming up, be careful out in the desert while enjoying your toys.

 

[Wardy]

Made the trip up to Las Vegas yesterday and was able to get some work done. First order of business was to try and get the old brass bushings out of the cantilever arms so new ones could be made. You really don't think stuff like this will take too much time so sometimes NOT planning for it bites you in the A**. To get both bushings out took approx 3 hours but 2 1/2 of those hours were using the normal methods.

Method 1: Using a cut-off wheel on a die grinder, I made 3 cuts every 1/3rd around the bushing. This was for the punch to have something to grab from the back side...

This did not work as they were in there pretty good. I next tried Method 2: I tried to heat them up to see if that would help break them loose....no go. Turns out the arm I was trying to get the bushing out was the same one they were having problems with for the tube that slides in for the rollers. I grabbed the other cantilever arm, made the same 3 cuts in the bushing and tried to break that one loose....no luck.
Method 3: Slide hammer and heat. There was 2 small openings at the base of the bushing that the claw could grab hold of so I tried that. First I had to mount he cantilever to the table so it wouldn't move...

We tried heating it up and everything but no luck.
Method 4: Finally after trying for an hour Robert Hamilton said "try the dremel". Within 10 minutes I had the first one out...

With the bushings out, Robert was then able to start on the new ones...

Those bushings will end up riding on these buds that house the torsion bars (you can see the new bushings for the torsion bars next to the buds)...

These washers will go between the end of the buds and separate the buds from the cantilever arms...

I'll post more tomorrow, we made a lot of progress today believe it or not. It's amazing how much time gets used up on what you would think would be simple stuff.

 

[Wardy]

Part 2 of my trip to Collins Motorsports. As you can see they have a full shop this time of year as they are getting ready for the 2017 season. Currently they are working on everything from UTV's, NORRA vehicles, Trophy Trucks, 7200's, rally cars and building prerunners...

The photo's about are just of the main shop area, there are 3 more vehicles in the "Fabrication area" located behind the Toyota (red doors).

Robert was still busy making the cantilever bushings on the lathe...

Earlier in the day he had started on the sway bar bushings...

and here is the finished product...

As of right now the majority of the machining is complete except for the aluminum plates that hold the cantilevers into place, they will need some massaging. Here's one of the original pic's of the rear suspension (photo credit Chris Hukill/Lance Barron) and you can see the aluminum plate holding the cantilever in place.

Update on the ball joints. I was hoping to have them finished by now but there has been a delay on getting material in a timely manner. The ball joint material is now in and hopefully they should be done next week...

As for the ball joint cups, still waiting on the material and then there will most likely be another wait to have everything heat treated......UGH!! oh well, all part of the process.

 

[Wardy]

History lesson: Race #11....The 1985 MINT 400

The MINT 400 was a HUGE deal back in the 1980's (with all due respect to the new MINT 400) and was just as important to win as the Baja 1000 was to manufacturers. Billed as the roughest and richest off road race in the world the 18th Annual MINT 400 would live up to the hype. Racers would transverse 4 laps around 105 miles of Nevada's worst terrain. Some facts about the 1985 running:

Total Entries- 374
Total finishers- 101
26% finished the race
Race distance 425 miles
Fast lap of the day Jim Temple/Ken Cox, #203- 02:00:42

Ivan Stewart would be in the hunt for the first 3 laps staying close to the leaders but some front end damage would slow his progress and he would end up in 7th place. Frank Arciero would only make it 2 laps before parking it for the rest of the day...

The PPI Toyotas were having a hard time finding the reliability out of their trucks due to the fact they were not originally built for the unlimited class and they were overweight and under powered compared to the majority of their competition. It was back to the drawing board for Cal Wells, Tommy Morris and the rest of the PPI crew but they were up to the challenge.

The rest of the results from the MINT 400 as told by Jean Calvin @ Dusty Times Magazine.
Photo's courtesy of www.tracksidephoto.com

Jim Temple and Ken Cox would take the physical lead early on lap one and never give it up, finishing first in class 2 and 1st Overall in the 2 seat Raceco.

Mike Lund would originally finish 2nd in class 1 to Jack Johnson would inherit the win after Jack would receive an illegal tow within 1 mile of the finish line.

Dave Richardson solo'ed the Steve Sourapas Coors Light Raceco to a win in class 10 and a cool 2nd Overall.

One of my favorite Baja bugs from the 80's was Jeff Jordans class 5 unlimited. He would win the class as he holds off a charging Larry Ragland....for the moment.

Andy Devercelly won class 5/1600 while Manny Esquerra won another race in class 7.

2 more guys use to winning, Rod Hall in the class 4 Dodge and Larry Schwacofer in the class 6 55' Chevy.

One of the most popular classes in the mid to late 80's was class 8. Steve Kelley was running 2nd behind Walker Evans all day except for the final 10 miles when Walker blew a motor. Jerry MacDonald would slide into 2nd place in the Joe MacPherson Chevy.

Some impressive entry numbers to ponder....

Class 1- 37
Class 2- 52
Class 1/1600- 31
Class 2/1600- 41
Class 3 4x4- 23
Class 4 4x4- 16
Class 5- 25
Class 5/1600- 24
Class 7s- 14
Class 8- 13
Class 10- 62 (Dave Richardson walked off with $7180.00 in prize money.....IN 1985!!!!!

 

[Wardy]

Moving right along, Collins Motorsports is just about finished with their end of the work and I couldn't be happier with how well it's coming together. Billy Goerke just finished getting the rear end pieces in place and getting ready to cycle the suspension for the tube lengths on the Cantilevers. Robert finished working on the bushings with only a few minor ones left for the aluminum plates.

Here is a shot of the new bushing for the inside of the cantilever that sits on the chassis spuds...

Here's the cantilever sitting on the spud with the torsion bar in place (passenger side)...

Here is the bushing that sits inside the torsion bar and separates the cantilever from the aluminum plate...

And another machined piece that slides into THAT bushing that sits in the aluminum plate that holds/centers the cantilever/torsion bar in place...

And finally with the aluminum plate in place. They still need to machine the tubes for the lower plate hardware but they are waiting on material...

Only thing left is cycling the rear suspension so they know how far to place the tubes into the cantilever arms at full droop, then some minor odds and ends. I'm hoping to pick it up late next week or early the following week. Time to call Bear race cars and see how those ball joints and cups are coming along...

For you viewing enjoyment, a not-so-great copy of the 1986 Baja 1000 with some pretty good footage of the 001 Toyota...