The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Bench Racing → New Build
I believe it will only be counted as materials used right? Although it will be part of the theme eventually.
I know people have sold more off the car than what they paid for it so for instance if I Paid $500 for the car and sell $700 worth of stuff off of the car and buy $ 700 worth of parts to put back on is it now back at $500 or does the parts sell price only go to $0?
I ask these questions only because the first Lemons car I built back in 2010 I just threw it together and took it to the track. I was rewarded with a 40 lap penalty right off the bat because my documentation was lacking. I'm really hoping to avoid that this time.
I know people have sold more off the car than what they paid for it so for instance if I Paid $500 for the car and sell $700 worth of stuff off of the car and buy $ 700 worth of parts to put back on is it now back at $500 or does the parts sell price only go to $0?
I ask these questions only because the first Lemons car I built back in 2010 I just threw it together and took it to the track. I was rewarded with a 40 lap penalty right off the bat because my documentation was lacking. I'm really hoping to avoid that this time.
Technically, Phil has said that you cannot go negative. Sell $700 worth of stuff on a $500 car and you can still only spend $500 on non-exempt items.
He has also said in a few different ways that selling budget exempt items (like wheels, lights, gauges, etc) is not money you can subtract from the purchase price. Example- sell the stock Miata wheels for $500 and then claim you can spend $500 on suspension upgrades is not a legit budget loophole.
In short, even once you have a complete running driving racecar you can only technically have documented $500 worth of gross budget item expenses. Period.
To adress what you didn't ask:
IM-not-so-humble-O, if you actually NEED to submit documentation to prove you are under the stated $500 limit, you're doing it wrong. If you NEED to sell stuff off of your car so you can get it under the $500 limit, you're doing it wrong. And by doing it wrong, I mean you are setting yourself up for disappointment. You are setting expectations. The harder one works to meet an expectation, the more disappointing it will be when those expectations are not met.
And some people just revel in being able to crush the expectations of an individual who thinks he/she is trying to be more clever than they.
1.1: Organizers Decisions: Organizers decisions are final. If you don't like it, tough. Get your own race
2.4: Whiner Eligibility. Whiners are not eligible to compete. If you believe that you might be a whiner, please check with a domestic partner, guardian, or health-care professional before getting the rest of your team kicked the hell out of the race..
Sit down and ask yourself if you really care that you are building a car that they won't give penalty laps to. If your answer to yourself is, "Yes, I really do care," then you may want to rethink whether or not this is the right place for you or that car.
Remind yourself that In its most basic form, this is a series to get away from rules, regulations, hair-splitting, finger-pointing, and for participants just to go out and have fun. The Competition part is supposed to be tertiary. If there is evidence that someone has made it a priority, that team will very likely get f-'d with until it they demonstrate they "get it".
By fabricating his own hardtop, I think he's "getting it"
Stock suspension, check
Newer model, slightly more powerful engine, OK
A stock miata is an A car, but wont be winning anything, except for Heroic fix/I got screwed.
Look at what Eyesore had to do to build a winning miata. He's not doing that.
^ This. Spank's response is perfect. Any time anyone posts about a new <insert sporty/cheaty type car> build and asks "What about this/that/other?" and it appears the intent is to stuff as much aftermarket performance parts underneath, we should just stay silent and hand them Spank's response.
Haha Thanks Spank, I'll take laps and be quiet about it if it happens. This build is more about the epicness of it in hopes of an editors choice and not necessarily an attempt at an A class win. I've keeping back posting more detailed pics of this build since it would give the theme away but I believe at sometime I'm going to have to let the cat out of the bag. I love running Lemons since I have never found a more open fun group of people assembled together at one specific time. Oh and there's also the race thing. Please don't take this as me trying to get over on anybody or the judges it's just been years since I built my first Lemons car and I've noticed that some things have evolved over the years in regards to cars being run. Honestly I have talked to a couple of people around here that have seen the car personally and I told them I probably will get laps due to the amount of work and prep on the car. I'm just hoping the theme will counter act most of it> Again thank you for the input, I'm open to any suggestions. Steve
Thanks Eyesore I'm trying to make this thing realistic and fabricate as much stuff myself as I can, when the pics come out for the theme you guys will be shocked. I'm hoping this will rate up there close to some of the other epic builds that have been immortalized in Lemons infamy.
Here's one of the problems I have in that I'm a bit anal when it comes to building stuff and since I'm a body man/painter/Obsesive compulsive things tend to get over done case in point the valve cover. Which in its self won't make it any faster but why have a boring oxidized aluminum valve cover when you can make it look like this?
Yes that is a silver base with a candy apple house of color red that had left over from my old spec miata
More pics of the top fabricating:
And the rear deck panel that is almond color is from my home shower renovation tub replacement. That was piece of the old shower enclose.
I'm digging the post on here about the dash cluster's since I will be needing to do that soon. I'm thinking of the KISS method, possibly just a tach, oil pressure, water temp, water pressure and some idiot lights. The techie stuff will have to come later.
Yes that is a silver base with a candy apple house of color red that had left over from my old spec miata
If I was you I would delete all references to owning a Spec Miata...that implies you are cheatieness!
steve wrote:Yes that is a silver base with a candy apple house of color red that had left over from my old spec miata
If I was you I would delete all references to owning a Spec Miata...that implies you are cheatieness!
I mean this is leftover paint from a dumpster job that I did for a friend of mine 
under hood cleaned up pretty nice 
Had to fix some surface rust under the brake booster in preperation for the under hood and interior color
Picture of the underside of the hardtop I'm making showing the carriage head bolts that I used after welding a huge washer to them and drilling some holes in the washer to keep the bolts from spinning when I tighten it up. I also added some more fiberglass to the front edge to help strengthen it up. Later I blocked the rough edge off to make it seal up great to the windshield post
side closeout panels that will become mounting points later
I'm liking this build!
Holy cow, this is fantastic!
Making fiberglass body panels is something I've thought about often but never gotten serious about...what's the rough process you follow to make something like that?
I'm still experimenting with the fiberglass building process. I went to Youtube to get some ideas for this before starting. My original plans were to use the top I built as a mold but after spending all that time on it just getting it to where it was I decided to just finish it out with some filler and use it as my top. Biggest thing I could see is what to use for a release off of what you use for your mold. I used car wax and it worked fair but if you go online there are products specifically made for this that would probably work a lot better. One of the videos I watched the guy used sheetrock mud to fill in all of the imperfections of the panel he was using to make a mold from. It's cheap and sands really easy, then he primed over it once it was sanded smooth. After that he used floor was on it with several coats then applied the glass right over top of it. Once it sets up you can take an air blower and get under an edge an force some air in there and the piece should in theory pop off. It's definetly been a learning process. Something big like this top had to be done in pieces and another thing I have found is there are a couple of different fiberglass resins. I just used the evercoat brand and found that I had to grind the glass once it had set up to get more glass to stick to it. It's been a lot of itchy hard work but I'm starting to get better at it and it's really cool seeing it progress along. I'm getting the inside and under hood ready to paint now but because of the holidays It will slow me down for awhile. I really want to post some more pics of different things but it would give away the theme
Got the gunk cleaned off of the block
Cylinders honed:
More engine porn:
made some side supports for the dash panel out of the aluminum that I had to cut off to make the dash fit.
.
Now to customize the top:
Had to support the sides until the glass dried
Conclusion: Fiberglass can be really messy
Time to play with the hood:
And the carboard removed Yikes next time I'll put something on it so it doesnt stick 
Yes thats hail damage but hey it was free
Getting the underhood, inside and cage ready for paint
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