Thread: Everybody that is currently building a car...

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Great article, Dave. The car looks like it would be a blast to drive!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Here's a copy of an article in the paper on the vintage racer we are building. If I can get it to be readable on here.....

I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but I'm no 'puter whiz. Anyway, the guy who owned the car, Daryl Dawley, was a very good friend. We used to hang out at his shop, go racing together, and have tons of fun. He got killed racing his sprinter at Knoxville, Is. This whole project is a tribute to him, bought and paid for by his friends, and will eventually reside in the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, Ia.

RIP Daryl, still miss the heck out of you!

Daryl Dawley was one of my favorite drivers ever. He used to come out to Rapid every Friday and one time they made him paint his car or not come back. He was kind of a mentor to Wolfgang who is another favorite of mine.
Nice to see a tribute to him.
I see Doug Clark mentioned. I went to school with him at Springfield before it was a prison. He had a gotten a large settlement from loosing his eye. I think he said $160,000 which was a lot for a kid in 1971.
Anyway, nice job there and congrats on the coverage Dave.

yup, Daryl had a lot of fans and friends... Doug is still around Sioux Falls when he's not flagging sprint car races. Wolfie has a shop in Sioux Falls and building sprint cars. His son Robby won his first ever sprint car heat race last night at Husets, he's 16 and shows a lot of talent for a youngun. Wolfie had him racing MX for a number of years, curious to see how he does in the sprints....

Between you and KennyD and Ken Thurm we are loaded with celeb's!!! Thats a really great thing you are doing for your lost friend and fellow racer. Your a good guy Dave and I am proud to know you. Make sure we see the car when it's done OK?

Originally Posted by brickman

Between you and KennyD and Ken Thurm we are loaded with celeb's!!! Thats a really great thing you are doing for your lost friend and fellow racer. Your a good guy Dave and I am proud to know you. Make sure we see the car when it's done OK?

Thanks Brick. Way I see it when you're all done doing whatever your life's goals were, about all you have left is your friends and memories.... This whole project is about honoring a friend and a racer.... He made a difference in a lot of people's lives. Daryl lived hard, raced hard, worked hard, yet always had time to stop and talk. Didn't matter if you just won the A Main or it was your first time sitting in the stands watching a race he was the kind of guy who would stop what he was doing and explain things, answer questions, or whatever.... Lots and lots of folks around here owe Daryl for helping them get started in racing and giving some very solid advice on how to go fast....

When all is said and done, all the trophies on the shelf and money in the bank doesn't mean near as much as the friends you made along the way.......

It runs!!!! Worked all day on the 27, got everything put back together except the radiator and decided to fire it up. Didn't fire
So I called my friend Wayne Atkinson who has been helping me and asked if he had a clue. He asked if the coils were fireing, they were. Then how about gas?..... it was overflowing out of the bowl..... he said dump some gas through the spark plug holes, I did and it fired up and quit. Bingo.... not getting gas. I then looked closer at the carb, thought I might as well fix the gas leak too, it was the bowl.... it had a dip on the top edge.... I "machined" it down (put it on the cement floor and scrubbed it until dip was gone)
Found that the drain screw on the bottom was also loose, got my trusty "Model T Ford service manual" out and checked the carb settings........Wala...... the carb adjusting/choke rod was screwed in all the way.... no wonder it wasn't getting any gas.
I set it at one turn out, turned on the gas, put the spark lever all the way up (advanced), put the gas lever a little way down, turned the ignition lever to battery, turned the key to battery, pulled up the the choke and hit the starter..... fired right up, pulled the spark lever down a little, and adjusted the carb a little, and it purrrrrrrred like a kitten
I then shut it off, put the radiator on and took it for a one mile drive, brought it back to adjust the fan belt which had fallen off and then drove it around the section. Put on a total of 5 1/2 miles.
I left the hood and floor boards off so I could see how things were working. In the passengers seat I put a fire extenguisher, some tools and my cell phone. Some good news and some bad news....... good news.. I spoted a bad oil leak coming from the bendix cover...... bad news I lost my cell phone. I drove my motorcycle around the section twice and finally found it in three pieces...... it was still working though.
Tomorrow I'll fix the oil leak and put the floor boards back in and take it for a longer ride.

Cool, Tom. That hand crank is the bomb.

Tom great I see the fan in motion . It's a great feeling huh when it fires up . Get a vid for us and put in on Webshots easy site to maneuver . Stoke us up with the T putting about . Tom click the pic you'll go right to Webshots .

Falcon did ya get the coupe blasted yet ??

Dave the truck should be running parts at the rate you work on stuff .

Well I haven't quit yet I started on the right fender to do a small patch . I cut some pieces of some trimmed steel from work I thought I could get to work same type contours and radious' . Well after starting to cut and trim off rusted sections I deceided to order the repair pieces from NPD . Should be here Thursday and it will make the fixin go alot smoother .

Say Richard did you fire the Big Block yet ??

Don't think I'll do a video. Anyway got it all back together yesterday and drove it 5 1/2 miles and today put on another 11 miles. I had to put the drivers seat back 6 inches so I could drive it, worked pretty good. Yesterday was only the third time I drove a T. First time was 46 years ago and second time was 3 years ago. I'm getting better a it but came close to making the garage longer today
The left peddle....all the way down is Low, half way up is Neutral, and all the way out is High. Coming into the garage I wanted to stop but I kept pushing down on the left paddle thinking it was the brake just in time I pulled the hand brake which puts it into neutral and puts the parking brake on....
It's dripping oil big time from around the bendix cover, commutator cover is jumping all over the place, radiator hoses are leaking...... lots to fix.
I rolled down all four windows and opened the windshield, wasn't too hot inside..... Gave two of my grandsons a ride and one of them says... hey gramps I see you got the airconditioning on

Yes, I did. Here's a couple I took before i sprayed it with rust nuetralizer. I'm trying to finish a couple other things before I start on it. I'm putting a motor in my daughters' boyfriends' car this week so he can have it for college. Then I need to put a clutch and some carpet in the little Aspire I bought for a work commuter. Hopefully I'll have it done by next weekend. Then I need to replace the leaky rack & pinion on my sons' Firebird, then I can finally get back on the fun stuff. I did buy an LS6 cam for the 5.3 last week so progress hasn't totally stopped.

BTW, this was kind of big news for us;My wife and I play in a contemporary Christian rock band and we were picked to play at Six Flags next weekend on the big stage. Pretty cool! Here's a shot from our last gig at a coffehouse in St Louis, I figured I could put it on here since I was wearing my Club Hot Rod t-shirt!

Originally Posted by The F.N.G.

Money is still pretty tight with all the repairs I'm having to do to our home-that and Uncle Sam took a really big bite this year.

I'm still acquiring parts, tools and knowledge (pracitcing on spare parts) but it's going painfully slow.

Abe

Good Morning
My boss and I are trying to find a Vega 1971-1975
If any one can help please let me know.
VW Man

Falcon is something missing on the end of that Guiter . Never seen one with the tuning keys not there .

I was wondering why it wouldn't stay in tune.....Seriously, it's made by Steinberger. They put the tuners down on the bridge and it really stay in tune great. I've had that one for a long time.