People have been asking me about my shaker/TA hood from AFR.  Here is an animated GIF I put together to show off the setup

Just received this in the mail from our local car club, thought others may be interested.

Dream Cars Weekend

A car enthusiast’s dream vacation, will be held at Walt Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort during Labor Day weekend, Aug 30-Sept 2, 2013. This is the largest car event ever held on Disney property.

We are offering a special event rate of $99 per night at the Coronado, which is a 2000 room campus style resort with 280,000 square feet of meeting/exhibition space and 5 pools. Along with your room reservations, you will receive 2 free after-4 theme park tickets.

The Mustang Club of America Grand National show will be held at Disney’s Richard Petty Speedway and will be sharing the resort with Dream Cars Weekend. They expect over 800 Fords and have already booked 1/3 of the rooms. The resort will be sold out so please book early.

Event highlights:

• Open to all makes & models
• Pre-Registration $75 (before 7/31/13) – includes 1 event shirt, 1 event canvas bag, 1 ticket for the Disney Cruise Line® giveaway & 1 Moonlight Beach party ticket (additional tickets sold separately)
• Dreambuilders Marketplace & custom cars inside the exhibit hall
• Friday night Green Light Kick Off Party – 1920’s Speakeasy theme & all-you-can-eat buffet
• Saturday night Moonlight Beach Party – Tropical luau theme & all-you-can-eat buffet
• Sunday night Night of Dreams Street Party – free outdoor concert
• Monday morning Rise & Shine Breakfast – 1950’s diner theme & all-you-can-eat buffet
• More event activities are being planned

Tara Bush
407-617-4201
www.DreamCarsWeekend.com
Visit us on Faceboook.com/DreamCarsWeekend
Download Registration PDF

Ever since I replaced my Hurst ball shifter handle with the 1970’s pistol grip shifter handle, I’ve wanted to swap the original plastic simulated wood handles with real wood.  I’ve found this to be way harder then it should be as the only company who use to produce these no longer have the ability to do so.  I’m told their hand carver passed away several years ago and they’ve been trying ever since to find an affordable way to do this with modern technology.

Well after many months and many phone calls, I was about to give up until I found a company that produces hand made wood products for trucks and they where up for the challenger. While I can’t give out their name it was expensive but well worth the price.

The only problem, was I was unable to send them the actual handle.  I could only send them my second set of carbon fiber grips (sic).  The process took only a week and they came close but I had to put in a few hours of grinding and resanding them a bit .. a lotAs you can see here the new wooden grips where much thinker and did not follow the contour.  Also even the original plastic grips (wood and carbon fiber) where off a bit when installed onto the handle.  Thus I wanted to tweak the final product a bit anyways.  I’ve never done this kind of wood work before so I was a bit hesitant to ruin a very expensive and hard to get piece.

Well after 3 hours late last night I think I got them perfect.  Ran to Home Depot this morning to pickup some fine sandpaper, stain and wood putty and am currently in between coats of polyurethane.  Once finished I’ll post more photos before and after installed.

Update: added some “almost finished images” need about 3-4 more coats of polyurethane

Disney likes to do things differently.  During their 20th anniversary marathon, Disney likes to give the runners something to do while running.  Along the whole route there are themed area’s that the runners can stop and take pictures, rest or simply have something to look at while running.

I was part of the local car club that was parked around the Disney Racetrack.  I was located at turn 3 right at the entrance to the pit stop.

All in all there where about 125 cars surrounding the track.

– For more pictures check out my flickr set here

I was shocked to learn the original Hurst pistol grip shift handles where made out of plastic.  I’ve been trying to source a manufacture for my current Hurst pistol grip shifter assembly for the past 6-8 months.  The only place I did find does not make them anymore because their hand carver passed away.  Endless searches came up empty.

Well while attending the Turkey Rod Run event, up in Daytona over the Thanksgiving holiday, I found a company willing to try and duplicate then out of real wood for me. I’ve just sent off my plastic carbon fiber secondary set and hopefully can report back on their attempt to recreate the handles in real wood.

As always, pictures and a complete write up when I have more info to report.

Petty’s Garage 6-speed crossmember and drive shaft safety loop – More info here

Petty’s Garage rear strut tower brace – More info and pictures here

Just me and my car, early morning sunrise over the St. Johns river here in Central Florida