What I learned

[BlewBYu]

What mistakes have you made that you learned from? I am hoping I can avoid having to learn everything through the school of hard knocks. Chime in and let me know what you had to learn the hard way.

Well yesterday, as I was feverishly finishing my cars, I learned a valuable lesson. Never put the wheel and axle on without using the depth gauge. I put the axle in ALL THE WAY!!!! there was an extremely tight fit. Only way to get it to back off was to basically destroy the wheel. At least that's what I ended up doing. Lesson learned.

 

[561 racing]

Get a pin vice and relieve those holes, been there too many times.

 

[Crash Enburn]

... or relieve it with an old axle first.

My learning opportunity: Don't procrastinate. Especially regarding paint on an SR*. So many fiddly bits that almost guarantee you'll screw something up. Take your time. If you can't get done in time for the race (and the appearance of the car is important to you), let it go. There'll be another race in a month.

Chief has a great tale to tell regarding the attempt at using heat from the fireplace to hasten dry times... /images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

Don't change or try too many things at one time. One reason is you wont know what works or didn't work. The other is you'll never finish a car if you want to try sooo many things on one car. It's a process and it'll take time to learn things, try new things and get the hang of how it all works/doesnt work. Best advise is create a car from what John teaches on the DVD and use that as your baseline. Improve or try things (1 at a time) until you find what works for you. I will also tell you this, what works for some, doesnt always work for most. Just because someone tells you that their fastest car used Jig or Novus 2 for prep, doesnt mean it's the fastest for everyone else. Everyone has their own process, so find your own, rather than asking people what they do.

 

[B_Regal Racing]

What mistakes have you made that you learned from? I am hoping I can avoid having to learn everything through the school of hard knocks. Chime in and let me know what you had to learn the hard way.

Never, ever, ever, test your fully-weighted street rod chassis without the cover. The resulting run is not conducive to making a fast car. (But I already posted this tip the other day with an overwhelming response.)