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Project
American Flyer - Week Three
Another
week down, and now the project is really
starting to take shape. When I left off
last week, Eugene Ciferno helped haul the
car to the USAR Hooters race shop run by
Denny Angelicchio. This shop is very
impressive and has produced many winners.
The biggest name to race out of this shop
is Dirt Late Model driver, Davey Johnson.
There is a wall in this shop decorated
with the big checks you see drivers get in
victory lane, everyone of these checks has
his name on them. These checks, along with
the winning mentality of everyone helping
me with this project have put a lot of
pressure on me as a driver. Friday night
at Motordrome Speedway, the pressure was
turned up even more as Denny's son Daniel
Angelicchio, who in a Team Ciferno
prepared American Flyer, virtually
identical to the one we are building, won
in only his second start. Also located in
this shop, and definitely not a side note,
is Eugene Ciferno's #16 Brooks sponsored
GMC Pro Truck.
 Another
great thing about the race shop is that it
is located less than 10 miles from my
office in Mt. Pleasant and I can now check
in on things at lunch, take some photos,
and if time permits, even do some work! I
have stopped by the shop every day after
work in order to get as much time in as
possible. This shop is also magical. Every
time I leave, with an agenda for the
following day, the shop knows what I want
to do and has it done for me before I
return. Actually, thankfully, Eugene,
Denny, and Duff at the shop are masters of
their crafts and by the time I get off
work, they are already cruising. Since the
car has been at the shop, they have done
the majority of the work, and that doesn't
go unnoticed.
I
guess I should get into what we did this
week on the project. The first full day at
the shop was Monday. When I arrived Monday
after work, Eugene and Denny were already
there and the harassment began. I heard
all about the things I removed that I
shouldn't have, like the steering wheel,
and the things I should have removed, that
I didn't, like the heater unit. I should
mention, before I arrived at the shop,
Eugene had jacked the car up and as I
learned later, strategically placed the
jack stands under the car to support the
unibody when the roof was cut off. One of
the first things we did after I got to the
shop was try to get it started.
 I
ran to the gas station for a couple of
gallons of gas, and when I returned, the
wiring harness for the lights and some of
the remaining un-required parts were
removed. These guys work fast! Eugene
temporarily rigged the fuel filler hose to
be able to fill the gas tank, and with gas
in the tank, as I suspected, the car
fired, and ran. Knowing that the car ran,
and how to fix the gas tank problem, we
decided to check the transmission. With
the engine running, we shifted the car in
to reverse, and the wheels started
spinning. Then, as I shifted it down into
drive, frustration set in as the wheels
decided not to turn. We all knew about the
dent in the transmission pan, so we knew
that it had to come off.
 Before
I could get to the transmission pan, the
gas tank had to come out so Eugene could
weld over top of where it sits. The straps
were already removed, so the only thing I
had to do was undo some hoses and with
some help, yank it out from underneath the
car. Once the gas tank was out, I climbed
under the front of the car and went to
work on removing the transmission pan. It
came off fairly quickly, and once off, we
knew right away what the problem was. The
transmission filter had busted and it was
floating around inside the pan. With the
old pan off and the problem diagnosed,
(hopefully) we moved on to cut the roof
off of the car. Eugene explained that the
roof is the majority of the support on a
unibody car and he showed me how the bends
in the window post act as support in case
of an accident. Once the roof was off, it
was time to call it a night. We discussed
the upcoming tasks and how to go about
doing them.
 I
took my lunch break Tuesday at the race
shop and watched as Eugene worked on
installing the roll cage. When we
purchased the roll cage, we bought it from
Stock Car Products because of the way it
is made. Most roll cage kits come cut, and
bent. The rest of the fabrication is up to
the person installing it. This particular
roll cage kit comes with the ends of each
tube "fish mouthed" so that it
fits perfectly against another piece. With
no major fabrication involved in the
installation process, the cage can be
installed by an experienced
welder/fabricator with relative ease. The
first thing Eugene did was prepare the
areas where he would install the flat
pieces of steel for the cage to be mounted
on.
Once the area was prepared, he welded the
four plates of steel to the floor of the
car. It was pretty neat to see him work
and to be able to document it like this.
When I arrived at the shop Tuesday night,
Eugene had really made some progress and
the rear hoop and halo were already welded
into place. With no one around Tuesday
night, I really didn't want to get to
involved. I decided to call it a night
early and spend some time with the family.
 Wednesday
found the roll cage even further along. I
came to the shop Wednesday night knowing
that the heater unit had to be removed.
Hearing from Denny about how much of a
pain this was, I was ready for the battle.
The top three bolts came out quickly and
easily. The bottom three or four bolts
however, sucked. When the 1989 Cavalier
was built at the factory, they either
thought no one would need to work on it,
or only little people with little hands
and little fingers would be working on
them. I have tried to avoid using
profanity while writing these articles, so
I will just say, "@#S%*&$#!"
I fought with the heater box for at least
two and a half hours as Eugene and Denny
watched, and snickered. I got every bolt
but one and I decided to take a break. I
looked at the heater box, then looked at
the guys, then I looked back to the
heater. Eugene laughed and said,
"I'll bet you 20 bucks I can get it
out in 5 minutes." I looked at him
and responded with "I don't care if
it take you 10, if you get it out, I'll
give you 20 bucks." He laughed again
and said "Get some water." He
then proceeded to fire up his torch and
cut the heater box out of its place. I
would have taken some photos, but I was to
busy using a bottle of water as a fire
extinguisher. With only a couple minor
fires, and a few minutes well spent, the
box was removed. Feeling as if we had
really accomplished something, it was time
to hang it up for the night. Eugene and
Denny made me a list of parts that I would
be needing to get the car finished up. It
was a long list that included everything
from filters and transmission fluid, to a
muffler and a sheet of lexan for the
windshield.
With
my parts list in front of me, I set out to
get everything on the list. With a stop at
Advance Auto Parts in Uniontown, my list
of over 20 items quickly dropped to a list
of 4 or 5 specialty items that you can't
get but one or two places. Once again I
must thank Advance Auto Parts in Uniontown
for their support and remind everyone that
if you need auto parts, and are a fan of
racing, support those who support racers
and visit Advance.
 Thursday
found me alone in the shop again, however
this time I had a plan. The only thing I
was going to do that night was remove the
portion of the heater that remained inside
the passenger area. I worked at it for
about two solid hours before I got it
completely out. It wasn't really
difficult, just time consuming trying to
find all of the screws that held it in
place. Once it was out, I decided that
since I still had some time left, I would
get the air conditioner off of the engine.
WRONG. After removing the radiator in
order to get more working space, and a
better angle at the air conditioner, I
fought with the AC for quite a while. I
used a breaker bar, I used an impact
wrench, I used some words that I can't say
here. Nothing worked and I couldn't even
get the AC loose. So, rather than
"stress out" about it, I decided
to bolt everything back into place. I
would rather skip a couple of meals and
loose the weight of the AC than try to get
it off of there. The serpentine belt was
already routed past it anyways, so it is
just dead weight. The reason Eugene was
not at the shop was because he was out at
Hooters in Monroeville with the Ride &
Drive car, watching the USAR Hooters Pro
Cup race on Speed, so I decided to clean
up and get me some wings! There have been
several perks involved in starting this
website. This was one of them.
Friday
is race day, so with my car sitting in the
shop, I arrived to help Daniel Angelicchio
load his American Flyer into the trailer.
We talked a bit as he prepared for the night
that was sitting ahead of him. He was definitely
ready to go, and you could tell by looking
at him that he wanted to put his fire suit
on and go. Daniel went on to win the American
Flyer feature race and I was fortunate enough
to be there with my camera and document it
all. His story can be found on the Headlines
page. Another fun thing I did Friday night
was act as a crew member for Eugene Ciferno's
Pro Truck team, for a story I am writing for
PARacingNews.net. Unfortunately, the night
didn't go so well as Eugene, who had a great
run going, got caught up in a late race accident
which took out several trucks. There was a
lot of damage done to his truck but Eugene
was ok, and that is what is most important.
 My
wife had worked Friday night so in order
to get her some rest Saturday, I packed up
the kids, Zoe (7), Trinity (4), and Garry
Jr. (10 months) and headed out to the
shop. We had a picnic lunch and to my
relief, the girls had a blast. I had a
plan when I got there, but it was obsolete
as soon as we walked through the door. I
planned to put my new brake pads and
rotors on, put the new transmission pan
in, replace the muffler, and change the
spark plugs and wires. When I got there,
the breaks were done and the transmission
pan was already in place. I told you this
shop was magic. I looked over at Eugene's
truck and thought to my self "Wow, I
am pretty lucky to be in this shop, there
is his truck, all tore up from the night
before, and rather than get it fixed, they
spent time working on my car."
I
own a Ford Explorer with a DVD player in it.
This has been a life saver on long trips and
times when I need to keep the kids entertained.
I thought for sure I would be using it on
Saturday. I was wrong. My daughters made a
new friend named Austin and spent the day
climbing on quads, looking at the racecars
and even helping Eugene wash his truck. I
remember when I was little, going to the race
shop with my dad was always fun, but I also
loved racing then. My daughters were always
undecided on it. Now, the really seem to be
enjoying them selves, and are very proud of
their daddy, the racecar driver. If anyone
ever asks why I want to do this, that is reason
enough.
 I
did get a lot done on Saturday though. I
got the spark plugs and wires replaced.
Once again "@#S%*&$#!". I
don't know what GM was thinking but my
goodness, why must everything be so
difficult? It took some time, but I got
them replaced. The plugs weren't the
difficult part, the wires were. Another
thing I got done on Saturday was replacing
the fuel filter. That was very easy, like
plug and play. The final thing I got done
on Saturday was patching the hole in the
firewall where the heater had been. I had
used a rivet gun in the past, but it had
been at least 10 years. This was the first
time I did it without my dad standing over
me telling me what I was doing wrong so I
was a bit nervous, mainly because I was
using someone else's equipment and I would
hate to break something that is worth more
than the whole car. I did it though, I cut
out a couple pieces of aluminum, drilled
some holes and riveted them into place. No
problem! The day went by quickly, before I
looked up at the clock, we had put over
eight hours in at the shop, and the kids
never got bored.
 Sunday
was a family day for the most part. My
wife, Jr., and I drove out to the shop
late in the afternoon to check on things
and I got to sit in my seat so Eugene
could mark it up in order to put it in its
place. At some point Sunday, Duff came
over from the body shop and got the
steering column fixed and mounted in
place. Thanks Duff!
As
I mentioned before, the project has really
begun to take shape. the car actually
looks like a racecar with the roll cage
over 80% complete and the seat sitting in
it. I am very excited, just ask Eugene,
Denny, or my wife. I believe that the car
is almost complete and will hopefully be
on the track in the next couple of weeks.
Once
again I would like to thank Cars
"R" Us, Dave's Garage, Team
Ciferno, Advance Auto Parts, and Fast Lap
Racing. I need to mention that we are
still looking for tires and wheels as well
as some financial support for this
project.
And
finally, I must again congratulate Daniel
Angelicchio on his first American Flyer Feature
win! Good job buddy, I can't wait to get on
the track with you.
Week
Four... |
