How to Freshen Up Your Racer

So it’s winter, and your pride and joy, the terror of the track, is sitting in your garage, waiting for next season. You’ve got a few ideas for improving its performance, but basically, you’ll run the same car as last year. You could let it sit for the season and just get it going for opening day. But serious racers take them all the way down to freshen them up during the off-season. The benefits to freshening up a car are somewhat intangible but can prevent problems and deliver great peace of mind later. And it can keep you from feeling really stupid if something simple breaks at the track.

Freshening a car is like a search-and-destroy mission. You’re searching for all the defects and trouble spots on the car and destroying them—before they destroy you. The overall idea is to take the car apart and inspect every single square inch of the frame and cage. Then inspect every part and component before you put them back on. It’s a simple process, but you can still get lost. The first thing you’ll need is a plan. Taking a stock car apart without planning is like racing it without a good setup—you’ll have nothing but a fight on your hands.

The first stage of your plan should be disassembling the car and cataloging each assembly. The key here is to be methodical and thorough. Keep all fasteners labeled and in bags or boxes so you can find the right ones when it’s time to put it all back together. Self-sealing plastic food bags are great for smaller nuts and bolts, especially when they are particular to the assembly. Larger freezer bags can hold bigger parts. Wire tags can help but, like the bags, only when they’re properly labeled. It’s also smart to have different locations in the shop for the basic areas of the car. That is, put all front suspension parts in one cabinet while rear parts go in another.

The bigger assemblies are no different. For example, when the engine and tranny come out, you can send those out or do them yourself. The rearend, however, is a component unlike the engine. It usually stays in the car like the front suspension but can come out as one assembly. Keep all linkage such as control arms, shocks, and track bars with the rear until you are sure they are straight on the housing before you remove them. A rear control arm, for example, could be straight but appear bent if its bracket is what’s actually bent. It’s best to check out all suspension assemblies both on and off the car.

Once the car is completely apart and all you have is a frame and cage that nothing is still bolted to, remove any sheetmetal that may be permanently fastened to the chassis. That means drilling out rivets and cutting welds. Often it’s a good idea to redo the interior sheetmetal over the winter, so you can get an idea of how it fared during the season. You’ll also want to know how things are under that sheetmetal. Once you’ve got a bare frame, send it out to the sandblaster or stripper to take it down to bare metal.

WELDS

With your chassis in bare metal, you’ll need to start checking all welds for cracks and breaks. This includes any welds you have made as well as the ones from the factory—be it the original OEM builder or the race car chassis builder. Approach the chassis in a methodical manner so you won’t miss anything. Your plan should have check-off lists for all the sections of your frame such as front frame section, main rails, rear clip, driver-side cage, front hoop, and back hoop. You can even subdivide each section to separate left and right front corners and so on. Once you find any areas that need attention, just mark them for now and keep on inspecting.

When the time comes to fix them, what will you do to make them stronger so they don’t crack again next year? Learn what made them crack in the first place before you simply weld over them. Is the bar located into the frame deep enough? Did the weld penetrate? Is the area too high-stress in the first place? Does it need more reinforcement or even better engineering? The idea here is to find out what caused it, then fix it.

If you find a crack, look outward to see if any nearby areas have been stressed and are cracking, too. A crack may stem from a neighboring area or component. Mark all cracks and breaks, and when the entire chassis is thoroughly inspected, see if there are any patterns to them. If any are noted, you’ve got a problem that requires some engineering experience. Don’t put that car back together until you know why that crack or break happened and how you’re going to eliminate the source.

HOLES

Cracks from welds are not the only ones to look for. Remember all those holes you drilled in the cage? You’ll need to look every one over, as cracks often start from those innocent, no-load holes. That’s why it’s best not to drill holes in integral cage bars. Instead, weld a small tab on the cage to mount items. Other areas to check are any holes in the middle of welds that were never filled. Sloppy welds with holes not only look less than professional but can crack like the drilled ones, too.

BENDS

It sounds quite simple to look for bends, but keep in mind that the smaller the length a bar is, the harder it is to see the bend. That’s because a smaller length of tubing is harder to bend than a longer one. If you find a smaller run of tubing with a bend, you need to know why and how such a small piece got bent before fixing it. Keep in mind that like sheetmetal, when any metal bends, it stretches. That means the area around a bend, be it a small section of tubing or a main frame-rail, could most likely be bent. You need to find the source and even the impact point before you correct it.

Look closely at all your car’s “T” junctions on the bars. When shock is transmitted through a bar, it has to go somewhere. That’s the main principle of your car, and it can work against you if you’re not paying attention. Throw a straight edge on any ‘T’ junctions to make sure they’re still square. As far as any major chassis bends, you should measure your chassis by certain reference points in its initial buildup, routinely during the season—especially after a solid hit—and again when you do your season-ending freshen-up.

RACKING

Racking is another good way to see if your baby has been damaged—but only if you have good reference measurements to start with. Measure the top of the rollcage from opposite corners and then from the others in an “X” pattern to see if the cage has shifted. Now measure the base of the cage’s four main posts to see if they are still correct. Turn the car over and measure the four corners of the main framerails for squareness. If you have never measured your frame, now would be a great time to start. If you’re sure the chassis is straight, weld a small bead or bolt head for your reference point so you can measure the same place every time. Keep a logbook of all measurements with corresponding dates. The same procedure can be done to the front and rear clips as well.

COMPONENTS

Now that your chassis has been inspected, and all repairs have made, give it some fresh paint and new interior sheetmetal. It’s now time for all the components to go back on. Like the chassis, each part needs to be stripped of paint and thoroughly inspected before any corrections are made. Remember that each component has its own needs in the way of areas to look for trouble.

Upper and lower front-control arms are often home to cracks around the ball-joint areas. Do you need to reinforce or replace each part? Control arms pivot on arms that bolt to the frame, so there are two other areas of the control arms to check out. Are any of the holes egg-shaped from wear? How are the bushings? Do you see any bends or cuts in those arms? Again, the key is a thorough and methodical inspection.

Keep looking at that front suspension. Are the holes for your steering box or pitman arm enlarged or worn? Are the holes on the box stripped? How do the bolts you use to mount the box look? Paint may make everything look cleaner and neat, but it also can hide simple danger signs. You get the idea—now do it to every component.

How is that rearend housing? Are you sure it’s straight? Do you see any unusual wear on any of the bearings? Are all the welds on the brackets still good? Are there any bent brackets that need straightening? Remember that guy who you bounced off of back in the summer? Where did all those forces go? Sure, you can see a bent wheel easy enough, but can you see a bent axle from the outside? And those brake lines—are they bent or damaged from all that dirt you’ve churned up? One simple way is to imagine the worst-case scenario for each part and then look for it.

SAFETY CHECK

This is one area you’ll want to take your time and do right—you may not get a second chance. When you check the chassis, make sure all seat brackets are straight and welded on solid. Check all bolt holes for egg shape and cracks. Are all the welds on the seat frame still good? Are all the mounts for the steering shaft solid? How is the quick disconnect—is it too quick or too slow? Are the brackets for the window net still firmly in place after a season of climbing in and out? Check out the pedal assemblies for cracks and bends—you don’t want to find out about a bad brake pedal the hard way. And just as bad, is all the carb linkage straight and true, with no bind? In the rear of the car, how is the mounting for the fuel cell? Is the fuel-line routing still protected from bends, cuts, and kinks?

Once you have ensured that every piece of that car is safe and square, you are ready to go racing again. You’ll sleep a little better, too.