Ready for 2016

Today I brought Bumblestook out for the first time since putting her away last season for hibernation. We identified some important fixes that needed to happen before the season started so I took a day off to bring her to SJF Performance to get these taken care of. The only issue I ran into after being parked for a few months was having to pump the clutch pedal a few times before the clutch would engage. This isn't uncommon for cars that sit for long periods of time but the clutch fluid is also a bit dirty so we'll probably flush it next time. It's working just fine for now.

Bumblestook sees sunlight for the first time in 2016 - 3/18/2016

First and foremost, we had to address the brake issues. At the end of last season, we realized the noise coming from the front brakes was from the brakes being worn so over the winter I picked up a new pair of rotors and Hawk HP+ pads for the Wilwood kit. For future reference, the part numbers I need are Wilwood 160-2894 and 160-2895 and Hawk HB100 N.480 HP Plus pads.

New rotors arrived - 1/22/2016

New front pads arrived - 1/22/2016

When SJF got the rotor off, we got a chance to look at the pads and they were more than worn, they were gone and I was braking using only the backing plate. Makes me wonder if Hez and I even had brakes during Nationals. I think going forward, since pads are pretty cheap (or free if you win Hawk contingency), we'll just replace them at the end of each season.

Old pad (left), new pad (right) - 3/18/2016

The old rotor hats were then transferred over to the new rotors. SJF made sure that all the threads were clean of any residual Loctite and applied new red Loctite and made sure each rotor bolt was torqued to 13 ft-lb.

New rotors and pads installed - 3/18/2016

The brake fluid still looked clean (it's only been about 400 miles since my last brake flush) and the pedal feel was still good so we opted to skip flushing the brake fluid for now. I'll see how she feels at upcoming events and see if we should bleed it but I think we're good. While SJF was working on the brakes, I tried to be productive myself by fixing the wiring on the trailer that gave me so much grief on our way Nebraska last year. Gone are the quick connects. All the wires are now soldered and heat shrink wrapped for reliability and less clutter.

Trailer wiring cleaned up - 3/18/2016

Next thing we tackled were the seats. The Buddy Club super low down rails have been on Bumblestook since 2012 and were starting to show some serious wear. I'd often find my seats to have a lot of play in them. This is not a good thing on a car that generates a lot of grip like a BSP car. Over the winter I ordered Ballade Sports seat rails instead. These are much better constructed and have a more solid feel to it.

Ballade Sport Seat Rails/Sliders - 1/22/2016

Installation was fairly straight forward for the driver side. All the holes lined up just right and at the widest setting, fit the Recaro Pole Position seats just fine. The passenger side was  a different story. They did create an opening in the seat base plate for the floor hump on the passenger side but as you can see in the image above the seat adjuster bar is still flat. This actually hits the floor hump making it impossible to install with the adjuster bar on. SJF quickly though up a solution of cutting the adjustment bar and rewelding it to go around the hump and it worked perfectly.

SJF modified passenger seat adjustment bar - 3/18/2016

SJF modified bar installed. Clears the hump cutout on the right - 3/18/2016

Seats reinstalled on the new rails - 3/18/2016

Side mounts - 3/18/2016

On the general maintenance front, we took off the cover for custom plenum Evans Tuning created for the ITBs to give them a close look and inspect for any bolts the might have started to back off. Everything looked good but I think my intake filter needs a good spray of fresh K&N oil as the filter started to look on the dry side. Engine, transmission and diff fluids were also flushed and replaced.

ITBs still looking healthy - 3/18/2016

Fresh fluids getting pumped in - 3/18/2016

Last but not least, we also took the snow tires off the Touareg and put back the good old summer tire/wheel setup. Bumblestook is now fully race ready for the 2016 race season.