spent all night (literally) on Thursday finishing my derby truck, only to run out of wire at 3am. finished the welding on Friday, brought it closer to home, and stopped at a Meijer parking lot for a little test and tune. fortunately no cops showed up.
brought it home, and took care of some odds and ends, finished it up early yesterday afternoon. loaded it up and headed for the gas station. one of the chains shifted and the truck fell off the passenger side of the trailer. got it back on, continued to the gas station, and filled up, no more problems from there on out. got to the track and got it all unloaded, going through tech inspection they told me that my crush bar was too well built. WTF? something in place solely for my safety is TOO STRONG? i dont think so! argued it a bit with the inspectors, about the fact that we've always built crush bars like this, and it has never been an issue before. not only that, but all 7 trucks competing were built identical. so they let us run them. derby went great, i finished one spot out of the money, but had a good time, and tore the truck up pretty good. of the 6 other trucks that ran, 5 of the guys were friends of mine, and the other truck was a friend of theirs. ended up being a pretty good time, and we put on an excellent show. the crowd definitely loved it. went back to back with one of my best friends in his '65 F250, we both misjudged the hit just a little, and ended up butting frame rails at full speed. surprise surprise, the Chev ended up with a slight tear about 2" deep to the rear frame rail, and the Ford lost a rear spring shackle mount off the frame. brought it home last night and inspected it, the frame is still arrow straight, needs a front clip and a passenger door of which i have both. bed looks like it could still be straightened, but i may just replace it as the passenger side is messed up pretty good. pics will come tomorrow.