The History of Kira's car (to the best of my knowledge)

Red Racer!

I bought Kira's car from someone that was out of quarter midget racing. When I got the car, the frame was bare and the car was black.
Immediately Kira informed me she wanted it white. I tried to talk her out of it but she wouldn't budge. So, we left the frame bar and spray painted the thing white.
Throughout the season, we were constantly having to steel wool the frame to avoid rust. This is how I learned my 15 year old was allergic to wool.
Did you know steel wool is really made of wool? So weird!
Anyway, that was a main reason for powder coating the frame in-between seasons.

And if you powdercoat a driver's frame, the next thing they'll want is a color change... Or is that "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?" Eh, whatever.

So then Kira wanted a red car. Now you may be wondering why I didn't take it in and just get it painted normally instead of spray painting, which obviously never looks as good.

I went back and forth and almost took it somewhere but they wanted a pretty penny I wasn't willing to pay. I could have had some other racing families that do that stuff on the side do it but I didnt really have time to mess with coordinating such a thing.
Additionally, some of the body panels have been munched in accidents and I dont feel like buying new ones and it seems stupid to put a good paint job on an imperfect surface.
So I got spraypaint from O'Reilleys Auto Parts store and went to work in my back yard.

Here are the pics of the transformation.

The white panels

Going to red

This is only allowed if you are not married - everyone else must dry panels in a shop or garage.

Bragging Rights

I really should have posted these at the end of last year but I just slacked off. So here are some miscellaneous photos of the kids I love me stuff.



Getting their sweatshirts at the end of year club banquet!

 

Sr. Novice Track Record award



      In novice year, the kids get jackets. They are embroidered with their names and novice class. Zachary loves his and wears it almost every day!

This is Zachary's trophy and ribbon shelf from 2012 race season.
 

Getting Ready for Race Seaon - year 2!

The Walsh household is slowly (slower than I would like) gearing up for race season...

In the off-season, the bumper got repaired on the RV from my little U-turn/jacknife incident.

Zachary helping during disassembly.

Then I tore Kira's entire car apart and sent in the frame to be powder coated at Perfection Powdercoating in Graham. It cost us about $200 (it is more or less depending on how much prep and what type of color you choose), didn't take too long and they did awesome work. We just went with a pretty basic grey so that it could match most anything. They also check all the welds and will straighten out your bent bumpers. I didn't do that so not sure how much that part is. Anyway, I was super happy with them.

Bare frame (except rust)

At the shop - fresh powder!



Time to put her back together!!

Now I've had the car apart for several weeks because I was just going to spray paint it a different color (she wants red this year) but it has been so cold that I haven't been able to do it. Now I am getting nervous about getting it back together and may just send the pieces in to get painted at a shop.

Aside from trying to make the body pretty, I sent all the motors out to the shop to be refreshed. I have been waiting on those for at least a couple weeks so far. If you do this, allow enough time.

These are our three Honda 120 motors.

Other things we had to take care of include ordering new safety belts (they expire every 2 years), general RV cleaning, and I am starting to slowly order organizational storage for the trailer. I still need to figure out what flooring is the best/most economical for the trailer application.

Both kids are out of novice this year so we will be going full on from the very get-go. The oldest will still be running Sr. Heavy Honda and the youngest will be running in the Jr. Honda 120 class. Luckily the oldest gets to be home most of the summer this year so we may end up adding more of the region races to our schedule this year.
Both of them are missing their track friends and can't wait to return to racing!!