Saturday, April 28, 2007

On the road again,still following Werner.


This time we are leaving Aggressive Tube Bending and heading to the first showing of the partly constructed and assembled Pierce Arrow Goldenhawk Streamliner and once again Werner is leading the way. Hell of a good crew chief and even better friend and neighbour.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Final inspection


The build is almost complete at least here at Aggressive Tube Bending the car will return for some additional fabrication of the rear wheel structure and parachute anchors, but the intense, toil of the past 3 months has been fruitful. It is going to seem strange to get up in the morning and not be thinking of what today will accomplish. The long days and weekends are over. Thanks to everyone for putting in the hours and thought to make this a success, we couldn't have found a better sponsor or a nicer bunch of people to work alongside. I will miss the coffee breaks!

Final Touches at Aggressive Tube Bending




Today we reassembled fresh powder coated the chassis and power frame. Here George and Andrey are attaching the nose structure. It will support the foam filled ABS nose cone that Kevin Knox will assist fabricate at PLASTEC. The nose sort of has a scary look to it, sort of like a tool of destruction from the medieval times.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Apex is at full speed.


Brian Johnson, owner of Apex was right on the cleaning of the power train frame as soon as we set it down. The tail section (hanging in top of photo) was still warm as it was coated early this morning. It is beautiful in an military sort of purpose built way! I will take pictures and post them tomorrow night after we put the whole thing together again.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

If it's Tuesday It must be Apex.




Under rainy grey Vancouver skies the frame heads across the Alex Fraser bridge into Burnaby to our sponsors powder coating plant. Professional coating technician and Brian Johnson with Werner inspect the frame in front of the ovens. It will be Military blue grey the next time we see it. Apex may have to work around the clock but they will have it back to us in 48 hours. Sweeeeet! Thanks for the support.

23 April Frames completed (finally)


Monday was a steady day of work on the Hawk at Aggressive Tube Bending, With Van assigned by ATB to complete the welding and install the canopy hinges. Ken Rouble was on the body mounts, drilling about 600 holes is no small task. Werner was fitting the seat mounts in the cockpit and working to mount the Nitrous bottles which he picked up early in the morning. After we finished the welding the whole frame was wiped down with Acetone and a final check of the welds was made. Then it was loaded on the trailer and we took our bay home for the night. Man we are all exhausted but very happy to be finished that faze. Tomorrow off for powder coating. It does look like it would be much work!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Goldenhawk gains publicity

To search Goldenhawk on every search engine I could find, our project came up most often in the first four choices. Also today i was informed that we are featured in the Abbotsford Post and 8500 newsletters regarding the up coming show.
A lot of the credit goes to Brian Beesley for his artistic talents and to Daryle Sorenson for the great renderings. Also to Judy Vaughn for her creation of the webpage and years of maintenance for very little cash. Thank you to all the people who forward emails and spread the word.

Blue Angel lost


I was sad to learn that Blue Angel #6 crashed and the pilot Lt.Cmdr. Kevin Davis was killed.


For further information go to the blue Angel web site.


My sympathy to his family and friends.

The baby is going to be grey/blue.

Brian, the owner of Apex the powder coating company brought out his flat deck trailer for us to deliver the chassis to his plant on Monday. He said he has a light blue/grey color to apply to the frame. That will be in keeping with the air force type color scheme and theme.

Steering the the course.



Paul Dukes of HYDRA STEER arrived to meet with the Chris and Ben Olson of OTT INDUSTRIES. There was much discussion and several attempts to fit the rack and pinion steering with the front drive shaft and narrow differential. Eventually the rack & pinion was replaced with a standard steering box and conventional drag link and tie rod set up. All of which is custom built for the application by the two companies. Considering all the work, parts and time the OTT guys have put in this was the first time they had seen the actual car being constructed. They supplied the narrowed front drive and are building a 2:1 overdrive and also the rear hub mounts.

Saturday live at ATB.


It's 6:30 a.m. and I am noticing that the sun is much brighter every Saturday as I head in to ATB and work on the Goldenhawk. I am tired and getting worn from the tasks of the growing bailiff company, the growing vegetation in my yard and growing excitement of seeing the car come together. However, I am not the only one on the road to ATB, Peter, Yuri, Roland and Werner are also putting in a huge effort. Every weekend and many nights since the first of February. Still some people think we are making great progress considering 75% is done in our spare time. Thanks for all the effort! everyone!

The chassis gets the final details.


Thursday afternoon at Aggressive Tube bending, George put the final welds on the push bar mounts. The chassis is about two days from the powder coating before the car show. It takes hundreds of hours to build a one of a kind vehicle even with good planning, drawings, a well equipped facility and trained professional tradesmen.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

330 mph Dream to 3 mph Reality


Once again Peter was at the spiritual lead for the Vancouver Sun Run on Sunday, encouragement and humorous teasing to keep us motivated. It worked cause Shelly (Peter's "racecar widow" their son Dan, hiking friend Terry, myself and others including Yuri and his son who ran, formed the Aggressive Tube Bending team. We heard many comments about the company slogan. We all had a good time and will do it again next year with a sponsorship from Absorbine jr.

Engine mounts are critical!


The mounting of the engine ,transmission and over drive in perfect alignment with the pinion gear is critical at the 10,000rpm that the drive will turn at 330 mph. Tuesday evening Roland had the powertrain frame out and ready for the engine and transmission by about 4:45 pm. Werner and Peter and I spent the next 4 hours measuring adjusting, lifting, blocking measuring again until we had it clamped perfectly. Now tonight we can build the mounts and send the power frame to Apex for coating before the show.

14 April Body mounts finished





As you can see the body mounting points have been completed and the tail supports are welded place.
Now the frame/Chassis can go to body fabrication to Plastec in Port Kells or to the enthusiastic powder coating company on Buller Ave in Burnaby, BC. Apex Finishing Ltd owned by a racer and Sun Runner , Brian Johnston.

Roland Da Rapper renamed SIR ROLAND



Roland has been busting his butt getting to work at day break and staying until late at night manufacturing machinery for the Aggressive shop and the Streamliner. Check out the lifting devices and locating cones, the locks are coming. He is very precise and thinking ahead of the rest of us, so it is no wonder he and Peter refer to me as the "farmer" fabricator. In defence of my training in the farming community, "Farmers may not make it pretty but they get it done!" Right Bruiser? Right Clark? Right Crow? In memory of Sherman.Dayton.

George Espejo newest team player


Welcome back from vacation George! His airline seat was hardly cooled when on Saturday the 14Th, he was at Aggressive welding the body mounts for us. Thanks for the help George. George is a guy who likes to get the task accomplished right now! This is what we need now as we count down to Speedweek.

Jewelry by OTT INDUSTRIES




These are a few glimpes into the fine art of building race car bulletproof parts. The mounting plates for the FRONT DRIVE housing.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Roland the Millwright

You all will recall "Roland Da Rapper" well don't let the picture with the hammer lead you to think he is without serious machine building finesse! He apprenticed as a millwright and mastered his trade and enjoys coming up with good solid solutions for machinery. He has spent every night this week, machining and fabricating the locking devices he designed for holding the two frames together in the down position (running) and building the parts to make the lifting air rams work smooth. More photos to follow. He is working from 7am. to 4:30 pm for the company and then without food or rest he starts on the liner and works until 8 - 9 pm. It is this determination, drive and passion for the project that makes it a sure success. Thanks Rollie you are a real pro.

Body mounts in progress


The photo shows the 11/2 inch rails for mounting the Abs body panels. They look simple and they are. What is not simple is how to get them perfectly lined up and absolutely even, but Peter and his crew did a great job. I will post the final pictures after tomorrow.
By the way, I made a couple of parts and I was so proud of myself, until Peter said they didn't meet the Aggressive standards and he would make proper ones. Oh well as I said before professional make it look easy.

Kool N Bright Koat


I visited Kool Coat Ceramic Coatings Ltd. on Wednesday and while I was there discussing the coatings they will put on the various parts of the Streamliner. Spencer Kimberley was plating some exhaust parts. They are not only improved, they're shiny , almost looks like chrome! I am soon to learn more about ceramic coating and looking forward to it.

Sean helps out.



Sean was very patient with us interupting his tasks to tack weld like shown here with Werner.

Peter burns the midnight oil.


This week at Aggressive Tube Bending the crew made great strides in the fabrication of the body mounts, Thanks to Peter Diesing for working many late night hours and planning the next moves during the day. Kevin Knox came in to meet with Peter to set the pattern for the fasteners and as seen here plan the canopy hinge mounting requirements.
Peter also changed hats and secured a sheet metal company to fabricate the tanks and cockpit interior,etc.
We now call him Super Peter but his wife calls him stranger!

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Design a poster for the Goldenhawk




Send us your design or designs of a poster for the Goldenhawk. If yours is chosen you will receive recognition and other free stuff plus a royalty on sales of your design.


E-mail us for basic images like these shown her.
Come on Try it will be fun.

See the "Goldenawk" at the Tradex 28 - 29Th April




Come and see the Hawk at the Hot Rod Show 28-29 April in Abbotsford Tradex Centre. We will be there regardless of the stage of build. Come to meet the crew see the sights and enjoy the show. See Nick Boos create air brush art, Daryle Sorenson sketch your favorite rides and take home a poster, or T-Shirt.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Bits and Parts make a car.






Here you can see the hinge assembly that allows the car to lift the nose for ground clearance during towing and transporting. You can also see the drive assembly and the nesting locator's that Roland machined. Note Werner is verifying the pinion angle and the steering caster. It is interesting how anything this simple takes many many hours to design and so little time to actually build. It has been a long and productive Easter Saturday. I wish you all a "Happy Easter"

The body mounts under construction



Ben and Peter work as a team to install the body mounts. Ben also works at Aggressive Tube Bending and is donating his time and expertise to the project. Peter is an owner of the company and is rapidly being consumed by "Salt fever", as a sign of it he is waking in the night with solutions to design details. Peter is the easy going type of gentleman, that inspires others to greater achievements. In fact without his encouragement and participation of all the staff at Aggressive Tube Bending this project would not be where it is today. Thank you all.

Body mounts are being built.




Working from the plans from Adrian and Kevin's Computers, Peter and Ben are busy setting up the body mounts to get ready to the chassis to Plastec for the body to be fabricated. They worked steady for 8 hours to get it all worked out and part of it tacked in place. At this rate we should have the chassis shipped in about a week.

Sauturday was a long day.




Sunrise starts for Yuri and Roland. Yuri installing the connectors for the Powerframe/Driveframe assembly and Roland is completing the machining of hinges and conical connector locator's. There is plenty of strength in these simple parts but they must be installed perfectly before Yuri can tack weld them in place.
Note, Yuri is also one of the owners of Aggressive Tube Bending and he will also get his Streamliner licence in the car this year. He likes to live with danger evidenced by working today on his wife's birthday! Thanks for the help now rush home to the family.

Thursday's Parts Day

Thursday was a day for receiving and making parts. Here you see Peter Diesing and Roland, checking the power frame to front drive connectors (those big heavy steel claws on the floor) which had been delivered from the person who had flame cut them. They are OK! Then Roland returned to machining the parts he designed to locate and secure the power frame to the main chassis. He will have them and the hinges ready for Saturday. Meanwhile, Peter and Adrain helped me with the drawings for the body mounts. We also had a meeting with the Fastener suppliers to source the special body fasteners. See you at 7 am. Saturday.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

J.John Veenstra has fast friends!



John has sent me all the articles of the Summers bros. and the "Goldenrod", and it includes many details of the project and outlines the difficulties they encountered. In This famous photo John is seen second from the left and he appears in other photos performing crew duty at Bonneville. In the other he is standing beside one of his many creations talking with his friend Roger Ward the Indy 500 winner. Thanks for all the clippings and photos I keep them in my Resource Library for the next project. (4 engines? maybe?)

It is nice to have the support of very knowledgeable guys like you! Randy