Plastec - Plastic and Technology = PLASTEC

They make a vast array of products for the retail industry. Check out the website www.plastec.ca

Kevin Burnett and Patrick Colgan are sizing up the challenges faced by the BIG nose cone, not only is it the largest part of the streamliner it is also too big to be formed in the vacuum machine in the conventional system. Stay tuned for the results of the ultimate secret solution!

Yes, girls, Pat is cute, single and an artist. He carves wildlife, I assume the four legged or winged and sea life, not the night life kind in Vancouver where he resides.

New Sponsors to be announced soon.

I will be able to give you details of the new sponsors early next week. I can tell you that they are the most respected in the field of high performance diesel development. One is COLT CAMS (oops just slipped) another is the transmission guru for super power transmissions and the third is an icon in engine development.
Now all we need to get the transporter and the safety equipment on board.

Sad Start to Snowbird Season.

Tributes pour in for killed Snowbirds pilot
Updated Sat. May. 19 2007 12:39 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds pilot who died after his Tutor jet crashed into the ground Friday was remembered as a fine pilot who was a joy to be around.
The pilot has been identified as Capt. Shawn McCaughey, 31, from Candiac, Quebec
His jet went down at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana during a rehearsal for two air shows scheduled for the weekend in nearby Great Falls. They have now been cancelled.
Col. Richard Foster, the commander of 15 Wing, said McCaughey was a fine pilot and a top military officer.
"He was a very professional pilot,'' Foster said at a news conference at the Moose Jaw, Sask. base where the aerobatic squadron is based.
"I knew him before he became an instructor here in Moose Jaw. He was very jovial, very caring. He did his job very well. He was a very credible pilot and a good friend."
Foster said the team will take an "operational pause" to honour the memory of McCaughey before continuing their summer performance schedule.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper called McCaughey a "positive role model and goodwill ambassador," and said he personified the professionalism and dedication of the members of the military.
"It is with great sadness that I learned about the accident that took the life of a decorated and talented pilot," Harper said in a statement Saturday.
"Captain Shawn McCaughey served our country with distinction, honour and professionalism. On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, my deepest sympathy goes out to his family, friends and fellow team members during this difficult time."
McCaughey, a former flight instructor with 1,400 hours flying time, was engaged and was set to get married on June 9.
He was the first Snowbirds pilot to join the team despite having no previous experience with the CT-114 Tutor jet.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration confirmed McCaughey's death in a statement Friday evening.
He is the sixth Snowbird pilot to be killed in an air crash since 1972.
Allen Kenitzer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency, said McCaughey's plane was flying in formation and "for some reason shortly thereafter pitched down and crashed."
Witness Gillian Scarber told The Canadian Press she was driving into Great Falls and observed a group of four or five planes practicing a formation when one of the planes crashed into the ground.
"It just smacked into the ground, and there was a big ball of flames," Scarber said, adding that smoke drifted across the highway as emergency crews raced to the scene.
Witnesses said they saw no signs of a parachute and believed the pilot was in the plane when it crashed.
Maj. Robert Mitchell, the Snowbirds' commanding officer, said a team of Canadian military officers would travel to Montana on Saturday to investigate the incident and to try and determine the cause.
He said McCaughey's loss was a major blow to the team.
"Our thoughts, prayers and sincerest condolences are with Shawn's family," Mitchell said in Montana.
"Our priority at this time is to provide support for Shawn's family. Our team is devastated and we miss him."
McCaughey was in his second year with the Snowbirds, and was the No. 2 jet in the Inner Right Wing position.
He joined the Canadian Forces in 2000 after earning a Bachelor's degree in Physical Geography from Concordia University in Montreal.

The heart of the beast has arrived.

It is rumoured that the a little 4 cylinder Cummins 3.9l B engine has arrived from the factory, but may not get un-crated for a couple of days as the containers are emptied. However, a certain engineer , Chrysler race hemi in a B body drag car, has suggested that it is already a Hi-performance Assembly and that it will only require minimal changes to meet our specifications. Big turbo stronger valve springs, more fuel and lots of nitrous to cool the intake. We will tune the engine to peak HP at 4500 rpm. If we can pull that rpm in high gear we will be over 300!
I have started to contact specialists for the next stage. The first to come on board will be the guy they say is the best cam grinder for diesel power. Watch for announcement as soon as he gets back from fishing with his family.

PLASTEC SURGERY ? A nose Job!

Now you can see what all that computer drawing was for, to create the design for this tool. It is half top or bottom of the nose on the "Hawk". Here Kevin Burnett is checking all the fit points and when he is satisfied that all is perfect he will then add several more layers on the top and all sides to arrive at the final size. Barry Clarke the owner of Plastec and Kevin explained that the reason it is so heavily made is that if it is not strong enough the vacuum will collapse it. That wouldn't be good! Boy in the future when I see things made of plastics, PVC or ABS I will have a greater appreciation for all the work that goes into making them. All this work to make ONE piece, almost wish there was a market for millions of stream liners so that it be used more times. Fantastic job Kevin, thanks for the dedication to quality.

Kevin Burnett is a nose ahead.

Kevin is busy designing the special tooling to build the nose on the computer. Here he shows us one half of the two parts that will be the final nose. It takes a lot of skill and creativity to produce the car shape in Plastic and that is why we chose PLASTEC to do the build. Thanks to the support of all the employees at Plastec I am sure we will have an excellent streamliner. PLASTEC "They Make Fast Friends" and they make friends fast". Make sure you contact them for all your plastic projects.

Belly panels close to complete

Here you can see the ribs for the belly panels and one completed . Werner and Kevin have spent a lot of time , much more than anticipated creating the panels, but now things will go faster, Pun intended!

New fan may race his Camaro

I received these pictures of Neil J. Finegold's 67 Camaro, he says that he plans to run it at Bonneville or the dry lakes. That is the great thing about land speed racing you "run what you brung" and you have a ball doing it! Check out his crew or maybe it's his driver. Pretty girls and fast cars just go good together.

TROOPER GREATEST CANADIAN ROCK BAND

We are advised that our favorite music sponsor TROOPER is going to put a blurb on their web site for us.
Be sure and go to their site and check out where they are appearing next so you can see them live.

The theme music for this project is "THE BOYS IN THE BRIGHT WHITE SPORTS CAR", "NOT HERE FOR A LONGTIME", and of course "RAISE A LITTLE HELL". If you don't own Trooper music get out and buy it. It is the best of rock and roll and it is Canadian!

www.trooper.com

Update on the body

Well today, Kevin Knox of Diversions and Werner were hard at the building of the body. As I said before it is a lot of fitting and trimming and takes longer than we expected. Barry Clarke, the owner of PLASTEC is going to assign some extra hands to assist when they are available which will speed things up. It is a very special trade, plastic fabrication. They make it look easy but I can tell you it is not. I spent the time today planning the cockpit latches and getting material for the embedded aluminum that will stabilize and attach to the locking devices. I also was back at Aggressive Tube Bending (you remember them they built the chassis and powerframe) scrounging more drawings and getting Ben the bender to make the hoop to be embedded. The body is ready to be rolled over to fit the bottom panels tomorrow.

Watching glue dry!

Kevin is always coming up with clever expressions here is is explaining that he can only go as fast as the glue dries. By Friday afternoon he had one side completed from the nose to the cockpit. He and the rest of the crew are taking the week end to be with family and celebrate Mothers Day. It will be good to catch up around our homes as we have all been putting in a lot of time on the project. Thanks to all the crew and have a good week end.

Smile for the camera

This is one of the considered camera positions. It may prove to be a problem with the distortion due to the curvature of the canopy at this location. The other camera will be mounted on the dash tray focused on the wide eyed drivers! SMILE!

Race connections at Plastec

Larry Schroeder sales dept exec at Plastec has a relative well known to us old drag racers, Richard owned and drove the Bad Bossa Nova fuel injected Chevy II.

Abs Body is progressing well.

Kevin is fabricating the braces for the body panels. He is very fussy and precise about how they fit, which is good, however not very fast step in the process. Considering this is the first of its kind progress is on schedule. Go Kev Go!

Fits like a glove!

Kevin K. clamps it in place and Kevin B. with Patrick Colgen inspect the part. The problem of the special material is solved a solution found and now it's "TIME TO PULL THE PARTS".

Notice how straight the panel is even before it gets its reinforcing ribs/ I may never use fibreglass or sheet metal again. There is still much work ahead for the guys at PLASTEC to trim and fit the parts plus they will laminate 2 top and two bottom halves together to make an upper and lower panel. The nose will be the hard part they say and I think the canopy and tail are also difficult parts to make but the crew says "nay they will be easy!"

part #1 for ABS body - Will it be a success?

Kevin Burnett prepares to pull the first part out of the "9000" Hopes are high but the last few not so good attempts at perfection have everyone secretly crossing their fingers.

He pulls it. It is just fine like he said it would be. Now to check it one the chassis.

Plastec May 8 Parts day?

Kevin Knox and Jeff Taylor are setting up the "Binford 9000" Vacuum former with the tool created yesterday. The test is about to begin!

May 7 - A new tool is born.

Here is the latest in a series of tools that Kevin and Kevin have produced to shape the body panels for the Goldenhawk at Plastec in Port Kells, BC. This is for vacuum forming the top side and under belly panels. The sides are flat but the top and bottoms are two pieces.

Pictured here is Kevin Burnett the fabricating guru in the shop at Plastec . We will show you the results soon.

Getting started at Plastec!

The person I first spoke to at Plastec was Leah regarding poly-carbonate forming for the canopy of the streamliner, I was impressed with her knowledge of materials and so eventually by talking with Barry and Kevin in the shop, a plan developed to make the whole body at PLASTEC instead of using sheet metal. part of the reason is that this Goldenhawk will be toured extensively to air and trade shows where sheet metal can be easily dented ABS is very resilient.

The second photo is of Kevin Knox (Goldenhawk team) and I discuss profile of the finished side panels.

Barry Clarke - Rally Driver

The mild mannered Barry Clarke, was a competitive rally driver and navigator in the late sixties and early seventies. He and Navigator Ron Stashyn successfully campaigned Barry's 510 Datsun sedan in many events on the west coast. Pictured here during the Mountain trials in the BC interior back mountain roads at speed with night approaching and teeth clenched. Many of you have watched WRC on TV with the fully roll caged purpose built race cars but these guys don't even have a roll bar. Good thing they only tipped it over once!

PLASTEC surgery - skin crafting begins

Well we transported the chassis to Plastec in Port Kells, BC. early last week and left it to the capable crew of plastic fabricators lead by this man, Barry Clarke, CEO and owner. In the next two to three weeks they will attempt to make the complete body for the car using a UV ABS material. This has not, to the best of my knowledge, been done before and will require careful planning and research to develop the correct methods and tools to form the material to the desired shape. Plastec is well respected for its diversity, quality products and timely deliver but this is an exceptional project and will demonstrate the growing market for all types of plastics.

World Travelers Biking to Bonneville

Alana the young lady on the left by the waterfall in Morocco will be returning to Vancouver to start her teaching career and await Ali her new husband to join her later. She and Robyn pictured with Ray Kevin and I at the car show will be bicycling to Bonneville in August. Ray says he is going to ride his motorcycle. Landspeed Louise is right when she says we will have an army on the salt flats.

Pictures tell the story.

Young and old, men or boys, they all get that look when they see fast cars.

'I always planned to go to Bonneville" Most heard comment!

There was plenty of bench racing and stories swapped in the two days at the Tradex show. many of the people who came by to see us had good suggestions and were very interested in going to Bonneville Speed Week in the past but will be there this year to share the experience.

Surprise visit from Burnaby Gals.

Family support is great for moral. The lady in the OTT shirt is the mother of Ben and Chris Olson (OTT INDUSTRIES). She insisted on making a large financial contribution , Thanks MOM!

Crew Chief now Grampa Werner

We saw a lot of fans turn out for the show but none more devoted to her father than Katie Anne and her hubby Scott. They came from the maturity ward to see Werner on Saturday and less than 48 hours later a beautiful health bay boy is born. Casey James is cradled in the love of his parents.

PS. Grandma Cheryl is recovering with a great big proud smile.

The "team gofer" is all grown up

Cody Gillis has been designated team "GO-For.." since the beginning of the project. Cody is now 16 yrs. old and I think he has discovered girls. First thing he did was visit Daryle Sorenson's booth to buy a hot new T-shirt and then he was off to see the Playboy Bunny. She wanted $40. to have a photo with him so he then went back to the booth got a postcard of the Goldenhawk and autographed it for Miss Brittany O'Toole. (shown here with Cody )

Later he showed up with another beauty from the HRR booth, but her boyfriend came along and so He and Roland could only be gracious and let him keep her!

karma is calling me

Karma is tugging me to another car in the future!

Today I received in the mail a package from J.John Veenstra containing a full set of the ORIGINAL paper drawings of the GOLDENROD drawn by the Summers bros in the early sixties and included is all the specifications. What a special gift!

Thanks J.J.V. This next one maybe diesel/ electric if I find the right sponsor.

WOW! a call from the great Bill Summers

Monday evening, I was just finished driving my green yard racer (John Deere mower), when my wife, Wendy brought the phone out to me. I was thrilled to hear the voice on the other end was none other than my hero,

Mr.Bill Summers. We had a long talk about the stream liner and what we are planning for drive line and engine pieces. Bill wished us good luck and to be careful. He said he is building a new car and we will hope to see him at Bonneville. What a thrill to talk to someone that you have admired for 40 plus years.

Brian Beesley, Does he really exist?

For those of you who have asked this question, Who is Brian Beesley? Let me tell you that Brian is the single most important member of the Goldenhawk project and has contributed as much time and effort as any of us. Brian has, since the beginning, created artwork, posters, this blog, and was a large part of the preparation of the art for Global Inkstorm to produce the banner in time for the show. Brian also made two great videos and slideshow to illustrate the build process and the Bonneville Salt flats. They both were made to the music of TROOPER our music sponsor, We played them continuously at the display last weekend. he also created the post cards that we gave to the fans that attended the display. See photo. Brian is the computer savvy guy who keeps our computers up and running, takes photos and videos for the team, plus created the company website www.carpe.ca . Without his devotion and friendship I would not have got this project to the present day. Brian does all this and holds down two jobs, plus attends to family members needs including the ones in hospitals. He is a true friend and all around great guy!

Find the answer click here http://assandi.blogspot.com/

Storm Warnings! Global Inkstorm has arrived.

The Global Inkstorm posse (with driver), L-R is (Randy) Brad, Danny, Heather and Jason are checking out the show. (better photos to come.)


Our newest sponsor! Global Inkstorm
This is the huge banner they made overnight and delivered to the show at the opening hour. It is on heavy vinyl perfect color and is weather resistant. It will be displayed with the car during the rest of the build process and at all the displays for the next two years. I will give you more information about these fine young artists and their fledgling company as it becomes available. They are based in Squamish BC. and no doubt will be very busy with the upcoming Winter Olympics. They also brought decals and stickers for the Goldenhawk and for OTT Industries. Wait till you see their fine art prints like to ones shown at the Whistler Blackcomb announcement event held last week. They left the show to return to work and in no time people came by the display had requested and taken all their business cards we had, even my copy.
THEY PRODUCE BEAUTIFUL WORK so watch for their website to be up soon.




This banner by Global Inkstorm made our display!
I would recommend them for anyone that wants to get a message across to viewers.

Get to know the pro! Bob Green

Bob Green is building custom high speed steel wheels for the project. The company specializes in all types of wheel repairs and restorations on "those fancy expensive kind" . be sure call for information on your wheel requirements.

You can see Bob and me on the website www.goldenhawk.ca if you go to the history pages. We were much younger then and Bob drove the Orange 1400hp 4x4 monster known and feared as GREEN'S Machine.

Abbotsford Post does article

Thanks to Abbotsford Post for printing this announcement, which was in the insert for all the show attendees estimated at 12,000 plus. Some of the info is not exact because the car spec's have changed but not the website yet. (I am working on it!)

Click image to enlarge.