Lots to be thankful for!

 We are coming to the end of Thanksgiving weekend and we have lots to be thankful for!

My Sunshine had the surgery on her second eye last Wednesday and she is pretty much healed up. We went to her doctor for a checkup the day before Thanksgiving and she now has 20-20 far vision! She still has to wear readers for close up stuff but the surgery was a major life changer for her. 

The doctor said there is some scarring but he will treat that with laser surgery once her eyes are completely healed. He said scarring happens in about 20% of his patients but it is very treatable.

She is seeing better than she ever has in our 42 years together! Such a blessing!

We had a peaceful holiday and spent Thanksgiving at home, just the two of us. This was the first time we spent Thanksgiving alone and although it was different, it was nice too! Traci did not make a traditional dinner but made one of my favorite meals, BBQ pot roast. It was very good!

Both of us had time to work on our hobbies and I got a lot done on the resurrection of “The Black Hole”!

The new carbon body did not fit the same as the original body so I had to build an entirely new firewall. It is all built out of titanium sheet that is cut and bent to fit the shape of the body and the engine mount plate.

The copper colored pins are temporary mounting pins to hold the panels in place while I worked on fitting them. The writing on the titanium will be cleaned off once I am done.

The new firewall created more room for my feet (a good thing) so I completely rebuilt the pedals to make the smoother and more comfortable.

The new throttle pedal is made out of titanium to save weight. The brake pedal rides in needle bearings to make it easy to operate 

Plenty of room now and not all cramped up like I was before!

Along with the new pedals, I needed more room to get out of the car. The old steering column was very low and extended very far out into the cockpit, making it hard to get in and out of the car. I built a new adjustable steering column and made it shorter to open up the escape route. I have a lot more room now!

The escape path is much more open than it was. Much safer!

The new body gave me room to move some stuff around so I moved the fuel tank and oil tank 4 inches back to shift the weight rearward. The car was nose heavy before and I am trying to make it more balanced. I decided to rebuild the tank mounts out of titanium to save some weight. The results were better than expected!

The weight savings between the old mount and the new one is a whopping 5.3 pounds!  That much weight off of the front of the car is a big deal!

The new body also required me to rebuild door hinges and latches. This was a tedious job but is done now. The new hinges work much better than the old hinges. The doors fit the body pretty well for a race body!

Everything is just tack welded. Final welding will happen later

The hinge mounts have to be near perfect for them to operate and fit correctly. I am glad to be done with this!

The car is starting to really take shape now. I think we are going to have a much lighter, quicker, and safer car soon!

I am very excited about the progress on the new car as well. I got some new pictures from Rick Jones before Thanksgiving. They are doing an awesome job on the chassis!

Very safe and roomy chassis

God continues to bless us beyond what we deserve!