Henry's Blog

A Super Good friend of mine John Godinho is going to help me as he is really good at things like this.

I am going to keep you posted on what’s going on at Wicked Mean & Nasty Motorsports. We will start with the current things that are going on now and at a later date we will add stories of the past.

Let me tell you we do have a few old stories to tell. Days at my Total Performance Engineering shop, days at Godinho Dairy and the great times at OCIR etc.

Well not much has been going on around here. We took Vega to LJ's house [John Godinho's son], his brother in law Bud is going to do some fiberglass work on body. We decided to do side of body extensions in glass instead of sheet metal. He [Bud] is going to start work in a couple of weeks.

Seeing that we are at a stand still, I decided to start on my 33 Willy's [Redo]. Kevin and I started to tear things down and started to do some mock up work. We removed the Koni shocks (front and rear), we made some spacers out of PVC pipe 2 1/2 inches shorter than the springs. It looks a lot better lowered and when we figure out just how low I want it, we will get new springs and do away with the spacers.

We removed the fire wall, the bell housing tin and we are going to replace it to clean things up a bit. I don't know what I am going to use for a power plant, its either a small block Ford or a Chevy. I haven't decided yet and will change the engine set back also.

We removed both doors and will have to do some glass work on the doors. We will also need to do work on the right side door so that it will open (door was bolted in before).

The trunk area was all open with no tin or wheel tubs. We are going to tub it and finish closing it in. We are going to get wider rear fenders (3" wider), because we are going to run a wider tire. My friend Stump found some tires I can use for a mock up. I will need to get different rims also.

Car didn't have running boards, but it will now! I may have to modify the ones they make but that shouldn't be a big problem (Bud can help us out on that). Once we do some more mock up's, we will remove body and start on frame modifications (cross members, tabs, brackets, drive shaft loop, etc).

Thats it for now. Check out new pictures of Willys Redo. Check back to see how we are progressing.

I went by Smiley Headers and picked up my zoomies, they did a great job. Always a pleasure to see great work. Check out our link section for contact info on Smiley Headers.

We took the chassis to Lorne Cook so he could make the cut outs for the new injector, headers and roof hatch. He has the body work just about all done. It is looking good. Cook has a stall at Randy's Auto Body & Paint.

I met Randy, the owner, super nice guy. Let me tell you they do a lot of cool work on early and late model cars. Restoration, paint, body work, etc. Their paint work is super. I especially liked all the early model stuff. I think it’s really cool. Painter Jimmy, who works there, is going to shoot the Candy Apple paint on the Vega. He is a perfectionist. I can't wait till it’s done.

Now all I have to do to finish the chassis is adapt the other brake calipers that I have to the old brackets, finish up some wiring, grease the front t wheel bearing and replace the seals.

Then I’ll start the engine and run it for awhile. Then I can re-torque the heads, adjust the valves and set the timing. Tweak the barrel valve, look things over and that should do it except for the body.

It’s hard to believe it’s about done after about 20 months. When I started I thought I could do it in about 6 months. We’ll I was wrong again.

Talked to my friend Tony Vigna today. He is really a cool guy. He told me he is saving his money and still wants to race his Evil, Wicked, Mean & Nasty alcohol car in the CIFCA circuit. That should be fun. He hopes to get things ready this year, do some testing and run it next year.

John Godinho is working on a new tee shirt design. He has some wild ideas [some may be a little too wild; we will leave it at that]. It should be a nice piece. He has flooded me with a lot of ideas; I hope we can make the right choice. I'll keep you posted.

No more promises. I'll try to keep updates on website more current. Darren Gross our Friend and our webmaster is going to do some new posting. From the pictures he is going to post, you will be able to see there has been a lot of progress. I had 3 sets of heads and I had Juan Mendoza flow them to see which set flowed the best. My Air Flow Research heads were the best. Here where things started to happen. Needed some valves, they don't make these anymore so had to get all new ones. Now retainers are different, valve keepers are different and so are the valve springs. Juan located everything and did all the necessary valve work.

Now guess what?. Push rod length is different, so here we go mock up time. Now I need longer rocker arm studs and new guide plates.

I took injectors to Enderle to have them go through unit and change nozzles because I am going to switch over to Alcohol. I also found out that the fuel pump is no good. Oh well just go with the flow Right?

Sent mag to Don Zig as it needed more work than what I thought. I will go to pick up mag at Don Zig's, his shop is behind his house and let me tell you, he has a lot old posters from the early racing days. They are really kool.

He can also tell you a story or two. Its really neat to be able to see all these posters. I just saw what he had hanging on his walls, he told me he has others in storage cabinets.

He's in middle of LA so I want to beat the traffic out of there. I get on the freeway and I see a piece of paper flapping on my windshield. I say to myself no!.......sure enough I didn't look and it was street sweeping day.

There went another $50. Bolted heads on injectors and mag and got it started. Sounds weird with my Neighbor Friendly Exhaust (see pics).

Now another change. When I went to Enderle, Kent showed me their new Bad & Ugly injector. Problem was it was too tall but he tells me they are making a shorter one. Well guess what I just had to have one.

I needed a Holley Tunnel ram manifold (its shorter then the others) guess what they quit making them. So her we go Internet time. We locate one in Texas. Guess what the bolt holes won't line up the heads have been milled. A friend of Kevin's - Chris Hansen (Harley's Machine Co.) slotted holes for us. Chris has helped us out of a few binds. Chris had to make a new throttle bracket and get a new throttle cable, fuel lines, etc.

Another change Zoomies. Got a gig from Smiley headers and did a mock up. I got things all lined up and another friend of Kevin's (Awful Allen) brought over his welder and tacked things up for me. Kevin dropped them off at Smiley's. Smiley told me nothing to mocking up a set. Well I got news for him. I guess if you are a fabricator its easy but I don't claim to be one.

I am working on a priming device for this new injector. Old calipers did not work, the bores are too pitted. I have another set of calipers but of coarse the brackets won't work. So now its time for Kevin to see if Chris can help us out of this bind.

Going to take chassis to Lorne Cook and have him make cut outs for Bad & Ugly injector and headers.

I decided to paint car Candy Red (instead of black) and go with Gold Leaf lettering. It should look awesome (I Hope). The chassis is about all done except for brakes, some wiring and a few other things.

Now its up to Lorne Cook to get body painted. He told me he would have it done in 4 to 5 days!!! "JUST KIDDING COOK" I know that when he gets it done it will look Awesome!!!

Reason why there isn't a person in this last group of pictures is the fact that I have been doing all the work and it hard to take pictures and get work done. I know, who wants to see our ugly Mugs.

Hello Race Fans

I know its been a long time since my last Blog. No excuses. I just didn't follow up.

I took the chassis to my friend Steve Plueger so he could do the upgrades, (roll cage, etc). As always he did a great job. Also, thanks to Junior and Mr Paul for the help. (See pics just posted on website Contreras Bros Vega)

Then after I picked up chassis from Plueger, I took it to be powder coated. While it (chassis) was there, Kevin and I took the body to the paint shop. Our friend Lorne Cook is going to do the body work and apply the paint.

Lorne has been around race cars for many a year, driving them, painting them, repairing them, etc.

We picked up the chassis from powder coat and it looks great. They did a super job. We brought it home, put it on car stands, and started bolting on parts.

I got all new bolts at Specialty Fasteners. New Heims. I went through the Corvair steering box and checked out the rear end. Everything is looking good.

Bolted the rear end in, front axle, spindles, radius bars, etc. Now it's starting to look like a race car again.

Dropped the pan on the transmission and changed the filter. Things looked good! Engine and trans only had 4 runs on them when I parked it a few years back.

Dropped the pan on the motor and checked bearings, which looked good. I pulled cam out and got the numbers so I could find specs (I wasn't sure what cam I had used).

Bolted trans and 8 inch converter to short block (Now its ready to slip into frame rails).

Went to Harbor Freight and bought an engine hoist. I know you are suppose to "man handle" it Right? Those days are over for me. :)

Otis and I put the motor in and started bolting on parts. I had Eddy [Ari] cleaning and polishing various parts.

Up till now, things are going pretty smooth. We are making good progress.

Well.......Now the Hang Ups Begin. I had a game plan when I started. I told Kevin "We are NOT going to change things. We are just going to freshen up things and leave combo as it is".

That theory went out the window. I didn't stick to my Original plans and I am Paying for it now.......in more ways then one.

From the pictures that we are posting today or in a couple of days, you will see that the car is farther along then what I have written here

I'll bring you up to date on the changes we are making, (cylinder heads, injector, headers, paint scheme, etc.).

I think the long wait is going to be worth it. I think it will be a Good Looking Piece when its done!!!

To be continued!!!! SOON !! I know you heard this from me before.

Have A Great Day

Henry

I am currently in the process of redoing my 74 Contreras Bros Vega. The new version will be the Wicked, Mean & Nasty Vega. Check out the pictures on my website. We have stripped it down and are in the process upgrading. It needs painting, some plating, minor motor work etc. I hope to have the car finish in the next few months, it should look awesome. It will be great to see it run again; too bad it won't be at OCIR. The car will look like the picture on the back of our tee shirts when it is completed.

We have a lot of great memories with this car. Racing was a lot of fun back then. We had the choice of 3 drag strips less than an hour from the shop. Orange County International Raceway, Irwindale or Lions. I’d have to say our best times were at OCIR. What a great facility. The camaraderie between all the regulars was unbelievable.

I also have a 33 Willys that I am going to redo but that will come later. Check out the Willys on my website.

Tony Vigna, a good fried of mine who owns the Evil Wicked Mean & Nasty TAFC came down from his home in the bay area a few weeks ago and we had a meeting.

We were talking about how expensive it is to run a TAFC. He told me he went to a few CIFCA races and found the racers real friendly and low key, that is till you line up at the starting line.

So after a long chat we decided to join them and go CIFCA Racing. We think it could be a lot of fun.

We need to freshen it up a bit, do a little roll cage upgrade etc. We need to paint the trailer. Tow rig is OK. We hope to have things done by January 2008

I will be pretty busy the next few months but it should be worth it when it’s all said and done.