I put a few good hours into the race car today. Got more stuff done that was on the list, and also decided to make a couple of things “better”. A good quote I heard a few weeks ago is “better is the enemy of done”. I had some slight overheating “issues” at the last few weekends, in that I had to run the heater when I was in the draft, to get the car to stay at 190 degrees. If I pulled out of the draft I was fine. I decided to go ahead and fix that issue, so I ordered up a C&R aluminum radiator. Install was a piece of cake, and I also put in some new radiator hoses just in case.

Also finished up the sway bar brackets I started on a month ago or so. At VIR the swaybar was just fine on the 2nd to last setting, but with these brackets, I can make it stiffer very easily. They also put the heim joints at a nice position regardless of the setting. This was the first time I got to use the drill press and also put my new table top grinder to good use. I used to just use the “wheel of death” air powered zizz wheel, but the table top grinder is much nicer.

Only a few things left on the list. I’m going to build a new splitter on the new bumper. I decided I can do it better then the current iteration that uses the stock add on lip. If I fail at it, I’ll just use the old one, so not a big deal. Also still have to get the graphics from KC so I can put them on the car. Lastly, just a thorough nut and bolt and some final clean up and she’ll be ready for July 17-18th at Road Atlanta.

So come to find out, I haven’t been so “safe’ while towing. Not only did I not use trailer brakes, 3/4 of the lights on the trailer didn’t work, the breakaway switch was busted and generally sounds like I was lucky I didn’t die the last ohhhh 20 tows

So as not to cheat death anymore, I decided to do a trailer overhaul. I was going to do the wiring myself, but after getting an $85 quote from a trailer factory, they did the work. Got the trailer back and couldn’t be happier. All the lights work, the brakes work, got a fresh breakaway switch, and for a few bucks more, I got the hubs repacked, and even bought a spare hub to assure that I won’t ever need one on the road. An old Autox buddy of mine Aaron had an extra brake controller, so now the 4 Runner has that installed.

With all the mechanicals overhauled, I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint as the 2-3 year old rustoleum was getting a little long in the tooth. Decided to go with truck bedliner this time around instead of plain spray paint. Figured it would be more durable, protect from rocks better, and also provide more traction for the R-compounds driving up on it. Rather then deal with the pain in the ass of rolling on the stuff, I decided to go with spray. Along with the easy of cleanup, its also 1/2 the price. I’m not going to be putting it though THAT much, and you can layer the liner, so I’ll probably give it another coat in a year or so.

I ended up using 9 cans of liner at $8.50 a can, right under $80 after tax. Not too bad on the price considering the roll on stuff is $70 a kit and needs 2 kits to do a trailer. The entire trailer got 2 coats, and it took about 1.5 hours or so. Not bad at all and it came out great! The only thing that could be better is a little less “spotty” coverage. Because of the spray, some areas just get a bit more then others, and because its a closed deck you can sort of see that on the deck. Once it dries/cures it will probably get better. I’m still really happy, as it looks like brand new trailer! Maybe I’ll even get it registered to become “fully legal” even though I haven’t been bothered about that in 5 years now.

Here are a couple of pictures of the texture and the final product.

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