September, it’s just like early in the year when you see that March has already arrived, another glaring example of how FAST time blazes away, especially when you’re busy. I’m writing these words on Tuesday August 17th and yes we’ve already had about 10-12 days of over 110 degrees, but those days were in June and early July and totally normal. In 2020 probably the most trying and forgettable year that l can remember, by mid August last year, we had experienced something like 25-30 110* days already. In fact, 2020 went down as the hottest year in Arizona history. Thank goodness 2021 so far this summer has been much milder. In the last few weeks, Portland Oregon has actually been hotter than Phoenix for several days. I just checked the 7 day weather report and Phoenix has another five days BELOW 100* predicted. I’m writing about this, because as a drag racer and Car Guy, the dead of summer is usually too hot for man or beast. By the time this issue hits the streets, we will have turned the corner in summer 2021. The days start to shorten, the morning and nights start to cool off and we can start thinking about our cars again.
Thanks to the cooler temps. I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in my carport getting my ‘65 Chevy Nova wagon ready to sell. I had paid the entry fee to put it in the Mecum auction in Monterey California. I waited too long to get started on the prep, then ended up having to work about 60 hours in one week. I took a chance and did a base-coat clear-coat paint job on it in oxford white when it was 105 degrees. The end result was really bad orange peel, that required hours and hours of wet sanding to get it smoothed out. After so much sanding, there were many spots where it burned through to the primer, so l decided to repaint it in a single stage oxford white. It was only about 90 degrees when l sprayed the single stage paint. Thankfully, there was only light orange peel, that required MUCH LESS wet sanding to get it smooth and flat for the buffing process. As of today Aug. 17th l still have about 20% left to wet sand, but l can see that the finished car after buffing will be very straight and shiny. Obviously, l didn’t make it to Monterey, but the folks at Mecum were great, they said no problem, they just rolled over my entry fee to another Mecum auction when l’m ready. You never stop learning and even though l’m a lifelong Car Guy, but doing this kind of work is a pretty new thing for me. Missing the Monterey auction will probably turn out to be a good thing, because the car wasn’t 100% ready and next time it will be.
Check out the Coming Events page, where you will see that car shows and drag racing are returning in September, October and November. I have four bracket races coming up this month, two at Tucson Dragway and two at Wild Horse Pass. Those races are the last Summit Racing Series team races leading up to our biggest race of the year, the NHRA Summit Racing Series Bracket Finals. This year the finals are in Sacramento and I’ve literally been saving my loose change for two years (no Bracket Finals in 2020) to pay for the race.
