I've held off on putting anything on the club regarding this car's build up for a while, but with DGRR around the corner and the potential that this car may actually be there, I thought I'd go ahead and share it with you all.
This build will be an abbreviated version. There are a lot more photos and details on the car's build on
http://www.twitchyracing.com/category/grmrx3/.
Ok, on with the build.
Some of you may remember an ad for the 1976 RX3 from Brian at Rotorsports Racing back in late 2011 for an ITA 76 RX3. Some fellow racers and rotorheads and I were discussing doing the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine $2012 Challenge car and when this came up, I contacted Brian as we all agreed it would be a doable candidate.
This is how the car looked when I arrived to pick it up with fellow member one320fc and my one-year old daughter (gotta start them early on this car addiction).
After spending a few hours BSing with Brian and getting a look around his shop, we hit the road back home. Made it back just in time to meet another guy picking up my old '87 FC I had sold earlier that week (when you have limited space, you can't get a new toy sometimes without another going away unfortunately).
Got the car unloaded that night and left it be. We had a lot of research and project planning to do before any tools touched the car. It sat in my driveway for a few weeks to the point where it got noticed by the town police who told me to put it in the garage or they'd tow it!
In the garage cleaned up finally we could see the extent of the work ahead of us.
Basically, the car was an old tired racer that had about 7 layers of paintwork over 30 years of weathering steel and TONS of bondo. With the challenge in mind, we had to limit cost on bodywork. We contemplated leaving the body alone all together or fix the damaged areas and respray. Decided all the bodywork could probably be cured for under $200 if done VERY cheaply.