First day receiving the car and getting it running
I need to start off this first blog with thanks to Lior and Yoel at Fusion Motor Company for brokering the car for me. It took several months of going back to the current owner until we reached an agreement. The Fusion team babied the car on an enclosed trailer, got it here to California, handled all of the registration and paperwork, and hand delivered it to my house. Here it is on the first day in my hands, September 13, 2024:
But, there are some issues. The main issue is that since the car was not driven for the last 4 years, and the rubber fuel cell was now at least 8-9 years old, it pretty much disintegrated. It is recommended to change these racing fuel cells out every 5 years, so no surprise as to what happened. The previous owner offered to replace the fuel cell before shipping the car, and started the disassembly process. However, once we found out there was an 18 week lead time for the replacement fuel cell, I decided to take the car as is.
I was already planning on changing out the fuel cell for a custom stainless steel tank. I’m planning on driving the car all over and don’t want to deal with a new fuel cell every 5 years. Once I received the car, I removed the fuel tank, and the fuel cell was already removed and in a bag. To my surprise, I then found out the paint in the trunk was damaged all the way to the primer, and three of the five leather trunk panels were soaked in gas. I tried my best to clean the leather, but it was soaking for possibly years.
So let’s get this all fixed - I’m dying to start the car and drive it for the first time. I have never heard it in person, only saw it at SEMA in 2016 when it was unveiled.
There are three main issues to fix at this point:
Get a custom stainless steel tank created to fit inside the existing polished aluminum housing.
Get the paint in the trunk repaired.
Get the three leather panels re-covered.
Luckily I have a good friend, Steve Strope, who owns Pure Vision Design, located within 20 minutes of my house. He came over to my house the very next day after receiving the car to check it out. He was able to make some calls to Rick’s Tanks so I could get the tank made, and also to Mick’s Paint to get the paint repairs done. I had already contacted the original builder, Craig Wick, at Wicked Fabrication, so I discussed with him about having Tony Miller at Stitches Custom Upholstery re-cover the leather trunk panels.
Gas Tank
I may not be able to shape metal, but I do a lot of woodwork, so I decided to make a wood mockup for the gas tank. Once I had the basics done, Troy at Pure Vision Design finished the mockup by mounting all of the fittings, pump, and inlet in the exact places needed. Once complete, I shipped the mockup to Rick’s Tanks and Hector took it from there creating the tank exactly like the mockup. The process would take a few months.
Trunk Paint Repair
Mick was able to squeeze me in between all of their major projects to repair the paint in the trunk. I was able to get the paint code from Craig Wick and Jon Byers which helped greatly. Once we scheduled a start date a few weeks out, it would take a few weeks to complete the repair. Since we still didn’t have a gas tank, I had to have the car transported each way. But, I do have to say, the team at NTT Transport have the coolest truck for transporting cars.
Leather Panels Re-covered
It has been at least 8 years since the leatherwork was done on this car. But can you imagine, there was leftover leather from the job, still sitting there ready for something like this! I shipped the three panels to Craig Wick, and he worked with Tony Miller to get them re-covered in the leftover leather.
December 12, 2024 - Finally, the last part to getting her on the road…I installed the new gas tank today. This is the first time I have ever started the car, and possibly the first time in the last 4 years it has been started.
Very little gas, and probably old gas, in the lines and the injectors, so idling a bit rough, but I didn't want to rev it. Just wanted it to start so I can check for any gas leaks since I just hooked up the fuel lines. I need to run several gallons of new fuel through before I'm ready to take it around the block in the next day or so.