Project Muscrate… it CAN’T be August already!

Words and photos by Jay Roeder

Hi, everyone, and welcome back! Wow, time flies! I can’t apologize for being MIA the last number of months because I had to do what had to be done, but I sure am glad to be getting back to some level of “normal.”  At least what qualifies for normal in my world!

In the last article my wife, Amy, and I had just been getting settled in with our spankin’ new daughter, Sarah, and I was getting ready to take delivery of my new Stuska Track Master Gold engine dyno. I was in a mad thrash to convert what was my work area for Muscrate into a dyno cell.

I actually got a lot done on the car and it rolled out on its own M/T wheels and tires in a semi finished form for the first time since it went in for surgery in 2007! That’s the good news. The not so good news is it rolled right into its tomb, err, trailer and has been there ever since. It appears it takes a LOT longer to build a proper dyno room than I had figured and trying to spend a couple hours at night after work and every weekend was what it took. But the dyno is now functional and Roeder Performance Machine and DYNO Service is open for bidness!

The next project is to build a new garage dedicated to the completion of Muscrate. In the meantime it is a process of unloading and loading the car from the trailer into the front stall of my shop and then repeat. What a PITA! Anyway, let’s journey back a few months and cover what I actually did get done. On to the ‘taters.     

The trial fitting and pre-assemblies are a thing of the past! The first thing I did was to completely disassemble the entire car, again, and get all the various parts and pieces ready for powder coat and paint. Being the supreme do-it-myselfer that I am, I have always painted everything on all my projects. But I really wanted to save some time and my labor, and end up with a more durable finish for the parts than any type of paint can provide. The logical choice is a process called powder coating.

Basically, the parts are grounded and then an electrically charged form of dry paint known as powder is applied with a spray gun. The powder is actually drawn into every corner and around every bend, assuring complete coverage. After coating, the parts are literally baked in a large oven and the dry, dull, powder miraculously turns into a brilliant, smooth, shiny, extremely durable finish.

There are DIY kits available for doing this, but it honestly seems like something that should be done by a professional with the right equipment and the experience to get it done right the first time. After asking a few friends who did the powder coat on their cars, the cars that look good, I was directed to Brian Hermann and H&S PowderCoating in Rockford, IA. A couple of phone calls later I dropped off my parts and discussed what colors I wanted and then I gave him a impossible deadline for getting it done and he came through! Thanks for the extra effort, Brian.