Brakes update
 

This afternoon while I was preparing to change the brake lines, Jeff H. called and came over for a visit. Jeff helped hand me tools for the next hour while I worked on the car.
Thanks again Jeff.

After removing the brake line retainer, it was easy to un-do the brake line and drain the old brake fluid into a drain pan.
Starting in the right rear corner, which is the furthest point from the master cylinder, is usually the best location to start to drain from.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099504.jpg

It took about 10 minutes to drain fully.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099529.jpg

The old brake fluid looked green instead of blue.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099566.jpg

After draining the rear brake system, there was still brake fluid in the forward part of the resevoir for the front brake system.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099587.jpg

The old stainless brake lines were stiff and rusty on the ends.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099635.jpg

The new stainless steel brake lines were longer and thinner than the old ones, and much more flexible.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099769.jpg

After installation, the brake lines looked great again.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099789.jpg


The driver's side of the car was done next.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099991.jpg


The front went together faster and easier due to being more accessable.
Look how clean the stainless lines go around the Konis. ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099844.jpg


Here is a closeup of the right rear trailing arm.
John Mason gusseted the trailing arms both in the open space of the arms, and by making a plate to hold the outside of the shock absorber mounting bolt.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214099870.jpg


This is a detail of the right rear of the engine compartment showing how the aluminum roll cage is securly fastened into the chassis.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214100097.jpg

Engine compartment prep
 

Just a few more details and the engine/transmission goes back in.

One detail is the engine compartment.
The old sound deadener mat was toast and I had to remove it completely. It worked great when new, but got to be in a decomposing situation.
Instead of just replacing the mat with another one, I am re-painting the area where the mat was to silver to match the rest of the engine compartment.

Originally the whole compartment was baby blue in color to show oil leaks (racecars sometimes used blue to indicate oil leaks early), remember this car was originally Arnie's Racecar in the early 70's.
So I got a scraper out and started to clean off all of the old glue and foam to begin to prep it for paint.

You will notice in the photo an interesting shock tower brace. A ridged metal tube inside of a metal canopy extends from the left shock tower to the right. The metal canopy has fluted holes for strength and lightness. Another one of John Mason's little tricks included into the car. ;)


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214177623.jpg

rsr
 

hi, this is my first post but i have been following this thread for some time. i grew up in w.l.a. racing on mully (that is what we used to call it..."mully runs") starting back in the mid 80's in highschool with a GTI all tricked out(3 piece BBS and every Neuspeed product)....what it lacked in horsepower it made up for in it's light weight and handling. next car to race/rape mulholland in the late 80's thru early 90's was a porsche 944 turbo tricked out w/ weltmeister sways, koni's, strut brace, half cage roll bar, Azev 17X8.5 and 17X10 rear with 275's (which was pretty trick for the day), along with autothority chips, andial cam, cats gone (used to spit fire to light up the "track" at night"). fun times, going up there after clubbing on sunset and get into some silly races using both lanes, apexing opposite sides of street b/c we had the young balls (read stupidity) to blindly trust that there was nothing coming at us if there were no headlights bouncing off the guardrails or trees from the other way. luckily, nothing major ever happened other than thinking we were aryton senna. anyways, i met some good friends up there, one of which now has his own DP class racing team in the Grand Am Rolex Sport Car Series and doing very well. alot of good young talent up there back then. many current pros have raced up there from a young age.
i finally subscribed tonight to put my own story in there, but of course i will leave out the good stuff for fear of self-incrimination: i.e. the countless cop chases and road blocks set up, and even helicopter chases (which may or may not have happened...). i know it sounds unbelievable, but we always got away. trick is to know all of the side streets in and out of there(i am told).
it's cool to see that there are so many genereations of racers up there who have probably never even crossed paths. different eras fade out and new groups emerge. i do remember some old school people prepping their cars on skyline, one in particular who was on his back under his 914 working on his car. somebody told me that it had an RSR engine in it, and it sure sounded like it did. but it wasn't the infamous banning car, as this was a 914 for sure (i know my porsches, thank you).

What i really wanted to ask Banning is if he/you had any pictures of the car when it was arnie's race car. i was wondering why it had the through-the-bulkhead-cage in there, plus some "other" stuff. please educate us on the history of the car before you got it, plus whatever else you can do...i have always loved the history behind mully, so this was a great find.
g'night to all!

Welcome to the thread! Stay a while. We encourage sharing stories even if you remain anonomous. The late eighties and early nineties was a quiet period on the hill compared to earlier times. Not to say nothing was going on it just lacked quantity for lack of a better way to put it and parking. This period was the end though.

Then our good acquaintance who has cars that does stuff revived the program.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat3.gif

Mulholland
 

Great stories dmull, thanks for joining in.
You've had some fun times on Mul in the later days, way to go.
I think you should join us on Mulholland when we meet again, I'd love to hear about your chases and related stories.

When I first saw the car, it was still Arnies race car. it was slate grey in color, had fiberglass flares, had no interior, a bolt in roll bar I think, and a built 2.4 or 2.5 liter engine. Dave B. might remember more since he had first crack at buying the car in 1975. He passed on the car, and I happily came along and bought it. But it was just a chassis that I bought, a bare shell. I think I paid $1300 for it. I have all the reciepts still in my possesion.

The earliest photo that I have is when I brought the car home in primer with no glass, headlights, interior, etc. I picked it up at Arnie's shop on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City one afternoon after Arnie had completed the rest of the work that I had contracted him to do for me. I finished the rest of the work myself (paint, interior, glass, wheels, cold start, and some other details) to make the car what it is today.

The T6 alloy roll cage is stressed throughout the body to act like a tubular chassis. That's why it is fastened to the body in 14 places
After dipping the body in acid for so long, it needed an extra something to make it stiff again. The roll cage is light aluminum and it is twice as strong as steel in compression strength due to being T6 alloy. John Mason himself said this about his beautiful hand-made cage, "This car will take an end over end at 120 mph and still survive". I don't want to test that theory however.

I have a lot more info coming soon.
To make this thread last a real long time ;) I have kept back a ton of fantastic stuff about Mulholland that I will release in the next couple of weeks (two weeks). Note: Gotta stretch it out you know. The Carrera is almost ready...

Two weeks goes by faster than you'd think.

Here it comes
 

Very true Kevin!

So we had better get started right now!

Do you know that King of the Mountain was a cult classic in Australia and Japan?
Here is a copy of a billboard in Japan for King of the Mountain. Very rare.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214322025.jpg

Billboards
 

Over the years I have collected everything that I could find concerning the movie King of the Mountain (for obvious reasons).


Out of my collection of King of the Mountain billboards, there are a few important ones, like this one. Any comments? Marina blue, hood missing, wrong driver...
Sorry but the billboards are too big to fit into my scanner, so these are just a portion of the original image.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214322476.jpg




And this one of the character Steve getting busted next to his silver Porsche.
Of course that never really happened. ;) Besides, to be historically accurate, the character must be wailed on with batons after handcuffing.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214322526.jpg


Lots more to come...

Where is this?
 

Here is a rare shot of the cast members from King of the Mountain taking a break between takes on Mulholland. Awesome!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214323624.jpg


Here's a teaser, does anyone know where this is? Or what year? LOL

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214323716.jpg

not sure about the year, but that looks like deadman's.

i remember you mentioning the corner embankment was a later add-on safety feature so i'm guessing sometime in the late 70's to early 80's?

btw chris, have you seen the david lynch movie 'mulholland dr.'? it's not really about car racing, but there is a side-by-side racing on mulholland scene in the beginning that is a catalyst for the rest of the movie. that was the first i've heard of mulholland and got me started on researching more about the road, which eventually led me here.

here's the cover;

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...ve-Posters.jpg

Mulholland
 

That's very interesting. Ever seen Mulholland Falls?

I'm glad you made it to the thead and hopefully Mulholland too.

Porsche racing wheels
 

The rear 11 inch wide Porsche magnesium wheels were pitted at well, very badly.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214326791.jpg

Another shot of one of the damaged wheels.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214326832.jpg

Here is a 11 inch wheel after sanding with first 320 grit, followed by 400 and then 600 grit.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214326853.jpg

Porsche racing wheels
 

Here is how the wheel looked after refurbishing. Look at how deep the wheel looks.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214327121.jpg

Not bad... but ouch! That darn reflection blinded me again. Got to remember those sunglasses when looking at these wheels.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214327142.jpg

Looks like it's ready to go...sorry I meant ready to race.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214327192.jpg

But first we gotta find new meats (tires).
I can't wait to twist up some new rubber.
Car is getting closer...

Taken from a really tall ladder Jeff?

Wow and to think it was hot and sunny down here in the Valley today...

Just a nice size step ladder Dave!

Just when we thought we have seen every angle of Mulholland Drive in images. Old, new, get togethers, covert parts recovery missions, etc. Why not get a little back from all our tax dollars that we have been paying?

Ladies and Gentleman the United States Government brings you Mulholland Drive from above............(after all they are here to help us..right!)

Lets start with Grandstands

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214371177.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214371195.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214371213.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214371230.jpg

Remember the hill to the north of the old Grandstands lot that had a trail leading up it? This is all that remains.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214371299.jpg