Work was completed on the roadster and Randy hauled it back to Keith Tardel at Rex Rods for the engines to be prepped and installed...yes, I said engines - plural.
In the meantime, Pete ordered up the AN16 and AN20 hoses and fittings for the water tank/pump system and I sourced lead from several folks on the local Craigslist. After a couple of trips, I ended up with somewhere around 250# for about $90...pretty damn good, because lead usually runs a buck a pound. However, a good deal of our lead was in the form of wheel weights, dirty ol' wheel weights. We planned on mounting about 200# of lead in surplus .50 caliber ammo cans, one on either side of the fuel cell in the trunk, directly over the rear axle to act as ballast.
Nothing that a tank of propane, a proper burner, cast iron pan and a loaf pan couldn't fix.
The crew assembled for a combined Pete and Nic birthday / good ol' fashioned lead melting party.
After a few slices of pizza, the work got started. In all, it's real simple, throw in a bunch of lead weights in a cast iron pan over a super hot burner, heat to about 600 degrees or so and watch the lead melt away from the steel clips. Skim the steel and other impurities off the top with a slotted spoon and when the lead is nice and liquid, pour into a loaf pan.
Half way through, we'd perfected our system and were quenching the hot loaf pan once the lead had formed a crust. This allowed us to remove the lead brick from the form and go onto the next one. In case you're curious, an average loaf of lead is about 25#.
By the way, if you are so inlclined, take precautions to wear proper heavy clothing, welders gloves and eye protection...oh, and either do your work in open space with a breeze (like we were fortunate enough to have) or use a shop fan to blow the nasty smoke and fumes downwind.
