A 76 Hondo GT comes home

[OhHondoGT]

I posted a picture and this brief description in the Wild V Drives Thread, Sharp Shooter recommended that I post a build thread here so here goes - flame away.

Hello all, new to this forum but not new to dragboats. My dad raced flats from the late 60's through the 80's here in the mid west and then I ran the Hondo GT pictured below through the 90's. Sold the boat in 2000 and never thought I'd see it again, it sat in a barn for 13 years collecting dust till the guy who bought it from me called and asked if I wanted it back. She's going through a partial restoration to start her new life as a lake rod / part time bracket racer for fun. I bought this boat for the first time in 1990, restored it, then had a great racing career with it. With the help of my family, we wound up with 6 high points championships and even managed a Driver of the year award in 1996. I'm really glad to have it back, it's like a member of the family!

[OhHondoGT]

So here we are picking up the boat last summer and sitting in the seat for the first time in 13 years!

[OhHondoGT]

After we got it home and took a good look at it we decided all the hardware needed to come out and replaced, it was all well worn after it's racing career. Also decided that the floors needed to be refinished, found some delam on the stringers in spots plus the floors just looked bad so I started grinding fiberglass.....


What a horrible job and I will never do this again - much of the summer of 2013 was spent being very itchy from fiberglass dust.

[OhHondoGT]

The original wood looked good after all the grinding, too bad I made a few rookie mistakes and ground through the top layer of it in a few spots. So I laminated down a layer of end-grain balsa and got some epoxy / cloth back over the floor by late fall. I went with epoxy because it's easier to work with, doesn't stink and is supposed to perform very well.

[OhHondoGT]

After the epoxy cured I started finish sanding in preparation for flow coating, I decided that I should start fabbing the new hardware before the final flow coat so I wouldn't have to worry about scratching it.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]
As you can see, everything is going to be new.

[OhHondoGT]

My brother decided to get in on the act and buy a Hondo flat to have some fun with, He purchased this 76 Hondo from Top Fuel racer Mike Robbins in North Carolina. It's getting new hardware also and a floor rehab, but he decided not to go as far as I did and I don't blame him.

[OhHondoGT]

A few more hardware pics..


At this point we're done fabbing and getting back on finishing the floors - more updates as soon as I have them.

[Sharp shooter]

Awesome!!! And 6 time hi point winner and driver of the year! Nice, you're quite accomplished!!!

The paint looks really nice! Hopefully you have a good work cover to protect it through all of this. Is that an Enderle in the action photo? Is that a tunnel ram under it? I like the ford idea and look forward to hearing more about that. The floors look like a ton of work, but it appears the hardest part is behind you so that's got to feel good. I like the GT deck Hondo's, they have a well thought out look and they aren't very common.

I can't see the last 2 attachments, something didn't work....?

[OhHondoGT]

Thanks again SS, the induction in the action pic is an Enderle hat on top of a tunnel ram - it worked really well and was incredibly responsive. As far as our accomplishments, it helped a lot to have a dad with 20 years experience running flats! He always had it set up to perfection and my 2 brothers put in a ton of work to make it all happen, I couldn't have done any of it without them for sure!

The paint in the pics looks much better than real life lol! Between all of the road rash from being drug all over to the races and serving as a shelf for the interim owner, she needs a paint job too but that can wait till after I get to drive it again! BTW, the orange sticker on the dash is the tech inspection sticker from the last race we attended at the end of the 99 season. It was still on there when I picked up the boat, too cool!

Not sure why the last few attachments didn't work, they showed up when I made the post. I'll try to fix them.

[Sharp shooter]

Thanks again SS, the induction in the action pic is an Enderle hat on top of a tunnel ram - it worked really well and was incredibly responsive. As far as our accomplishments, it helped a lot to have a dad with 20 years experience running flats! He always had it set up to perfection and my 2 brothers put in a ton of work to make it all happen, I couldn't have done any of it without them for sure!

The paint in the pics looks much better than real life lol! Between all of the road rash from being drug all over to the races and serving as a shelf for the interim owner, she needs a paint job too but that can wait till after I get to drive it again! BTW, the orange sticker on the dash is the tech inspection sticker from the last race we attended at the end of the 99 season. It was still on there when I picked up the boat, too cool!

Not sure why the last few attachments didn't work, they showed up when I made the post. I'll try to fix them.

Ok I see those 2 pics now!

Looking good! How much of a runner is under your boat? Is it the normal 5/8ths? Looks shallow in that last pic...

What color are you thinking for the hardware?