[DeTomaso] Heat Insulation-Engine Bay

[rcbsons1 at aol.com]

John,
I have had a heat problem with my car for a number of
years.. I though it may have been shinkage from 
the primer but no so.

My car as you know has 180's... again a windsor
so the layout is a little different from your cleveland
no inner fender issues due to routing

So the car had a little mishap and I took it
down to Tommy to fix along with resolving the
backside of the roof and front side of the deck lid

He had several painters look at it and they all said
it would happen again due to the heat... I told Tommy
we don't see that with other guys running their cars
He said most run them fat jetted and not as hard.. My
car does run a little on the lean side but thats where the
power comes on.. OK here comes the Email for Michael
about jetting.. I run 98's in the secondaries and 94's in the
primaries on a 830 Nacar Holley.. might be time to have
a custom carb built for this like my Pontiac:)

He said we need to put more sheilds than the little SS one
that we orginally had on it.. So there is sandwhich material
with ss on both sides and an insulation material between that is
under the roof now and under the deck lid.. the deck lid one 
actually runs almost out to the front end... To be fair my car when
he worked on the deck had about 14 coats of paint on it.. when
we painted last time no stripping to bare metal as I wanted a
cheapy and it is a race car.. so we think all the paint and some
bondo up there helped the problem I had.. deck was stripped
to bare metal and the flat deck needed hardly any bondo...
Very straight and very clean again

We did talk about wrapping the headers and Tommy 
stated the best way to rot your exhaust out.. not a good
thing as 180's for windsors are no longer sold by the Vendors
just ask my buddy Rich

I would say double layer is best with sandwich material between
SS on the inner fender with Jeffs material on the back
and don't run the damn thing too lean but you better run
it hard!

Car looks great with front and rear decks redone,
roof and side panels behind the door.. the rest of the
car was good but not perfect.. again it is a race car
but boy does it look great all fresh again
It will be tough to get those first couple of rock chips
thrown at it next time on the track
And yes it will crack again if you push it hard even
with the chassis braces,cage etc on it.. things just move
around alot with the cheater slicks.. I mean Dot Road
race tires.. Officer

I've been wanting to run it in the Optima challenge
but you need a sponser or invite.. been bugging
the guy in charge and he finally sent me an email
back asking where I am campaining it next.. might
have to run the hillclimb at Virgina City but we will
see what he says.. Scott Black may know these guy
Scott any help??

Bob Benson #3 Black Pantera