Jack and Brett Harris are hoping to debut their new "Nitro Thunder" Pontiac Firebird Funny Car at the 2008 March Meet but are falling short of time to complete it. Although Davie Uyehara is nearly finished with the chassis, the body still needs to be mounted and the interior tin installed. Admittedly it going to be close for the March Meet but either way Jack will compete in his Nitro Thunder Top Fuel dragster at the event. One or both cars will definitely be there!

 

Utah Corvette body ace, Rex Marshall did the Firebird "nose job" at the Harris Racing shop.

 

 

 

 

Rex Marshall

Firebird body after its "nose job" the body is ready to go to Uyehara's shop in California.

 

 

And in the confines of Uyehara Race Cars, the Nitro Thunder chassis is basically complete waiting to have the body mounted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Davie Uyehara and Billy Robins

 

After the body arrived from Utah, it was fitted to the frame for the mounts. The next step is the interior tin work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW 02-22-08: Fuel tank fabricated and in place.

 

 

 

"Puke Tank" fabricated and bottle brackets in place.

 

 

Interior body tin taking shape.

 

While the funny car nears completion in California, the Nitro Thunder transporter sits snowbound in Kaysville, Utah.

 

 

 

 

 

On March 3rd, Jack and crew got out of the bad weather in into Uyehara Racecars to facilitate the final work on the car.

 

 

 

With the tin in and on the body, the next task was to cut the opening for the blower and injector in the hood. This was done by David Myer who crews on Dave Smith's Nitro Fever top fuel car and works with Uyehara part time.

 

 

 

Steve Tyrell oversees the work while David makes progess.

 

Myer and Larry Earlywine fitting the windshield.

 

Davy Uyehara at work - always with a smile.

 

Cutting the opening is an exact process. You don't want the body hanging up but you also don't want the opening too large.

 

 

 

After several fittings, all is good.

 

Myer, Earlywine and Davie's fabricator, Dave Reath.

 

The car then went up on a rack to get the final detailing done on the underside of the chassis including the brake lines and other hard lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the ground the windshield goes in and the side fire protection panel tin installed.

 

 

Jack Harris puts the fasteners in the aluminum header shield.

 

That's about all they could do here. The car went into a trailer to be hauled home via the March Meet.

 

Firebird Funny Page 2

 

More work in progress photos coming soon
from the Harris shop in Utah.