Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing

Yesterday evening me and Max took the truck and trailer for a test drive after some work on the trailer!

Ready to go again, the plan for this year was to work on the truck and trailer to make it better and closer to ready and like I want to have it! But instead it’s been a lot about repairing brakes and boring stuff like that… Would been better to work on the inside of the trailer, but there is a new year next year for that I guess! =)

Last week me and Max took off all the wheels to get some new rubber on, been on my way to do this since I bought the trailer… but priorities and money have stopped that!…

When the wheels where off I just made a quick check on the brakes and realized that we didn’t have any brakes at all on one wheel….

For some reason the brake arm was loose… Doesn’t feels so fun that things just falls apart….

Time for new tires! A huge thanks to our partner Tobbe at T.Grundström Plåtslageri for letting me borrow his truck to transport the tires! 🙂

And a HUGE thanks to Jörgen Berg at Lastvagnsverkstan in Smedjebacken for giving me a super price on the tires and also helping me change them on a Friday evening! =)

When changing tires I took the opportunity to take a lower profile to get the total trailer height down a little bit!..

When I got back to the shop again I found some other problems with the brakes working outside the shop between the rain showers that I made some washers for to hopefully solve the problem with the snap rings not staying in the axle groove…. and then I also found a couple of bent brake hoses that I needed to change.

Then I found even more problems and spent the whole day yesterday outside in the cold weather in the rain and sun at the same time of course! 😉 adjusting the brakes and then finally late last night we got the new tires on the trailer and got it back on the ground and took it for a test drive, everything seems to work like it should right now and I hope it will continue like that now! 🙂

Last week me and Max got the truck back together again and it is ready for the trip to Malmö Raceway in little more than a week from today!

I did have a lot of trouble to get the brakes back together again, guess it’s because it’s an old model and a dragracing person is stupid enough to still use it…! 😉

I hate air brakes as much as I hate shitty persons that promises / say things and then do the total opposite!….

Thanks to Jörgen Berg for your support! I even got dad to spend some hours on it with me! 😉

Anyway me en Max (of course) did put it back together Thursday last week and took it for a test drive and everything works like it should now! 🙂

Max felt sorry for me I guess and made sure I got a really nice dinner afterwards! =D

Now it’s only the rest of the circus that needs to get organized and ready before TD round 5!

Pretty much nothing have happened on the Chevelle or the trailer since the end of May when we fired up the Chevelle at The Parts Stop Sweden’s SwapMeet except that I spent some time getting stuff around it in order for our first outing at Mantorp Park.

But last week Max had some time off and of course he decided to spend it here at the shop and service our truck replacing all oils and all filters everywhere on it!

He did also put one of our transmissions back together and made it ready to back in the Chevelle.

John went by also and spent some time on the trailer to make it more ready for some paint, hopefully that will happen after this season with help from our partner Kaross & Lackteknik in Jönköping! 😀

It actually gave me some spirit to start organize the winter mess in the trailer with parts and tools everywhere!!… 😉

A couple of weeks ago I also got all the necessary stainless steel material to fabricate the beds on the upper floor in the trailer, a huge thanks to Bengtssons Smide for always helping us out with the things we need, you guys are the best! 🙂

Crazy productive last 5 days on the trailer!!! 🙂

Me and Max went up north on Wednesday to pick up the truck and trailer after 7 months in the winter storage.

Back home in Stockholm and ready to start work on it again!

Where we stopped the outside work on it last year…

It actually felt really good to bring it back home again now when I got some spirit back to work on it! But it went back to the normal “I hate it mode” after about 65 hours spent on it the last 5 days… 😀 😉 Haha…!

Well we got all the stainless trim mounted on the trailer and now it is all framed in with stainless material from our awesome parter Bengtssons Smide in Täby!

And it looks crazy good!!! 😀

A huge thanks to Max, Sofi and John for the help during the past 4-5 days it would never been possible to do it without you!

We also got it all sealed up everywhere and we are getting it closer and closer to make it possible to get it painted by our partner Kaross och Lackteknik in Jönköping! Hopefully we will get a lot of things made on it during this soft racing season so we will be back on track for a full series during season 2019 in the Top Doorslammer Series!

Yesterday was truckin time again! Time to bring the truck and trailer back home to Stockholm and continue the work on it! Right now I actually got some spirit and ideas about what to do with it! =D But I’m not worried, someone will mess something up and make me lose it again! 😉

The new good looking trucking hat! 🙂

Motor almost made one turn before it was running after almost 7 months standing here in the winter storage!

The Volvo is loaded and it’s time for some practice driving back home to Stockholm from Sollefteå!

Love the Swedish roads during the summer! 🙂

I have been quiet for a while now, time for some updates!

The off season is here for real and pretty much nothing have been made around the racing circus since the last outing at Tierp Arena in the end of July, except for the last couple of weeks when me an Max (of course, who else) !? 🙂 have spent some time unloading the Chevelle and got the truck and trailer inspected, repaired and approved and legal to use for one more year on the Swedish roads!

After that we took the rig up north Sweden were it will be kept inside a warm shop so it won’t get more destroyed during the cold and wet Swedish winter weather, and also one really good thing is that I don’t need to see it standing outside the shop every day and make me sad..! 😀

The last hours of practice driving with Kermit and the trailer is over for 2017 and the rig is inside a warm safe shop to spend the winter! It feels kind of strange that all this is ours and already inspected and done for a coming season in the end of a season, this is usually a problem before the first event to solve but I felt that I don’t wanna do like we always do, need to start get things organized from now on…

Just some normal maintenance and control, we haven’t done anything at all to the truck since we bought it earlier this year more than fill it with fuel and drive it. We did also repair the ABS system so we got the warning symbol for it turned off, thanks to Jörgen Berg for helping out with a diagnostic diagram! 🙂

Time so see some light and get out from the trailer after sitting in it for 8 weeks, now back in the shop again and hopefully soon in the correct winter location with the blanket over so I don’t have to see her for a while…

The trailer is ready for the winter and cleaned out so we don’t get any disgusting surprises next year just because someone forgot or left some food or so in it.

At the yearly control! And it turned out pretty good. 

The trailer went trough smoothly but on the truck they didn’t like an ugly mark in the windshield that I did fix with a day or two of wet sanding and polishing 🙂 Not so fun but way cheaper that change the windshield.

Above you can see the difference on the windshield, been on my way doing this for a long time but haven’t got time for it and put my priorities on other stuff… but feels good now when it’s done! 🙂

And then they also found a steering rod that was in really bad shape so that one felt pretty ok to change even that it is a heavy job to do….! 😉

Then we loaded my daily Volvo in the trailer, took out all the things I might need in the shop during the winter and started our trip up north.

But first a stop at our awesome parter Bengtssons Smide to pick up some material that we are supposed to mount on the outside of the trailer during the winter when it been standing in the warm shop long enough to dry up everywhere.

Then to Opus to make the after control of the things they found on the yearly inspection.

And then the 7-8 hour trip to the winter place, of course it’s important to eat a lot on the way! 🙂

At the final destination and in the parking spot around 8 in the evening, now it’s just the 5-6 hour drive to get home again!