Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

May 19, 2001

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We've been plugging away at the NAE™ but weather and other events seem to interfere with any real progress. The weekend after Keith and I went to Wenatchee for the CAP convention, I left for the El Mirage opener. I stopped over in San Jose to meet up with Bud Jones and Larry Clime. We traveled to El Mirage on Saturday and spent the night on the lakebed. That dried lakebed sure gets hard and cold by two or three in the morning. There was a full moon so it was like sleeping with the lights on. The meet was safe and fast with only a few spins and no accidents. Upon return to San Jose I loaded some of Bud's old Ford flathead parts in my van and headed North.

We've been framing up a new tail for the NAE™ and that has been going rather slow. The framing should be finished up over the next few days then we install the skin. That takes several hands and lots of rivets. Upon completion of the tail, we then get started with the two last major damaged skins. We saved them for the last because of the difficulty of the work. We'll have to call out the experts for this job. Once we get that work done, we start preparing the skin for application of paint. I can't wait to get the NAE painted. PPG has promised the paint and paint products for the project so we'll get together with them and work out the details.

Steve Green (Eagle Machine) has been on the lookout for a replacement wafer of aluminum for the front wheels. Having the one stolen from his shop was a major loss. We're looking for a wafer about 30" in diameter and about 8" thick. It has to be 7050 or 7075 with a hardness of T-6. If anyone happens to have one lying around in their back yard, contact Steve.

As for the #828 Lakester, I've picked up my crankshaft and other parts from Cope Bros. machine shop after getting all the parts balanced. I'll pour some block rock in the bottom of the water jackets and then get started with assembling the whole thing. This little 258" Chevy should be a real screamer. More to come on the Lakester.

Regards, Ed Shadle

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