Projects First March Meet Dragster Build

I've been trying to find time to start this thread for a while but wanted to make some progress before posting. This is also my first build thread so please excuse my poor pics or grammar....
A little over a year ago I purchased the Rod&Custom 50th anniversary book and came across a full page photo of a dragster from 1959. When I was a kid I had a picture of this car taped to my bedroom wall, it was ripped out of a Hot Rod magazine. I'm sure most of the people here remember some car when you were young that just stuck in your head-this was mine. The more I looked at the car the more I started to wonder what happened to it and began to search around on the net. After not finding much info I decided to see if I could contact any of the original builders. ( I don't even know why I was taking it this far but I grew up around old racers and figured at least I might hear some great stories) My first call was to James Warren, James' wife Juanita answered the phone and confirmed I had the right # but told me there would be no great story as James was suffering from Alzheimer's. Eight months earlier the same disease took my mother's life so this news hit close to home. We talked more about the disease and James' condition then she suggested I should call he brother, Roger Coburn ( I'm sure most drag fans here know these names well) Before I could get a chance call, Roger had already left a message at my house. I called him back & we talked about the car and how much fun racing was at that time, I learned that just a year after they built the car it was parted out, the engine went into their next car (a twin engine rail) and the car was sold to someone who put a flathead in but never really did much with it. Roger was still involved in racing a nostalgia FED but said in 50yrs he had never seen or heard of the car after they sold it. He said he would go see Bob Crowe (welder and driver of the car) and ask if he knew anything. Next week another phone call at home (by now my wife is starting to question why these guys from Bakersfield keep calling the house) Bob tells me his nephew belongs to the same car club the guy who bought the car was in and has him ask around about the car- no luck, no one remembers it. At this point I began to realize just how much the car means to these guys and I tell them I'd like to recreate it if they were interested and would help with the details. Bob and Roger thought it was a great idea - and I had some explaining to do to my wife who has been waiting for me to finish her bathroom....
Moving forward a few months, I've collected a lot of parts and heard a bunch of stories but my dream of reuniting the original builders with their first car took a sad turn. On Thanksgiving day 2010 Roger passed away due to complications after emergency heart surgery. And last week James Warren joined his racing partner. I'm still thrashing to have this car finished and in Bakersfield by October for Bob and James's cousin Ken the two remaining builders and will be updating progress pics here when I can. There a lot of HAMB people who have helped already with parts and support. Here are a couple pics of the car.

 

that car is the single biggest influence on my flathead six powered HA/GR. I LOVE that car! Awesome that you are cloning it, as mine is mostly influence and artistic license. Jump on ebay and get a copy of the Rod and Custom it was featured in, there are a BUNCH of shots of it

 

that car is still around, i remember seeing it or one alot like it at bakersfield hot rod reunion. its pretty crazy how small it is. Sweet build, should be a fun project!

 

Great build Rat
Look forward to your updates.
Legends of drag racing ,was very sad when they went.
Always think of them when I see a Rain for rent trailer..
sending you a PM
Luke

 

Rat Deuce,

It's really cool to hear that you're recreating this car. It's always been a favorite of mine! I sure hope that the remaining guys will get to see it. Looking forward to see it built up!

fiveohnick2932,
I think this may be the car you're thinking of. Colman Bros. Speed Shop.

Here's a link to a thread on it:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70840

 

Good luck. Looks like you have a big jump on the project. Keep us posted.

 

Rat Deuce,

I just remembered that I'm pretty sure that there are some shots of this car in action in Don Tuttle's Hot Rod Potpourri videos. I'm going to go look at mine and let you know for sure.

If you can get ahold of them it might help your research.

 

I am old enough to remember when that copy of R&C came out...think that the title was "Chaise Lunge" because the driver reclined like he was in a chaise lounge...I always remembered it because it was so different, the Bakersfield guys were never afraid to experiment.

This car will be another great tribute to Coburn and Warren and the other guys who worked with them, really glad to see that you are recreating it, and the workmanship is first-class!!

 

The Coleman Bros. Speed Shop rear engine rail pictured above IS NOT the car that Warren & Coburn built. The Coleman Bros car was built by Scotty Fenn (Chassis Research) for the Colemans in Glen Burnie Maryland after he sold Chassis Research to Els Lohn in 1962.

 

Rich,

If you read my post, I was merely posting it for fiveohnick2932 as he thought it might be the same car.

 

Good luck with the build. My friend's had a 55 Chevy back in the late 60's. The first time I went to the drags was at Lion to watch that car run. The car and Lions are long gone...... I have always wanted to build a copy of that 55.

 

Thanks Guys,
The car is often confused with the Coleman car, and the Eugene "Red" Case car (Red was killed in that car in '59) There are a few other rear engine Go-Karts that ran in the same time frame and area also, all very similar. I have the "Chaise Lunge" R&C issue and the Hot Rod mag with the car featured. They are great resources for pics. The written information is a bit misleading as the car went through some changes pretty quickly. If you look close at the pictures you can see things that don't agree picture to picture in the same article-very confusing when you are trying to re-create something. The photos really don't give you a good perspective on how small this car really is! The driver drove this thing with no shoes (no room) and had the nick-name of "Hot pants". When you sit between the rails it's no surprise why...

Rolleiflex: Sure hope you are right about that video!

 

Good luck......I hope you get it done in time....Littleman

 

Still call me crazy but I swear ive seen that car. I would get my albums out but they are packed away because I just moved.

 

Back to the build: I'm farther along on this than what I'm posting but figured this way I could find time to keep the thread going. Once I got the rails and engine mounted to a frame table I took some pictures from the same angle as one of the magazine photos. The plywood template was made to match the photo (after a couple tries). Since the radius did not match any die I had access to I decided to use the "Torch & sand" bender. The wood template was used to make a steel preform and then clamped to my milling machine. The base plate material was 5/8" thick steel So I figured the table would stay cool and clamping was pretty straight forward. For most of the heating a rosebud torch was used but a cutting torch worked better for the inside of the bend. One end of the tube has a jacking bolt and disc inside to add pressure to the sand and a vent hole to let any steam out. By the end of the day the bar was ready to weld to the rails and my garage jacket had a few new burn holes...

 

Loveing this, more please,,,,,,

 

Looking forward to see it out there!

 

After spending many hours looking at photos with a magnifying glass and convincing myself that the engine placement is right it's time to start making some tubes permanent. The roll bar got a couple "tweaks" before welding in as the width tightened up after cool down. The whole frame is mild steel most of it 11 ga. (roll bar is .160 wall) the down tubes were next. From the magazine pics they were at 14 degrees making for a lot of grind-check,grind-double check! Next is the steering, the box is a Ross unit from a 50's Willy's jeep. A local jeep expert thinks he has one....

*Looking for Ariel motorcycle girder fork friction dampers for the front axle!*
*SEE LAST PICTURE*

 

Awesome build. Good luck! I always love seeing something alittle different!

 

I am following this thread with great interest...Do you plan to go to Bakersfield when it is finished?

 

Picking up on the steering again, The box was mocked up to install the the upper shaft mount.(yes, the trusty digital level makes it into more pictures,best $35 I ever spent!) The second pic is what my typical weekly question photo looks like, It's a blow up from the 59 R&C article (hard to get details from a shot like this!) I send these pics just about every week to Bakersfield along with progress photo's for the guys. Bob shows them to the original "Smokers" club members and says they can't wait to see the car in October, hopefully I won't let them down... While waiting for answers on how to mount the steering box I moved on to the spring perch construction and axle mounting. The axle is a Kurtis Kraft midget axle that was donated by Hamber and longtime friend Don Wemple. I soon found out that Kurtis front springs are pretty hard to find and since the one on this car was severely de-arched I'm having a local spring shop make one-more on that next time.... Less than 4 months to go, YIKES!

 

Picked up the new spring, at first the local shop didn't want to do anything "custom" (to many custom people bring back springs saying car doesn't sit right and want their money back) after convincing him that won't be me he had it done the next day. I brought a lot of money, just in case... but was happily surprised when he charged me $48! The closest spring material available was 1-3/4" wide I need 1-1/2" so, 2hrs of back and forth on the mill = 1-1/2" spring. The spring segments then got tapered and polished, another part ready for chrome! Someone noticed the heat mark on the axle in the last post. That came after I got a phone call reminding me that the Kurtis axle has different right & left castor- that had to be corrected, no more left hand turns for this axle... Skipping around, front motor mounts were next. Then I mounted the fuel valve, it's a Kohler, like Moon used with their pumps. This thing drove me nuts! The picture I had made it look like a round flange, but then I found out they cut the square flange because it stuck out too far.

 

This is a killer tribute.I love the old way of going fast.

 

When this car was built parts came from all over, The fuel tank came from an Aircraft salvage yard and was originally modified from a WW2 Oxygen tank. After many wasted phone calls and emails to internet based yards I was almost ready to give up, buy some pipe and make my own. Everyone had tanks but nothing that looked like the size or type I needed. During my weekly lunchtime trip to the local welding supply shop I asked if they ever had any small O2 tanks that were round on both ends. The counter guy never saw one but said he would ask their cylinder expert and get back to me.
By the time I got back to work there was a message on my phone " I'm not sure but I think I have your oxygen tank" It turns out the cylinder guy had a small government issue breathing air tank dated 10-43! He also used to hang out as a kid at the shop of local drag racer Ron Abbott (driver of the Hellzapoppin Rail That ran against Garlits in the 63 finals) and was interested in seeing the project come together. Price of tank-pizza party for the counter guys! Some days ya just get lucky!
The pics sort of explain themselves, first it needed to be shortened 3", valve neck cut off, hole filled, filler neck installed and the "in and out" holes added. Then lots of sanding! these tanks are really not as round as they look.....

 

With the fuel tank done,I rolled a couple rings up to mount it to the frame. I also located a moon fuel pump after many losing attempts on E-bay and then had to buy a second one because the mount was not like the original car (later model I guess) I should have noticed that BEFORE I bid Too many late hours spent looking for parts! When you look at the magazine pictures of this car the fuel pump was mounted two different ways. The first version was pointed downhill and later pics show it parallel to the down tubes. When I asked why this was changed, Bob blamed Roger and Roger didn't remember...(blamed Bob) I mounted it even with the top rail, I have more pictures showing it that way and think this is the way it was with the big motor. Since I'm a Ford guy the master cylinder was a big mystery to me, it was also not something the guys remembered... Luckily Hamber "Alananator" listed a 53 Chevy M/C for sale here and BINGO! perfect match! I can see why someone would use this on a dragster, it's flat bottom mounts make it an easy setup to mount on a rail. The last two pics are the start of the mounts for the rear axle - more on that when I start to narrow the Q/C rear...

 

Great progress! Looking good.

 

Great work Steve.
Thanks for the updates
Sent you a PM
Luke

 

The first engine in this car was a 354 Hemi when that motor was replaced (read "blown up") by the bored & stroked 392 a custom fabbed expansion tank was added to the back of the block (along with a few other changes I'm still finding out about) The first pic is the tank in pieces. I left the neck separate of the main tube assembly because I had to turn the neck from bar stock and wanted to leave that for last when welding together, That way I had the option of making changes if I didn't like the way it came out and could adjust the final height in the neck section. One pic I had showed the radiator cap to be an old A-C unit. I knew that because my 56 vette project came with one and it has been in my toolbox for the past 25 years. I think it has found a new home...

 

After staring at one fuzzy picture of the steering on this for months I finally got a break and received a picture showing the set up clearly. I had always thought that since the pittman arm comes out under the front crossmember it must come off the bottom of the box. So I purchased a ross box from a willys that was set up that way- WRONG! The new picture clearly shows a top mount pittman that was extended and dropped to make it come out where they wanted it! Probably another case of "how can we make this part work" So back to the local Willys/Jeep expert with my new picture and out of the attic comes the correct box. It was a year older than the bottom arm version and other than that looks identical... (nice to know lots of people who save odd parts when building something 50years old)
After the steering was together I decided to finish the front axle. The stock Kurtis shock mounts had to come off and brackets were made to attach the Ariel motorcycle dampers. I also needed to make the bottom spring perch plate. The radius rod mounts were cracked and needed repair, along with many of the other welds. This axle led a hard life on a circle track and showed it... next week back to the rear axle!

 

Looking great Steve:
You are really researching it.
How you getting this to B field?
Will it be running?
You should take it over to the Dover reunion at LVD.
This cant be far from you. Debating going myself.
If you need something write me
thanks for the updates
Luke