Projects Austin Somerset Gasser Build (DragNasty)

Your oil is going to tuckered by the time it hits the crank.

 

The Hot Rod God's were watching over us this evening. Really counting our blessing!



Dad was coming into Springfield for a Friday Night Cruise-In and a car pulled right out in front of him. He didn't even have time to hit the brakes before T-Boning the car. He was tossed out of the roadster and over the car. He looks a little rough but after all the scans and tests tonight all they found was one broken rib. Keep him in your prayers as he is going to be sore for a while. Lucky, Lucky, Lucky!!!

 

Glad that your dad is OK. How the F... can someone not see a bright red and yellow hot rod???

Roo

 

Damn! Too many people just aren't aware of whats around them. Glad he's going to be ok, very lucky indeed!

 

Lucky indeed. Glad your dad's going to be ok. Shame about the damaged to the car though. Looks like it was nice. Is it repairable?

 

Thank God he's ok, that could've (and really should've in all honesty!) been REALLY bad!! Anything I can help with?

 

Wow! Hate to hear that. Praying your dad recovers quickly! Thankful it wasn't worse.

 

Two words "seat belts"

 

Most certainly the obvious response and you are preaching to the choir. The Austin has a 14 point cage and 5 point belts. But the roadster is a different animal from a different time. We have always had the opinion (crazy as it sounds) that we might be better to bail out versus strapped in and riding it out. I know that sounds nuts and maybe even irresponsible. Our true precautions with the car were how and where it was driven.

Of course there is always the other driver element that you can not control. But honestly that is risk we all take not just in a classic car but any car. I have to say after finally getting my hands on what is left of the rod last night (which by the way the initial posted photos from the tow company don't even begin to show the carnage) we were correct. The roadster does have seat belts but if he had been wearing them this would have been a very different thread. There is no way he would have survived strapped in the cockpit. I do not in any way want that to advocate for not belting up. It only shows someone with knowledge of the future had a hand in this build 20 plus years ago and was at the scene Friday as well. I don't think anyone in this hobby, if they are truly honest can have an attitude or a philosophy any more or less than "...as God go I"... But we do what we love and we do it with a certain amount of risk.

 

Well said...!



I use seat belts and the God belts... even on cycles! (Bicycles)

 

Hanging out at home with Dad for a couple of days. He is doing really good. He is up and walking every hour. Between exercise sessions I did manage to slip down to the shop and get back to the build. When we left off last week I was struggling to get the oil cooler plumbed in... As planned last Friday, today I screwed the remote oil filter adapter to the bottom of the stupid Moroso adapter that was already there. I plugged the Moroso inlets and moved the AN Fittings down to the new adapter.


So now where to hang the remote filter. Again after laying under the car and walking around it with filter and boss in hand for quite a while I finally decided the most un-intrusive place was the fuel pump block off area. So I made this handy dandy little bracket.


Bolted it to the filter boss and then bolted it right to the fuel pump block off plate.


Then it was just about forming the hoses and putting them in place.

 

I also swapped out the 87 jets for 90s as planned

 

Do they make bigger fuel inlets?

 

No way I know of outside of some serious mill work on the carbs. I am losing the barb style fittings and putting AN in their place. The carb inlets are the same size as the MagnaFuel regulator outlets. The regulator has 6 AN outlets to each carb and one 10 AN on the way in...

 

Any status updates? How's your dad doing?

 

Updates on Dad?

 

Sorry guys I have not been on the HAMB for a bit. Thanks for asking, Dad is doing very well. He has pretty much made a full recovery. We have been trying to get him back in the hot rod hobby for the past month: 32 Ford 3 Window. It has taken more effort than I planned to simply drop a sbc in a killer roller coupe but I think we are finally over the hill. He drove it quite a bit this past weekend and he seems to be his old self again.

 

Good thing dad is OK. Now back to rotting metal. Have looked at your thread. Is your cage bolted in? And if so will this fly past tech? Been thinking of doing that using G8 bolts and don't touch my nuts.

 

Actually the cage in the Austin is welded to plates that are welded to the floor pan (for the most part they are 6" x 6" .25" thick steel plates). It started out as a simple old school hoop with two runners back into the truck area, but I lost control of it. I tried to end the cage legs at factory body mounting point on the chassis. The mounting bolts go through the plates and then to the chassis mounts. There are 6 of those points spread out from the cowl area to the rear. The only part of the cage that is bolted or pinned are the two legs that run from the firewall down to frame in the engine compartment. My thought was to build a self contained roll cage that could leave with the body should you we ever decide to remove it from the Chassis.

Honestly I don't know if it will pass NHRA. In my opinion it is a bit out of control as it ended up as a 14 point cage by the time we were finished. There are some real roll bar "aficionados" on the HAMB...I should know, I heard from several of them about how I should have done things different etc. The question about building a bolt in system would probably be a good thread.

 

I cleaned the shop Sunday and found the Austin again so hopefully we can get back to wrapping this project up!

 

Was thinking on doing the same. Using G8 bolts. IF it will pass tech. Not necessarily NHRA, but one of my local tracks. Don't know if either uses NHRA rules. Union Grove was NHRA at one time. Rte. 66 has to be? Have to start taking car apart to see what I need to do.

 

Was wondering what compression you have and what size blower ? Also what percentage on the pulleys ?

 

We are about 10 to 1 but we are going to be running e-85 so we can get away with a lot more compression than we could on race fuel. The blower is only a 6-71 and we are currently set to over-drive it only 9 percent. AND...just for the record that all sounds really nice on paper but at this point we have still not even fired it. Ask me again about this time next year, I should have a pretty good education on it by then...LOL.

 

8.5 percent over made 3.2 lbs of boost for me, 540 with a 6-71 on pump gas.

 

That sounds about right. I have had several blower guys say in a BB application a 6-71 is not going to make tons of boost. I figured if we made 4 or 5 we would be lucky.

 

You ever get tired of grinding on high dollar parts to make them fit. Today it was a couple of unused tabs on a brand new MSD Billet distributor base. Otherwise they would have hit the blower pop off valve and not allowed for any timing adjustments.

 

Often wondered why there's extra casted bumps on those... Maybe they were making provisions for vacuum advance?

 

Enjoyed my entire Sunday afternoon reading this awesome thread. Thanks for posting all your detailed updates - thoroughly enjoyable. Can't wait to see the final result.

 

Those tabs are for different style caps, one set is for a small cap with hei terminals. It screws down unlike the points style which has the spring loaded retainers. The tabs next to the pop off valve is the ones that are grooved underneath for the points style.

 

I just find it amusing how second nature it has become on this project to just grab the grinder and make something fit. The engineers for MSD, Sanderson, McCleod, Weiand, Holley, more part makers than I can list have nothing on me and my little Dewalt for fit and finish...LOL! ...and I love every minute of it!