Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

I'am hungry now....you buying lunch?

 

Damn James I was south of Springfield on sat you should have said something we all could have got together for a meal on Randall lol


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Living the dream brother Looks GREAT. And you are correct in the small block body style.

 

Yep Come on Down. I will put you to work cutting the hole in my hood for the scoop (Since I know you are experienced in cutting holes in fiberglass hoods)....!

 

Kinda late to the suspension design party, but I wanted to mention that this is what I did. Basically a 4 link, with quarter eliptic mounted as the lower links and no panhard.
It works pretty well on the street, and ok at the track. 1.50's and lifts the front wheels. Problem is that when stressed it unwinds the springs and the axle wraps - breaking things in the way. By stressed, I left around 7,000rpm on slicks, and ripped the upper links off the frame, broke the driveshaft, and bent the mainshaft in the transmission. Mind you, this is after like 14 years of driving and dragging it.

I'm finally going to break down and switch it to ladder bars and coil-overs - but I've been pretty seriously looking at the torque arm / 1/4 eliptic setup like this one. It's really a cool way to go, and they work really well.

 

Also, that Cobra is looking ... perfect! I don't know another word that describes it better.

 

Well I had an epiphany Sunday morning. We have been struggling getting this suspension in line and square and the correct wheel base etc. It seems when we get one factor correct, suddenly another is out etc. We have been measuring and double measuring and scratching our heads. But Saturday night I figured it out. The big bracket on the housing for the torque arm had bent a bit while welding etc. It had forced us to pull the front of the arm to the right to get it into the front mount. I never really thought much about it at the time, but the sideways torque that thing was exerting on the housing is what kept springing the rear end askew.

To fix it we would have to blow it all apart, heat up the bracket just a bit and with the torque are still in place try to pull it back straight. The torque arm made a great lever and it didn't take but a few minutes to fix it and confirm we were good etc. We put a cross bar on it (like I have seen on several other torque are systems) just to make sure it stayed there etc.

So I am rolling the rear end section back up to the chassis and that is when I see it. I had to get on the floor under the rear end pick up the springs to get them over the blocks the chassis was sitting on. I saw the chassis from a whole new perspective. Laying there I could see the frame rails (which were at ride height on blocks at 7" off the floor) were at least 3" or more below the rear axel tubes. If it hadn't been for the two uprights, I could have rolled the rear end all the way up to the front.

I have mentioned several times that the original Cobras were basically an underslung chassis. In that moment it was clear this chassis should be underslung. There is plenty of clearance and it would help with a lot of other pending issues if the the uprights were aft of the rear end. It would give us a place to mount the shocks, something strong to tie the watt's link ends to and most importantly a point to put a rear cross member. Right now with the chassis ending in front of the axle and going up and over, the torque arm is in the way of a cross member etc.


I am really happy with it now. Look how flat the suspension is! AND it works too! I will upload a photo of Dad standing on it and bouncing up and down. NOTE: The Shocks are just hanging there in the top mounts, when they are bolted up at the bottom, they are actually at about a 15 degree angle when the bottom is hooked up.

We are still missing the cross members top and bottom back there and of course that little rusty strap across the back there is just to hold the frame rails in place etc. We still have some gusseting to do for strength but other than that, I think we about there. The watt's link is the last part of it and then we will be ready to weld the daylights out of all of it move on to mounting the body etc.

 

I also got a great video of the rear end rotation with out the torque arm hooked up. It rotates up so smoothly throughly the the lower control arms and spring shackles. Which means they are doing their job just holding everything in place. It also means the torque arm is going to be doing its job unfettered (transferring that torque to the chassis).

We eliminated any chance of suspension bind with several factors.
1. Longer lower control arms increased the arc over lap between them and the torque arm
2. By placing the rear mounts for the arms aft of the rear end housing by 3" we raised that arc so the cross section between them and the torque arm was closer
3. Both the lower control arms and the torque arm have bushings to allow a bit of latitude etc.

By doing these things we have eliminated the need to shackle the front of the torque arm which I was not terrible excited about in the first place.

 

Check out what I scored today!

Floor tiles for the garage. They are 15.5" tiles but he had limited colors. I snagged enough to do a really nice parking space below the Cobra (blue and gray) and also the same amount of silver and gray to do a checkered pattern under Dad's coupe. ....less than a buck per tile. I am pretty pumped as these are the goods ones from Swiss Trax.

 

We unpacked the Boss 363 short block last night and the Tremec. I am hoping to get them mated up tonight (temporarily) so we can decide on placement and mounts etc. Hopefully that all goes well because I would like to have the engine on the stand this weekend to start assembling it for good!

 

Some eye candy while you wait. Things are a bit slow this week, as we concentrate on getting Dad's Coupe on the road. He has a show this weekend and the HOT ROD 100 Reliability Run is just around the corner. But I did get the 363 on the stand and sat a few of the pretty things on it etc.




I suppose someday future Ford scavengers will be keeping an eye out for this block casting. I can hear them now, its a Boss 363...Are you sure, it should have a casting on the block that reads BOSS 302 etc. etc. etc. LOL


Probably a good thing we did some test fitting for photos as it was very clear my Howard Roller Lifters are not going in there with the heads ON!


And of course I have every single piece and part for this thing stupid thing EXCEPT a set of head bolts.


Jesel seem to be a nice initial fit. My cam came with a killer push rod testing kit. I had no idea until I unpacked the box it was shipped in. There are like 10 different rod lengths and of course all of them are adjustable plus multiple tips for different applications, Springs etc. I was fairly impressed. I guess that is the next step for us.

Maybe this weekend we will get after it. I am sort of dreading it as no one could tell us for sure that bumping the the ratios to 1.7 wouldn't mess with our push rod clearances. We maybe drilling some larger holes. Cross your fingers for us! LOL

 

Man, there's just something about virgin machined parts!

 

Looking Fantastic as usual! Thanks for the update!

 

Well we dropped the engine and trans in today to get an idea of where they need to sit etc. Couldn't resist sitting a few more of the shinny bits on as well.



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We are pretty close...going to sit the body on tomorrow and fine tune it so we can build the mounts etc. My tape measure eyeball job back and forth between body and chassis says we need to drop the motor about 3" or do. We shall see.



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Dad running through the gears. He is digging it.

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VROOM VROOM

 

Just to let you all know Randall's dad wasn't the only one sitting in that chair swinging the stick when I stopped by Randall himself was doin the same thing lol that car is looking real good and seeing the suspension in person really allows you to see how good it works keep Up the good work guys


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Is it ok to dislike you??? LOL

Incredible.

 

Question: Impossible to tell from your pics, but is the frame below the wheels? Looks like if a tire went flat, your frame would be on the ground before the wheel?

 

If you knew what I paid for those stupid wheels you would guess it was designed that way on purpose....LMAO!

 

I don't wanna know, I've probably bought cars that cost less!

I was just curious, it looks like in the pics that the frame would become a ground slide if a tire went down, not what a feller would want at 125 mph!

 

The way you have the frame uprights in the back is sure gonna make it tough if you ever have to pull the rear end housing out. Body will have to come off.

 

Well it has been a pretty good day. We sat the body again this time with engine and trans in place etc. Time to see how it is all going to fit.


The engine was dead perfect as far as front to rear. I had originally thought it was a few inches too high but after getting the body on aligned etc. it was actually pretty close right where it sat. I think we are going to drop it about an inch.





I was pretty impressed with the amount of room we are going to have. There is going to be a ton of leg room etc. That Tremec is absolutely perfect for this thing. More room than I have ever had in any previous hot rod including the Austin.

 

I higher you can mount the engine the higher the wheel stands will be.

 

Kind of what I was thinking too, also makes those Stacks a little more in your face!

 

^^^^^^ Yes, the stacks should stick out of the hood! If you get the engine too low you might smash the oil pan off the blacktop at the end of the wheelie. I always hated putting 9 quarts of racing oil on the ground!

 

Not too worried about that...at this point the pan is 8.5" off the ground and tucked 1.5" above the bottom of the frame rails...lol

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My Cobra "body" guy, who follows this thread on occasion, offered a little taller scoop. I may take him up on it and leave it right where it sits etc.

 

AND...this weekend I watched what at this point I am considering the ONLY video of a Dragon Snake in action to be found in the world. It was home video 8mm no sound from a fellow that heard about this build. I do not have permission to publish or share it yet. But it was pretty cool to see. It is the Yellow one...