Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

I’d say it’s a,umm, revolting development.


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All you need is a couple battery cables a pushbutton three wires and a toggle switch. At least that is all my afx car has lol it’s so basic but then again it’s all mechanical the only electrical stuff is the starter and the magneto lol


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That wiring harness is going to add 200 pounds! lol Larry

 

Nope. All the boxes were in the car at weigh in...lol

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I got the shut off switch installed today.



...And fabricated this nifty little bracket to mount the coil up front.







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..AND I figured out how to use my expansion tank. I was about to toss it on the scrap shelf. But I have so much time and money invested in it that I just hate to toss it aside.



I know it is not clocked the right way but at least it is over there on the driver's side of the engine compartment where it is supposed to be. Basically all I am doing is just rotating it 180 degrees and moving it towards the fender.

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I also got the complete Fast system installed today. I will not cover that here on the thread as it is not exactly HAMB friendly. If you see something and have a question shoot me a personal message. But that is the reason the Coil is up front. To keep it as far away from that stuff as possible.

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Moving the expansion tank has made for some interesting issues. As I said before we basically just flipped it 180 degree so now what was facing south and connecting to the intake is now facing north towards the upper radiator inlet.


I really think this is going to work well (maybe even better than the other direction as now we will have some assistance from gravity). However the only issue is getting a neck to attach to the above. No problem right? Just another thermostat cover and gasket and we are in business. Well that is what I thought too. But to make it work, I need a straight (0 degree neck) and therein is the rub. They do not exist! I know, I know I thought that too but I talked to everyone under the sun from CJ Pony Parts, to Scott Drake, even Ford Motorsports. NOPE!


So when in doubt, whip the plasma cutter out! I made a very good pattern for the cover and traced it on piece of .25" plate steel. Then I rough cut it out with the plasma cutter and cleaned it up with a grinder.


In the end I had a perfect flat base. I took a 1.5" hole saw to it and while it took a while, I finally got a perfect, clean hole in it. Then I took some of the left over 1.5" roll cage scrap and welded a neck on it over the hole.


I put a pretty heavy bead on it so I could finish the weld almost smooth (or close enough for whom it is for). It fits perfect but as is shown above is fairly susceptible to blowing the hose off of it.


So I simply shot a few short beads around the end of the neck and cleaned them up really good just to make sure there were no sharp edges or anything. I am trying to decide how to finish it. I have some very durable ceramic engine paint or might send them over and have it powder coated.

 

I don't know what the bolt spacing or t'stat cirle size is, but
MOPAR
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mopar+440+thermostat+housing

Yes, the Ford has a strange bump for the bypass, but the neck is straight and you blocked off the hose anyway...

 

Whittled one out of aluminium.

 

Looking good Randall


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Good morning boys and girls let me recap this weekend by saying it was fairly productive. At least we knock out one of the important last few pieces in the engine compartment...the expansion tank. It all started with this little beauty:


Starting backwards right to left.
4. Saturday morning when we began simply holding the tank in place and looking for bracket options. I have to say there were not many. I was going to come off the fuel pump block off plate and up but it was simply too far and complicated. We had a roll tube down bar right behind it under the driver's side front fender. However using it would cause us to redesign the aluminum panel that already installs in that area (not a huge issue but avoiding it would be my first choice).

Basically that only left the upper cage hoop that runs just inside the hood line down around and back up the other side to the firewall. So I started playing around with bending the 1" wide by 3/8" bar stock. It was at that point that Dad watching from the other side of the car says you know if we weld that thing and it sticks too far out we are going to have another obstacle to remove and install the engine.

So I dug around and found 2 pieces of pre-drilled plate (4) and cut them down to the rectangle you see here. Then I welded one of them to the top of the roll bar in the general area. I bolted the other one to it and then went back to measuring.

3. After several attempts at a soft bend that just did not look right we simply created our own straighter angle. We eyeballed its placement and "vice-gripped" it down.

2. For the mounting plate I measured, cut and bolted a poster board template to the tank and held it in place again. With the tank being close to where we needed (or at least as close as one could hold it), we moved the down arm a bit closer and marked the angle on the poster board. We test it fit still with the cut poster board and it all looked very close. Close enough to go ahead and make the mounting plate out of steel and weld it to the down arm. Any adjustments at that point could still be made at the top before welding down arm 3 to the second plate 4 (follow)...LOL

1. Now the plan had been to simply mount the tank to the backside with a gasket and the new homemade thermostat cover to the front with a gasket sandwiching the bracket. However while I was cutting the mounting holes and 1.5" hole in the middle for water flow, I realized it would be much simpler to put the water neck on the front of the backet. So that is what we did.


With the tank bolted in place and the entire bracket (minus the top mounting plate) welded solid we could vice-grip it in place and make adjustments forwards and backwards and also to make sure it was straight with the incoming radiator hose. When we were happy, without removing the vice-grips, I gave it a good hard tack, removed the entire bracket and welded the heck out of it. Note...before installation we cleaned all the welds and angles up nicely and gave it several coats of Duplicolor Satin Black Ceramic Engine Paint.


With our placement decided it was time to take a close look at the upper radiator hose path from the engine to the tank. It is pretty cut and dried, a simply 90 degree turn and straight in. So we made a trip to the local auto parts store and it didn't take long to spot the perfect hose hanging on the wall.

However after making the correct cuts on it there was an extended mounting hole on the top of the water pump that was putting a bit of a kink in the plan. We do not need the hole so we simple "carefully" cut it off and ground the area smooth.


At that point it was time to mount it all of it including the aluminum side panel and radiator etc. This is what the mount looks like after bolted in place awaiting the expansion tank.


With the tank in place our intentions are fairly clear. LOL ...We also installed the radiator fan which I am happy to say also cleared any potential obstacles. It is getting pretty tight up there!


I am very happy with how this thing has lined up, essentially "back-asswards." If you didn't know where it all started and what orientation it was in you would swear we meant to do it this way from the beginning.


AND...I now have the perfect place to drop my HAMB Alliance tag! I am thinking I better glue that puppy down though, probably not the correct place for rivets! LOL

 

OH! ....and check out that blank pad there where the Blaster Coil used to sit. When I cut off the top piece of the water pump I began with the saws all. The vibration of the saw on that area broke the rubber "Vibration" proof legs. What the heck is up with that?!!!

 

Wow just Wow that looks GREAT!

 

I spent some money today just for you James...LOL. I know how much you hate to see those bright red MSD things hanging out on a vintage car. So I got a black cap, a black MSD coil and Ford Racing 9mm wires today. Hopefully that will "Ford-up" the ignition system. I just hope by now you can see this stuff with BOTH eyes....how are you doing?

 

You should has got black wires.
Healing up slowly, waiting on new glasses so still blind in one eye and can.t see out of the other.

 

LMAO! I "photo-shopped" the goofy blue wires in just for you James. Sorry just wanted to make sure you were seeing correctly. Lol

Don't worry these are what is going on the old girl.



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After all this you still have a sense of humour.

 

Man, that’s Ford lookin as shit.

 

I spent some time in the back of the parts store this evening trying to find the second upper hose section.. Holding up my wire hanger pattern and staring at hoses probably bound for a Hyundai or Mazda or some other piece of crap modern disposable automobile. How excited do you think that hose was tonight when it got slid under the hood of the Cobra! I guarantee that is one grateful hose right there. I bet in return it never fails. LMAO!


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When you get real good at that you can get more than one hose out of it.

 

Pretty good day in the shop today. Not the direction we started in but we ended up in "coolsville" so all is well. As I have said I won't dwell on the high tech stuff but today while finishing mounting some of it I had an idea of how to make it a bit less obvious. Here is what we had this morning.





And here is what we had just before lunch.





It all started with the back of a coffee machine Dad saved a long time ago because of the louvers.



After some thought and measuring, I cut the panels to best utilize the louvers. I put them in the brake and did some final trim work for fit.



And Poof all that stuff disappears. I am very happy with the final look.






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Installed the headlight and ignition switch in the dash today as well.



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Those louvered covers look great.Nice job!

 

Love it!

 

Your dads a "think'n man", that's cooler than the back side of your pillow in July in Missouri!

I drug this home from work years ago, don't have a clue what I'll do with it.

 

I know. He actually has a bunch of those panels. Good thing too, as to make my covers match from side to side I needed two top sections. But I won't let the rest go to waste. I already used one section this morning as an upper mounting bracket for the radiator.



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Great idea with the coffe machine. I might start hitting up good will and looking for coffee makers

 

So I mentioned this weekend's efforts sort of took a detour. A nice detour but a detour none-the-less.



We started the morning with the intention of installing the brakes. We gathered all the parts including our super-cool through chassis fittings from Pete&Jake's. We drilled the chassis, installed them and then worked out all the pieces we would need and headed to the parts store.

When we got there we discovered the IN side of the through chassis fittings were NPT. They looked like they took a double flare but alas...NPT. So that is a pain in the backside and is going to take a fitting log jam of sorts to make them work.

Standing in the back of the parts store staring at the fitting drawers I called Pete&Jake's. I told them what I had and asked how in the wide world they expected them to be used. He said with the awesome adapters they have custom made for them. !!!!!!?

Suffice to say I ordered them. They were just a few bucks apiece. My question??? Why sell the through chassis fittings with out them. That is crazy.


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