Hot Rods 29 RPU- "Street/Strip" B/SR Build - Marty Strode

This one is mostly welded (all I could do in the fixture), happy with the weight, 8-1/2 lbs with the hardware.

 

Those ladder bars are over the top! They look like sculpture.

 

Marty,
I really like the strips of aluminum trick. I made the mistake of trying to have the diagonals intersect the joint of the uprights and the longitudinal pieces. Way too much work and it doesn't even look good.
I also like how the weld will capture the bung, upright and tube. Very cool!

 

I’ll have to try that flat strap method for miter angles, thanks for sharing that. Those ladder bars came out nice and like you said, a little personal touch. Cool.


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Marty,
Just thinking, you could've made the bracing Capital M, Capital S.

 

Very nice work! They are a piece of art.

 

Those are too purdy for paint

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Hey Marty. Those are some stout ladder bars. That's a lot of fitting and welding too, looks great.

 

Clear coat!

 

Marty, besides being beautiful those would win tech week hands down and your camera work really picks up the quality of your fitment and welding, did you use the camera that you got from Roo?
I agree with Larry, it would be a shame to cover them with paint.
On the other hand satin nickel sure would look good in my opinion, I used the scotchbrite method on mine to get the satin effect before plating.

 

Great ladder bars - but: for street use you have no allowance for any side motion with clevis one end & solid rod end on frame end. On my drag car I have heim joint on frame end for minimal angle change in rear. Hard to explain. Drive into driveway one wheel up suspension must/should allow rear to angle; seems you put lot of stress on clevis. Jack up just one side of rear to test. I building street modified with parallel 4 bar ( & panhard ) want to use heim on frame & small tie rod ends on front axle ( single bracket ) for lots of freedom to move. Rear will most likely have heim & Johnny joint held between twin brackets.

 

Mike, I think you missed something I posted earlier, the solid rod ends will be for the strip and minimal street use. For long term street driving, I will use urethane ends. The bars will be pinched in the front, like So-Cal or P&J, and the mounts will be proper width for the poly ends, and will require spacers when the solid ends are in place.

 

Doug, I like the idea of satin nickel, but where do you get any plating done in Oregon ? I haven't used the camera Roo sent, yet, but I will soon. See you around !

 

Marty, I kind of agree with Mike, you may want to think about heim joints for the front. Any articulation between the frame and rear will try to break things. If you launch hard and lift one wheel more than the other you will get twist between the frame and rear.

 

Dale, I can always install high quality heims, and the bars will have the bolt on retainer loops, required by tech.

 

Saw bushing rod ends in early pics, wondered u never used. U the expect & yes drag inspectors will require those retainer loops. Never liked idea of front split A-bones & let axle flex take the strain. Ford had good idea of A-bones mounted center of car & let articulate on old rough roads. Love the car.

 

Marty, I believe that would be a good idea. Nice talking to you today. We need to do that more often.

 

I was told that I needed a dropped headlight bar, and a chopped windshield and a V8.

 

Marty, I had my electroless nickel plating done at TFC Plating, they are down Johnson Creek blvd. from Precision Castparts around 64th.

 

John, I really do have "A need for seed".

 

You guys might be overthinking this. My first RPU ran split '39 bones, and a torque arm along the right side of the drive shaft. The bones used stock ford rod ends and the torque arm used a large Heim joint threaded into a bronze bushing that slid inside a piece of tubing on the front of the arm. The arm bolted solid to the bell pattern on the QC. In 6 years of racing we never once had a problem with the rear end/arm mounting. Tore up some ring gears with the V8 QC. Fixed that with a larger Champ QC. After that it was a new clutch disc every two weekends. But that's another story.

 

Dean, I didn't realize you changed to a Champ rear axle, about what year did you make the change ?

 

Early '64 Marty. After tearing up the first ring and pinion, we welded a boss on the right axle bell and made a brass screw, I believe it was threaded 3/4-20, that screwed against the ring gear. This backed up the ring gear and kept it from moving away from the pinion. This worked for a few months, then, at the Winternationals, of all weekends, first pass on Saturday, the entire rear section of the QC busted completely off, and shot rearward about 15 feet. Indian Bob Beezer was doing his dance behind the roadster, and that flying QC half really put some pep in his step for a minute! I won't go into the thrash that got the car in line for eliminations at 2PM. So next we went to a Cook spool and axles. Got a few months with that, then destroyed another center section. Deciding that was enough, we pulled the Champ rear end out of our Bonneville Stude, and no more rear end problems. The roadster used a cross spring, and the Stude ran parallel leaf springs. Dad welded up some ingenious mounts that dutchman clamped to the axle housings and served as cross spring mounts. When an El Mirage weekend came along, we could swap the QC back into the Stude in under an hour.

 

I am with Dean on the "overthinking" deal. There are lots of drag race cars out there with ladder bars and solid rod ends and pretty much all of them have the ladder bars parallel whereas in Marty's case the front of the bars are close together (same as the P & J style street rod deal which has its origins in the Chevy pick up trailing arm package). Putting heims at the front of the bars won't let them articulate any more than with the solid ends because the ball in the heim can't rotate unless the bars move up and down relative to each other. If the bars came to a single point and there was just one heim then articulation would be possible but then you have basically what Ford used for years with the torque tube. With the bushed ends that Marty plans to use on the street there will be more than enough articulation.
Also, look at Marty's track roadsters which use split wishbones spaced the width of the frame rails--lots of street miles on them with no adverse effects.

Roo

 

I hate to correct you my friend, but the "truck arm" originated with the '49 Olds ! America's first Muscle Car, in my mind. Thanks for your input !

 

NASCAR boys run truck arm rear for years - May still

 

Isn't this a more traditional version of the ladder bar/ Truck arm rear end setup?

Another example - this one utilising a torque arm

Stole the pics from the interweb, so Kudos to the owners.

 

Is it too late to build it as a COE ? Nah, I moved the body ahead to install the ladder bars ! More tomorrow.

 

Today, I got the ladder bar crossmember tube, bent and fit into place, along with a rough ladder bar mock-up. The solid rod ends should arrive tomorrow, then I can fab the link plates, looking at having multiple holes for adjustment.

 

Yep, kinda looks like you know what you're doing...

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