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

What weight is the steel flywheel? Sort of remember years ago stick cars would run heavy flywheels & lot of revs to leave hard.

 

I haven't bought one yet, thinking somewhere between 30 and 40 lbs. I have a friend who ran a 50 lb wheel on a Ford Cammer in a '27 B/SR, left the line at 10, and shifted at 9.

 

Sounds like lots of fun but tough on driveline parts. Now days all about trans brake & histall converters. Southeast Gasser guys still haven fun

 

I have been off both projects for a while, taking care of jobs I had promised. One of the jobs, was work on a friend's 65 Mustang Convert, that he drag raced all through out the 70's, in Modified Production class. Since he was putting it back on the street, he didn't need some very select parts. He ran a wide ratio toploader 4 speed, that had a modified input shaft, with the 1-3/8", ten spline, and a pro-shifted synchro setup, done by Doug Nash. He also used a Jones cable drive tach, and some Hays clutch stuff that he didn't need, so we did some swapping. I already had 3, Vertex/Joe Hunt Magnetos, that are all top condition, and ready to use, but I wanted one with cable drive for a tach. I was able to source one from a friend, that is fresh from Spud Miller @ F.I.E, and I have the highly sought after, brown cap, to make it complete. So, next week should yield some progress on both, this one and the track roadster. It's all about the parts !!!

 

Wow, Cool Stuff Here Marty.

 

Alright, the cable drive tach is pretty darn cool. I'll admit it

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Picked this up tonight from a friend, he bought it years ago and never used it. 3-1/2 gallons should allow me to run alcohol, if I choose to.

 

Well, that's right there with the cable drive tach. Things are definitely coming together

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Marty:

How did this car with that engine and car weight run "B/SR"? Maybe I'm missing the obvious on the rules for that class?

- EM

 

Yes, with 427 cu.in. the legal weight would have been over 3200 lbs. Either that cammer was destroked and sleeved a whole bunch, or there was a hell of a lot of weight hiding somewhere. Probably was a former B/SR with a smaller engine, and the class designation painted on had not yet been changed.

 

I am waiting for a great shot of the car at the starting line. But here is the story ; Larry Kalsch is one of the best on Cammer Fords. The 427 was de-stoked to 395" by way of using a 330 Ford Industrial crankshaft. He sent the crank to Delta Machine and had the rod throws "wide cut" to accept 426 Hemi rods, so he would have a vast selection of rods available. The weight break for B/SR in 1973 was 7.5 lbs per inch, including driver. The car weighed 2970, due to the rear section of the frame was 4X2 tube and filled with lead. He stood the frame on end, and climbed a ladder to pour it full. He was the first to remove the timing chain, and machine a 2" Gilmer belt drive. to stabilize the valve timing. He also, band sawed the center out of the injector, making it resemble an early Chrysler, and others that used a valley pan. He didn't need a valley pan, just some soft plugs in the un-used lifter bores, and blocking the oil run back channel. The big problem Cammers had in T/F, was the time it took to replace burned pistons, between rounds. If Larry needed to pull a head, he would un-bolt one side of the injector, push it to the other side, kick the belt loose, an pull the head. He also built his own inertia dyno, with a 600 lb flywheel, housed in a giant electric motor housing. That was in the 70's, and is still in use today, he has run 1700 hp engines, down to his son's quarter midget engines, using a transducer. He recently sold the Cammer, after he freshened it up, to a guy in central Washington to run in a 65 Falcon ! He is a Genius, and will be helping me with the RPU.

 

Interesting story to say the least Marty. This is the level of innovation and "seat of the pants" engineering that I've always (really) enjoyed in most forms of "motor racing" but unfortunately it is sorely missing today. I still enjoy racing but it's just not like it used to be, not even close due to rules constraints and restrictions.

- EM

 

. . . and, if I remember, the weight/cu.in. figures were screwed with almost yearly.

We ran our 23 glass T (the left-overs from my 31 A pickup) at Fontana under AHRA rules. We ran C with 292". And was not competitive. Under NHRA we were an A or B(?). Even less competitive. We didn't enter the Winternationals 'cause they wanted $25 or $35. We got used to running for nothing – we were part of the show! Flat towed. Push started with my street roadster. Had fun! Painted it with 3 spray cans and decal numbers. Scotty had it lettered for us.

We were the first 9-second gas roadster at Fontana. Started from the back fence and ran outta gas at the end.

 

Here is Larry @ Mission B.C. doing a dry hop, before staging. The car ran a best of 9.09 @ 150 !

 

Jim, your story reminds me of a race in Kent Washington in 1963. It was a big Top Fuel race,with Ivo, Gotelli, and many other big names in attendance. The clocks had malfunctioned, and after re-setting them, the announcer asked for anyone in the pits, to come and make a run, to make sure they were working. No one came forward, and all of a sudden a white Chrysler station wagon came blasting out of the staging area, and crossed the starting line wide open, and ran a 12 second pass. It was none other than "The Greek" !

 

Of course Larry's car was 100% street legal, registration, plates, and all. Innovative, damn right, good for the class, no. I ran my numbers burdened by 8 lbs per cu. in. And there never was a time when I couldn't have corked it up, and drove it home.

 

That must've sounded so nice, especially at those RPMs!

- EM

 

Hi Marty; Haven't been on here in a while, COOL build !! see you at Riverdale, I HOPE THEY RACE !!!

 

Marty, I've been binge reading your build logs over the Holidays, and come up with some questions.

From the pictures of the front end. I see wide five wheels, brake backing plates, and early Ford spindles. What are the magic pieces that hold them together?

Where does the roll bar go on rpu: bed, cab, or the gap between? How will you do shoulder belt mounts? I was thinking on mine, of using outrigger frame mounts and coming up through running boards.

I heard recently that MIG actually means "maybe it's good."

 

As far as the front, it has 37-39 front hubs and drums, no backing plates at this time. The roll bar will be inside the cab, nestled in the corners, and bolted to 6" square plates that are welded to the frame, with outrigger gussets. The rear bars will intersect behind the driver's head, and same location on the pass side, and extend to the rear frame crossmember. The lap belts will be anchored to the frame, and the shoulder belts will attach to the cross bar behind the seats, similar to the ones in this deuce sedan. There is nothing wrong with MIG, in the right application, done correctly. Looking forward to seeing your project, good luck.

 

"As far as the front, it has 37-39 front hubs and drums, no backing plates at this time."

Marty on my vintage Gas Rail project, I've got a 39 front axle, with speedway early ford spindles. I bought a set of drums, planning to run them empty with wide fives. Per the UPS scales they weigh 49 pounds. Seems I remember one pound of rotating weight equals one horsepower. My little six can't afford losing that much power!

I've got the wide five QC and front spindles hubs and disk brakes from a late model. Stopped at dealer to help id parts. Counterman tossed me a new hub/disc assembly! I nearly ducked! Turns out the whole ball of wax only weighed 5-10 pounds. I was hoping you'd found a way to put old and new together.

 

If you can find a pair of the 2 piece hub and drum assemblies, remove the drums, and it's a pretty light weight setup. These are the 3-1/2" V-8 60 front wheels.

 

Nice looking build there Marty - have fun !

 

I built 3 of those, but sold mine without making a pass. A very nice Lady runs the wheels off it now. They did a great job finishing it up, a tidy little package !

 

View attachment 4930364 [/QUOTE]
WOW Marty, that is one fine looking rail. My new screen saver!

I've got a set of two piece drums coming from ebay. Any trick to splitting them?

 

WOW Marty, that is one fine looking rail. My new screen saver!

I've got a set of two piece drums coming from ebay. Any trick to splitting them?[/QUOTE]
If you take a 5/8" hole saw, and grind the inside of the teeth, so it will just slip over the studs, you can take a light cut, to remove the crimp. Then they should press out. If you are not careful, it will break the ears off of the drum. But you are probably not worried about the drums anyway.

 

Not much of an update, as I am busy with other projects. I did, however raise the truck on the lift, and took some shots of the underside, for another perspective.

 

Nice Marty. by the way, how far apart are those torque arms where they attach to the axle tubes? I'm having a clearance issue with the "Whatever" and was wondering how close together I could move the axle ends in. I'm really running out of room under there...

Theengineer in me says keep them as far apart as practicle, but clearance issues may prevale. The other options include moving the front pivot point out to clear the body, but I don't like the looks of the resulting structure cantilevered off the side of the frame. Hooboy, I wish I knew Ts were so small...

 

Dave, that measurement is 34".

 

Thanks Marty. I need to make some more measurements now...

And I still haven't figured out how to get my feet in down there! Maybe have the little toe side narrowed a bit... Get the feet down to a 4E size!