1930s Era Champ Car - new project

Except I made it backwards LOL. I got it right with the second one.

 

I thought you just had it like for the photo then turned it correctly before welding LOL.

 

I thought you were making the 90 degree bend down and then flip it over. But I guess you are right, it would still be backwards. Hum?

 

When the car is trailerable, I plan to take it to Ohio for a new set of Dayton wire wheels. Aside from the cylinder head, they will likely be the most costly part of this project. I asked the folks at Dayton if they can build wires that will accommodate the brake drums on all corners and a 5 x 5.5 Ford bolt circle. The reply was adapters will be needed to mount a wire with knock-offs which they will supply. But then I got to thinking how tight the car sits on the trailer. Depending on the spacer, wheel offset and width there could be problems rolling the car on / off the trailer as the trailer tire track is rather narrow.
So rather than looking at splitting the trailer axle and widening it and relocating the spring perches I just made this "shoe horn" to get the front tires past the trailer tires. Made from scrap stock I had and I added a hat section to insure the shoehorn will withstand the weight of the car. In addition, I wanted to see if my bending brake could make a hat section of a specific size. I plan to use hat sections on the floor pan of my Attic Anglia project under the seats so this was a good trial run for the piece.

 

Taken from 65Pacecar's posting on "what did you see today"

 

Those straps look good to me. I'll copy.

 

Did you notice the draglink/pitman arm steering arrangement.

 

Yes, it looks like they used half a wishbone for the drag link. I'm not real crazy about how they did the flathead exhaust. And the wire wheels look better to me than the disc wheels on the grey car with the hokey hub spinner adapter. I guess if you plan to drive across the nation some compromises are prudent.

 

Today I finish welded the seat back. I need to add lap belt cutouts and two Dzus springs and its ready for paint.

 

This from the "Things-I had-to-do-on-the-way-to-doing-other-things" file.

I wanted to add depressions for the Dzusties but my tool was too big to fit in the curved space on top so I had to make a smaller tool to do the job.

 

Neat build, looks to be very well thought out. Just had to respond to let you know how much I like your "Now is later" quote.

 

Well this has been a summer of annoying little setbacks. A broken gasser, a flooded basement, and last week a catastrophic failure on the '46 tow truck for my champ car. I was on a 80 mile trip cruising down the interstate at 75 mph when vibrations started to build in the drivetrain. It culminated in a jarring vibration accompanied by billowing smoke out from under the truck. I somehow nursed it the last ten miles home and here's what I saw underneath. The last six inches of the C6 tailshaft was GONE!

More work for Greg and another delay on the champ car build.

 

HO-LEEEEE SHIT!!!

 

A rough end (pardon the pun) for the day.

 

Yikes!!

 

^^^^^^From a blokes point of view that just ain’t right!,

 

I am going to package myself inside the car. That means steering wheel placement, instrument placement, leg and hand placement.
For the foot placement I need a foot well. I plan to make it no deeper than the trans rear mount which is six inches below the frame; no further, to reduce the chances of bottoming out and for ease of loading on the trailer.
For legs I just don't have enough room. So I trimmed the bottom 4 inches of the instrument panel off.

I suppose since this a site for hot rod porn here is the requisite crotch shot.

 

After a little sanding and filing I now have room for my gloved hands and gauges and switches. I am waiting to get the cowl completely mounted in place before attaching the dash board permanently.

 

Based on your truck's failure, I hope you build a shield for your tailshaft and driveshaft there...or you might end up more like that squirrel!

Any idea what happened with the truck? Bad u-joint started the vibrations and took out the trans?

 

Well [he says sheepishly], the truck did have a driveshaft guard. And therein lies the problem. When I first got it running I topped out the suspension and the driveshaft whacked the driveshaft loop. In the picture of my truck driveshaft I posted you can see the ring of paint that got removed from the shaft where it hit. I put new springs in. Add to that the fact that the previous owner flat-spotted the rear tires when he neglected to fill the rear axle. As in many disasters it was a confluence of factors that created the accident.
weak rear springs
flat spotted tires
driveshaft hit loop

I had convinced myself that the driveshaft looked straight, and that the random vibrations I experienced was when the flat spots on the tires occasionally aligned with each other. I put replacing the driveshaft on a rather lengthy list of 'things-to-do'. Bad move. The C6 trans is a very rugged unit. Look at the thickness of the tail housing. Beefy. The driveshaft almost assuredly was bent and caused the failure.
The champ car got a driveshaft tunnel.

 

The carb rebuild kits arrived today. There's a good rainy day project.

 

I started on the belly pan, followed by a throttle pedal. Made preliminary cardboard patterns. I plan to put a rolled edge on the front for esthetics.

 

I made the front piece of the belly pan. It needs welding in the corners and a cutout to clear the flywheel area.

 

Here is the footwell / belly pan front piece. I slid it into the cardboard pattern and it looks like it will fit up well when I get the belly pan made.

 

More progress on the belly pan.
It still needs two divot cutouts to clear the trans mount tabs.

 

I made a wood buck to shape the trans clearance notches. Next is add mounting holes and a middle attachment point at the trans crossmember.

 

I made a center pan mount to get welded on the back of the transmission crossmember. It will support the belly pan bathtub from the center, as well as being supported at the front and along the sides.

 

Belly pan / footwell installed.

 

The cowl and the nosepiece have to have flanges and / or tabs added to secure the hood and nosepiece. I had to remove the steering to get the cowl off so I decided to remove any sharp edges and counterbore the attachment bolts that I may contact to make the driving experience more enjoyable. Here is before/after pics.