AA/FA Bantam roadster build

Some of may have seen the couple of build threads for the Chassis Research styled TE-440 FED's. 51box has his thread for his dragster, currently I have two more going together in house but, I also have a Chassis Research R-16 AA/FA going together. This is a replica of a New England car that raced from 1964-'71. The owner search high and low for his original car, it was a steel bodied Bantam roadster. In the early days it ran an injected Desoto Hemi in the A/A class, then it moved up to a blown 354 Hemi in the AA/A class, the car wrecked, it was rebuilt and then bumped up to the AA/ FA class.
The chassis was bought early 1964 right from Scotty Fenn. It was a Chassis Research R-16 chassis, running a CAE front end with a solid mounted early Olds rear. It was a direct drive car.
The owner, Jack Brady and myself have been putting in a lot of time, locating parts, carefully placing every aspect of the car to the way it was, although not the original car, or parts, we are making sure everything is the way it should be. I'll post more details but I'll let you guys see some of the pics now.
Let us know how we are doing.

 

The cool part about this project is, a lot of the parts are coming from other local guys that want to see this come together. Old time racers, hot rodders, and friends. The motor and rear axle come out of Bob Ellison and Rick McGarvey's AA/GS 33 Willys that wrecked out at Indy in 06, we lost Bob that day, Rick wanted the parts to go to Ed for this build. The clutch can and some other pieces came from Bob Snyder's old Top Fuel dragster, Billy Belmont sold Ed the CAE front axle. Jack Brady contributed some parts as well as Bobby Demarco, and myself. The body is coming from Rod 'n race. Its just a really cool deal to be part of.

 

man thats a cool piece

 

subscribed

 

I just re-read my original post and wanted to be clear, we are scratch building a replica of the original car as he couldn't find the original parts. The owner was able to locate an uncut R-16 chassis and he was a draftsman by trade so he made accurate blueprints of the original R-16. I fabricated the "new" chassis using his prints.

 

looking forward to seeing more.....

 

Here is one pic of the original car. Not sure who took the pic but it was from '69.

 

That altered says Chizler on it. Is it Chris Karamesines car?

 

I dig this project alot and will be following along.

 

It does say Chizler but from what I was told by Ed Pearsons, "Chizler" was slang for a chrysler Hemi. Don't know if that was an east coast slang derived from Karamesines or not. Anyone want to chime in, feel free.

 

Here is a full size photo of the car in 1969.

 

Ed Pearsons AA/FA continues making progress. The Rod and Race: Bantam body arrived this week. Ed is trimming up the body to fit the chassis, while Charlie Raffi helps controll the fiberglass dust.

 

The body is set in place, this will be the ride hight. Once the wheels arrive finish fitting of the body can begin.

 

Here are a few pics of the Bantam, making progress. We fit the driver into the car to locate the seat and the controls, this is Churchkey here on the hamb. Jack is pretty excited about piloting this AA/FA, this is a replica of the first car Jack saw go down the strip and hooked him for life on racing.

 

That frame looks like it could be used HA/GR dragster. Nice work.
The Rock

 

rock, the frame is an exact replica of an original Chassis Research R-16 Altered chassis. The original car had the same chassis in it, the owner found one that was untouched and pulled all the dimensions, luckily he was a draftsman and made blueprints. It was nice to be able to build off of them. Thanks for the compliment.

 

great thread...missed it first time around. any updates?

 

Man, those AA/FA chassis' weren't complicated, were they? ...I look forward to seeing this come together...

 

Just found this. Very cool.

 

Keeping my eye on this one, very cool indeed.

 

I'll post some pics tomorrow or Monday, we've made a lot of progress since the last pics. The car is rolling now and quite a bit of the details are finished up now such as the controls, chute release, fuel shut off lever, clutch pedal assembly, etc... We are going be in real good shape with this in a couple weeks. The painter was in today to look at the work ahead, the upholstery will be done in house. We are getn excited about it. Its coming out pretty spot on to the original, we have made some small changes along the way, things that he wanted to different the first time and some other safety items.

 

Subscribed.

 

Here is the car as of 3/8/10... The chassis is just about complete, with some minor tabs to go. Please excuse the rear wheels and tires, the new slicks and wheels should be here shortly. The big news is... The original front wheels were located, and bought back. Car owner Ed Peasons dismantled the obsolete race car in 1972 and sold of the wheels to a friends of his in his home town of Woburn, MA. The friend still had them, and Ed just recently bought them back. Things are shaping up with just about four months of Saturdays in the project. I will keep everyone up to date as things progress.

 

Thanks for posting the pics Jack.

 

Here is the car running at New England Dragway 1969

 

Here is car owner Ed Pearsons at the Boston Car Show 1968

 

Wanted to update on the progress with the Bantam. Ed purchased a set of ET wheels for the rear. Ed fabricated the clutch pedal, tank brackets, radiator mounts, etc... I spent some time welding them up. The car is really taking shape now. I'm going to be finishing up my work on it soon and then it will go to paint and upholstery, Ed's going to get them motor together. There are so many misc. brackets and details on builds like this, you can work a couple weeks and not feel like you're moving forward. No matter how small, it has to get done though. Here are a couple pics.

 

Awesome! Slim