Bought a Don Long funnycar chassis

In August this year, I bought the Don Long chassis that was under the "Sensation" '64 Plymouth (originally the Melrose Missile '64 sedan). Finally got it delivered this week. Too cold to do anything now, so early 2011 I'll start cleaning-up/rebuilding the chassis and then get my '65 Dodge AWB shell slid over it. Should be fun! A few pictures are attached.

 

Did you actually talk to Don on this or did you take the other guys word on what it was?

 

I have not spoken with Don Long. Is he still around? I sure would enjoy a conversation with him if he is.

Reed Koeppe has verified all of this. The car was pretty well documented from the very beginning since it began as the Melrose Missile. It turned up pretty darn close to it's original construction, and there is plenty of pictures of the car since it's original construction that also confirm everything. The original shell of the Melrose Missile was still intact with the car when it turned up. More stuff here:

http://primerking.com/Sensation chassis.htm

and here:

http://reedsperformance.com/Pictures.htm

 

And Reed is a good guy his is what he says

 

Yep,the history of the Melrose Missile/Sensation 64 Plymouth is well documented and Reed Koeppe is the master at tracking down old race cars.Wish summer was back so you can marry the chassis with the Dodge Vince.

 

Ya, you and me both FunnyCar! Can't thank Reed enough for the opportunity, and my Dad for helping with some $$$$ towards it!

 

I just went back thru all the pictures that I have of the "Sensation" Plymouth from before Don Long built this chassis under it, right up thru the pictures of the car as Reed found it a few years back. The car was still wearing the same Washington licenseplates that it wore when it was originally on the street with a mechanically injected 354 Hemi in 1974! I don't have permission to post all of the pictures, but geeezzz.... that strikes me as pretty darn good documentation!

 

I spoke with Don Long on the phone. He does not remember and/or will not speak about this car. All the info that I have points to the chassis being built by Don Long, even the stuff that Bernie "Badtember" Wadekamper remebers about the car. The chassis was originally built to go under a Pontiac GTO, but the deal fell-thru when GM found out that the car was being built with a Chrysler hemi. GM ordered that their body be removed from the chassis and the project was cancelled, therefore Bernie and Don Long had a drunken night of debauchery where they unceremoniously removed the Pontiac shell from the chassis and scrapped the body.

Then Bernie said something to the effect of "Well, I have that '64 Plymouth that we could drop onto this chassis" and there ya have it. Then the chassis was swapped under the '64 Melrose Missile and into obscurity the whole thing went.

Gotta be somebody out there with some pics/info. I'm not making this stuff up. Everything that I have is based on recollections of Bernie Wadekamper and Reed in Nebraska. Somebody out there knows something. Gotta be a reason why Don Long isn't talking. Anybody? Maybe Don didn't get paid for it or some other dirty dealings?

 

Long has kept amazingly accurate records of every car he ever built.....

Dragsters and funny cars were all he ever built. I don't remember ever seeing a Long door style car.

Does this car have a SEMA chassis builder tag with a number on it...?

Don Roberts

 

Please don't take this the wrong way I sure hope you got what you paid for.
Never the less I thought that long was a professional builder. I'm looking at some of the welds on that chassis and those are not professional welds. Perhaps what I am seeing is something that someone scabbed on at a later date?

Anyway its all about having a good time isn't it. With a little work it should make having a good time easy.

So what are the plans for the car?

 

Don,
Long did do some gasser chassis work as well but this stuff does not look to be up to his standards. He may have had something to do with the original build of the car but that leaf sprung front end with the early Ford spindles does not look like anything that he would have done, even in that era. From what I can remember all of his gasser stuff was coil over with P & S spindles

Roo

 

this stuff does not look to be up to his standards

The one sentence that I left out Roo.......

A small component perhaps but I just don't see Long having anything to do with this car top to bottom.

And I hate to rain on this guys parade, but unless you really know about this old stuff, you can get taken down the wrong road real fast.

How are you doing on Ernie Broughton's car....?

Your cars are outstanding, my best to you,

Don Roberts

 

Don Long frontend from page 182 of Don Montgomery's Supercharged Gas Coupes book (excellent reading).
Larry T
BTW it's a couple of pages behind a picture of Chuck Finders narrowing a rearend for Junior Thompson in 1965, something that I've had some "discussions" about.

 

I absolutely agree with a couple of other posters here that that does not look to be done by a pro chassis builder from any era.

I'm willing to bet the only reason Don Long doesn't remember it is because he didn't build it (although to be completely honest here, if I was Don Long and I actually did build that "chassis" I would NOT be in any rush to admit it either).

Not trying to piss anyone off here, but those pics of the chassis and the story just ain't adding up to me.

 

That chassis may have been built by someone named "Don Long" but it is not the Don Long from Gardena, California. Don Long in California was and is a true craftsman and innovator that chassis is not his work.

Rex

 

Don't care who made it,I'm more concerned about the front down tubes of the cage being mounted on "outriggers" instead of on the main rails.
Also, the kick up on the main rails is just stiched to the bottom rails, almost like this chassis was never finished.
Just like all the COPO Cameros out there, it's so easy to attach "history" to a car, sometimes no way to disprove it. Mike

 

I know Don and have seen his build book. I would think if he doesn't remember it, he didn't do it.

Don is still a very sharp fellow.

His shop was two doors down from where we kept the Mastercam AA/FD, in garage that Cathy Donovan owned. Is that enough name dropping for a Monday AM, LOL!


www.highspeedmotorsports.com

 

I was thinking exactly the same thing

 

Maybe a Don Long axle but thats about it.

 

I'm still trying to work all this out. All the info that I got from Reed came right from Bernie Wadekamper, who said he had the chassis built by Don Long. I'm still trying to get in touch with Bernie to see if I can further clarification. As for right now though, that is all I have; and what Don Long said. I'm attempting to attach a few old pictures of the car as it ran before and then right after the chassis was built under it. Best I can tell, the car ran at Shelton Dragstrip in Washington (with the funnycar chassis) before the track closed in 1967; so that oughtta help a little. There certainly is history with the chassis that goes that far back. All that seems to be in dispute here is if Don Long actually did or did not do the chassiswork, and I'm sticking with what I was told.

Don said that it could very well be one of his front axles, but that's about it (as people have picked up on here). Don was conversing with people in his shop when I spoke with him, somebody there knew the Bernie Wadekamper name and that he was associated with Ed "Ace" Mculloch.

I've been trying to figure out exactly what the spindles are. Obviously they aren't Willys as Long would have used, and they aren't early 30s Ford. The Airheart brakes are on plain steel hubs with a 4-1/2 (Ford/Chrysler) bolt pattern. There has been stuff added to the chassis. The 2X3 sections above the main rails, transmission mount, and the helmetbars in the cage were done by somebody other than the original builder. There definetly is a different "fingerprint" on the work. The original welding looks to have been pretty good! There is more to the chassis that isn't in the pictures, such as a full aluminum interior. The floor is old aircraft "waffled" aluminum. That seemingly was pretty neat stuff for the time the chassis was built (1966). There is no SEMA or any other tags on the chassis that I have seen. When did that SEMA stuff start?

The car certainly was finished and running (as the "Sensation" Plymouth); possibly as early as 1966 and then thru the early/mid 70s when it was on the street with an injected 354 Hemi. Car was aparrantly active again as a bracketracer (sometime in the 90s I would guess?) and still had licenseplates on it. Current plan is still to drop my '65 Dodge shell over the chassis and see what happens. Probably not gonna get thru track tech with the car, so screw it. I'll see if I can make a few exhibition passes here-and-there. Or I could throw it back on the street....

 

Same car, after the chassis (which I currently have) was built under it.

Gotta be something to the story that is attached to the chassis. It's history definetly goes back to the 60's and the car hadn't been messed with much since then; aside from a few tubes added to the cage. Geez, it's even had the same name painted on the side with the same darn license plates since the early 70s. The chassis was built under the Melrose Missile VI; which is why the body is no longer on the chassis. It's being rebuilt/restored to it's former/proper glory. The history of this car has been well known since 1964. I hopefully will talk with Bernie Wadekamper soon, as the whole Don Long thing originated with him talking about building the car with Don Long. If anybody bothers to look at the pics before ya slam me and what I'm posting; you'll see his name on the doors. Yes, THAT Bernie Wadekamper, who was crewchief for Ed "Ace" McCulloch and then worked at Whipple superchargers.

 

Hey relax ... no one is trying to "slam" you at all. The pics you posted just don't look anything like something a "pro" chassis builder built. You are posting pics of a cool old drag car and pics of a very "homemade" looking, incomplete chassis. Show a pic of that Plymouth/Dodge with the front sheet metal removed and the front suspension visible and people would be more apt to agree with you.

If you really can prove what you claim it is/have been told it is ... great. If not, I would be more inclined to replicate the chassis (I mean "retain the flavor but do it right as far a material and design") so it will pass tech in todays world.

 

Being as I am friends with Reed and know of the car I can say FOR A FACT the chassis was under the Melrose Missle 64 Plymouth when he found and bought the car.

 

The spindles are definitely '37 through '41 Ford.

 

Thanx for the confirmation on the spindles! I didn't realize that the cross-steer setup was implemented that early in Fords. I figured it woulda been later like 46-up or something.

I do not have any vintage pictures of the "Sensation" Plymouth with the nose off. You can clearly see the cage is the same though, and other tell-tales like the engine setback. The diagonal bar that went downwards from the hoop just behind the driver's helmet had been removed somewhere between then and now. A portion of it still remains; enough to put it it back together. Some of what I do have showing the chassis under the Plymouth shell is on my website, but here they are again showing the car as-found; still wearing the Melrose Missile shell. All these pictures came from Reed in Nebraska who found the car. I have a few pictures of the Plymouth from before the chassis was built under it (1966), but with the single hoop behind the driver. It was lettered up and run by Hahn Motors at that time. I also have pictures of the car as it was on the streets in the 70's with the injected 354 Hemi, but they are not my pics and I do not have permission to post them. Thanx to Flyin' Phil for those pictures.

 

Was there a standard location for SEMA tags on '60s-built chassis? I did some googling and now know what they look like (pic attached). I gave everything a pretty good looking-over when the chassis arrived here and didn't see any tags or badges of any sort. I will give the whole thing another good looking over as soon as we get a clear sunny day out here in the frozen northeast (clear across the continent from the northwest origins of the "Sensation" Plymouth). I realize that the famed dragster builder Don Long was in a different part of the country, but his name is the only one that has been attached to the chassis to this point (and since 1967).

This chassis has roots dating as far back as 1967. There is pictures of the "Sensation" Plymouth with the chassis under it at Shelton Dragstrip; and Shelton Dragstrip closed in 1967. That much cannot be denied. I (and many other people) trust the person that I got the chassis from, and there is another reputable name (Bernie Wadekamper) attached to it's past that can be traced right back to 1967. So nothing is going to change. I'm going to return the chassis to 1967 condition and make my Dodge shell work with it.

 

1965...

 

Hey friend just so we are on the same page I was just stateing my observations from the pics posted. I wasn't trying to badmouth your purchase.

I do believe that our definition of funny car is different though. What you are showing pictures of are door slammers. Again not to slam you, we always called those cars altered wheelbase cars as opposed to funny cars. When I think funny car I think flopper with a Looge (sp) type of a chassis. Again not to slight you just so we get on the same page.

So my next big question is when do you plan on stuffing that chasis under your body? You've got a 426 to go in it or you plan a big wedge?

You no doubt have already answered this and I no doubt missed it.

 

Not sure its Don Long's work he was a perfectionist , but man either way its gonna be a bitchin car, where do I sign up to go for a blast!!!!!!
Cool for sure!

 

As for the "funny car" term, it can be traced back to 1965 when the AWB Mopars initially appeared (before the FoMoCo "floppers"), but hey.... everybody is entitled to their own views on what *personifies* a "funny car". Maybe some would say that it wasn't untill the early 70's style cars since NHRA didn't recognize the "funny car" thing with a Champ untill 1974 (RIP Shirl Greer, and thanx for the conversations!). With that said; yes the "doorslammer" cars have a very short history as funny cars (2 good years) in comparison to how "floppers" have held the (competitive) throne since probably 1967.

The chassis will surely be slid under my Dodge shell as soon as we dig out of this frozen winter here in the northeast. It should be solidified as a unit hopefully before October 2011 when it'll start getting cold around here again. I have a pair of '69 Hemi heads and a few other little Hemi parts for the build, so it'll be Hemi powered, but a complete Hemi is probably another year or 3 away if I can squirrel away the $$$$.

As for signing up for a ride Skidlid;Thanx! This whole thing might end up back on the street yet, so all that anybody would have to do to go for a blast is agree to not wet/soil yer pants. Like they say in stores "you break it, you buy it". Same goes for hotrods: You wet the seat, you buy the seat".