Hot Rods # 10 Track Roadster Build- Marty Strode

And meeting new friends, Blackie, Mike Bishop, and Jack Pieknik, along with Ernie Martin and I at the track.

 

Very very nice even got a little dirt on that gold leaf. Your work is excellent Marty.

 

Is that at Willamette Speedway, Marty?

 

Yes it is, Lebanon, as we call it.

 

Marty, I'm a little stuck on my poor efforts. I think you have reinspired me to use a t body. A question: how far back from the kickup is your rear axle centerline? I might haveto movemine back to get the proportions correct. Easy to do now, harder down the road.

 

On the T coupe chassis, it is 9" from the front of the kickup to axle centerline. I would get the body first, to avoid any confusion, in your case.

 

Thanks Marty. That dimension is what I needed. Based on your car and some measurements I made, I should be able to put a t bucket like you did w/o moving the rear axle. I can move the engine ahead 2 to 3 inches as well to clear the firewall if necessary.

One other question: Have you ever reversed a Vega box? I did one for a race car years back, just like people used to do with the Corvair boxes, and then made my own pitman arm to get the ratio where I needed it. But again this was for a racecar, not a street car. Just wondering what you or anyone else who may have done the same thinks...

 

Never heard of reversing aVega box, however I have a reversed Corvair, that's up for grabs.

 

Never did it, but this is from Rod & Custom no.11 from early 80’s



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I did one years ago for a street two wheel drive Jeep. It was super easy and worked great. I think Flaming River sells one, or used to.

 

Yeah the one I did for a race car was easy also. I had planned on making a center steer box out of it for one of the modifieds, by having a friend with a machine shop cut the original pitman shaft off, boring a hole thru the gear and spline it for me. We planned to use a shaft from Tobias that he had made for the old Ross 6:1 midget boxes, and somehow make the adjuster mechanism slot thingie on the end of the shaft. Never got that done, however Jim came up with a clever way to get there; a flange welded to the splined part off the pitman arm, another flange welded to a heavy wall tube stub, and a torsion bar cut down to have a spline on one end for the pitman arm made from a torsion bar arm. To put it together you would take the 2 flanges apart (6 bolts) and tighten the nut on the end of the pitman shaft to retain the spline/flange assembly. Then the other flange part was bolted back up, and bingo, side steer. Made a mount in the center to hold the box and a 2 bolt mount bearing to hold the outer end. It worked like a charm.

But back to what I would like to find out is if any of you guys reversed a box and used it on the street. Our economy center steering box was only used for a part of a season before converting to power steering, also done that way, only difference was not reversing the box and using a bell crank to reverse the direction. And like Pete Eastwood pointed out in his thread regarding cowl steering we didn't worry about bump steer. As anyone who has been on a dirt track will tell you, that era the drivers sawed at the steering wheel constantly anyway.

 

Dave, in a car like you are building, side steer is very appropriate. I have a few sets of NOS,blank, extended, worm and sector sets, that fit the old Ross boxes. The sector shaft is 1-1/8", and can be machined down to use in the Ross boxes from a Jeep Universal. The end could be splined to fit a pitman arm. They have a ratio of 14 to 1, that would be usable for the street. For oval race application, a 1.5 Howe steering quickener,(shown) would yield a 9.3 ratio, and and could be varied by pitman arm length.

 

If I can locate one of the Jeep Universal boxes I may take you up on an extended shaft. I never opened one up, so didn't know they had 2 pins. We used the Ross 6:1 "midget" boxes, and the weak point for a modified was the single pin, which wore excessively trying to steer the 12 or so inch wide right front tires. With excessive scrub radius. And who knows how much weight with the 3/4 ton spindle adapter, Frankland backing plate, Buick drum and Frankland 70s era wide five hubs.

Any specific year I should look for? I know of 2 derelect Jeeps near me, but only one may be scavengable... but it may be too new.

 

This is what the Jeep boxes look like, and there are numbers to go by. This style of box, has the right look for an old race car, or hot rod, for that matter.

 

Thanks Marty. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I'll see if I can get ahold of one locally. I'll give a shout if I do for your offer of the extended pitman arm shaft.

 

Marty, did you have to stretch the frame at all for the Chevy or did the frame rail dimensions remain the same? I bet that one was a wild ride!


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It was the standard 100" wheel base. As a matter of fact, I built the chassis for a young friend, just up the road from me, set up for Flathead and later trans like # 10. He was raising a couple young children, and decided he wouldn't have enough seats for the family. About that same time, Rolla was wanting me to build him a car, so I arranged the deal for him to buy the car. I changed the front engine mounts to Chevy. This is how I would have finished it, had it been mine !

 

Thanks Marty...I think I know where my 283 with 3 deuces is going.

 

Those Howe “quickener” can be used in reverse and have installed that way in many LSR vehicles. Bonneville is a place you do not want fast steering.

 

Merry Christmas Marty! Maybe we will cross paths this next year! I'd like that

 

Jimmy, the one I posted is left over from a Rear Engine Modified Roadster/ Lakester that I built, It's a 1-1/2 and I needed a 2 to 1, to get it slow enough.

 

As for you Billy, I am looking forward to that ! I almost came to Vancouver to see Briz the other day, he always comes up with parts I need in a pinch.

 

Marty how high is the kick up on the backend? Looks close to 9”?

 

The frame converts from 4" to 3" at the kick up. From the top of the main rail, to the bottom of the rear section is 4". From the top of the main rail, to the top of the rear section is 7".

 

Thank you Marty...scored a 37 front axle, and purchasing frame material next week. On the car you sold to Rolla, were the rear bones up to the task? I’ll make no where near 650 HP from my little 283 but I like the look and simplicity of the rear bone setup.

 

In the photo of Rolla's car, I had some mock-up arms (42-48) passenger car. I ended up using 35-36 arms, similar to the black #2, and don't recommend high horsepower, and especially wide rear tires. #2 has around 28,000 miles, without any problems, I would suggest using 35-36 arms.

 

Marty your track roadster builds are really well done. I appreciate the detailed explanations and photos you post. I was laid up a while back and read most of them, good therapy for me.

 

Thanks for the kind words Bubba, glad to have supplied some entertainment during your recovery. I haven't had much to post, on my 2 threads lately, as I have been busy improving my shop, and equipment, for some exciting new projects this year. I built a new English Wheel, acquired another Tig welder, and set it up to my liking. Also, it's been time to clean house ( getting rid of unnecessary parts and junk) along with making the best use of space. Thanks for you interest, be back at it soon !

 

great thread here Marty, thanks from me too. if i may drift off a bit here, i am curious that you switched to an older big monster tig machine. i am an amateur tig guy at best, and have an old miller dial arc hf only because the big monsters are cheap and my understanding is that most of the pro's like yourself prefer the modern small machines for greater arc control etc. your favorite tig is ?

 

Rusty, I bought a Lincoln 300/300 Tig new, back in '76, still use it today. It is parked in the room, where I do chassis fabrication. I bought a well used Miller Gold Star nearly 20 years ago, it worked great, I sold it to a friend, when I acquired the same machine, labeled Airco. I have never welded with the modern small machines, they might be far better. I have been welding with the big ones for over 50 years, and never felt the need to change.