1930s Era Champ Car - new project

Thanks Atwater.

Re: Steel Corvettes - I think its a dirty little secret that they ARE largely steel. Try finding a 70s era one here in the rust belt that doesn't need frame repairs.

 

This project is being housed off site, not at my home / shop. That makes it hard to work on it in short bursts of energy or inspiration. I want to be able to drag it home in short order so I can work on it more. To that end I had started to gather parts together to build a trailer to transport it from my storage site to my home. I have the same problem with my Attic Anglia project. I want to switch these cars around. Plus, the champ car will need a trailer to haul it to the track. Last week I found a house trailer frame for sale nearby and bought it. In the succeeding week I chopped three feet off the back, moved the axle forward, fixed a faulty hitch, mitered in a skid plate to the tongue, added a third draw bar member to the tongue, boxed the front crossmember, added fenders, added three tie-down sites, and narrowed it down so the Anglia and Speedracer will just fit.

as purchased:

current mods:

I also installed a new jack and winch.

The rear crossmember got a drop-center to facilitate loading and unloading. Ramps are installed.

 

Hello Mister,​

You are quite The Artist and The Engeneer!
But, not to be too pretentious: there were some other too, for example: brothers Voisin, Bugatti and son, Ferry (the son) Porsche, gerat Enzo ... and some not so famous.
Great work, indeed - must be followed!

Regards,
Zoran​

 

The champ car hauler nearing completion:

 

I did more work on the headrest. Planished and mated the two halves.
But when I placed it on the back half it looks too big - too tall, too wide, too long.



So I think I'll make it smaller.

 

In the mean time, I mated the two sides together in prep for a finished butt weld joint. I have developed a technique whereby I overlap the pieces by a little bit - maybe 1/4 inch,

fasten with Clecos,
mark the overlap with a Sharpie marker, cut back all the metal on one of the overlaps except for the area around the rivet holes,
put an offset flange on the remaining tabs,



do some last minute fit-up with hammer and dolly, tack weld the joint, cut off the tabs with a Dremel wheel,



Ready to finish weld.

 

I got a date for my next hip surgery, screw / pin removal - Dec 18. I hope to get the headrest mated to a smoothed out tail section before then, as I'll be on limited duty after that.

 

Just seen this thread, and fascinated that you make the work seem so easy.

Never mind the headrest, will you be mounting the pin from your hip on the car. Good luck at the surgeon's.

 

Actually, I did ask him to save them for me. It might make a nice fixture on the car.

 

Nice way to personalize it.

 

If you folks like my project and haven't seen the Josh Shaw bodied sprinter under construction on this forum you might want to check out this thread:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/v12-josh-shaw-sprint-car.977874/

It looks like he is keeping his much more period correct than mine. Nice work!

 

Looks good Frenchy. You are my 6 cylinder hero for damned sure.

Tell me this, I think I already know but humor me, the header is stainless, right?

 

Thanks pork,
Yup, the header is stainless which I will polish and heat age. I bought the tubing at an aircraft supply house and I agonized over whether to just have the primaries run straight into the collector or sweep backwards. This was a hard decision because to make them sweep backwards meant I had to buy six mandrel bends at a cost of $46 each. So that swept back look cost me nigh on to three hundred bucks. Don't tell my wife.

 

I won't tell yours but can I tell mine? She always accuses me of being a cheap bastard. LOL

Its well on its way to pure unadulterated sweetness my friend.

 

Frenchy, Really slick way you did that butt weld. Good info.

 

Thanks ago. In the case of the headrest I used a square punch in my Roper Whitney bench notcher to make the tabs nice and square, but sometimes I just make two cuts around the Cleco holes with a cut-off wheel. Another thing I should mention is I put a score line in each tab with a .030" wide Dremel wheel so it breaks off cleanly and easily with just a couple of wiggles by a needle nose pliers. I try for a gap equal to the metal thickness to reduce warpage.

This method of fastening also works well on all shapes of patches, compound curves and body shapes. I've used it extensively for patch panel repairs. I really don't like overlapping patch panels for several reasons.

 

A friend was scrapping a table that had tapered steel legs so I got the legs. I made a tapered plug wire loom to run my wires from the back of the head to the plugs.




Those aren't the wires I'll be using. I'll try for something closer to period correct.

 

Frenchy...Haven't seen any recent posts, hoping for some. Brilliant use of the tapered tube leg!
Best loom I've seen on an inliner!
Hope all is well, you especially.

 

Hi Mike, Racing season is in full swing for me. I'm in the midst of eight days of drag races over a 12 day span on two different tracks in two different cars. But I have finished my retro champ transport trailer and will be working on the champ car soon - mainly doing body work fit-up and finish fabrication. Stay tuned - don't give up on me.

 

I'd missed this, very cool build.
Off to add thread to watch list list, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

Welcome kiwijeff. South or North Island? I visited your country a few years ago. Loved it. I'd move there in a heartbeat.

 

Too late to help you now but if you're looking for curves and bends in stainless tubing cheap or free check out pool ladders at a scrap metal place or pool installer.

 

thanks studebakerjoe - good idea.

I've already been down to a local boat scrap yard and bought a bunch of SS boat railing, some with bends and gentle curves and some straight sections, which I hope to use to make crash bars. They also make nice coolant lines for heater circuits etc.

The boat scrap yard also had a bunch of bilge blower motor assemblies. On ebay they sell the same blowers for roundy-round racers to install in brake cooling ducting, except at the scrap yard they are stupid-cheap. I use them for remote mounted trans coolers.

 

I finished the champ car / Anglia trailer.




The winch is housed in an electrical breaker box.

 

For Stainless mandrel bends try Columbia River mandrel bends web site. I purchased 4 mandrel bent polished 2" bends for my 1928 sprint car restoration@ $20 bucks each. Their on line catalog is exceptional.

just sayin'

brasscarguy

 

thanks brasscarguy - good info.

 

Now that both the tow truck and the tow trailer are both functional I'm turning my attention back to the piece de resistance, the champ car. I plan to marry the headrest to the rear bustle section. To do this I laid out a pair of lines on the back, the widest set to denote where the body contour will begin to transition into the radius to join up to the headrest; the narrower set of lines where I will cut out a wedge-shaped section of the top of the body, form it upward into a radius at roughly a 45 degree angle where it will mate with a similar 45 degree outward bend radius from the headrest. Note that this point the crudely formed body panels will need extensive contour shaping and smoothing and weld bead removal to achieve a pleasing shape before these cuts get made. Since these pictures were taken I've spent a couple of days with body hammers, dollies, shot bag and English wheel (where it will fit) to smooth things out.

 

Looking good! I've been itching for an update!

 

The cut is made across the top.

 

I think I'll make one more buck to make welding the headrest to the bustle easier and more accurate. I swear sometimes I think I'm Jepeto The Woodcarver more than a gearhead.