'58 F100 drag truck, or: thumbing your nose at aerodynamics!

A crack in the crank spacer. Not good for high rpm abuse!
Luckily noticed by me during reassembly...These early 460 motors are internally balanced, and when we tried to find the correct spacer, all they now offer is the later, externally balanced one.

I didn't really want to play games with e-bay, or any other used, questionable source, so: We got a brand new one, with the balnce weight on the outside...

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.....And proceeded to hack the fucker off!
Cast iron is HARD!


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And, finally into the lathe:


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Now we're good to go...


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The intake is an old, kinda rough piece, and the corner holes needed to be enlarged to fit over the studs, as well as cleaned up around the clamping surfaces, where years of different size/head washers/bolts have been.

The intake unfortunately, has larger port openings than the heads, we toyed with the idea of epoxy, but in the end, I am eventually going to Blue Thunder or T.F.S. A460 heads, so while it may hurt it a bit now, it will match up quite nicely on the future heads.

Its not too bad, but it will probably cause some turbulence.
We'll see...

As you can see, the Factory D0ve castings just don't have any meat left to remove, really...





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Next we got involved in the bed braces, the top ones were started a while back, but it was time to get the sides, and lower portions to stop flopping around.

They are now nicely triangulated, strong, reasonably light, and modular.
The old frame brackets for the cross braces on the old bed floor were utilized as the meeting point for the two braces to intersect at the frame.

The rivet heads ground off, and left as indexing dowels, the braces tacked in place, and new holes will now be drilled, so that it will be bolted to the frame now, and removable...


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way cool keep us posted

 

This is how it all comes together in the bed.

 

Everything is pretty well sorted out with the pins for the frontend by now as well...

 

Next thing we gotta do is set the motor/trans. in and figure out exactly how this here radiator is gonna get mounted. Its tight...real tight!

And very shortly, a 3 and 1/2 Gallon Moon tank will be arriving that needs to share yet more of the front end space!

Thats coming up soon, too, and since we are actually going to use it for what it was intended for...fuel, it needs to have a nice nerf bar fabbed for around it....

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Just couldn't resist the gratuitous Moon tank shot...

Thanks for the comments, everyone, we've been working hard on this.
Nick, I'll post a vid when we fire it, no prob!


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Been building headers this weekend...

I had this kit from Stahl, but I didn't really like how they were supposed to be routed, so: Of course, make 'em your own way!

( In defense of Stahl, most kits are still open for interpretation, and don't really fit exact. In this case, they are for F-series trucks from, something like the mid-fifties until '79 I think? so...obviously they are just a basic starting point.)

I tacked them together the length the primaries were, and on the proposed angles that they came, and found them wrapped up in the brake lines, in very close proximity to the steering, and, worst of all, all jammed up behind the front wheels, preventing them from turning...no good.

I wanted more rear-swept, traditional-style fenderwell headers, and have plenty of room for them to aim towards the firewall, then, turn down, without any interference, so...thats what I set out doing...

 

So, here they are, with approx. 6" removed from the port end of the primaries.
they had an additional bend here, that is now gone, allowing them to run higher than the frame, toward the firewall, before turning down, avoiding all obstacles...

Here they are before the collectors were attached.

 

Since the angles changed a little, some of the primaries needed to be cut, and re-directed, over all, though, not too much piecing together...the collector ends were a bit tough to get to all come together properly, but, some C-clamps, and the vise took care of that, so I could fit the collectors on, put the center piece in, weld 'em up, and fill around the primaries, where they meet.

 

Here's how we envision the extensions...

I've only built a set of headers before once, these are # 2...next time, I think I will up the ante a bit, and just use a bunch of U and J bends, since I pretty much re-conceived these anyway.

 

From above...pretty even looking, and we have still kept them roughly equal length.

 

And the front:

 

Right...

 

And left.

 

Ran out of the right bends for this last primary, had to order one bend from Hooker...couldn't get this one by bending, stretching, and cutting what was already here... most of the adjustments I made by adding pieces to the underside of the primary, at the port. Don't know how its supposed to be done, but it works!

 

No pro job, but...I don't know what the F#$#@&#37;K I'm doing, either, so...
They would have looked worse in '68...

 

They will get the job done, I s'pose!

 

With the front clip on:

 

Everything is starting to fit together nicely...