Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Like Gus Grissom in Liberty Bell 7

 

Well it has been a long weekend. It kind of started off strange as Friday night Dad and I were invited to bring his coupe to a Veterans home about 30 minutes or so from our house Saturday morning. They were having a special family day at the center and wanted to see if maybe a few guys would bring out some cool cars for the Vets to see etc. No issue, we are there with bells on. It was sort of threatening rain so most of the cars that might have been there opted out.

Anyway there was Dad's Coupe, a cool Bobber Truck, a late sixty's Chevy Truck and a killer Fiat Topolino Drag Car (plus a few good looking bikes). Anyway we are visiting with the Vets and their families as they pass by the cars on their way to large tents in the parking lot where they would have food and entertainment etc. The guy who invited us used to work at the Vet's Home and still tries to bring cars out for this special day each year. In passing he says man KS Pitman would have gone nuts over these cars.

........It just sat there for a while (processing).....finally I said did you say KS Pittman? He said yes. I said something like ("THE" KS PITTMAN?)....he said yes. He was here for 8 years and passed in 2010. And just for the record.....yes this KS PITTMAN!!!!


So honestly kind of a bummer to find out 8 years too late that he spent the last 8 years of his life half an hour from my home. Had I known I would have been there every week. Our friend shared several really cool stories about conversations he had with KS before he passed.

 

Anyway...after getting back from the Vet's Home we lounged about a bit and then slid out to the shop. I really wanted to close out the hardtop hinge issue this weekend and get on with the rest of the build etc. To make it easier to work with, we took measurements on the car and marked the top where the hinges would reside and then moved everything over to the welding table.


I had what I thought was a brainstorm about the Ford Fiesta (lol) hinges that looked so perfect on paper last week. You see the issue was they would not open because as they did, the roof would tilt back a bit with the motion and the back of the roof would hit the rear deck area between the cockpit and the trunk.


It was a real bummer because as you can see they fit SO nice (like a glove). So the thought I had was if we could get them higher before "they" actually activated we could clear the deck (so to speak)! LOL So I spent the rest of the afternoon and deep into the night fabricating the necessary parts and peices to make this happen. It look like this.....



Clever right. You lift on the roof at the front and because the hinge system has quite a bit of friction built into the mechanism, the 3" legs lift first and lock in place. Then the hinge goes on up! It not only looked good on paper but it looked good on the welding table. But after getting the top bolted on around 10 p.m. it didn't work. We lifted on the roof and it worked just a planned up on the legs (both sides) but when we activated the hinge, the rear of the top still hit the back of welding table. We had chosen the 3" legs as that was the absolute maximum length we could put in there and still clear the back edge of the top etc.

So after all of that...we are again back to square one.

 

So when it doubt, keep it simple. ....back to the single hinge in the middle. I had a really heavy duty "butte" style hinge hanging on the wall so this morning I sat down with it between the two articulating hinges still welded on the table. I just played around with it a bit and here is what I found....

Graphic 1 shows the hinge how it was designed and basically the way it will mount to the roof. Very simple barn door style. It didn't take long to figure out it would work but it would lift quicker if it had a bend in it like graphic 2. So that is what I did. Then after looking at how it would mount, it seemed a shame to have a "barn door hinge" out there on the Cobra's deck for God and everyone to see. If the hinge was designed backwards the mount points would be inside the roof. So just like graphic 3, I cut the mount plate off right at the hinge. Reversed it and welded it back in place.


I have some very nice carriage style bolts when we do it for real. But this is basically how it looks close up from the inside after all the fab work was complete etc. This is all you see from the outside of the car....

 

So after looking at the hinge sitting there it occurred to me that when the molding is installed with the rubber etc. if it is painted matte black it will likely just vanish. So no time like the present. We made the final mold trim marks as seen above and then I removed the roof, suited up (in the heat) and did the final finish work on the top with a cut off wheel on one grinder and an 80 grit sanding wheel on the other.

After I was happy we installed the push on moulding/weather stripping. I have a ton of it so we can easily experiment with this first round and make adjustments etc. But to be honest it all fit very nicely for a first attempt.




After completing the rear lower section as well which is a straight style moulding etc. we popped the roof back on to see how it fit.






Happy with the fit we decided we could go ahead and mount the hinge to the body. It is just temporary mounted to the body only as I have a plate that will go under the body and attach to the cage/chassis for strength. But for now we can at least test the all important factor will the stupid top lift???


Yes. Yes it does. Holy Hell the stupid thing finally opens! Should have just went to the barn hinge store in the first place. LOL!

Dad is happy. I am happy. Now to finish it up all we need is a couple of struts on either side to give it some lift help, strength and stability! We closed it up for the weekend and went in to watch the NHRA!

 

This purely falls under the heading of "food for thought and inspiration".
Articulation is the operative word.

This boat stuff is kind of cool.
https://greatlakesskipper.com/boat-parts/cabin-and-galley-hardware/hinges-other

Don't let the cabinet hardware scare you, like I said "food for thought".
https://www.google.com/search?q=art...-bjbAhUKbK0KHZ1aA0oQ_AUIEigC&biw=1280&bih=752

 

Try this again.
Scroll through this page.

https://www.google.com/search?q=art...AUIEigC&biw=1280&bih=752#imgrc=-2U63UZSsfY3HM:

 

This is real cool.
https://www.google.com/search?q=art...IjQIHXo5C5wQuIIBegQIARAz#imgrc=QMD6YigBV3nE2M:

 

I actually checked out several of the cabinet style hinges, there are some pretty cool ones out there. One issue though is you have to buy 50 of them....LOL! Thanks for looking out DDD.

 

Hanging out in the shop...too hot to work! Waiting on my paint guy to come by and take his first look see of the Cobra.

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The speed at which you got to this point is admirable to say the least Randall.

 

Thanks Jim I appreciate that...but it sure seems to be dragging its feet from here at ground zero. Maybe that is the true nature of its name "DragSnake"!!! LOL. We are getting there but to be honest we are really only getting 1 to 1.5 days of work at most done per week. Dad and I were talking about it night before last...this thread started in mid October but it was just full of hot air and parts gathering until nearly February.

The body finally rolled in around the last week of January and we started building. With my daughter's high school wrestling, band, subsequent graduation and college tours it took a big bite out of quite a few weekends. Not too mention crazy work schedules and car shows with Dad's Coupe this Spring etc. When we finally tallied it up, we actually have less than 150 hours in the build at this point. AND...there has been plenty of loafing, day dreaming and wild goose chases from suspension mods to roof hinges etc. mixed in there....LMAO!

So that makes me feel better about where we are. I would like to be on the track at MOKAN with her this weekend but that is and would never have been a very realistic goal for a build of this scale. I think we have resigned ourselves to a nice easy pace of doing things right and scratching a few of them off an extremely long punch out list each week.
We are probably a good weekend away from popping the body off and doing all the final chassis welds etc. All we have left is hood hinge and driver's door hinge mounts and bolting the windshield into place.

 

Will I see this car at the Meltdown this year?

 

We are thinking of bringing it no matter where we are in the build at the time and at the very least hanging out in the pits. There are a lot of folks that want to see it in person, I have had around 50 emails asking the same question. I would like to say we are planning to burn up the strip with it but that is a pretty tall order. Waiting to hear from the powers to be to see if they will allow it or not... Either way we will be there...

 

I will probably be in the swap meet again.
I am planning on setting up for a while each day to sell old magazines then going to watch racing

 

I want to see this in person.. I need to just come up next time Randy goes!


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Come on down. You are welcome anytime. Give me some heads up and we grill some burgers for the visit.

 

No word on the Austin or did I miss the post?

 

Nope....like a fart in the wind, as my Grandpa used to say!

 

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You should have went over to Mo-Kan Friday night that may have cleared your brain.

 

James I felt his pain at mokan so that was me fri night lol


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We apologize for the technical difficulties earlier. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Drag Snake Cobra build....

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So I took the day off today (and took @saltflats advice)...we went to MOKAN for the Hot Rod Reunion!
Dad and I had a great time even though I am usually not a very good spectator. After getting back home I picked up the computer and went back to the Photoshop program. Over the past week or so the trunk hinges have totally kicked out backsides (as the earlier video exemplified better than anything I could have typed...LMAO!

I mean we have had those crazy things at every angle, height and depth you can imagine and every time the back of the trunk lid hit the trunk drip rail before lifting, it just totally jammed itself up every time. I have been fairly frustrated....likely evident...lol. I mean how do you build a chassis like this from scratch and not be able install a couple of stupid trunk hinges.

Looking at the Photoshop drawing of the hinge and animating it finally showed me something I had missed. Something very simple. It will take some explaining to show how I finally fixed it. But for now...

 

Hoo f'n ray!

 

I know, it seems like a pretty mundane accomplishment with all the other fabrication work going on but to be honest finally watching that stupid thing lift up felt like splitting the atom at the shop... LMAO!

 

The completion of those projects that kick your ass are pretty fulfilling huh!
They don't show that stuff on Ass Monkey Gayrage.

 

Now, about that top!

 

Good shape on the top...Lift struts came in today so we are getting close.

 

So now to the steering column. I have been holding out for an early 1960 steering column, since that is what Shelby did after the first 100 and the change over to an MGA rack and pinion. If you have ever seen a "real" early Cobra that fugly old VW column and turn signal lever are unmistakable! But that is what I wanted. However, believe it or not no one re-pops them....salvage only.

So I finally find one and had it shipped etc. but it is just too much trouble. For one they are a rag joint connected unit which I am not interested so fabrication coming in that area for sure. But worst of all to get my authentic 9 bolt wheel attached, with a quick release will take a massive conglomeration of adapters etc. So I to keep kit clean and simple I just gave in this weekend and ordered a simply after market column.


This quick release end above (Grant style) will bolt directly to the adapter that came with my wheel...


So it should all stay fairly compact and clean. I will just deal with the turn signals when we get there. But for now we had to make a decision so we could get the hole in the dash correct etc.