Got the new crossmember and spring perch in today. When properly aligned, the tie rod does not rub on the crossmember! It sits 3" lower in front and definitely looks more racey. Tom, the friction shocks were just cut out of aluminum plate with a sawzall and hand filed. Unfortunately, I have to relocate them with the changes I just made.
I changed direction, took the path of least resistance and split the stock ('34) wishbone. Looks just like what a couple kids would do to their rail in the early 50's.
Very interesting Bob, I like the split bones, looks just like the ones I ran on the 29 RPU. Make sure we get pictures of how you redo the shock setup. What did you use for friction material between the two aluminum pieces? I think what I like most about your building is that you do in one afternoon what takes me 2-3 days. Keep at it it looks nice
I almost bought weld in bungs for the wishbones then realized they were not available in the 50's. So I did it the way I built my Model A pickup in 1959. Ok, back then I didn't make a sleeve to take up the slop between the stub and the wishbone.
The frame brackets are a quarter inch thick. I welded quarter inch thick round pieces to the back so the taper for the tie rod would be a half inch.
There it is, all put together. Just like thousands of early hot rods. Only the pinch clamps are missing. Tom, I was buying friction shock discs from Total Performance, the T Bucket builder. Speedway Motors bought Mickey out so maybe thay have them now.
Relocated the mounting point for the friction shocks up and back. The new front crossmember forced this change. As you can see, I'm maintaining a level of crudeness that speaks to the builds of the 50's. SamIyam should be happy with this. The crank is now 11 inches and the bottom of the stock oil pan is 3 3/4" above the floor. I didn't have an original measurement but I would guess it was between 1 1/2 and 2 inches higher. I want to get rid of the Kirkey seat and build/buy something that fits the era better. Also, considering redoing the cage, changing the members that are vertical (from the front view) to a sloping arrangement. Like the chassis Skip Pipes has for sale. My current cage looks like it should be on a roadster/altered.
Well bob, the shocks worked out nice with the mount on top of the axle. With my spring mounted on top I will have to connect to a tab off the back. Is that shock a 3 pc setup with the bracket as the back, some friction material in middle and the arm on front with the nut/bolt being the ajustment? Leave the cage as it is and hang a cut down coupe/sedan body on it for the first SDRA Comp/Coupe out of Minnesota. Just remember "narrow cage / narrow body" and we all know how hard that second one is to work with as much as we all like to forage.
I began modifying the intake manifold. Changing from two Holley 1 bbls. to a pair of Carter BBD 2 bbls. This is in anticipation of more horsepressure with the new engine. The con rod is for the next slant six build. The all-out one.Titanium cap screws and all. Tom, you're right about the friction shocks. Still undecided about the roll cage. The revised cage would be narrower at the top. Still plenty of "belly" room. No body on this car. Don't want to add any extra weight for the poor little slant 6 to pull. Sure like your old dragster. If I win the lottery I'll have a nitro burning small block Chevy Jr. Fueler. A short one.
Bob, like what your doing with the motor and the intake. Should help that slant 6 on the top end. Thanks for the information on the shocks, I think I'll try building a set. I am glad both Dixie and myself had a chance to run a car as nice and quick as the rail when we had the expendable cash to do it right. Could not field that car today on current cash flow. Thats why I like my SDRA car, little less money to put togeather and a whole lot less to run it.
Got the skinny adapter plates attached to the manifold top, along with carb studs. I disassemblesd 4 Carter BBD's and ran the parts through my antique gallon of Gunk carb cleaner. Plenty of parts to make two good carbs. The scoop was opened up to fit the BBD tops. Need to order some Heim joints for carb linkage. Been watching Craigslist for an aluminum seat out of a dirt car that I can carve up and make it fit the era. Based on information from Joe Hamby and some of the other SDRA guys, it looks like there's a chance to get in the 12's next season. Anybody heard from Tom?
In my ongoing quest to make my dragster look more "vintage" I carved up a perfectly good Kirkey seat. Trying to make it look like an old bomber seat. The high backrest certainly looked too modern. Cutting the seat down created additional work as a crossmember must be added to have a place to bolt the seat back. Gotta add a headrest too.
I kept the high back and just rounded the top off, Just thought the squared of top looked too new. Really would have loved to build my own, but didn't have access to a brake, and shear and the RCI seat cost about the same as buying the aluminum, so I saved my time for other stuff and took the easy way out.
Based on the theory that if a little is good then a lot is better, I wacked and slashed on the seat today. This is what it looks like now, with the material that was removed setting around it. Now, I'd like to "age" the aluminum a bit. Any suggestions? I have a few yards of Carhart fabric. Was thinking of having a bottom and back cushiion made with it. Just Velcro them in place.
Well bob, I am part way back, doing a little better each day. Like what you did for intake. That is a very thin adapter. Can you show use learners a side view? How many cu in is it? Won't be working on my car for 3-4 weeks.
The seat is out for upholstry with the Carhart material. Started on the carb linkage. I stuck 5/16" NF nuts in the thin wall tubing and brazed them. Made the bellcrank which attaches with the same bolt used for the other linkage. There is a pin to keep it from slipping. How much e.t. am I losing with individual header pipes instead of a well designed header? I like the appearance of the individuals but don't want to pay too big a price in performance. Old28, I'll provide more intak info with the next post. Hope you are healing well.
Bob, just from past experience with my dragster and altered roadster your will give up a lot of bottom end torque with the straight pipes, they are all about the top end run. As an example my 28 altered w/505 BBC ran 8.20's with equal length headers (4 into 1) with baffles and the best with zommes was 8.45. Both the 330 & 660 times suffered with the straight headers. Thanks for the good word, getting a little better each day.
Considering marrying a set of sbc headers with the slantie pipes. The first and third pipes match up nicely. Wish I had two left side sbc headers... Primaries would be about 42" long. Any opinions on that?
Hey Bob, the pipes I made for my Flattie were around $100 with some scrounging and mates rates.Nigel.
Even though I went through a full box of Kleenex and had snot dripping in my welding helmet, I managed to cut up a perfectly good set of sbc headers. Got the header for the front three cylinders tacked together. Still need to figure out collector diameter and length. Thinking 2 1/2" by 20". Advice gratefully accepted. The header for the back three cylinders will turn back at a higher elevation to allow room for the front collector. Primaries are 39" long. I used a header calculator from the Google and it suggested 50"!
BOB when we built the headers for our slant 6 we ended up with 39inch primaries also ,we put 2 1/2 collector 24 inch long painted it black then ran the car, we cut the collector off where the paint quit burning off it ended up 18 inchs it seemed like the engine ran cleaner will play around with it some more this comeing year so give it shot a stick of exhaust pipe is not that much
Go a collector length of 18 to 20 inches and it should really come on strong from 2500 rpm. On the dyno zoomies only make as much or more power above 6500 rpm.
Actually if you have pipe to spare put long collectors on it and use cheap spray paint on them and cut off where the paint stops burning off. That was the way we did it in the old days.
Thanks for reminding me about determining collector length. Felt terrible today (many rush trips into the house) but managed to cut up the right side sbc header. It took more cuts/pieces to make the pipes for the back 3 cylinders. The silver collector is from headers I built for my Anglia many years ago. Tomorrow I'll finish the welding, put the other Anglia collector on and do the blacksmith work to convert the collectors from 4 into 1 to 3 into 1.
That is a whole new look. Looking forward to seeing finish setup. Hope you are feeling better today, have a good New Years.
The header is done and I didn't buy anything. I can easily try diffferent collector lengths by bolting to the flanges.
A while back Old28 asked some questions about the intake manifold. Here you can see the "V" shape of the plenum. It is 88 cubic inches. I extrapolated that from a manifold design in Leo Santucci's Chevy 6 book. Runner length from the base of the carb to the head surface is 9 inches. As I started digging into it, I became less than pleased with the design. Now thinking the runners should be around 15" for a tuned length for 5,800-6,000 RPM. There should be a large radius where the runners enter the plenum. A bell shape. With the 2 bbl carbs facing front, not sideways, the left hand barrel is close to the slanted surface of the plenum. All you guys that have been racing and learning about this stuff please jump in with any suggestions or direction you can offer. Changing the intake will be a sizeable project & I don't want to do it if it won't help performance.
The Jalopy Journal
