Projects Kent Fuller Top Fueler Recreated

Whats not to love? FEDs forever!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you Mazooma ! Some more rubbing with 1000 , then 2000 grit paper still needs to be done.

 

I have been spending time making up the small stuff, but important parts that make this car come altogether. Somemore bandsaw, beltsander, filing and smoothing work. 1) I went to O'Reilly Auto part and found a 12 ft universal cable & wire wound housing. The Weak Suck cable was trashed and found some .075'' steel wire to use at my favorite hardware store, Milanos. 75 pound pull test stuff will work. I coated the wire with Vasoline and installed it into the housing. Movement of these two cables are less than 2'' for the parachute release and fuel shutoff cables.
2) I couldn't find a "T" handle I needed for the fuel shutoff cable. I cut this from 3/8 aluminum plate remnent and a 10-32 set screw locks the cable inplace. I left the inside surface of the handle ears with a 120 grit surface for a nonslip finger grip. 3) Next was the parachute release lever and mount. I grabbed my french curve ( no not her yet ) and drew the pattern on some 1/8 aluminum sheet from the leftover pile and cut that out and massaged it.
4)The Cable Clevis start out of a piece of 1/4 x 1/2 aluminum rect bar. The cable installs through the clevis and the end is bent over so it won't pull out. I drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole for a set screw to lock down the cable. The clevis pivot hole is 1.500'' from the chassis mount hole. A 1/4 turn movement of the Parachute lever is 2.350''.
Isn't this exciting ! Now where is my other French Curve ? Later Guys !

 

Oil pan in stock, valve cover spacers on, spark plug tube top seals on ! The cam is on order coming from one of the original sponsors of Masters & Richter. Donnie Johansen ( Howard Cams) will be putting the final grind on the roller cam. 284* @ .050, 112 LC, .550'' lift.

 

UH huh - nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sploooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogggggeeeeee

 

It was a HAMB HACKIN DAY yesterday. I laid out the lengths for all the Weedburner pipes on the new raw steel 12'' radius 2 1/4'' diameter carbon steel tubes.
I used a hose clamp for a guide which was clamped along the edge of the scribe line. Off to the Hack Bros. Saw we go.
The saw cut was started along the edge of the hose clamp going in, till I was a blade width deep into the cut and rolled the tube so only the saw blade was cutting the top edge of the tube.
16 tube cuts later with deburing and the job was done. I installed the tubes into the flanges for a trial fit and a comparsion look to my reference pictures. PERFECT !

 

PERFECT, Indeed! As is this whole project! Really appreciate your taking the time to show us the progress, your workmanship is world-class...

 

I did some research on Wayne Ewing who built the original body for this dragster when it was the Champion Speed Shop SBC Top Fueler. Kent Fuller knew the shape he wanted and Wayne Ewing formed it back in 1961.
Wayne Ewing's experience of forming aluminum came from an aircraft back ground and Indy Roadster bodies. The windscreen area is very simular on both cars. Beautiful sweeping curves and lines that fit the cars.
Pat Foster recreated the Top Fueler of Q-ball Wales and Paul Candies (Candies and Hughes F/C and T/F). Wayne Ewing built that Dragster with a chute pack tail. A copy was made of the chute pack tail section. A few dragsters, Culpit & Cunningham and Don Garlits (SR 5) has the fiberglass copy of this tail section.
http://cacklefest.com/Cupit.shtml

 

If I remember right, didn't Arty Ross do the final smooth out of the Ewing tail section and then make a mold off of it prior to turning back over to the Fuller camp? I know Arty did work for Paul Candies and I think these guys were based out of the Baton Rouge area which would have been in close proximity to Garlits. Just wondering if Garlits obtained a fiberglass copy via Arty Ross? At any rate it is a beautiful design, Riceman and very functional for the chute pack!

 

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=5 width=750 bgColor=#ffffff align=center><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ffffff vAlign=top colSpan=2><CENTER><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=10 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ffffff vAlign=top width=622 align=middle>[SIZE=+1]Arty Ross fiberglass body - Wale & Candies Ewing Car - The Facts[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]by Glenn Cupit[/SIZE]
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width=700><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">[SIZE=-1]This is hopefully the correct and accurate (or as close as possible after 45 years) story of this "urban legend".[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]For 30 years I have been in constant touch with Arty Ross, who painted the Wale & Candies Ewing car twice for Q-Ball Wale.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Q-Ball & I lived in New Orleans, Paul Candies lived about 50 miles away in desAllemands and Arty lived about 80 miles away, in Baton Rouge.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]I was good friends with Q from 1956 until his death at Monroe, LA drag strip, July 3, 1965. We ran him and red-lighted the run before he was killed when his chute didn't open.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]I am still in regular touch with Paul Candies, who I have known since 1958, when he became Q-Ball's partner in his first digger.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]This is not FIRST hand, but it IS SECOND hand information![/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]I spent the afternoon today, with Arty at his shop in Baton Rouge. Arty had told me previously how this scenario unfolded and clarified some events in person with me, today. (11-24-09)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Arty made a mold off the rear body and cowl, after he completed the finish body work prior to paint, on the aluminum rear body. The Wayne Ewing body was only rough finished and had lots of hammer dents & ripples when Arty got the car from Q-Ball. Arty dolly straightened, filed and sanded the aluminum body so that very little primer was needed prior to painting. This occurred in Baton Rouge, fall-winter, 1962. Arty had just turned 21 and was doing paint jobs at his house.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Arty was a local hot rodder, known as a custom painter in the very early '60's and did some (if not the first?) metal flake jobs in the Baton Rouge - New Orleans area.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Arty was interested in fiberglass work, but had never made a mold of anything. He wanted to make this mold for the experience, plus it was a cool body! He had no intention of going into business SELLING bodies.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]At that time he did not have Q-Ball's permission to make the mold. But, Q-Ball and "everybody" knew immediately that Arty had made a mold & Q never complained or commented to Arty. He painted the Ewing car blue metal flake. Paul & Q-Ball ran this car at Pomona in Feb, 1963.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Arty made ONE body, which stayed in his shop for a year. Arty sold no bodies at that time. The mold Arty made from the blue body was a one-piece mold, which had to be carefully cut to get the body out. Arty only made one body from it, which hung on the wall of Lester Guillory's shop. (See below photos. Also, Arty as he looked in 1964.)Because a one-piece mold is difficult to lay-up and pop out, Arty made a second mold from the orange car. This mold was a 2-piece mold. All bodies sold to Garlits came from this 2-piece mold. The 1-piece mold was destroyed.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]A year later (fall-winter, 1963), Q-Ball returned to Arty's shop for the car to be re-painted (orange). Arty told Q that he would not charge him for re-painting the car orange, for making a mold off his body. Q said fine. That was the deal. Arty had sold no bodies at that point.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Q was very easy-going and could have cared less, especially since he didn't have to pay for the paint job. Paul came to Arty's house to pick up the car after the orange paint job was finished and asked Arty what he owed Arty? Arty told Paul: "Nothing, as I made a mold from your body". Paul obviously had not been informed by Q-Ball about the deal? Neither Paul nor Q was ever charged for the 2nd paint job. Neither Q-Ball, Paul nor Wayne Ewing ever said anything to Arty about him making the mold.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]In late 1964, I had one of the first of these Arty Ross fiberglass copies of Q-Ball's Ewing aluminum rear body on my 1964 built, Cupit & Cunningham AA/FD. Wayne Smythe, my friend and chassis builder who lived in Westwego, bought the body from Arty Ross in late 1964. Arty's home shop was in Baton Rouge. Arty has had a commercial shop in Baton Rouge since the late '60's. (Today, Arty does not remember Wayne buying my body?)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Sometime in late '63, early 64, Connie Swingle came by Arty's shop and said that the fiberglass body hanging on the wall, would be great for Garlits' new chassis he was making for himself & others. Arty made him a body and Swingle took it to Garlits for his approval.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]In the next few years, Arty sold Garlits 20-30 bodies to be put on Garlits' chassis that he made & sold. Many of Garlits', Swingle's and Art Malone's cars sported this Arty Ross body in '64, '65 and later. These bodies can be easily identified by the definite scalloped peak above the chute pack opening.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Arty continued to make these and delivered them to Garlits in Florida or Gar had them picked up in Baton Rouge. Arty put an "X" reinforcement on both sides of the bodies, (which is visible in one photo). He also embedded his business card at the center of the "X", which could be read through the fiberglass from the inside.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]On one trip to Arty's shop, Swingle told Arty that Garlits would hold each shipment of bodies up to the light and look them over. Gar commented to Swingle that there were no air bubbles, lumps, etc and the hand laid-up bodies were light & strong.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Arty manufactured them for Garlits and Garlits sold them with the chassis he (and Swingle) built. Garlits knew where the mold originated, from the "get-go". This arrangement continued for several years.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]As the bodies went out of style, and none had been made for many years, Arty gave the mold to Garlits for his museum (probably in the late '80's?). Arty intended the mold for Garlits' use in restoration of his cars that had the Arty Ross bodies.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Pat Foster's restoration body for the Wale & Candies blue cackle car, was made recently by Garlits from this same ORIGINAL Arty Ross mold. Garlits probably did not make many bodies after Arty gave him the mold, until Patty's. This mold was never "rebuilt" or "restored".[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]I spoke to Garlits at Bowling Green in 2006 and he told me that he could furnish another body for my 1965 digger that I wanted to recreate . . . which he did. Boogie Scott & I drove down and picked it up in Jan, 2008.

I personally saw and photographed Arty's original mold at Garlits' shop which was used in late 2007 to make the body for my Cupit & Cunningham 1965 AA/FD cackle car recreation. This original mold still exists today, which Arty says is EXACTLY the same as it was when he had made it in 1964. Even has the same wing nuts! I am regularly in touch with Boogie, who told me recently that he was the one who originally went to California to pick up Q-Ball's car at Ewing's shop in 1962. It was not nearly ready and he returned to Louisiana after driving all the way to California![/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Another crew (Patty's "Alligator Wrestlers"?) had to be sent by Paul from Louisiana to pick it up. Boogie knows the rest of this episode, too. The story is that it STILL was not ready, so they "camped" at Ewing's shop until it was finished! I'm copying this to Paul for his input and recollections.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Glenn Cupit[/SIZE]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Just some Wayne Ewing History.

 

Yes I waited longer than I wanted, but the aluminum tail is done. Dave Tuttle did a outstanding form of aluminum art for the Masters & Ritchter Special. Dave straighten out my aluminum work and alot of stuff that needed fine adjustments.
Tomorrow Kackle Ken Riley and I will put the mockup motor in and all the little 1 hour jobs to get ot ready for the Bakersfield March Meet to show the M & R Special in the RAW.
Stay Tuned for more to come !

 

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top _yuid="yui_3_1_1_3_132979176454665">Ken Riley and I put the Mockup motor in the chassis today. We still have a ways to go. I am SURE that there are a few smiling faces above too ! So Enjoy !

 

That's just plain pretty! Beautiful body work.

 

For the love of all things holy and good!!!!!! She's a work of art.

 

Having painted a few restoration / cacklecars in the last few years , it's really good to see someone build a body where the curves are'nt all "squared up". Looks like you guys have your proportions looking good.

 

Wow! She is gorgeous!!

 

Awesome build Riceman. Gorgeous car and craftsmanship.

 

Really great work there. Looking forward to seeing it in person one day.
Fantastic job!

Steve

 

Perfecto!

 

Reading about those cars was a big part of growing up....it's neat to see a recreation that is so faithful to the original. The weedburner cars were from a time when the proportions were the best too. So congradulations.

 

I am now putting in all the little stuff that makes it work. Those 5 minute jobs that take an hour each. I changed the fuel shutoff cable housing.
The fuel shutoff cable has to work as a push-pull operation and the way I had it setup with a old style wire housing wasn't doing the job. No Morris type housing on this Fueler. I had some AN-3 tube nuts and flares and came up with this idea. The threads on the tube nuts are 3/8-24 thread. I made attachment ends and bulkhead fitting out of 3/8-24 all thread , 2'' long, drill 1/8'' center holes and tapered the ends to a 37 degree cone. I used Jamnuts to secure the ends and bulkhead fitting through the firewall. I went down to the autoparts store and bought 2 lengths of 3/16 x 6 foot brakeline tubing for the housing. I measured the two lengths required, flared the ends to 37 degrees and screwed them on to the 3/8-24 end to the fuel shutoff mount to the bulkhead fitting and bulkhead fitting to the steering post cable housing end. Inserted the lubricated steel wire cable with the fuel shutoff cable T-handle, measured the needed length of travel and attached the cable end to the fuel shutoff arm and it is a done deal. You now can push and pull the fuel shutoff with 2 fingers. The clutch pedal linkage is done with a return spring. In the last picture shows the clutch pedal pin installed for keeping the clutch in while moving around the pits or coming back from a pass.

 

Good concept Roger. Hope you don't mind if I steal that cable housing idea for our build, I like the steel tube for it's lack of flex.

 

Riceman,
Some times the less said, the better.........WOW!
KK

 

Looking great! I love the fact you carved out your own handles and parts!

 

Roger you never seize to amaze me! Looks beautiful!

 

The Weedburners are tacked together right now and the new steering arm was welded on to the spline ring. Some finishing on the weld and polished.....BITCHIN !

 

The new crank pulley was added and I made the rear flange for it. Water system was completed with rear water necks and overflow lines running to the tacked up Weedburner headers.

The black Joe Hunt magneto cap was replaced with an era correct brown Vertex Scintilla Cap. The sample spark wires were cut to length and will be replaced with Packard 440 wires.

The Parachute Lever and cable was installed to the chute pack. The interior aluminum work was roughed out by me and Dave Tuttle put the finishing touches to it and made the seat bottom. The seat belts are in position for fitting.

I fitted the pipes for the Weedburner headers and R.T. Melville tacked them up for me. I couldn't help myself and gave the pipes a quick buff job (1 hr, LOL )

 

That's one bitchin' machine! Fantastic work!

 

riceman,... your work/efforts are impeccable...I am thinking your restorations, are taken to an another level altogether...
Much Respect!...and, am looking forward to your next endeavor.
...

 

Thank you all for your great comments. I have learned from alot of people in my life outside of Drag Racing and knowledge is the key factor in anything you do.
Listening and applying from major players in my life lets you form your own ideas.
Thanks Again, Roger "Riceman" Lee