Its going on 4 years since I posted anything about my project mostly because for that period of time it has been in storage.... I have been getting ready for my 4th child to arrive so I know my time will be limited but getting out in the shop from time to time this winter is what will help me keep my sanity... This weekend I finished where I left off with the dragster mounting the Sharp Intake and Evans Heads on the acutal Mercury engine I plan on running... I am using the larger truck belt and pulley setup. With new pumps installed I had to trim off about 3/4" off the large belt pulley I had to align the pulleys. I am using the fan mount as a tensioner only so I had to modify the pulley and hopefully my locking idea will work....
Keep at it, we're only a bit over 7 years into our build. Sometimes life events will slow progress, but every thing you do gets you closer to the goal. Love the zoomies!
Mounted the puke tank this weekend. Used a water canteen I picked up somewhere. Think its gonna work great. Started patterns yesterday for body. Picked up a sheet of 3003 .032 alumumim for my body this yesterday
Cool! Like your cardboard patterns, I've done a lot of aircraft aluminum that way. Far easier to cut and fit and transfer to the metal when you are sure it will work and cheaper than the aluminum if you need to make a second piece to replace the one you measured once and cut twice.
Your ride is looking great, nice overflow. Are you going to just pump the water through the system or use a radiator? Should be turning a little white in your area, time to fire up the stove and get ready for the winter build.
Cooling will depend on how you want to run the car at the track. If you are going to pull the dragster to the lanes and back to the pits you will be able to make a pass with just the water in the system. If you want to make it so you can drive up to the lanes and back to the pit you will most likely need a small radiator with an electric fan in the system. Keep the pictures coming, we love to see the build progress.
Old 28 is correct. I recently added a small radiator and a fan to augment my 3-quart on board circulating tank. This enabled me to drive the car to the line, make a run, and return to my pit spot with the temp below 220. I run on gasoline. If you use alcohol you can run for much longer without fear of oveheating.
Gotta love cleaning up the lathe afte machining brass and aluminum! Not much accomplished this weekend on the dragster. I plan on running zues fasteners to hold the body on and I refused to buy the $40 tool to indent the panel for flush mounting so I made my own. Last night I sneaked out in the garage and cut out the sides for the dragster body. I found myself needing a mallet that didnt mar the metal so bad so had to make one with a 2x4, a stick of 1" steel tubing for a handle a piece of tooling leather I had. It appears to work better than what I started with.
The rear housing I am using was donated by one of my sponsors. It was chromed at one time but has seen better days. I solid mounted the housing to the frame with some self-designed mounts allowing for easy removal of the complete rear end. The side bells had ladder bar mounts resembling Pete & Jakes. I was thinking I may want some more support if this actually grabs the pavement so my Sponsor donated some 33-34 bones. I cleaned them up, welded the seam down the wish bone since the early bones were not welded. this will add some strength. I cut the rear mounting area off the wish bone since I only needed one hole, and made some frame tabs to weld on towards the middle of the frame. These things are not very strong appearing, hopefully they will do their job. Spoke with the old man (sponsor) and he is gonna search the pile for another set of 33-34 bones to attach to the upper tab on the bells. Angle them down to the lower and attach will triangulate the bars and make it much stronger.
Taco Tickler Tshirts are here! $25 each Free Shipping to all HAMBers if anyone is interested PM me. Sizes M-4XL Colors: Sand or Chocolate
Had my friends at Twisted Choppers roll me a 1/4 think flat piece to protect my feet in the case of a clutch explosion when this thing leaves the line!!! If it ever leaves the line.
Very nice work, love the home made tools. Nice pictures, they really help others with some new idea's. Building it is more than half the fun.
I finally go some zues fasteners on the body. Once you get a system down they go pretty good. New tool works great. I finished last night up starting the top cowl piece.
I am working on the torque tube this week. I already had the outer housing tacked together and found an inner splined shaft to cut down. My total length is 17" from trans spine to pinion spline. I am still going to use the U-joint at this point off the rear of trans. I chucked both cut ends of the splined shaft into the lathe and found that they are not very round. I machined them a little so they were both right at the 1" diameter . I carefully slit the shaft down the center on the machined ends about 2.5" then ground the edges good for a strong V weld. After welding I rechucked it in the lathe and it turned out pretty name straight.
I cleaned up the torque tube today and welded it up. I still gotta drill for the grease zerk at ujoint end. I took a piece of tubing and drilled it and rosette welded it for some extra strength. I usually would angle the ends of tube and weld around the shaft but I was told just to leave the ends and rosette weld it. I think it will hold?
That's some real nice in your own shop machine work and welding. Keep up the good work. Are you going to add a front cage loop bar as I had to on my frame that was built to have a single rear bar, or are you going to run at outlaw tracks only?
I didn't plan on it...The local track here is IHRA but pretty outlaw. Is this a requirement at other tracks for HA/GR?
I can only speak about the NHRA tracks out west, they would require a front loop and helmet bars. We have 3-4 races at tracks in CA each year that we can run with a single cage bar like you have (Eagle Field, Barona, Antique Nationals). We really don't have any outlaw tracks that would let use run with a single bar on a regular bases. I think you can run at the annual HAMB race with a single bar, not sore on that. If you are going to run only outlaw style tracks you might be fine. Just keep in mind, that is not a lot of protection even at 75-100 mph. You might take a look at how my original frame was and how I added the front loop, top bars, helmet bars (it's in my build thread). I can pass inspection at any NHRA track for 10.0 and slower open wheel. Just something to think about.
Progress!!!! Got the backing plates off the banjo rear. These things looked like they were found in the ocean...Beggars can't be choosers I guess.....I got them cleaned up as good as I could. I sprayed a light coat of flat back paint on them so I could use my fancy scribe plates and actually see the scribe marks. Drilled a few hole in them... Cut up the 2nd set of 34 rear wishbones also and fit them onto the others. Gonna make some old timey Ladder Bars...its progress!
Its been awhile since I have posted but I am still going strong on the race car. The Banjo rear is powder coated and up at Lake City Rod and Custom getting fitting with all the goodies. All the other components are dismantled cleaned up and getting painted, polished or powder coated. I am busy finish welding the frame at this point then that will be powder coated too.