Projects Northwest Vintage Dragster Group Build.

I did not see this mentioned: the power glide mock-up trans in the photos. Looks like the early version with a shorter output shaft than the more common length output shaft used in performance power glides.

The common length tail housing measures near 11 & 1/2 inches long over all end to end.

 

That is a clean lookin build Walt! Point taken on the fire suit. I'm sure we can make it work, Randy and I may have to pick up some driving shoes to operate the brake. On the manual trans car I will probably have to hand brake it.

Those bars over the legs and top of the firewall, are they 1" 1/8 wall?

Yes it is the shorter trans. On previous advise on first gear ratio we are on the hunt for a TH350 and it looks like we should be able to find one that 27 5/8 long and it will still work. Our driveshaft is shaping up to be about a foot long.

 

Here is where the rules get a little strange. If you run slower than 10.99/135 mph you don't need a shield or SFI flexplate but at ANY performance level you need a firesuit that meets SFI3.2A/15 (read; SPENDY$$$) if the transmission is in the cockpit (plus SFI boots and gloves). So the plan is to build a tunnel/floor that covers the box and save some bucks.

Hmmm! I just posted this and see that Casual6 posted pretty much the same thing earlier and it just showed up for me--not sure where it was hiding before.

Roo

 

Haha no problem Roo, a lot of times I have to be told twice before it sinks in.

 

Marty & Walt, what did your cars end up weighing?

 

You will have to ask Walt, I sold mine before getting it finished. I would guess around 1500 lbs.

 

As usual, Marty was on the mark. My car complete w/o driver weighs 1550 lbs. The others are similar.

 

Thanks guys, i was daydreaming and running the numbers threw some af the ET calculators figuring how much I will need to warm up this 300 ford six to get there.

I did recieve a midplate today

 

Why isn't the bolt circle concentric with the ID and OD of the part?

 

Bad parts got shipped out. They are going to send another one.

 

Chili dogs were on the menu last night, sometimes there is nothing better!

So with my confidence rattled with the store bought midplate we decided to produce our own, this would work better for the firewall anyhow. Dug around the interweb and found the dimensions and drew up the cad file.


I burned it out on the Plasmacam just marking the bolt locations then drilled them on the mill.

Fit perfect much happier with the results





Meanwhile Randy and Wayne knocked out the two cross braces under the seat that the driveline hoops will be mounted on. And then they bent up the firewall hoop. You can see the front mount I started working on in this pic, it needs some slimming down and cearancing for the timing cover before the final one is cut.

I couldn't stand not taking it for a spin at that point.

 

Dam after every meeting photo shoot I'm HUNGRY

 

You guys sure do nice work. Only thing I'd question'd be having the anchors of the front mount off the plane of the engine face. Wouldn't that allow flex at those two bends, and thus at the firewall?

 

The flex would be minimal and only in extreme stress. Actually, the angled front plate might even function as a "blowback device" to limit rearward travel. On Halloween of 2000 I wrecked my Logghe car - hitting a concrete guardwall head-on at about 60 mph - and the entire engine / trans deflected about 2" forward in the chassis. This dissipated some of the crash energy which otherwise may have proved fatal.
I like it.

 

Hell, I might have offered to help if I'd known what was on the menu.

 

A couple of things; It is usually a good idea to put the motor mount tabs/plates on the rear side of the mid plate as it makes it easier to pull the motor/trans package as a unit. Likewise with the upper hoop.
And on the subject of the mid plate, with just a hole for the crank (or flexplate) having the lower surface contiguous will provide a firewall and somewhere to hook the front of the belly pan. Of course as you are going to have to put a floor over the trans to avoid having to shell out big $$ for a -15 firesuit to the point is a little moot. It is also a good idea to make the upper part of the firewall the same width as the outside of the frame rails and notch it to drop between the rails. By doing that the weight of the engine is carried by the plate itself and not the bolts holding it to the flanges. When you do that four bolts are sufficient to hold the mid plate in place--one at each frame tube. With that set up the frame hoop is not really necessary as the body will seal on the mid plate.

Roo

 

So is the mid plate resting on the top frame rail? To take the stress of the bolts
Having a time trying to picture this sorry.

 

Saltflats, Here are a couple of shots that show the motor-plate. I use 1/4" aluminum, the drawback is modifications to the nose, and the pads of the torque converter is required. Aluminum is pretty standard stuff on Dragsters, Funny Cars and Altereds.

 

Rob, I have been thinking about you building multiples of the same basic chassis. One thing that I do, is saddle the lower frame rails in muffler clamps, that are attached to a fixture, that is removable. You could built a quick fixture, and mount it to that great table you have.

 

Ok, that makes good sense. It would be alot easier to fab than what i had planned too. By the time we get the third one of these built we might know what we are doing. I appreciate the advice as always. We are having a great time building these.

 

Rob, Roo and I are just trying to help, by sharing our experiences of the last 50 years ! I might have to drive up there for dinner, one of these nights !

 

Your always more than welcome to show up anytime!,besides we have been planning to drop in on you next time we are in Portland. We appreciate the hell out of the help, might keep us from showing up looking like a bunch of clowns at the first race.

 

This is great!

 

If you guys ever do Medford please post it. Maybe we can get some from the Portland area too. It would be worth the 7 hour tow to run Maybe we can do the 12 second index like Walt wants to institute Nice workmanship and very popular thread. You`ll have no trouble with tech when they see what you`ve done The top rail clamp at the motorplate is on the funny car, if we leave the clamp on the top saddle frame rail it`ll break it so we go thru tech with it on then take it off. We still have the bottom bolts and blowback bars to hold it together

 

If the starter is set up and shimmed correctly there should be no problems with the ring gear. The starter pinion normally has more than enough travel to fully engage on the ring gear.

Roo

 

You mean if we run the midplate with a spacer? Dad has a surface grinder so we should be able to make a pretty square spacer

Just mocked up the front axle. We still need to add some leafs. But it sure looks cool.

 

Rob, Are you going to run that head ? I guess you would save on pistons and bore job!

 

Hey Marty, stop by and pick me up on the way.

 

Ah we were BS'n the other night and reading about how they put these sb heads on these chevy sixes. Pretty quick we had a junk head in the band saw. Would be cool but looks like a lot of work.