Hot Rods Top Banana Style Slingshot Dragster- Marty Strode-Chris Kopp.

I only made 14 passes total in the car, before selling to a local, who put his Boss engine in it. He only ran it a couple times, and sold it. It was raced with a SBC, for it got a new owner who ran a BBC for a couple seasons, and it went to Wisconsin. I sold it, so I could go into business !

 

Thanks for the history on it. There is one here that looks a lot like it, Chevy powered too.

 

Marty, I was active from 76 to 96. Most of the cars were blown alky. I did a modern fed and 2 econorails that were kind of high tech for the time. That was after Strange and MW had all alum. read end housings to use.

 

Blown Alcohol, was such a competitive class in those days, with Dale Armstrong and others. The car that amazed me most, was Dale Hall, from Connecticut with a SBC, against all of those Hemis.

 

How about Bill Mullins? Same deal. He was the 1st person that I knew who ran titanium rods in his chevy. He later moved to T/F. He was one of those that you could talk to for less than 10 minutes and learn a whole season's of knowledge. Dale was at the 1st Mile High nationals when it was still a sportsman race.

 

I pulled the engine to trim the motorplate and do some welding on the bottom side. I had been thinking about machining a plate out of thick aluminum to replace the tail housing, now that the tail shaft is shortened and splined for the coupler. I decided to bandsaw the flange off and mill it flat. It will be much easier to machine and weld a plug in the flange, and bore it out for a seal at the coupler.

 

^^^^
I think he's practicing wheelies.

 

Marty, are you putting a bearing in that tail housing?

 

Yes, using the stock bearing, another reason for using part of the stock housing to support the bearing.

 

I have been finishing some welding, and decided to machine the piece for the seal at the coupler. I had a stick of 3" aluminum that was 12 feet long out under my carport area. I couldn't carry it, so I sawed off a 5 foot piece using a sawsall, and went to work. Now I need to tack weld it, heat it up to around 250 in a toaster oven, and weld it up. Then I will take it to a buddy that is a pro, and he will lock it down, with the bearing bore up. Then he will sweep the bearing bore with an indicator, and bore it to size, and step bore it for the seal.

 

Man U do impressive shit. Wish I had stopped couple years ago when drove cross country & passed through your area. Do u want to adopt an old guy? I like cats & don’t eat much

 

Mike, it’s all in the cutting tools, I use Sandvik.

 

This shows how the output shaft mates to the rearend. It can be tough to take pictures one handed with an ipad, I had to push the button with my nose !

 

It's obvious Marty NOSE what he's doing!

Dave

 

Oh, that's bad!

 

Good one Dave !

 

Trying to get as much of the loose ends taken care of before I take it to Chris, so he can start on the body. Today, I worked on the anti-rotation device on the nose of the rearend. Got the top done, now need to make some weld bungs for the legs, and some weld tabs.

 

Marty, my iPad camera has a timer button, it’s the button two up from the shutter button when the iPad is in the horizontal orientation. I use the 10 second timer all the time to compose pictures. Hope that helps you share even better stuff! Thanks again!

 

Thanks, I will give it a try. I am not real technical, kind of like the guy that plays pinball and doesn’t use the flappers.

 

I love good parts. That's another thing I miss about race cars. I don't miss the cost, though.

 

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

You know, my dad could honestly do that. Every time I tried it was always “TILT!”.

 

I got it ready to go to Chris in the morning, couldn't resist taking some shots outside. I dropped the 2-1/16 injector off at Spud Miller's to have it checked out, so I put the small one on just for fitment.

 

Marty, possible dumb question incoming...
When it's time for your friend to build the body, do you
A. include a bunch of dzus fasteners and tabs for him to locate
B. he works out and does the attachments as he sees fit
C. you are both doing it from photos and locations have been discussed (not here, okay along here)
D. he just makes the body long all over and leaves it to you to do final fit and attach?

 

The answer is B. He builds it the way he sees fit, and chooses and supplies the fasteners along with mounting everything. He is the pro here ! I am lucky to have him for a friend, his talent is an additional bonus. We will bringing it to some functions in California, hope to see you there.

 

Very nice. Will you be adding helmet bars to the cage?

 

Yes, I held off on installing those bars, because Chris is going to put small oval windows in the canopy, and vertical location of those tubes might hamper the view out.

 

Zooming in I see u have lot of finish welding to do. Delaying until body done or maybe will need to move some bars?

 

No, just too tired to finish welding before taking it to Chris. Now that it is there, I will be back on the '29 in day or so.
Got it to Chris, and thought some of you might like his Pit Bike !

 

Marty and I will discuss his basic wants. I'll look at photos to get locations of panel seams and fastener locations. If there isn’t any photo evidence I’ll put them in a location that makes sense to the period and this build.