Projects Eagle Field A Gas Dragster Class Build

Increasing the tire size to 30" dia and fixing a miscalc on a body demension and I'm happy! A shorty body I can build.



Had to raise the front Frame Rail to eliminate an 8" Drop Axle

 

I'll be running a Ford Flathead V8.

 

Cool, we would enjoy having you run the car!

 

It's official, The Fresno Dragway Reunion will be held at Historic Eagle Field May 22, 2010 and the Hot Rod Gathering will be October 9th. See ya there! Rocky

 

I've reconsidered chassis materials. With most used cars being Chrome Moly I will now allow a Chrome Moly Chassis. When and if this category takes off we will impose some wieght minimums which can be done with portable scales at Eagle Field. Our car is going to be built with Mild Steel making the build easier and more affordible. Rocky

 

Tim, ours is not going to be FED, it's Altered Dragster with MW Funny Car / Altered 125" chassis.

About that shoulder hoop split and welding. MW prints state that shoulder hoop can be done from two separate tubes and be welded together. But it needs a bracing tube to be installed inside of the tubes and visible rosette welds has to be done to keep it in place inside the tubes.
Our 1999 dated print is for Funny Cars so it should be safe with FEDs too.
Just my thought

www.hollowheads.net

 

Thanks, good info, putting all those bends in 1 tube would be a little difficult. Rocky

 

PM King Chassis here on the HAMB and he'll send you a good pic of a shoulder bar splice. Here's mine on the HA/GR dragster.

 

I scanned these out of the 2008 NHRA Rule Book (waiting for my 2010) for a friend.

 

What 3sp auto trans is short besides a pg?

 

A shorty kit is nice but not required and I believe the powerglide to have a performance advantage over the 3 speed autos. With that in mind the Mopar, Ford even Olds and Buick will require an adaptor and that will cost a builder 3 to $400. By eliminating the 'glide option it levels the field for more engine options. The class is designed for a guy to go to a "Pull and Save" wrecking yard, grab his favorite makers small block and 3 speed auto, put some basic Hot Rod GOODIES in it with a 3500 stall convertor and run "Heads up" at Eagle Field or Bracket Race with the ANRA group.

 

Thanks for the rule book Rocky got started on the rear mounts today.........

 

Shorty torqueflites came in some 60s vans and motorhomes. Very short tailstocks. They are known as loadflights. Some have Hd cltuch packs as well.
Don

 

This is great. Just got an old roller and I'm ready to build. Anyone know what chassis this is?

 

Bill:
It dosn't matter much who built your chassis. It's a poor design and it will KILL you. There is a reason why dragster chassis' evolved into the bridge truss or airframe type design. The truss will handle a lot of abuse and live for a long time.
A chassis with a legal roll cage attached to 2x3 tube that is not trussed WILL bend at the conecting point. The said legal cage is not realy legal as the SFI requirments state that the top and bottom tubes must extend past the motor plate upright by 2 or 3 inches.(see attached shot)
In the past these frames were made out of ever decreasing tube thickness, like .025" or .035", this was called O TO THIN. a lot of cars were .049, these cars would last about one or one and a half seasons. A good standard tube size is .058", with .058" a tube one smaller size will slip in side for a splice joint. So a car can have 1-1/2" sholder hoops and be spliced down to 1-3/8" then to 1-1/4" for the top rail to run all the way out to the torsion crossmember.
It's my beleaf that it would be ok to go to .065" tube for the front rails. but any thicker would be to stiff. I say too stiff as in the old days of the Chassis Resurch cars, in an accident the car would vaylt and flip all as unit. This would beat the driver up and Kill him some times with out much out side trauma. The Fuller - Stucky design will usualy seperate at the firewall and decrease the rotating mass causing less damage to the driver.
A case in point is the Jim Nicole crash at Indy in 1969. His clutch cut the car in half and he went over the guard rail in cage and with rear end and tires. all this did not go very far and Jim got up and walked away.

Just my opinion, dwrfab Don Ross

 

Just so happens I looked at your work online yesterday, very nice. It's great what your doing with these old racecars. My plan for this car ( before you told me I was going get killed ) was to add bars to complete triangle trusses as needed and to check and repair all welds etc. I blasted the frame today and it's in great shape and only needs small repairs. I've been wanting a car to run once a year at Little River with a 283 and just have something cool around the shop. I value your opinion on these cars, you know much more about them than I do. We all like the old stuff, do you think with some good supports and a 283 this could be a fun and safe car? Thanks for your advice, Bill

 

do you think with some good supports and a 283 this could be a fun and safe car? Thanks for your advice, Bill[/QUOTE]

Bill:
Nobody knows what it is made of, mild steel or molly. The cars I have repaired were all rusting from the inside out. One of the major problems with what I saw as you posted it is the cage , It's just an unknown.
dwrfab Don Ross

 

It's mild steel, the cage also needs to be updated to 5 point and have some kidney bars installed. This frame doesn't appear to be rusted, I think it been in cen/tx mainly. How did you repair the rusted ones you worked on?

 

Good info!

 

Bill:
New tubing, thats all that will set your mind at ease.
dwrfab Don Ross

 

Don, I here ya. So do you think any of the old fed chassis are safe? How do you tell if ones good? Should they all be replaced and parts moved to a new chassis? Thanks for your input on this, Bill ( I'm not afraid to ask when I don't know )

 

Bill:
Thats a hard question to answer. safe is a relative term. If a car is to be used as a cackle car I still remove any damaged tubes. If the main rails are warped and ground on the bottom, the car should be front halved with new tubing. Usually when some tubes need replacing an inspection of the inside can be done. The chassis on the Scorpion V is only 30% original tubing. I got some new sholder and butt tubes from Garlits. Only one main tube in the clutch bay is original. It also has kidney bars behind the wrap around body in case the push truck should get off to the side and hit the body. When I replaced the front tubes I saved the uprights and diagonals. These were hard to weld back to the new .058" rails as they had become thinner with rust.
By rebuilding these old cars Im putting my head on the block. The owners tell me thay will not make runs with the cars. No amout of wavers will protect me. So yes my best advice is use new tubes and approved safty designs.

Sorry for hijackig this thread,
dwrfab Don Ross

 

Thanks for the info Don. This should shed some light on older chassis usage for everyone. I think replacing 70% of a chassis is a waste of time and money but I know we're wanting to keep things as original as possible.

 

Bill-

Mark and I originally found a 1962 120" wheelbase car up in Portand that we wanted to get and restore/update and run, but after going over all the facts and logistics, just decided that it was going to be too much work and there would still be some question marks regarding the safety of the chassis. If I'm going to strap myself in something that we eventually hope to run 170mph in, I don't want to have to worry about the chassis at all. Geez, when we're only running 130 MPH in it in the beginning, I don't want to have any question marks.

So we decided to go with all-new pipe built to look like it was an old car with just an updated cage. It was really hard to find a builder who understood what we wanted to do- most would either say it couldn't be done or that it's not what we really wanted- but we ended up working with Brian Fox of King Chassis and could'nt be happier. Just an awesome guy who does awesome work. Brian and I talked a lot about what was important to me looks-wise and goal wise with the purpose of the car, and he accommodated us. I'd recommend him to anybody. Here's a photo of the car. It ended up having 133" wheelbase, and the right amount of layback that we needed to have the vintage look that we wanted. It's set up to have that "Tampa Dump" to the engine as well. It's based on a Don Long chassis and will be the equivilent of what a C/Dragster would have been in '63/64. Injected small block Chevy on alky.

Dean
http://rocinanteridesagain.wordpress.com/

 

Your car is awesome lookin Dean, is it in your driveway yet? Rocky

 

It leaves St. Louis on Tuesday, and we're doing the banzai run to Burbank on Saturday to pick it up. It will be on jack stands in my garage by late Saturday night.

 

Wow Dean that car is perfect, really like the low cage/layback design. It's going to be a happy day getting that to your shop to gaze at. Please to a build thread so we can watch it come together. I'll more than likely make garage art with this frame, gather parts and build one like yours.

 

Bill-

Thanks for the kind words. I started a blog when we decided to do this project and update it any time there is something new that has been done. you can follow it here if you'd like: http://rocinanteridesagain.wordpress.com/

I wish you all the best with your project- give Brian Fox a call. He'll do you right.

Dean

 

Neat stuff! I hope to have some pix to show soon. I have wheels and tires for all four corners, spindles from S&W motor plate is being fabed up for the Y and rear end is cut down. I have the tubing on order and my chassis builder is ready to work.

 

Dean
I looked at your build site and added to my favorites. I'll be checking in from time to time, looks like a great / fun build. My main hot rod thing is 1927-36 coupes but I can't stop looking at FED's, ya know that feeling right? Thanks for your input, Bill.