Projects Dragmaster Dragster Found Hanging On A Wall.

I agree, the plan from the beginning was to be period correct.

 

Here are pictures of the restored steering wheel showing the left hand brake handle. I cleaned the steering wheel and the cover (Horn Button) over the mounting hardware it really shows it's age but I'm going to keep it as is. The steering wheel appears to be home made, but done nice. My son John cleaned repacked and installed a new seal in the Lavine steering box. It appears that it is mounted upside down for the right hand steer.

 

This is the top right tube and the bottom left tube that we replaced, the bottom left tube needed a little more work to finish. Apparently while at Turners Auto Salvage heavy things were finding their way on to the frame bending a few of the tubes. The front bottom tube with the front damage was repaired next. We are not disturbing any of the original welds working just past them. You can also see my left foot in the picture, the true sign of a professional photographer, or maybe it's just pointing at the bad drag link.

 

Or maybe a self portrait...
That's a real nice frame and plan.
The differential scatter shield looks a little less than ,,,,comforting.

 

Subscribed. Thanks for posting, actual vintage hot rod type stuff has been a lil thin 'round here lately

 

Hi Knuck

I agree with tree put that beauty back together the was it was and go out and have some fun!!!

Talk to some local track managers and tell them you just to light them up for 100 feet, it will be safe and you can feel how it was to be smoked in and the fans will give you a ' Standing O ' and want to see more

DND

 

I got what was believed to be Dode Martins phone number just after getting the car. I made a few phone calls but had to leave message's. Dode Martin and Jim Nelson were the Dragmaster builders and drivers of their cars. Jim died some years back but Dode is still living. It took a few days but one morning Dode called me back. We visited and I explained about the dragster we have and our plans to restore it. Dode ask me to send him some detailed pictures. He does not have a computer or cell phone so I printed off some nice pictures and sent them. He called me back after receiving the pictures and verified that it was in fact their chassis. He told me it was built either late 1959 or 1960, probably a 1960. He said they had never built a right hand steer car but it was their front end that had the spindle modified to work that way. Dode said he would try to help and find any history he could. We had a nice long visit about his racing back in the day. It was a nice inspiration for the build.

 

Knuck that was the car to have in those days first class work and they worked good too

Smoke'm if you got em' , about 100 feet would be great !!!!!!!!!!

DND

 

We pulled the dragster out to be able to stand back and look it over and discuss the plans for it. My son John with his old helmet got in an we imagined how it was back in the day. We stripped it down after this to have the frame soda blasted to be able to get a real clear look at everything and any other possible repairs.

 

They were a good looking then and now too, really be styling when the engine is setting in there

Jim & Dode built very nice cars that looked good and ran good too, the shop cars were gold with red trim

DND

 

We had the frame soda blasted and primed, we checked over the entire frame found one small area in the rear that needed attention. The damaged tubes that were replaced had no signs of rust inside the frame. It appears all the damage was after it's racing day's. I included 2 pictures to show how my son repaired all the damaged tubes. He had hollow 2 inch tubes that would slide in the existing tubing. He drilled holes to line the inside tubing equally between the original and new tubing, lined everything up, welded the holes first to make sure everything was straight, then finished the welding and smoothing.

 

Or....how about this one?


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@Royalshifter you seen this yet?

 

Holy batwipe buttman! It's a blown ARDUN!!!

 

Sometimes a heart felt Holy Shit is in order. "Holy Shit"

 

I thought since we were talking about dragmasters hanging on the wall.... I thought mine was the only one!


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There was a place in Dallas, Hot Rod Exchange, that had a old Dragmaster chassis back in the early 70's. It is one of my greatest regrets for not buying that old guy back then. It sat right in front of there place and I would stop by and just dream. I am following this project with great interest.

 

Spanglishkings, I now have to choice but to dislike you. There is no way I could leave that car up there to die.

As soon as I got a race car, I never saw another hundred dollar bill.

 

Sorry but I had to retire it and needed the floor space. Too many memories to get rid of it and the NHRA Museum didn't want it.


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Thou.... It's not "traditional"... Powder coat your frame... You won't regret it.... Or miss the drips.

 

The repair looks great, dont know how tight the fit was for the sleeves, when we have to splice frames, we would take the sleeve and split it length wise to let it expand (like a roll pin) and the alignment of the old and new tubing is perfect and subsiquent clean up is a breeze

 

Thats a good tip. When you make a splice like that is it ok to blend out the weld completely so the splice can't be found or is that considered a no-no?

 

I have an old Harley that I powder coated the frame, and your correct, it looks great and has been durable. But on this we had decided to paint it.

 

dreracecar; The fit was snug we left it just loose enough to be able to move the sleeves where they could be centered. Never thought to split the sleeve, good idea.
rottenleonard; We left just enough space between the new tubing so that when we welded it all up both the old and new tubing welded to the sleeve so when we smoothed it out there should be enough weld left for the strength. I think it worked out just fine.

 

Awesome find! I always loved that dragster! Good luck with the build! Can't wait to see progress pics!

 

The frame was all but finished and everything looked good. The only thing we weren't sure of is if we were going to replace the piece of tubing that was originally on the car but taken off. Dode said because of where it was it didn't ad to the structural strength of the car, it was for hanging the clutch or brake pedal or both if needed.

 

Very cool project! Looking forward to following your progress.

 

we run a 62 dragmaster, 327 small block with hilborn injection. Hopefully will be in norwalk in a couple of weeks running, waiting for a new torque converter.. will also be at milan dragway for the detroit dragway reunion. my son just meet dode a couple of months ago when he went to the gnrs. you need any info don.t hesitate to ask...............

 

In a previous post I posted that I did not care for the Dragmaster in my younger years. The later Dragmaster Dart I liked the chassis due to the front torsion set up. As previously posted a dream to set in, takes a good recliner to beat it.

 

After sending Dode detailed pictures of the car just after we got it, a month later we get a surprise package from Dode in the mail. He said when he looked the pictures over the original friction shocks were missing. He built us a pair using his original pattern from back in the day. They built the shocks using cut down sbc valve springs and leather washers.