After 2 long months of taking a ch***is with a 4 cyl Offy motor and shoe horning a Clay Smith built Flatty V8 with 39 style 3 sp... she fired up and sounded down right scary. It really doesnt sound like a Flathead at all- more like a F1. She winds up quicker than a pissed off wife and comes down quicker than a 100 year addict. I would love to learn how to post a video file so you could hear. Apparently Clay Smith knew his way around a normally aspirated flatty! I have 70 year old tires on her still, so it may be a bit until a good test drive, but I'm sure I have a couple things to double check in the meantime. I had to make the torque tube and the driveshaft on the lathe- fabricate some heavy wall DOM to line the rear output shaft through the motor and trans for proper driveline alignment kind of like what the drag guys do. Measure 300 times and cut once! Tons of machining and welding so that everything fit where it used to be so that the car looked like it always had the V8, 3 spd, and Mitchel overdrive in it. The driveshaft was less than 1 foot in length with the overdrive if you can believe it and made from solid stock! I think it should carry the load no prob! 2 months of work... man oh, man... I thought going into it - 2 weeks! HA- HA- HA.. and thats having a bridgeport, mig and tigs, lathe, jig tables, etc... and not sourcing anything out- so no impediments to time... Worth every second hearing her- now to see how this 1500lb car responds when driven... I wish everyone could pile in with me for a real life death ride! This thing scares me more than the motorcycles I build. A genuine death trap. I wonder if she makes it with me to Bub's Trials this year?? That would be cool- I might have a few bikes out there this year depending on how my dealers finish- so if anyone is going to be at Bub's - say hello- it will be my first time to the Flats! I have helped with vehicles- but never been- I can't wait.
Was that ch***is originally run with a Flathead or the Offy? I recall reading the Indy flatheads didn't finish because the exhaust cooked the grease out of the steering boxes but they were compe***ive.
"The driveshaft was less than 1 foot in length with the overdrive if you can believe it and made from solid stock! I think it should carry the load no prob!" I thought I read somewhere that hollow tube was stronger than solid shaft.
Who knows- I think it's relative. A 4" hollow tube with caps can be pretty strong- when we used to 4x4 - that would be the way to go, as a solid 4" bar might be a little heavy to lift and mount! But I will tell you- my 1 1/2 solid bar is going to have a really, really , really hard time twisting!! I would imagine if you mounted the largest jet engine to it, you might be able to put some twist in to it- but at 1 foot, I think the splines would go before the bar twists!
Was there something wrong with the Offy? Seems like getting the 4 cyl up and running would be a real thrill, although I'm sure parts are tough to come by and high buck.
The guy who restored it last sold it to a local collector who then took the wheels and the Offy and sold the rest to a buddy of mine, who planned to make her streetable and never finished. So to get her back to where she deserves- I figured a Clay Smith built motor from 46 would suit... it came from Rich Bickle Sr who did the rebuild. The motor was originally in a hyrdoplane boat and has all the original goodies on it 94's Evans intake and heads, wico mag etc.... now it's all home in So Cal again, after all these years- kinda cool. I still have to finish the pipes- would love to go high on both sides... but am contemplating running them around the frame rails so as not to burn thighs and arms when running it as a street machine..... not as authentic - but mighty practical....... Will post a bunch of pics when pipes are done and she is out of the garage!
Burns? Have you seen the "Calori Roadster".......heck I still have burns marks on the backs of my legs from my pops car when I was a punk kid....hahaha.......History is your best friend........study the pictures.......I was going to mention something about the "3rd brake light"......but, I was pretty impressed that you were going to make it "road ready"........Pipes need to go up the sides. Chris
New pics, but more work to go- finish exhaust tomorrow - quick release to run muffled or straight pipes. She's running great and can rev big time- over drive is sweet shifting on the fly. Still would love to find a local "tuner" if anyone knows of one to put those 3 94's on the money. As is, they are probably 98%, but I know there's an old school codger out there who can make them 101% She starts straight up, no back talk or babble, winds up/down quick, so far so good. Need to powdercoat the wheels and take her for a few longer shakedown runs with new tires on her... the 70 year old tires are worrying me at 75mph... I can see the inner tubes! The roll bar I left on for the build as it's easy to grab on to as I enter/exit the ****pit during fab- when she goes back on the street- it's out of here... there's not much chance of surviving a wreck in this thing anyway, so the 5 point harness and roll bar are probably wasted items- I think getting ejected would be the best bet in a small car like this. I decided to run the pipes under the car, to save my thighs etc, plus the lines of the car are so nice, when I mocked the pipes on the side, it just looked like plumming and really ruined the hand formed gas welded aluminum body- I did some research and found there was no hard fast rule on the pipes in Indy - some on bottom, most on sides... so I felt I kept in the confines... plus this way, I can run them out of the way and have a quick detachment method to run straight pipes if wanted. More pics to come...
Hey Rick, I,m hearing you're after a bellytank. I'll search or even steal one for ya and in return you give me Dixie.
Thanks guys! I think the building is always the most exciting- all the anticipation. I just finished the pipes about 15 min ago (mounted springs to quick couple). So I'll wait until they cool and go for a put put this evening. I'll drop some snaps if it's still light out. Hey Kurtis, from what I hear- they want more for a $200 surplus P38 tank nowadays than I could probably get for Dixie, so your not too far out with that one! It amazes me. You still have to build it and make a million parts. I guess you end up with a $100k belly tank racer when the original idea was to build a go fast cheap ride. If you hear of anything, please let me know - but I'm not paying anything close to prices I've been hearing. I was born at night, but not last night! May have to build one or go another direction with a diff tank.
Unfortunately there will always be an element in our hobby who collect items used 60years by ago by some who wanted something unique or in this case to go fast.These "collecters" have only one desire. Build your own man,with all the skills you have i'm sure it will be better than some former gas tank. Look at Doc's for some inspiration.
Yep- I think your right- I just talked with another Hamber who has another era tank that has a much better dimensions in my opinion to really build a great safe frame and fit a lot of options for power in..... The last running belly tank that sold complete that I heard of went for $15k and was legit - it wasn't "famous" but legit. I think thats probably what these are worth at the end of the day. Pfaff builds my uncles engines for his B cl*** offshore racers (www.imcomarine.com) and I'm sure other folks have connections to great builders.... so with this in mind- you can get a world cl*** used motor for a great deal, build the rest top grade for the other $10k and you probably have an easily compe***ive vehicle. May be the way I go... I really like these marine motors - stout, high revving, long revving.... etc- great for a Bonny run in my mind. Dixie's motor was built by Clay Smith in 48 for a hydroplane boat and it rocks! Correction- check this link... http://imcooffshoreracing.com/index.html Imagine if I really work on my uncle hard to get one of these motors, strap it into a larger belly tank!!!!!! Ouch... probably be looking for someone else to drive it though. I remember my uncle scaring me as a kid with his boats, and I'm still scared of them! He's a great guy and it's a family biz.
What a cool car man. Each time I log on to the HAMB I feel like I get a history lesson. I learn something new about something old. X10 on some sound and a video!
I just got a cable for my Mac to download some video, so as soon as I figure out how to pull it off- I'll drop a video onto the net with a link. She is running pretty strong, but I really need tires! I should be able to get all the tires on and powder the rims within the next 2 weeks... last night was scary- I thought the tires were going to blow- she is so light in the rear that the tires spin a bit if they don't have the best traction under them.
Just posted a video thread finally! Sorry for the long,long, long wait... it has the two 4ft mufflers on it- so it's super quiet - next time I'll take the mufflers off so you can hear the cam. It's scary sounding...
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