Projects One More for Frank Morawski... Updated...

Rusty and illegal in 37 states?

hahaha..Spike

 

Statute of limitations has run out in 5 states, so only 32 these days.

 

Do you still look like Colonel Sanders ?

 

The research on the origins of Franks Dragmaster has shifted into high gear. We sent photos to Dode Martin and may have located one of the original owners.
I've also talked with Tom Hanna who told me that the #7 car, shown in post 29, driven by Danny Ongias, and identified in a Hot Rod Mag article as being owned by him, was actually owned by Roland Leong. I exchanged e-mails with Roland today, and he indeed did own the car in 1963-64, but can't recall who he sold it to almost 50 years ago. The original red paint on the frame points to it possible being that car. We'll know more once we talk with the fellow who may have bought it from Roland, and later sold it to Bob Opperman.
The investagation continues....

 

Rich Venza and Frank Morawski, private investigators. Now that is the stuff that dreams are made of. Finally, we will know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.
Hell, Frank can't even find his cat.

 

The only way we will find hoffa is if he is buried in a significant hotrod that Frank is looking for.

 

They gotta get the history done so we can drool over it at Hershey

Great project Frank!

Dennis

 

Bingo !!!!!

Frank and I were hanging out where I work this morning when frank's phone rang. It was a guy named John Earl. John was the original owner of the car. He was the machinist for Dragmaster. The car originally had a blown 302 jimmy and was called " The Pumpkin ". Mr Earl is going to find some pictures of the car when he raced it and send them to Frank. It would appear that there is still about 5 or 6 years of unknown history on the car. Rich Venza and Frank have once again found most of the history...............now where are we going to find a blower manifold for a 302 Jimmy

All we need now is for Rikster to find some pictures in his collection

 

WOW!! Glad to hear the history has been tracked down!

 

It was great to hear from John Earle, and having photos of the car with the blown Jimmy will become part of the history of the restoration. There is still the possibility of the ch***is having been the one that Danny Ongais used in 1964. I've spoken to Roland Leong about this, and unfortunately he can't remember who he sold it to in 1965.

Here's a couple interesting designs for the "Pumpkin" digger I found on the net.

The third shot is Danny Ongias in the #7 lining up against Mickey Thompson's Hemi 427 Ford for the final at the 1964 WinterNationals. Danny's lighter SBC won that race and just about every other event he entered in 1964.

 

Can't believe I'm 53 yrs old and just now learned what a "live" axle is. I'm embarrased

 

Great intrest story. Thanks for sharing!

 

Sorry! Have missed this thread.
I will follow this one
Strange that i mentioned Pete Robinson in your blower drive thread
It's allways interesting to hunt down old parts for historic cars.

............................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

Anything New On The Dragster?

 

There should be some more later today. I have not taken my camera to work in a few weeks.
Later today we are going to spend a few hours cleaning and prepping the Carrillo Roadster for the upcoming Hershey Meet.

 

Look forward to hearing the Roadster run this year! Did it win it's AACA Junior yet or is this years Hershey the year it gets it?

 

It got something at Amelia Island and it had to run. I think he gets his senior something at Hershey this year...it has to run but that is no problem..........I have to work on it and help with the cleaning Tuesday morning.

I took my camera to work today but Frank Didn't want me to take pictures of the dragster with the non correct dzus fastners in the body.............sometimes gold chainers can be a hards thing to deal with

 

So here is the next update. Frank has been hard at work tracking down the previous owners and history. Of course, Rich Venza has been involved as well. If they would like to add some of that information, feel free.......

Frank has been doing small things before the blow it apart for painting thing so there has been not much to talk about.

We did make a new steering arm with a bend to clear the headers


Top panel removed shows a bunch of cool details .



Frank made a new windscreen to match the original holes in the magnesium body panel



This shook me up a little having never seen a dragster this old........Cross Drilled Axles



We are still on the look out for a complete period correct blower and drive setup. Frank is following up on all leads.

 

Cl***ical Technical definition of a Live Axle;

A live axle, sometimes called a solid axle, is a type of beam axle suspension system that uses the driveshafts that transmit power to the wheels to connect the wheels laterally so that they move together as a unit.
A live axle consists of a central differential in a single housing that also contains the driveshafts that connect the differential to the driven wheels.
Some live axles use trailing arms, semi-trailing arms, Panhard rod, or Watt's linkage to control the vertical and lateral movements of the axle. Others, particularly older vehicles, use Hotchkiss drive, in which the leaf springs provide axle location as well as suspension.

another dictionary def;
In a live-axle suspension system, the axles serve to transmit driving torque to the wheel, as well as to maintain the position of the wheels relative to each other and to the vehicle body. The axles in this system must also bear the weight of the vehicle plus any cargo.

And yet another;
LIVE AXLE
Until the late 70s, most cars still used this simple non-independent suspensions, especially at the rear axle. Basically, it is a rigid axle fixed between left and right wheels. The car body is suspended by leaf springs or coil springs on the axle / wheels unit.
As you can see, the wheels are not independent. When one wheel rides on a hump, the shock will be transferred to another wheel. Besides, both wheels will be cambered, thus non-neutral steering is inevitable.

If the axle is also the driving axle, it is called Live Axle. Live axle is very heavy. It consists of the final drive / differential, drive shafts and a strong tube enclosing all these things. Since the whole axle is rigidly fixed to the wheels instead of suspended by springs, the so-called Unsprung Weight is very high.

What is the result of high unsprung weight ? ***uming a live axle meets a hump and "jump" quickly upward, the more weight it has, the more momentum it gains (because momentum = the product of m*** and velocity). That means the more momentum the springs have to deal with. Of course, springs cannot absorb all the momentum, so eventually part of the latter will be transferred to the car body in the form of shock. Therefore live axle is never good at ride quality.

As I have always been taught, technically a live axle is a straight (non independent) drive axle. It has nothing to do with being a solid shaft or one piece axle. (some definitions will break it down to mean just the driving axle shaft, so in an open diff (non posi) you would have a live axle and a dead axle, but this is not a common nor generally accepted definition)

 

Here's an update

A lot of work has been put into tracking down all the information connected to the car with great success. More on that at a later date.

Things have been going on with the car itself. Frank decided the car needed a fuel pressure gauge. He fabbed up a mount to attach to the firewall frame rail. He cut a notch in the firewall and the fuel pressure gauge had a new place to live.


The right top frame rail had suffered some abuse along the line. The correct fix was to cut and replace. Cut and replace is what we did.



The motor that had st in the frame rails for the last 10 years or so was pulled to return to the rightful owner. That move offered a front on shot on the blow proof bell housing. You can also see the how the fuel pressure gauge mount fit into the firewall



Now that I work for the shop who is helping with the restoration, I get to see this thing everyday. Most days it looks like this..........the red headed step child ( sorry Jeffrey, nothing personal )



We'll leave this update with a couple of detail shots

 

Frank's a cl***y guy and great restore freak,but that fender skirt ****s? Looks like it should be used for a hood or ?

 

I dunno what sissies would have put a shield over the rear but I guess if you have the cajones to drive a car like that with the shield after a mishap you will still have the cajones to drive one again.


Frank
I'll be happy to see this one come around. Takes a lot of patience and determination to rebuild one the way that it should be done. Way more than I will ever have.

 

From the look of the bells, the car probably has a live axle, which means the exposed axle is spinning in the open. I would sure as hell want it shielded to keep my pants from getting wound up in it!!

 

I took my camera with me to the shop today so I could show you a couple of new pieces from this last weekend. We are still looking for the nose drive unit so if you have one, drop me a PM and i will get it to Frank.

The first is the blower manifold.




And the new bad boy in the garage, a GMC case 6-71......even has the scars from the hanger brackets




period correct right down to the Clark's T double hump heads

 

It has been a little over 16 months since I did the last update. There is a good reason for the delay. For those of you who know Frank, know full well what a total nut he is for everything being period correct. I got a chance to discuss the engine this morning. We had a laugh that everything in the engine is period correct...............down to the NOS bearing..........and the correct rods according to Danny Ongais who built the engine for the original car. With this amount of correct detail, time gets completely lost.
The long block is finished and waiting for the blower intake which needs to be polished before installing. The blower and the blower drive have been polished to the correct level. Frank managed to find the correct 2 pot fuel injection setup which has been refinished and ready for install. Here is what I saw this morning.







So there is a quick update. As soon as the engine is delivered, then everything will be blown apart for paint. There is a lot of newly plated stuff already setting around......mainly pieces for the front axle. There are a few other pieces that need to be plated. Frank has pretty much figured his schedule will be dictated by the parts, not his desire to get it finished.
When you figure that this dragster is being restored to the exact same level as the Carrillo Roadster, you know why it is taking so long

 

Great history lesson.
Thanks John!

 

And people think that digging up an old dinosaur and reconstructing it to display is tedious work. I like the attention to detail going into this one as I saw the Robinson rail run in person.

 

I am going to bring this around one more time. The final touches are being put on the dragster for it's debut inside at Jalopyrama. I could have been posting updates but decided against it. After following the Carrillo Roadster from boxes of parts to Pebble Beach, I can tell you the dragster is even better than we thought it would be. Frank has done a great job of bringing the dragster back around. It is beautiful.
For those who might complain about no pics...............wait till Saturday. I know there will be photo after photo from the show.

Just for ****z and giggles, take a look back through all the pictures in this thread. When you see it in pictures or in person, you will love it.

I also want to plug my former employer, Advanced Automotive Concepts, Nottingham MD.........Bob and Joe for dropping whatever they were doing when Frank needed help with anything. Pretty proud of them

 

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the top, look forward to the photos of the restored car. Bob

 

Frank's FED, as John said, will be on the floor of the Annapolis Armory for the 10th Anniversary Jalopyrama Hot Rod Show. Be there or be square.