The Murray and Scholl Top Gas Dragster of Columbus, Ohio. Ran from 68-72 (from what I have been told): Its about time to start a thread on my Dragsters restoration, Ive been collecting parts for quite some time now and its all starting to come together so I figure I will share with everyone. I bought the car going on just over a year ago from what I can guess. I ran into a friend of mine at a car show and after a bit of talk and showing me pictures I had to have the car, I always dreamed of a fe car but never persuade it as I have so many projects already. Here are a couple pictures of the car back in its prime: The chassis as I am told is an RCS quad link, Ed and Chuck purchased directly from rcs back in the day from what I can guess as they went with a pickup truck and picked it up at port Columbus air port when they had it shipped in via plane from California. The car was originally equipped with a blown/injected 392 that was punched out to just over 400cu/in. It was a direct drive car that ran a halibrand no change banjo rear. Halibrand big window mags, Hilborne 4-port, 6-71 gmc blower, edelbrock center blow off intake, vertex mag, m/t valve covers, etc etc. The car at some point was sold and modified to have a small block chevy/powerglide/8-3/4" rear and was bracket raced in the late 70's early 80's. then sat in a barn from what im told. The car changed hands one more time after its bracket period to the fellow my friend bought it from. When I purchased the car, it obviously wasnt in perfect shape after its changes and also long periods of sitting, but chassis was not modified(drastically) and a few of the key parts were still there. What really made the car come together and take shape was research and getting in contact with the original drive(chuck) and others that had their hands in the project, on my friend Moose's part before I purchased the car. He got his hands on over 100 pictures of the car in its prime and even located some of the original parts to the car through some of his contacts. I want to take a second to thank Dave(Moose) as I know he will be reading this, he really helped me out and worked with me to make it possible. He could have easily passed the car on to someone else in the weeks/month or however long it took me to get my shit together(Had to sell my beloved chopper, and even my daily driver haha), but he held to his word and made it happen for me, I will forever be grateful for this, as this is a dream come true for me! When I got the car from Moose I got the chassis, original front suspension, original(for the most part) steering, original fuel tank, an old 4 port scoop correct to the car, a '58 a1 392(mostly complete, stock), the correct valve covers, a new hilborne fuel pump, new Howard aluminum rod, JE blower pistons, a gmc 671, the original driver suite, and some other little misc parts. A hell of a good start! I couldnt do a whole lot with the car for a long time as it took all I had just to purchase what I originally got as well as being covered up with customer work. In the last couple months with help from all of my friends in the Cincinnati area(Hiltons, Shaw, Whitney) I have been able to get together a lot more pieces to the puzzle. They have also been a huge help by letting me scour over their cars and ask tons of questions and snap pictures. This is the first dragster I have built/restored and also one of the first I have ever been around so these guys are greatly appreciated. It seems like I bug Mr. Whitney on a daily basis with most likely stupid obvious questions haha, I have a tendency to way over think things and get way to anal on little details. The last week or so I have made a huge step forward. Moose got ahold of me after coming across a sweet old Donavan clutch can, which was a huge piece to the puzzle I was missing/also unsure how it all worked. Once I got that and also tons of discussion I decided to go ahead and keep the 8-3/4 in the car. I was going to go with a banjo like they ran, but being that I would like to run the car, as well as how hard the old mag center sections are to find, myself and others agreed it would be a good move to set it up with what I already had. That allowed me to really start on the car as I had the main pieces to get started. I spent hours upon hours of studying original pictures and scaled pieces of the car down to get measurements of where the motor needed to be and angles/height etc. Once I figured that out I built my front motor mounts, then tons more studying and measuring and I built the mid plate. Next came the rear end. I cut all of the old brackets and crap off of the rearend and cleaned it up a ton to get it ready to sit in place. After tons of measuring and math(using math I always said I wouldnt back in school) I figured out where the rearend needed to be, as well as the pinion angle. after I got it where I wanted it I even used a centering setup I rigged together to to be able to make sure the centerline of the mains lined up with the rearend/pinion etc. That brings me to how the car sits today. Once I got the motor mounted I couldnt help myself but to mock the motor up with a bunch of the new bits I have come up with recently! I still have to trim the bottom of the motor plate, then make a bottom mount off of the chassis. Then I will start on the body. I want to get the body mostly finished before I tackle a few other things because I want to get it painted and such asap. I am trying to have the car done and running by Bowling Green Hot Rod Reunion this coming up summer so I have to use my time wisely haha. Here are some shots I just snapped of the car, ignore the messy shop, been crazy around here lately: I know that was long winded and I probably still didnt cover everything, but I hope you all enjoy. I will keep you posted with updates/progress on the car from here on out. -Justin
Why not the headers I gave you just for fun? Its looking good, glad you were able to keep the 8 3/4 rear. I still have the original 4 hole Halibrands. Dave aka MQQSE.
That is a real nice piece you have. I am confused on your statement that you would like to run the car???
Thank you all for the positive response! With help from the Cincinnati boys I turned those into the original delta cover and pump extension thats pictured. I put them on as soon as I got back to , the shop haha, headers really bring the car together, but seeing how they werent a perfect match and someone else needed them and I needed their cover I couldnt pass it up. I havent forgot about the hilibrands, thats probably going to be one of the last things I buy for the car, Id still rather the big windows, but seeing how those were on the car at one point defiantly add to the cool factor! Not at sanctioned events of course, but I will defiantly run the car at any chance I get! There is a couple tracks around that I have in mind that would probably let it fly, Ive seen some pretty crazy/scary/dangerous things be allowed to be run at one in particular, im sure they would jump at the chance to see this make a pass. -Justin
I couldn't do a whole lot with the car for a long time as it took all I had just to purchase what I originally got as well as being covered up with customer work. In the last couple months with help from all of my friends in the Cincinnati area(Hiltons, Shaw, Whitney) Well, with those guys on speed dial your in good hands! When it comes to history and doing the restoration right! With the Hilton's history, and having been there and done that background, Shaw, with his design and artistic talents, and Dr. Whitney with his drive and "FUCK YOU, I DON'T NEED YOU TO TELL ME IM GOOD" fabrication/restoration skills, you for sure are on your way to building a fucking rad car! Congrats and subscribed!
its great that your commited to seeing this threw, but take some time and think about making a pass in it. if you dont have any experience in one of these things, it can get pretty hairy, pretty quick. would be great to see the car at b.g.
Thanks man, I am very lucky to have these guys on my side! Not this one, The one that came with it originally was off of one of Larry Janney's cars and its hanging in my office, still has the original paint on it. This one Moose found recently from a guys stash, same guy had the clutch can. I have been itching to get in one of these since I was little, I dont think I have it in me to build something and not run it. I havent had any experience in one of these cars, but I do have experience in other fast cars, as well as drag racing some very fast bikes. The only way to gain experience with something is by doing in my opinion, I will say that I respect the shit out of these cars, but im not scared of them. Thank you for all of your inputs! -Justin
Your off to a real good start,love the looks of the car. As far as driving it,you can do it, just take little baby steps. Good luck.
Thank you guys! I almost bought one off of him, I bought the intake on the car from him at Bowling green this past year. His scoops are real nice, I planned on getting one from him until this original came up. -Justin
Mag as in magneto? or the mag center section of the rear? Magneto- yes I have real nice vertex unit Mag center- No, I am planning on keeping the 8-3/4 in the car rather than running a banjo. As far as brake calipers, I dont have any, I was thinking about just running drums on it for the time being. I am on a pretty tight budget at the moment with the car so things like disc brakes and such may come later after the car is completed or as money allows. -Justin
We had just finnished the resto of the H/C "RATTLER" for the NHRA museum, on the way over both top framerails cracked/broke at the motorplate. as the pic shows why someone should not run old parts. This owner too wanted to "RUN" his car.
Please explain your ridiculous statement . First off that is a very false statement. Everything I have done on this car and plan on doing is done following hours and days upon days of research and studying original pictures of the car, as well as discussion and hearing out opinions of those that not only ran these cars back in the day, but are also VERY respect restorers of these cars and other race cars! Second you have no idea who I am or the amount of passion, love, and respect I have for all things old and have no idea the length I will go to preserve somethings history and to be exactly correct! If you are referring to my decision to switch the car to an 8 3/4" rather than the banjo, I was on the hunt and had even found a banjo that I was going to put in the car. It wasnt until I got together with some close friends and also very respect people who "restore these cars" that swayed my decision to go with an 8-3/4 rather than the banjo. It was defiantly not my first thought or my favored option, but seeing how everyone with experience and knowledge of these cars thought I should go with a more modern rear, I went that route. I will also add that through my research and discussion with others I have found that it was rather rare for a car of this decade to run a live axle banjo rear-end like these boys did, and also after talking to one of the original builders about how they "broke a rear end damn near every time they went to the track". I figured it wouldnt be a bad move to put a period/era correct rear in the car. As well as the fact that unless I had stated that the car ran a banjo 95% of the people that will read this and or see this car in person would never know that I changed that. If you are referring to my previous comment about being on a budget, that does NOT have any regard to how well this car is going to be built! That simply means that I do not have a large bank account to go and drop tons of money at the drop of the hat, but rather I have to save up and spend more time hunting for the right deal at the right time for that correct part! The Workmanship, quality, and attention to detail on this car is going to be just as good if not better than any car being built/restored! First off Im not sure how often I am going to be running the car, or if I ever will get the chance to run it. My goal in building this car is not to build a car to go out and run. I am building the car because I absolutely love this stuff, and it gives me great joy to find something that has been neglected most of its life, and bring it back to how it was in its glory days. With that being said I am restoring this car for myself, to have something to be proud of and have a piece of history that I have a great passion for. I will also be taking it around to shows in hopes that others will get the same joy as I do being around these awesome machines, so that is the main objective in this, to restore her back to her prime. If I get to run the car, that will just be icing on the cake for myself. As I stated a bit ago, I havent thought to much about upgrading to disk brakes. At this point in the game I have a lot of other more important bits to the restoration that I am going to spend my money on, but disk brakes are defiantly not out of question, and being that it is mostly going to be a show car, it wasnt a top priority for me right now. I am not sure what they ran. Of the over 100 sum pictures I have of the car, there are no shots with the wheels off, and you cant see them because the body panels block them from some of the interior shots I have. -Justin
I understand what you are saying about running them, some arent cut out for it and you MAY break something. Thats not any different than when the cars were built though, and defiantly not any different than cars being built today. You can go to any track any weekend and see cars breaking parts, thats part of the game when you push things to the limit. I do not plan on race prepping the motor and going out and trying to set records, but if I get the chance to make some passes that is what I will do. That does not mean I plan on going out and pushing the car to its limits at all. Launching the car easy and making a nice "easy" pass is more of what I had in mind. If I wanted to play it safe and worry about what might go wrong I wouldnt be messing with this car right now. -Justin
Just be real careful, I know what dre is saying, the front crossmember of one of my GMC rails broke off on the way home while on the trailer...yeah, yeah, should have looked at the old welds better...lucky it wasn't a fast car. Fixed it properly, and the subsequent owner ran it up to 160+ in relative safety, with a small block. (My wife wasn't too happy with it either.)
Justin, you are right, I know nothing about you or your build and was going by your first statements that you posted that are contradicted by your last post. This whole resto movement is in a fragile state constantly that any act of running a car and to have an incident could lead to static starts only for the over 100 restorations out there. Any car that you see running has been given special permission only because it has been verifyed as being a newly constructed car with new parts and even with that are only allowed to do certain things. I restore these cars for a business, and I have 3 in my shop right now and have 10 out there particapating in shows and Cacklefest's. I understand these cars better than most and have a great passion for them also, and thats why I tend to be guarded about owners wanting to do things that are detrimental to the movment. In closing, I repeat that you own a fine piece and the build looks good- Enjoy it
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