1930s Era Champ Car - new project

Well, if it wasn't 650 miles give or take a few... but it's not in the cards! But maybe we should start a ho racing series. I can see it now. Vacation time we visit a given "track" with our best cars. Eliminations until the last car is standing... cheating encouraged! And racing for pink slips, just like street racing.

 

LOL that's actually a thing in some of the metro areas. 1/24 scale drag strips too. Lots of money changes hands, I'm told.

 

Back in the 60s, there was a slotcar emporium in the next town over from my hometown. My older brother and I spent considerable time there. I think it was 8 grooves in a sort of figure 8 layout. And its front stretch was perfectly straight and pointed right at the front door. The way you knew that your car was fast, was if you could hit the door in the winter, or get it outside in the summer when the door was left open. I don't remember money changing hands, however there might have been a car changing ownership on occasions. I only had one car, so I never took that kind of chance. The place closed about 68-69 time frame, just about when I was getting into racing snowmobiles.

Should have stuck with the slotcars...

 

You know, @Dave G in Gansevoort, you're designing that loft/man cave for older me, wouldn't a slot car track be a great addition? FTF, how much cargo space is needed for that track in your attic? Maybe I need to make a road trip...

 

Well, we are thinking about you having a loft/man cave area. I think it will need some accoutrements.

 

If you've been following my build over these many years by now you've seen I take a break from cars over the winter months. I'm here to say I'm back on it and over the next few weeks I'll be ramping up my work on this project. Stay with me...

 

Great! I need more ideas to plaigerize. And a new input shaft for a close ratio T10. And gaskets. And seals. And motivation...

That last one most of all.

 

I got some more trinkets for the car today - a pair of LED motorcycle stop/tail lights. I chose them because they are small and I'll fit them up into the mounts for the rear crash bar. My plan is to drill a 3/4" mounting hole in the crash bar attachment point and snap the lights in place with the wires running out of sight into spade connectors.

 

The hole for the brake/tail lights had to be precisely on center since the ID of the stub tube is 3/4" so I made a press in pilot washer to center it up.


Is this a crash bar or a tail light assembly?
Answer: yes.

 

I had hoped to continue making progress on this car lately. Unfortunately, life has interferred once again.

Another passion of mine is cycling. Last week I participated in a half-marathon time trial.
Crashed.
Cuts. Bruises. Two cracked ribs. Broken hip. This puts an end to my cycling season, my drag racing season, and slows me down on any progress on the champ car build and the Anglia builds.

Stay tuned - I'll be back...

 

Oh man! I hate to read this. Here's hoping that you heal up more quickly than the doctors are predicting...

Positive thoughts coming your way

 

Wasn't it someone famous who said " Sometimes a persons got to know their limitations"? Heal quickly.

 

I prefer this take on things:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”

 

I used to be like that but it seems to take longer to heal these days.
I had skin cancers removed surgically a week ago but the bit that hurts the most is I can't put my helmet on to go racing.

 

Get well soon spanners. I hope to be back in the drag car before the end of the season, but aspirations have changed.

 

How are you feeling now? Hopefully the recovery is faster than expected. We're all pulling for you.

 

Greetings. Today it has been one month since the crash.
If things had gone as planned - pre-crash - by now I would have had the champ car frame out of the rotisserie, fully finished welded, with a protective coat of primer on it. That task is on hold, as well as making removable headlight stanchions.
While my therapists say my progress has gone better than they expected, in part due to the fact that I liked to stay in shape, I am still using a cane to get around. Next week I will begin my outpatient therapy at a PT clinic and then transition to the local fitness center that has a big swimming pool for additional recovery.

In the short term I will remove the side draft carbs from the vehicle and rebuild them, paying close attention to some of the YouTube videos on the subject. That is something I can do sitting at a workbench. It seems my hardest decision will be what fluid to use to refill the hydraulic dampers on the slides. I've seen recommendations for everything from Dexron ATF to bacon grease. Any first hand HAMBer recommendations?

My buddy and neighbor has been racing my drag roadster pickup in my absence and I am shooting for getting back out to the dragstrip in a couple of weeks to lend moral support. Many competitors at the track have sent their best wishes for me home with him each week. It will be nice to spend a day there. I am hoping to get cleared by my surgeon next week to begin driving my street vehicle. Only my good right hip/foot is needed to drive. Racing for me will wait until I am confident I am fully ready to resume competition. Unlike a street DD my drag car requires two good legs wrapped around the transmission - one for gas pedal, one for brake pedal - and two hands to handle (I'm no Willie Borsch).

Thanks to all for your continued interest. For now - baby steps...

6re6

 

Way back in my Ann Arbor days when the ot Mini ran a pair of SUs, I used straight 10 weight oil. With a single SU, it seemed to work best with straight 30 weight. I never did order actual SU oil from Mini Mania or Joe Curto, SU guy here in N.Y.

And I had to juggle springs as well. As I remember they needed lighter springs to go with the cam I was running. And don't even ask about needles. There's a crapload and all have slightly different profiles. A single SU is easy, find one that runs lean, take a very fine file, and massage the shape until it gives you the right amount of fuel thru the power curve.

I scrapped them all, and put a 45 DCOE on it! So much easier to tune!

 

These are carbs off an O/T Datsun 240Z. SU look-alikes. While my displacement is roughly twice that of a Datsun, my rev range will only be about half that, and with a lower volumetric efficiency, I am hoping the fuel curve will be close. Fingers crossed.

 

I use sewing machine oil in mine.
Sorry, can't help much with tuning the sidedraughts. I use 3 x 1 3/4" S.U.s on my avatar and that engine is only 138 cu.in.. Some people say that's too much for that engine but the engine will only draw what it can use. I've tried ATF and WD40 but they didn't make a noticable difference. The difference is, mine is either idling or flat chat, not like a circuit racer which needs smoothness out of corners.
People ask me how hard are they to tune. I don't touch them except to take the dashpots off occasionally, wipe them out and spray WD40 in them and go racing. My friend told me once "The secret to consistency is to keep your hands in your pockets", in other words if it's running good, don't touch it.
Those S.U.s have probably done 200 to 300 passes like that. The last time I raced was March this year and I did 13 runs over that weekend racing and all runs were between 8.2 and 8.5 / eighth mile.

 

Damper Oil SAE Grade 20 | Damper Oil | SU Carburetters
Damper Oil SAE Grade 20
Part Number: BDR125SINGLE

 

Amazon.com: SU Carburetter Damper Oil BDR 125 : Automotive

 

From:

http://sucarb.co.uk/technical-su-carburetters

Oil dampers
After the carburetters have been correctly set it is necessary to check that the oil damper reservoir in the piston rod has sufficient oil. This operation should, in any case, be carried out periodically at about every three months, and it is usual to use an oil of grade SAE 20 (it should be no thicker than SAE 30). The operation is not a critical one; simply unscrew the damper unit and pour oil into the hollow piston rod until it is within t in. from the top of the rod.

 

May not be correct, but I always ran ATF in the dashpots on SUs. Easy to find and seemed to work well.

 

Thanks for all the carb damper oil suggestions.
Today I turned my attention back to the headlights. There is a need for spherical mounting sockets, that will get welded to the ends of the ratchet extension stalks. Out of my junk pile I fould a pair of thick concave shock absorber washers. Those look like they will work. I measured the headlight ball mount and it has a 3/4" radius. The shock washers needed more curvature. I made a sleeve and turned a slight counterbore on the end to accept the shock washer. Then, in a hydraulic press I used the ball end of the biggest ball pein hammer I had. It worked great. I made an adjustable ram stop so both washers will have the same amount of curvature.
After pressing the curvature in the washers I decided to use the collar fixture as the side of the mount recepticle. To make it look a little more swoopy I scribed a sinusoidal line in the collar instead of slicing it straight through.
A little welding.
A little grinding.
Voila.
Ready to be welded on the stalks.

 

I would still like to discover what vehicle these headlights came from. One lense has a stone chip in it and if I ever have to replace it I need to know what to search for.
Some clues:
It has two sockets
Vertical flutes in the cruved lense, closely spaced near the sides
The parking light (soon to be made into a turn signal) is covered by a frosted arc.
A single trunion screw holds the lense cover in place.

Any IDeas???

 

Diameter of the lens and height of the crown would help.

 

I'll guess they came off of a 1944 military Henway.

 

Glad to see you can get out to the garage and tinker. It'll help speed the overall recovery.

 

This is my guess: K&D #910

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/k-d-910-hot-rod-headlights.926531/