Projects Austin Somerset Gasser Build (DragNasty)

Great pictures ,We just got home from our trip.

 

I have used the recipe it works real good


Chrome don't get ya home

 

My Wife and I attended our first HAMB drags this year and enjoyed every aspect of it all. Watched your car run and spoke with you later . Plan on returning to future events .

 

Dad's coupe may find a 6-71 Supercharger on it this winter...seems I have one just laying around...LOL

 

Well we are about to tear back into her a bit, we have found the reason it would not go into the 4th gear on the last run at the HAMB Drags has something to do with the very complicated internal workings of the Hurst straight gate shifting mechanism. When you go to pull it back into the 4th the slot for 4th is gone. But we have to take the tunnel and everything back out to get a good look. You know what they say, when you are trying to go fast there is always the next weekest link. LOL

 

Yeah I hear ya man, I just blew thru the transmission in mine last night. YaaY.......

 

Well nothing is easy with this old car. Unfortunately our issue was not in the shifting mechanism. Actually it is....but not the part sticking up high on the transmission where you could sit and leisurely work on it. Nope! Not the old 'Nasty!

It is the lever inside the trans that controls the 3/4 gear fork. Good to know but useless information when the input hole in the scattershield is smaller than the hydraulic throw out assembly.

Think about it...since 50 percent of the bellhousing bolts are inaccessible...that is a fancy way of saying we have to pull the motor to get the Nash out!



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Booooooo.

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Well this is what my driveway looked like at around 10 a.m. Saturday morning.



We are just about ready to pull the motor...supercharger off and everything drained, unhooked, unscrewed or unplugged etc. As you know we have been through this car a bunch of times and my pet peeve is a wet floor. It seems like every time we do this, no matter how careful we are, we always end up with a wet floor. So this time we shoved the nose out the door and did all the dirty work allowing water or any spills to run down the slope outside the door. We were just about ready to roll her back into the garage on a nice clean floor when I picked up the big red ice chest sitting beside the car since the HAMB DRAGS. One of the handles broke off, I dropped it and spilled a couple of gallons of melted ice water all under the car! One of the Pepsi cans exploded as well. For crying out!

 

I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say we cleaned up the water and Pepsi mix, removed the motor, separated the trans and started taking it apart. After a bit of work we got the rear section and pump off and split the case. After pulling both gear sets out we were able to get a good look at the internal shifting mechanism. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any issues. While we were there I did remove the detent shafts that house the springs and balls. As suspected they were mushroomed a bit but not enough to lock it all up but we cleaned them up anyway, flattened and chamfered the ends and reinstalled them.



Then we turned our attention back to the gears. It was hard to believe the issue was there because they all looked so good (No chips or missing teeth etc.) But it was obvious when I grabbed the third/fourth gear slider, it slid perfectly to the right into third but on the way back it slipped into neutral but would not move any further south.

Fortunately on a Doug Nash none of the gears are pressed on until you get to down to 5th and Reverse. So just a couple of heavy duty snap rings and we had 1st - 3rd gears off and the slider in question in our hands. It is an extremely hard gear but it had been abused (surprise, surprise). Several of the gear teeth ends were mushroomed a bit and would not allow it to slide to the right off the neutral gear to 4th. Like I said it is extremely hard so difficult to clean up but we worked pretty hard with a file and angle die grinder etc. When we finally got it cleaned enough to slide again we reassembled the gears and dropped them all back in the case.

 

I think I figured out why they call this labor day...'cause we worked our ass off today getting the stupid Austin back together. Our woes all started early this morning when I decided to address a couple of firewall issues we have had all along but never took the time to fix. It involves where the trans tunnel meets up. To be honest it was sort of jury rigged...Since we have the car on the market now, I want to get it done right. So I spent the better part of the morning making a custom metal piece to seal this area up, welded it in place, ground it a bit and undercoated it like the rest of the firewall. I was extremely happy with the work.

Then we stabbed the trans in the block on the first try. Things are looking up! Then we slid the motor and trans right in place, I even grabbed the drive shaft (that is still hooked to the rear) and believe it or not stabbed it in the trans as Dad was pushing it back in place. Rock and Roll baby! But then it all came to a screeching halt. The new metal work I did was 1/4" too far out into the trans compartment and we were 3/4" shy of having it back in place. We spent the better part of the afternoon trying everything but the obvious (pull it out and redo the sheet metal work)!

So after cutting, beating, grinding etc on everything we didn't need in that area, we finally pulled the thing all the way out. I took the plasma cutter and cut out that part of the my custom metal work and redid it. The engine is back in and but not before a total wiring disaster under the dash. We must have had that thing in and out at least 6 six times today with no incident, but the last time as the shifter entered the car it some how hooked a few wires. By the time the trans was in place, it had pulled about five wires out their plugs. No idea where they go etc. Going to deal with it later though. Time for a BBQ Burger and the DVDed US Nationals.

 

Well she is back in there (at the least the heavy lifting is done anyway). It was a pretty trying day but all and all I guess it was worth it. While she was out we also made another quick upgrade to the tunnel. We cut it in half! I will show you some photos of it later but suffice to say it is now a two piece tunnel that will come out without removing the entire interior etc. Something we should have done the first time. We are slow learners.

But we did learn a lot about our little Doug Nash "Crash Box!" For one she is a pretty tough little unit. I mean we are dumping a crap load of torque through her and outside of a couple of mushroomed tooth ends in one slider she was was all but perfect. We should be back on the road this week (if I can figure out where all the ripped out wires went)...LOL Next stop for Dragnasty - Street Machine Nationals here in Springfield.

 

with the power you are making a trans swap might be in your future. the doug nash is not rated for your power level. look into a g-force gfr. talk to bubba about a reconditioned unit.

 

A fellow HAMBer sent me some photos from the HAMB Drags. Check out the Austin in the staging lanes. Can you tell we are preloaded a bit from the photo?!! No wonder it didn't like it it. Until we saw that photo, we never noticed how pronounced it was. Funny hard to see when you are up close and personal. LOL

 

You would have been good if it was a right hand drive.

 

Back before all the cell phones and hi tech stuff, I bought a video camera. I would have someone video the car in the staging lanes before it came out and then video the the car leaving the line at various angles. When I got home I'd watch it while it was fresh in my mind and slow it way down and also frame by frame. I'd have them video each slick as it left. I had a set of $10 gauges from walmart that I kept out of the sun so we could write down the Temp, bar pressure, humidity, and all the data from the run, even notes on what happened on that run. My 68 camaro went 10.30's on super unleaded. You wouldn't believe all the little stuff you can find out and help the car. Plus I had a daughter that noticed everything. She knew the car better than I did.

 

Ha Ha very funny! You leave my girth out this James! LOL

 

All kinds of opportunities for the Austin coming up. We already have our tickets etc. for the Street Machine Nationals here in Springfield. This year it is a one day only show (probably the last one ever as I am betting this thing is gone completely next year). Anyway we will be on the Streets next Friday night as usually and then the show Saturday at the Ozark Empire Fairground. However Ozark Raceway Park is having their, Ozark Drag Racer Reunion Nostalgic drags Saturday too. Dad and I have been talking and since Dragnasty is shifting like "butter" again we may slip out of the Street Machines early and head to Rogersville and make a pass or two. Probably be back on the streets Saturday night as well.

 

You know the whole Street Machine Nationals is a sore subject around here. When I was the Motorsports guy with O'Reilly this was one of the biggest shows all year. Three days, 2500 cars, etc. etc. Over the past decade the numbers really dropped off, well under half as many cars as the early days. Then about three years ago they decided not to have the show. They were going to make it a revolving show that stops here in Springfield every two years etc. That totally flopped as I understand the next year in Memphis or Little Rock, they scheduled the show and pre-sold tickets as usually but when they got to the event to set up, found there was a crazy over site on regulations at the facility. They were not allowed to sell tickets to participants or spectators. They had to refund all the money and put on the biggest and nicest FREE show and shine in the history of car shows. They tried to come back to Springfield a year early but of course had lost their normal time slot etc. If there were 600 cars there that year I would kiss your backside. From there it went to a two day show and now this year a one day event. There is however a huge 25 year history of cruising the streets on Friday and Saturday night after the show. Honestly a better show than the actual show! Hopefully we can figure out some way of keeping that culture alive even after the Street Machines are gone...

 

Pretty excited about this:



I can not describe how honored we feel to have the car recognized. This totally blew me away. I called them this morning to thank them for the coverage and to sign up for a subscription....the least I could do....LOL!

 

Congratulation!!!!
Well deserved.

 

Check the girl child out there thrashing with Dad to get the Austin ready for the Street Machine Nationals!







Loaded and head to Culver for pre-show cruise in...

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No cruising tonight for the old Dragnasty...guess we will save it for tomorrow night. I am exhausted after thrashing most the day to get her totally back together and happy. Plus I really hurt my knee somehow today.

But something cool happened when I rolled through registration, one of the show officials came out and said he saw us at the Meltdown Drags. Sounds like there may be a video shoot tomorrow afternoon...

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Check out the new ride. Chasing meds this morning for my knee...lol



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Looks like the tires may have chattered. Might have to pedal your new right down through the 1/4

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When you first stated an issue with going to fourth I first thought a burr on the slider but hoped you'd find an "easier" problem but a las you had to still spill something to get there..And yes I usually manage to spill something; just happy when its not on the car!

 

Well I have some sickening news folks. Right after I got out the hot rod Wal-Mart cart Saturday morning, my daughter and I headed to Springfield to get the Austin and scoot on over to the Street Machine Nationals. Dad had left at 5:30 a.m. with his coupe to get in line and get us both a killer parking spot. However when we got to my work, the car was MIA from the warehouse.

I thought it was a joke when I opened the door and it was gone. I kept waiting for someone to come around the corner laughing their backsides off at the look on my face but no one came. I hobbled over to the company van in the shop right beside the warehouse and went looking through the huge lot we have where tons of over the road trucks rent space etc. but it was no where to be found. On my way back to the office to call the police I found my trailer shoved up against the building between a couple of semi trucks that are there waiting for stripe kits etc.

Here is the deal. No one knew that car was there. Someone had to have followed me and saw where I put it because there are no windows in the warehouse etc. My opinion, having 24 hours to just sit and think about it, someone was in town this weekend looking for a high end car to steel. They must have followed me when I left Culvers probably to see where we went, hotel, etc. And then I basically gift wrapped it for them.

When I walked in Saturday morning the alarm in the warehouse was beeping, which is par for the course for it. In fact I found out later that morning that it had gotten so par for the course that we stopped having that section monitored especially since there is no renter in there and nothing is currently stored there etc. So even though it was beeping, it reported to no one. So I really don't know what to say. I am pretty much dumbfounded right now. I would say keep your eyes out for it but you would have to be a complete idiot to take this car with the thoughts of changing a few things and selling it or keeping it etc. I mean it is a one of one, there is not another one like it in the world regardless of the color or power plant etc. My guess is it in pieces as I type or headed that direction some where.

I suppose there is still a chance someone will figure out how rare it is, give up and drop in a parking lot somewhere but probably just wishful thanking.

 

I hope this is a joke.......


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THAT SUCKS

 

Man Randal, I am so extremely sorry to hear this. Keep your head and your hopes up my friend.

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