Then you are good to go then. Ive done soooo many throttle setups, both cable and linkage, that throughout the day I keep smacking the peddle, hoping for that one time it sticks/hangs up so that I can make the correction before it happens on the track during a run
I came across this video today, just never know what's squirreled away out there, Mr. Ed was holding some good stuff.
Nice project! The chromoly will polish up like chrome with the right compound and prep work. Just have to keep after it since there is no corrosion resistance. I polished the chromoly rear end housing in our car. Turned out pretty nice.
At the recent Mecum auction IVO's full body dragster complete and running w/ a 426 sold for $70,000. Dragsters dont get what you put into them and this is not that famous of a car.
Thanks for taking your time to show us your build, always a pleasure to see more FEDs coming alive. Keep up the good work and keep us posted!
It has been awhile - 2022 seemed to be busy doing a bunch of house projects so I could set the stage to work on my garage and get it functioning as a garage and not a glorified shed. That's done so this year I can work on the garage. As a result, not much got done on the dragster, other then looking at it and thinking about how to tackle stuff and what things to revamp and do differently. Towed it back up to my friend's well-equipped shop last week and spent a couple days working on the small stuff that needs to be done. The deal with the dragster is high gear launch, no trans brake, a bit of weight on the front end to help keep the wheels planted. I know a few guys who have used that formula in order to keep the total vintage vibe on their dragsters. Because of this, I don't want a modern wheelie bar sticking out the back, but I also don't want to drag the body and frame on the track if I space out and hike the front wheels on the launch. So we fabricated a caster wheel, which was used from the mid-60's -on in the front engine era. The bottom of it will just poke out from under a slot in the body. Also made it so you could remove the wheel and slide in a jacking point to get the back end of the car up on the custom roll around stand. Other stuff: Made and tacked in the safety harness brackets. Converted the throttle linkage from rod to tube and added a pedal stop. Got rid of the steering shaft support on the top frame rail and moved it onto the removable cross member that the steering box is mounted to so the whole deal comes out as one self-contained unit. Made a small dash for the magneto switch, and it will also have the neutral safety switch mounted on it. Add a collar to the shift rod, and position it so when you have the shifter all the way back towards you in park, the collar will depress the button on the safety switch. Figured out the front weights. I don't like the look of a bunch of weight hanging on the front axle, so going to have 1" plate steel cut into pie shapes and then mounted at the front of the frame behind the torsion tube. Worked out that the plates will be about 19 lbs each, 2 - 3 should do the trick. Made the mounting brackets for the weights and got them welded in. Also worked on the valve cover breathers, figured out the chute release, and started noodling out how to overcome the axle housing ends that were drilled at 4:58 on a Friday afternoon or after the guys in the shop played beer pong at lunch. I had the ends drop-shipped to the shop that narrowed the rear axle years ago. Turns out the are drilled for some kind of vehicle that doesn't exist, instead of the Big Ford ends that I actually ordered. I actually bought another set of axle ends with the idea of having the alien ends lopped off and the correct ones welded on, but we don't have the jig to do that, and at this point I just want to keep the work within the team so we don't lose momentum. So we'll attack it from the other end and deal with custom caliper brackets. Also got the mock up of the "Clark Y airfoil" that will go on the front axle.
Start with a whole bunch of weight on the front end, and every run remove a little till you find the balance of the car. Adding weight after tends to bend frames. I carry 120# on the front of my car (actually helps rear traction) and the wheelie bar is just insurance, I do not use it for launch. Powerglides develop so much at the hit, you need weight on the front. I know some racers that high gear leave, very few do. cant remember what they told me the issues they have in doing so. Throttle peddle is not correct. As you look at it, the rod end will drop down more that it goes forward because of the arc Linkage movement is around 1 1/4" -1 1/2" Move the link rod to the top of the peddle to get the rod to go further forward then it does drop down
Thanks Bruce! Curious about what the throttle pedal issue is with the rod traveling down with the arc. When operating it while sitting in the car it seems to work fine, with smooth action. Being a rookie driver I wanted a longer travel in order to regulate the throttle more rather than having it become an on/off switch. I'm always open to learning - already revised a lot on this car from the first stab at doing things. Jim Rodarmel and Gene Kreuger were two guys who had the high gear launch down. It's pretty soft on the 60ft times, but like me they were more about having fun with the digger and keeping it as vintage-looking as possible than seriously trying to go rounds. BTW - have the throttle shaft extension support on the to do list from your suggestion the last go around. Thanks again.
Lay out a circle where the foot pivot is the center, and the radius is the rod end. Now divide the circle into a clock with 12 points. Create a horizontal and vertical grid off those points, to visualize that the placement of the rod end is going down and very little going forward being that its at 2 oclock and as you go past 3 oclock its pulling the rod back and not forward. If you move the rod end to the top of the peddle , the angle of action matches the link on the firewall, so any and all action of the peddle transfers equally to the link. There is some leeway in the mounting point on the peddle that will still keep you in range. Dont overthink "quick action" of the throttle, Its NOT an on-off switch. You want the peddle at full thottle where you have it now. Raise the mounting point till the peddle feels good, To me as to what I can see its too low and why you have so much angle to get it comfortable. Try and get the angle of your leg and foot @ 90* at idle, also set the peddle with the same driving gear you will be racing with, sometimes there can be 1" difference between street wear and race wear
I've been plugging away on the dragster - access to my friend's shop is ending as he gets ready to move, so we're busting hump to get the fabrication stuff done. Made changes to the car along the way. I never liked the front end steering set up - with the off the shelf stuff as soon as the front axle drops (say at the hit off the line) the tie rod was going to rest on top of the torsion bar tube. Plus I didn't care for the look of the torsion bar arms pointing down ward to fit in the bottom part of the brackets. So I went with a version of the other early to mid-60's setup. I was hoping to find actual Anglia spindles to do this with, but didn't in the time I've got, so I bought another pair of Mark Williams arms and dropped them, but put a 20 degree bend in them so they wouldn't cant out as much as if I had done a straight drop. lopped off the bottom part of the Mark Williams bracket on the axle, shortened the torsion bar arms by an inch and welded tabs on the back side of the axle to get the arms level. Will probably add some small triangular gussets between the top of the tabs and the back of the wishbone bracket. Got great advice from Pete Eastwood on this. I like this setup much better and a new tie rod that is a bit longer is in process. Also need to tweak the steering arm a little so the heim joint sits at a neutral position. Also built a set of weed burners. The idea is running piecrusts and weedburners for a 1963 look at places like Eagle Field and Kingdon, and then the M&H slicks with zoomies for a 1966 look at places like Sacramento Raceway or Bakersfield. Weedburners are hard to do on a Small Block Chevy and make them look good - looking at photos of them on various dragsters, more of them looked funky and weird with different angles shooting out every which way than ones that looked good, but I'm happy with how these turned out. Suits my sense of aesthetics. Upcoming work this weekend is to raise the gas pedal, reposition the front hoop on the roll cage - where it was previously looked great, but it was really hard to get in and out of the car. It will still have a nice layback so the cage doesn't end up looking like a phone booth, but not the extreme angle it was at previously.
You were wise to decide to go through with the project. Also wise (and fortunate) to enlist the words of Bruce, and Pete Eastwood. Great support is most of it, but avid listeners are the rest of the equation... Engineering a 'working digger' (esp. an injected fueler) involves lots more 'geometric trickery' than building 'street rods' from available billet pieces. Just a sensational 140-incher! Bravo.
Great job on the car, you can't go wrong listening to Pete. On the subject of headers back in the 60's, builders tended to use larger radius tubes at the engine, on drag and oval track cars. This is a good example from the period.
A bit more of a follow up on the dragster progress for the few of you following along at home. Retooled the throttle pedal, built a dead pedal, and retooled the front of the roll cage. Also milled the valve covers for breathers, and The car is back in my garage, and the next things will be to pull the engine to start work on it and to also start building the cowl and front half of the body in aluminum. Will also work on the wiring and plumbing and making a new chute lever. The goal is to make passes this October at Eagle Field.
Really love your dragster project - just at lot of attention to detail and great workmanship! This is the first time I've seen this thread - it is a good one!
Thanks! Been away for awhile, I didn't realize that folks were watching this thread - dragsters and drag racing seemed to be more popular on the HAMB 10-15 years ago than it is now. So since the last post, pal Robert Morris and I pulled apart the 327 for inspection. I got it cheaply and it had been running in a local roundy-round bomber class. While the parts aren't super worn out since the last machine job, they have been machined to alarming specs, (.030 and .040 on the crank journals! 060 over in the cylinders, but there is no taper or ridge, so at least the pistons are usable in a mild application.) so adding my cam and the Trick Flow camel hump heads and then running in the high-9s off into the sunset is not part of the plan. If anyone wants a cheap 327 with fresh iron Chevy heads to get them up and running around the street, drop me a line. Add small journal crank, bearings, gaskets, and externals and it will get you by. With the help of good pal Robert, he's beating the bushes and calling in the favors of old racers, and the short block is now a 400 SBC with a forged crank, Venolia 12:1 pistons, and Howards 6 inch aluminum rods. With the .030 overbore it will be a 406. Still using the same Schneider cam, Trick Flow heads and the 1966 Hilborns on alky. Once it is painted up it will look the part, other than no freeze plug blocking off the road tube port at the back of the manifold. I'm a little bit bummed, but this will be a better, stronger engine and it will be less stressed. With a stout short block built to take 700 HP but not coming close to that, it should be dead nuts reliable. I also cut the new engine plate to give me the radius I wanted for the cowl. Pete Eastwood generously traced the Tom Hanna plate that was on the Old Master and provided a cardboard template for me. I'm templating the aluminum part of the body in cardboard this week and will hopefully start cutting and bending aluminum next week. Thanks for following!
I think you're right. The same thought wafted through my gray matter recently and I wondered if all of the general disinterest is leading to the recent increase in drag strip closures...
The nostalgia drag racing bug began as a way to have fun, run the way they used to (but safer) and while the guys who used to do it and came back were and are competitive, it wasn't wallet racing. It now pretty much is. It never paid enough to cover expenses, even to the winner. But it went from 'let's have fun and maybe get bragging rights' to 'let's go win, no matter the cost' with some very well heeled people. See all modern motorsports and almost all 'vintage' racing. Thank goodness for certain esoteric core racing that can't be molded into a series with million dollar sponsorships required to get into the field.
TRUE Here in midwest USA we are fortunate to have not only gasser groups but nostalgia groups for FED cars too. These are "the good 'ol days." https://www.facebook.com/groups/636578233832897
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