Projects Dragster project

Nice looking car keep up the good work and post the progress we all who follow love to see the updates

 

Well, time for an update. My car is the one in the barn covered with insulation. It was fall last year when I asked my friend if he would sell it. He said I could have it for 2K, but we would have to wait till spring to dig it out. He had two Deuce and a half's and 3 Model T's to move to get it out. Late Spring I went over to talk to him. He said he had 18-20K in it, and he really had to get 5K for it. I knew he had low balled himself on the first offer. I would have gone for the 5K, but I also collect pre WWI Savage 1899's, and just bough a factory engraved one made in 1902, and another one made in 1905. The deal is still on the table, but I'm just not as excited as I was last year. If things change I'll update again.

 

Hey Joe- I think you meant to post this on a different thread, rather than my dragster thread...

 

I've just been knocking out a bunch of "one hour" jobs. Set aside Oct. 26th for fire up day so I have a deadline.

Got the trans shield on, made trans cooler lines, mounted the starter relay and neutral safety switch - which will be activated by a collar on the homemade shifter when it is in park. I had to move the lower central body pan dzus tab because it was fouling on the ring gear, so it has two tabs down low on either side. Got the solid linkage dialed in by making a new bellcrank only to realize that the the pedal throw is much too short, so bellcrank #3 gets made this weekend, and I'll cut off the pivot point on the chassis and relocate it forward an inch or so, along with the pedal stop.

Added scrub blocks to protect the oil pan on deceleration since I've got a lot of engine dump. I didn't want them super obvious, so rather than the side rails, I welded up brackets and mounted them on the bottom bolts of the engine plate. I will probably paint them satin black just to help hide them even more.

Made a bracket for the trans brake button and it is welded to the dead pedal. Not going to use the trans brake to launch, but we need it active in order to use reverse (!) If I had the dough, I'd just put a 2-disc clutch in it the way god intended, but I can't afford the setup or the certs, since I live in NHRA land. Going to use a Milwaukee 18V power tool battery to power the deal.

Also made wing struts out of aluminum and mounted the Clark Y airfoil profile wing made out of black walnut. If you know, you know.

Having to slice and dice the 7 quart oil pan a little bit in order to install the mini starter. Once that is done, I will finish wiring everything up. Waiting on a flaming river remote battery cutoff that I will use as an external magneto kill switch. Will make it look as discrete as possible, while making it easy to locate. It will be wired in parallel to the cockpit mag switch. I'm going overkill and using 7mm Taylor wire-core spark pug wire for all the mag grounding. Also wiring an X2 capacitor across the mag switch legs to keep the contacts from burning and adding a little insurance that the mag charge won't be able to jump the switch air gap at high RPM.

Making progress. If all goes well, I'll post a little of the fire up video at the end of the month.

 

Nice progress. I love the black walnut wing.

 

Nice work, your attention to detail is beyond reproach.

 

Thank you sir, that is very kind.

 

Thanks! I had to pay homage for the inspiration. Not for the same end goal they had, but the approach. To do it just to see what I could see, and learn what I could learn.

 

Just stumbled across this. So incredibly tasty! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

 

Thanks! I've been following your Model A build for ions -great stuff!

 

Work continues - the big one has been waving the white flag with the throttle linkage. It has been important to me to have a fully solid linkage and not the bowden cable type. The original design worked great, but I didn't take the trans flex shield into account. So when I installed that, the bell crank now fouled.

Made another bell crank and got clearance, but I really starting thinking about the throw and how short it is. For a car with no wheelie bar, having a decent amount of pedal travel and being able to modulate the throttle is I think going to be a key piece to this deal of not running a wheelie bar. So I set out to make a 3rd bell crank and moved the pivot point forward and added some length to the long arm. Would have worked but for the damn flex plate shield.

After a lot of head scratching and some research, I decided that I will go with one of the SFI powerglide bell housings. The money tree has lost all its leaves and some of its branches, so that will be a tax return purchase. I'm not looking forward to performing the surgery to make it happen, but it will just be another thing to go slow and steady on.

So I'm back to the original bell crank, but flipped. so the short arm will be used on the throttle side, and the long arm on the pedal side. Made a longer arm for the Hilborn as well. Just waiting on a length of 3/8" .083" wall tubing to be delivered so I can make the new pivot pedestal, which moves the point higher up and forward from the original. So it looks like I'll be able to go from the original 1" pedal travel to about 3 1/2" inches.

In the meantime, I gave the flex plate shield the ol' Spanish archer, and for the first fire up/cam break in I'll just use the trans as is.

Speaking of first fire up, I made up a quick temporary cooling set up. Will hook up a garden hose to circulate some water, and then connect heater hose on the Hilborn bungs to direct water away from the engine and drain on the ground.

Also doing surgery on the oil pan so the starter will fit. Got the extra capacity, but discovered that it's a sprint car type pan, and there is no provision for even the smallest starter. So measured the amount of drop needed on that wing, and cut the channel out. A slip roller and some 16 gauge steel make the scalloped fill plate and my pal Eddie is handling the welding, since I haven't ventured into TIG welding at this point.

Did the basic wiring for the starter circuit, the trans brake circuit (so dumb to have to go through all this just so I can have reverse) and the cockpit mag kill circuit. Using a Milwaukee power tool battery to power the trans brake and will also tap into that to power the rear light that is mandatory at most tracks. I will have it hidden in the tail section in the gap between the top of the chutepack, and the underside of the tail section. Just using an LED 3rd brake light that is short and long.

I will use a Flaming River battery kill switch as the external mag kill switch - I got the one with the remote setup with the rod. I will make up a bracket to mount it in the tail section and will make bushings so the rod will ride inside a 1" steel tube. Ditched the T handle for a polished stainless ball knob. The idea is with it sticking out the back of the tail section, at a glance it will look like a push bar. I will take care of that after the fire up. But I have a 2-bus terminal mounted on the anti rotation plate so I can wire both the remote and the cockpit kills without having to stack a bunch of ring terminals. I used Taylor magneto wire for the kill wire, and I have an X2 capacitor wired across the lugs to prevent contact arcing, and hopefully add a layer of protection against the possibility of the current jumping the air gap at higher RPM.

Plugging away. Feeling pretty good that it will be ready to fire up on Oct. 26th.