Intro: New to HAMB and 1955 push truck project

I must say not only am I new to this site, but to sweeten the pot ,this is my first foray into the social end of the electronic life, and it makes me a little nervous. Hopefully with a little nudge, it will go straight. Forgive me if its a little messy and I have deplorable spelling and a bad habit of not checking my e-mails and other electronic distractions, so be kind with the foot. Like most I have little time and the family pulls me in as many directions as the daily grind, but the allure of the garage or musty pile of old mags is too tempting to lay dormant. In all fairness I did try to start doing this 3 years ago, so you get the picture. So I digress and hope this will build and thread get off the ground, but more importantly thank my little family for letting me have a little fun.

In an epic decision to build an FED, I had the brilliant idea to build a new truck, a push truck.. Not that I don't have enough on my plate with the dragster, and a few other projects, but somehow i convinced myself I needed to do this. So with out further ado, here is what I am thinking:


Project Goal

Build a fast, loud, simple truck that is clumsy and powerful to push start my racecar and still be able to run to the store for ice cream or Shopkins if the kids need it. Have the look and feel of a vintage race car and brute appeal of cowboy manors. Built for hard and fun driving, emphisis on form and function through simple economical use of all materials and cut outs for lightning effect. Think James Bond villian (metal-mouth), tough and terrifying, but a little soft. Soft on the inside, hard as steel on the outside. 1950’s -1970’s tech only. If it cant be fixed with hand tools, don't use it. Rough but ready to go. Easy to keep up.


Influences :

Early board and track racers , early aircraft design, vintage racecars and FED dragsters, simple cowboy at***ude and toughness. Brute strength and agility of a power lifter. Pleasure craft touches for hardware and soft interior bits. Late 50’s to mid 60’s vintage Ferrari interior and mechanicals.
Precision and craft over high design. More on this to follow at a later date.

My first achievable goal, since i am in the aquiring parts phase, is to drill the axle. I got a 55' ch***is that already had a dropped axle on the front, and I liked the idea of not having a cushy mustang style front end. I have always lovved drilled axles. So starting in the most unlikely portion of a build, I want to give myself the gift of a drilled droptube axle. So ..... any idea of how much is too much when it comes to making swiss cheese out of it? I saw an early plymouth (33-35?') with a dirt track front end years ago with ovals that was inspiring, but cant find the image. Any words of wisdom on making it happen? Haven't seen an early fifties effie with a dropped axle, so if they exist I would like to see how they turned out, not that it will probably stop me from doing it.

 

Welcome to the HAMB from M***.
Questions are a bit out of my field, but if you ask, they will answer.
If your avatar is any indication of where you're comin' from, it's all good!

 

Thanks for the nudge. Have to figure out how to do a few things, but once the learning curve settles, I will try to get more on this forum. Have two builds in hibernation to post.
1955 push truck and a late 60's FED.