Found a bit of time last night to start making the ladder bars, I had some stainless tube lined up for the job but the more i thought about it i really liked the idea of doing it the way they did in the old days with square tube. I had some 1" x 1/8" wall on the rack so cut it to the lengths required and then drilled some 3/4" square bar to use as slugs in the end of the square tube, these were welded into the tube and tapped to accept rose joints in the front and clevis's in the rear. Hopefully get to fit them tonight. They won't be fitted parallel like the old days though, that may well be fine on a strip car but this one will be street driven so they will be triangulated, Havn't made my mind up yet but the axle will be located by a watts linkage or a Panhard bar, it all depends whats laying about really.
I'm watcing this one as I've never seen a drag car built starting with a fiberglass shell. Lots of glass cars but never from the first stages. Frank
I am liking this one. Using what you can get. That frame is interesting. I`ll be watch this one closely. Great work so far.
Managed to get it all welded up, would of had it on its wheels but i have ford shafts with chevy pattern wheels so need a pair of adaptors. Panhard rod tomorrow, or maybe a Watts linkage.
I had a few pm's (not sure why the question wasn't asked here ?) asking why i didn't mount my ladder bars parallel, so thought i would answer here. Parallel is fine for the strip but this is a street car so no good for the street in my opinion, What you end up with is basically a big antiroll bar that can't articulate without binding, On the road this will unload the tyres and all sorts of funny handling issues will happen. With the triangulated setup it all moves sufficiently without any binding. Hope this helps someone.
Well i'm at the stage where i needed the engine & trans in, Main problem is that the engine & trans is in the lockup up the road and weights 900lb odd, While pondering this small problem this morning my mate Charlie turned up in his Ranger pickup Within a short while we had loaded up the engine crane and was on our way Thanks Charlie !!! Once back we unloaded it and jiggled it into position and put in a couple of temp supports, First thought was that the oil filter was going to be a problem but once we dropped the engine an inch everything was cool I knew i would have to put in a curved piece in the gearbox crossmember as it needs to be raised 1" but without the engine in couldn't be pre determinded, Not a big problem really.
I didn't see if you said you were going to make the center of your k member drop out? If your building a gasser, transmissions tend to go bad every once in a while
I've gone 1.35 short times and low 9's with a 31 spline 9" setup, only thing I ever broke was eventually a posi got tired and then I did a spool.
Langy, The frame is sure coming along great ! Looking forward to further build info on your coupe. Dave
Thanks mate, i'm pretty pleased with it. I did have some people here in England that questioned the use of the frame. Yes its coming together fairly quickly, We have a pretty big show at Easter time in England with lots of prospective customers so i want to get it looking like a complete car so i can show the body kit.
Well progress has been slow as its been pissing down since monday I did get to make some engine mounts last night though, I made the basic shape a while ago but they didn't get used so they ended up on the parts shelf, Which make them handy for this project I wanted them to look old so decided to attach them to the frame with castle nuts and used Early Ford engine mounts.
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