I wouldn't go that far...I just don't like trailers, so I built a car that naturally has a huge trunk.
Thanks for the pix of Cassandra, but it looks like your frame is built more stout than hers. Maybe not as soft.
The Harbor Freight trailers are amazingly stout. The construction doesn't look that good, but I bought one 15 years ago to move some stuff from Tx. to Ca., and it's held up amazingly well! It's been towed through the mountians (at 80 mph), all over the desert, etc. I made a few modifications to it, I added the optional spare tire mount and bought a spare with it, the hinges (if you use the fold up option) eventually failed (their just thin sheet metal). But the fix was easy, I just bought 3 sets and stacked them. Lastly, I was a little worried about the 12" tires size, so I bought a set of Buddy Bearing caps for it. No bearing failures yet. The 1195# rated one goes for $299.00, and the 1720# model goes for $349.00. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Mission accomplished and then some. look at the label. the nitro available now is made in china. its synthetic. schumacher racing has cornered the market. gone are the days of the good vp non synthetic fuel. the old nitro smelled better and was easier on fittings. nitro is a strange commodity. the prices can vary greatly during a season. 14-20 dollars a gallon are common. in the post 911 world its also harder to get. when i find some thats affordable i buy it because no one has some when you need it. Just walked in the door. I got up yesterday at 4am to start all of this. I have more pics for later today.
One of the many things to do to get ready for the nitro was to cut the pistons. I needed to drop the compression ratio down some. I first called arias pistons with the job number. They gave me the minimum dome thicknesss. We double checked the thickness to see how much could come off. The pistons were put in a special chuck. The fingers grab in the oil control ring groove. I then took .o25 off. This gave us 4ccs. The thickest part of any piston is above the pin boss. Then the lathe was set up to take a 10 degree cut. This had to be done by hand. My rings are set low on the piston so this worked in our favor. There needs to be .300 from the top of the piston to the ring. This cut gave us 7.5 ccs more. Now the compression ratio is 7.6. the pistons are weighed before and after machining. there is a formula based on how much weight is removed results in how many cc are added.
The second cut drops the compression even more. only so much can be removed from the center of the piston before it becomes too thin. We are making these modification so i dont have so spend another grand on new pistons. Controlling cylinder pressure and detonation are key.
As Fuzzy Knight stated.... You're still around and metal can be replaced and repaired! Good on you make it safer so you can go faster! Don't need shiney paint either... To make it baddass. Take for instance the 15oz coupe... Blown Hemi on Fuel can't beat it!
the 15 oz coupe and the dawsons demond are two of my favorites. both had no shiny paint and are all business.
Now that i have gotten some sleep and got the nitro unloaded its time to introduce one of the key guys in my group. Roger lechtenburg from cedar falls iowa. There are people you run across in life that after just a few minutes of conversation you think to yourself this guy is scary smart. This is a guy who if you are both looking at the same thing sees that thing from a totally different view. He is a fierce competitor a gifted machinest and a incredible inovator. He has won world championships in several forms of competition. Both as a driver and engine builder. He invented the b-1 heads then sold the idea to koffel. those heads won three pro stock titles alone. While i was there this weekend he was making a tractor puller head from scratch. The head weighs over 150 lbs. he has recently invented a four valve per cylinder harley head again from scratch. He has been around the faster classes of racing for years. He recently helped win the world championship by sevicing the four blown hemis in a customers pulling truck. He also backed up his win at the fuel altereds world championship this year. That makes two straight world titles as a driver of a fuel altered. When i decided to go with a dual fuel system roger was the guy that got the first call to go over my plans. roger thinks its a cool idea and thinks it will work. we came up with a plan we think will work. Here are some photos of roger and a few things laying around the shop. Hemis are everywhere. There was a alan johnson pro stock hemi that just came in. A few blown hemis from a tractor puller were just laying around. there are hemi heads everywhere This is a hard core shop. this is the dragster i have crewed on for years. I just wish he lived closer. he is five hours away from me. i hold him in such high regard i feel its worth it to drive that distance so we can get the engine ready to go. we have spent countless hours working on hemis together over the years. there are a lot of possers in this hobby. i can assure you roger is not one of them. this guy is the real deal. TTACH=full]3099270[/ATTACH]
thanks. whats up with the car and jack. are you two able to get together before he goes back to arizona
I'm in Japan for work for two weeks the plan is to do it when I get back. It will Take two days most likely. There are a few more spots I found. Looking forward to it though.
I'll second that Roger "Radar" is one sharp dude. Super nice guy too as is everyone on the Orange Krate team.
dale suhr and his grand daughter tiffany went to frank hawleys this past week. she got her licence. so the krate will be driven by her this coming season. the blower and nitro are out. it will be inj on alch. there is talk of a late model going in. these recent developments have sealed the sad fate of one of the countries top fuel cars. roger will continue driving the nitro madness altered. it was a great and exiting time. I'm proud to have been part of it.
The dana housing is all welded now with the exeption of the housing ends. The tubes were stick welded with a high nickle rod. The special rod is needed to weld the cast iron to the steel tubes. The combination shock/ four link brackets look cleaner and are stronger than seperate brackets. The brackets also have wheelie bar holes. Im upgrading the side gears to accept 35 spline axles. The disc brakes were dropped off so the proper bearing offset can be determined. The pic of the rearend may look simple but there is alot going on. The rear and four link should be in next week. The anti rollbar and wishbone track locator need to be made. the rear end will be set up were the bars can be moved on the four link without having to shorten them or lengthen them. this is a huge thing as it makes adjustment easier if you don't have to redo everything every time a instant center is changed. there is a lot of engineering in all of this. the tubing bracing the brackets also serve as tie downs. this will be top shelf when its done.
I finally was able to get the body dropped off at the shop. Custom car care in sturtevant wi is probable the last place most car guys would look for a body shop to take their pride and joy. Lots of guys like to have a big name associated with their build. Tv names or legends like chip fusse and boyd coddington or barris. But here in a town thats just a spot on the map has a true heavy hitter. Dick woton is his name. Dick has done body work all his life. He was the paint and body shop manager while working at beaver restorations in kenosha wi. Dick was jack klamms boss. The shops specialties were duesinburgs; cords; lasalles; chryslers and other priceless classics. it takes huge coin to do one of these cars. Think jay lenno. The work has to be perfect for this crowd. The top prize for these players is winning the pebble beach show. Dick won it five times. that would be like winning the super bowl or world series five times for a sports player. thats hard to do when you think about the unlimited money funding those kinds of cars. All done without a reality tv show. His skills are amazing. Dick painted the car the first time around. It was a easy choice to return the coupe to his shop.
This is going to be one killer lateral acceleration vehicle. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Looking at your old chassis vs the new, say an extra prayer of thanks today if so inclined.
i met all those old craftsmen by hanging out with a bunch of retired guys. they have so much to share. we meet for lunch every sat. im the new guy since i have only been going for about 15 years. almost all of them have known each other since they were kids. they have always been into hot rods. one of the guys used to work at r and b chassis. a few worked at beavers. the rest are a mixed bag of machinists; plumbers; mechanics and electricians etc. they can all work with their hands. each one has some kind of specialty. its this group that introduced me to guys like jack and dick. alot of these guys dont do work any more. but under the right conditions for the right car for the right guy they will chip in. and when they do you can see they still have the passion. when i have a problem i cant figure out i bring it up at lunch. some one will ussually say something like go talk to this guy he may be able to help. then its one of those deals i heard about your car your friends with so and so. how can i help. help from a guy you never met and most likely would have never found. there are several other guys around here the guys you dont hear about that have incredible skills. i think its cool to be able to tap into this local talent. these guys have built so many cars over the years its a honor to hang out with them. they are also some tough graders. there is no fooling these guys. you will be called out if something is not right. they were there from the start. the combined accomplishments of this group is staggering. my big concern is whats going to happen to our hobby when they are gone. i also have a younger group of guys i work with you will meet some of them soon. im not only using this thread to cover the rebuilding of my car but to also share some of my inner circle of friends. they deserve some recognition for their many contributions to this build. i couldnt do it alone. im a lucky guy.
no they were not upset. they knew it was not going to be a trailer queen. when jack and dick looked at it they both said well we cant have this we gotta fix it. they said it in a very serious tone like one of their kids was sick. they knew i was going to race and drive the car. in their younger days they all raced at union grove and they know shit happens.
The hamb goes down for a few days and now i have a lot of updating to do. Theres alot going on with this installment. First up is the chassis. The housing ends are tacked on the dana. The trac lock now has the 35 spline side gears. The majority of the four link is made. All the aurora heims came in. The chassis needs to come off the jig to get the front brackets on. The axles and gears are ordered. The pieces for the wish bone and anti roll bar are all cut and ready to install. While jim and john have been doing their thing i got the heads assembled. The pic of the front bracket has me holding the bracket upside down to show how it will be mounted eventually.
The hamb goes down for a few days and now i have a lot of updating to do. Theres alot going on with this installment. First up is the chassis. The housing ends are tacked on the dana. The trac lock now has the 35 spline side gears. The majority of the four link is made. All the aurora heims came in. The chassis needs to come off the jig to get the front brackets on. The axles and gears are ordered. The pieces for the wish bone and anti roll bar are all cut and ready to install. While jim and john have been doing their thing i got the heads assembled.
Running efi on gas i have my butterflies set at .002 this makes for a 900 rpm idle. I use a idle air control valve wired to the fast efi box. This gives a perfect idle without the rup rup typical of a blown car at idle. The valve adjusts electronically letting in more or less air. When i switch over to nitro i need to have more rpm. It would be simple to just give the idle screw a few turns to get the desired effect. The problem is when i go back to the gas i not only would have to reverse the idle screw i would have to redo the settings in the computer. The throttle position switch would need to be reconfigured everytime the screw was moved. The tps switch is a touchy thing. So thats were the mechanical idle valve courtesy of roger stanke comes in. Its plumbed into the four port hilborn below the butterflies. The valve can be turned to allow more air into the engine bringing up the idle rpm. The tps switch is not effected because i no longer need to turn the idle screw. The valve becomes a adjustable vacumn leak. It can be turned by the knob or with a arm attatched to a cable from inside the car. Most blown nitro cars use this valve or something of this sort. They are also used in injected applications. This valve will save me alot of time. Stanke motorsports offers parts and specialty tools for the hemi racers. They have parts for all three generations of hemis. View attachment 3108572
When i was dropping off the body dick was working on a 30 dodge coupe. Mopar guys know how rare these bodies are. Its very unusual to find two at a show let alone two in the same body shop. There is a big differance in the roof and size of the doors between a 30 dodge and a 31 chrysler. The differance might go unnoticed without them being almost side by side. I also took a few pics of dicks award winning restorations. One is a 34 packard. one is a 34 duesenberg. one is a duel cowl phaeton. big beautiful classics. .
The Jalopy Journal
