Hot Rods Spalding Bros Repro, for "Too Tall" Ganahl.

pgan, marty and steel rebel,
My bad. Man, I've got to get my eyes checked as I erroneously thought steel rebel's post referred to mounting the rear radius rods with Heim ends. Clevises are better. I'm glad they're there since you intend to drive it hard, and I did not mean to imply your car wouldn't be used as a race car. In fact I think it would be wonderful to see two inline six / crossflow headed dirt cars with a combined drivers' height in excess of 13 feet dice it out on some short track somewhere. Perhaps our competitive paths will cross to make it happen.

 

Did anyone notice Pat's new Avatar ? Excellent choice !!!!!!!

 

I hadn't. Is that the engine going in this build? Wish he would post a larger picture.

Gary

 

Gary,
That's the GMC in his dragster. Nice to see everything in the copper stage.

 

Speaking of the Iacono dragster, I thought I would post this pic of Ike's dragster.

 

I love this thread. Ive always admired and respected your work over the decades Marty. and i love it even more now to know you suffer from the same distractions and having goofball/oddball friends like the rest of us.Johnny thanks for sharing

 

Wow, I must have been unconscious for the last eight months.
I thought I was the only person building a Blueflame power Ford with a Ford Trannsmission, and a quick change.

 

While waiting for some essential pieces (that I will have soon), I did some cleanup machining on one of the rear end side-plates, and the rear axle construction is getting underway. The salt car I built a couple of years ago, needed some alterations ( 3 " lower roll cage & some streamlining). A little finish up work, and it will be completed.

 

I like the RMR Marty. Kind of reminds me of the one we did several years ago for a guy in Portland, only it was a 27 body.

 

The "Big Brown Truck" showed up today, bringing some parts from Schroeder Steering. They shipped us an empty steering box, so I can mount it and finalize the length of the steering shaft to the wheel. The torsion bar arm blanks and stops, will be trimmed and shaped to the desired length, and mounted. The bronze bushings will be fitted into support blocks on each end of the bars, and welded the the side of the frame rails. More progress on the Lakes/Salt car.

 

Marty I fucking love all the stuff in your shop even that bicycle thing in the background.

 

Gary, That's my transportation to the mail box !

 

Marty do you build and sell those? That pretty slick looking.....

 

Very Kool Marty!

 

Porkshop, My Brother and I "motorize" some bikes just for ourselves, his sits a little lower to the ground than mine. I couldn't help taking for a ride, after I finished his gas tank. I built mine for a pit bike at Bonneville, but have since re-powered an old Cushman, thinking if and when we return to the salt, it would be more appropriate.

 

I had one like that in the "50s. I'll try to find a picture.

 

omg, cool, one of my alltime fave hot rods, drooled over it in the little books

 

salt, dirt track, drag strip, no problem, this warrior feared none

 

Marty. Glad you were able to clean up some of the scars on the Side - Plates. Makes me happy .

 

Makes me wish my mailbox were farther away

 

Thank you my friend for supplying them, they are just what we needed for this project.

 

Well, I finally got my land speed project completed. It needed an air box and scoop for the induction system. Being relatively new at pounding out aluminum body parts, and still learning by trial and error, this is what I came up with. Using .050 - 3003 aluminum, I settled on a design similar to a 60's era dragster. Back on the Spalding next week !!!!!!!

 

Simple. Well you make it look simple. Beautiful.

Gary

 

I got started on the steering box mounts, machining the large sleeves and clamp bolt tubes were the first tasks. When I fixture parts for welding, I normally form up a channel to align the parts, it is much easier than trying to clamp small parts. With the clamp sleeves welded, I sawed them in half, and ground the mating surfaces.

 

Step # 2 ; Rather than try to fab the steering stands in the car, it was much easier to build a fixture using exhaust tubing and muffler clamps and build them on the table. When fitting round tubes, I sometimes shear strips of scrap aluminum (7/8" wide in this case) to fit the angles and miters, and transfer to the tubes. The large side gussets with the 3" holes will be next.

 

Neat fabrication tips, thanks for sharing. Older I get the more I like working smarter not harder.

Ed

 

Nice. Do you drill-and-tap into the frame or use Rivnuts to retain?

 

Thanks for taking the time and energy to pause in your busy schedule and chronicle your progress.

 

Do you mean on the steering stand ?

Frenchtown, if you look at the original car you will notice the boxing plates ended at the back of the block, and had bolts had nuts. My preliminary decision was to start out with plates longer, making the chassis a little more rigid, because dirt tracks can get rough and Pat is going "use it". If we stay with the existing plates, I will weld nuts inside, or at least flush with the rails. I fabbed the tower gussets today, notice the difference in "lightening" hole sizes and vertical location, they were different on each side. The next operation will be the torsion bar mountings, and profile the blank arms to resemble the originals.

 

I finally finished Jim Lindsay's Lakes/Salt car today, fitted the front axle fairings. He got some paint on the new cage and aluminum work, along with some advertising for his "Highly Acclaimed" book. Dean Lowe, if you are watching, look at the last picture, I didn't have room to haul the doors and gas tank home today, but I have a good start, and I am serious . Pat won't let me work on it until I get his job completed though !