As most of you know we have been doing this belly tank project for awhile now. For those that are new or want to catch up you can use search or read it all here http://kaparich.homestead.com/Bellytank.html OK, We are now going to keep updating this thread instead of starting a new one each week. So where did we leave off? Oh yeah! In our last episode we were working on a steering wheel, We made a pattern and cut it out of a piece of alluminum, so it looked like this: Next we cut some strips of a piece of ironwood I was given and glued them on to the front and back with some PC7. This stuff is great! I then took it home and cleaned up the edges, rounded the wood grips and polished it a little, so now we have this: Stay tuned to next weeks episode for more exciting updates on the Strange Days Bellytank Lakester
I'm thinking yes.... My bro lives in Texas and I could combine that with a visit.... Right now we are thiking shutoff switch and parachute. I dont want to take my hands off the wheel if we have big problems.
Here's today's progress. We've ordered the parachutes and the fire systems for the lakester, so in preparation for the chutes we decided to work on their control handles. While we were at the salt we paid special attention to the cockpits and controls that were in use. One idea we really liked was a dual chute control we saw. There were two levers, one below the other. after the top lever is activated, the lower level becomes easily accessible.This will work great for us, as we have the regular ribbon chute which will bring the car to an easy stop, but if this fails, the second chute will slow the car more suddenly. We fabbed the handles out of quarter inch steel with 3/4 in tubing grips.Here's one of the handles drawn on the steel before being cut out Here's the two handles and the tubing grips with the weld on end caps. The cables that attach to these are basically choke cables, so we picked up some lawn mower hardware to use on them. The nylon rings space the two handles apart. Once everything is welded and smoothed, it starts to look like something. We made mounting plates for the back, and folded up an aluminum cover to protect the connectors from being bumped and set off accidentally Here's the finished product done in true hokey-assed fashion. Total cost was a little over 4.00 for the lawnmower hardware and nylon bushings. Bring on those parachutes!
The parachutes have arrived. They are manufactured by Stroud Safety, and are of the ribbon type. We ordered them from Joe Timney at Delaware Chassis Works.. Probably the easiest guy in the world to do business with. When we were down on the salt this year we paid special attention to controls and safety stuff so we could find the simplest way to make everything work. The idea of the ribbon type chute is to ease the sudden jerk when the chute opens. It makes for softer and more even deceleration. Our parachute tubes are 6 inc PVC plastic pipe. A 3/8 flathead bolt was countersunk through the tube and a threaded 1/4 inch ring was fabricated to hold it on the other end of the tube. The end of the bolt was then drilled and shaped to hold the grommet on the chute retaining strap. The two washers on the pin represent the grommet on the strap as we still need to make that. As you can see it's simple as hell. The choke cable retracts, and the strap slides off the tapered pin releasing the chute. Simple, direct, and we hope flawless in operation. We then mounted the control handles within easy reach of the driver. Here's a view of that: To mount the tubes into the car, 1/8 x 2 flat steel clamps were welded to the frame and clamped around the tube, a pretty clean way of getting it done, and easily removable if need be. Once again, the entire build is posted at: http://kaparich.homestead.com/Bellytank.html If you have time to kill.
We finally finished the parachutes today. The strap that holds the chutes in the tubes is a 2 inch wide piece of Nylon strap wity grommets at each end. As most of you know the grommets come in a basic kit First a hole is punched in the webbing, , and then the grommet is hammered into the opening using the die provided. Here's a picture of the completed parachute tubes at the rear of the car. They're all hooked up to the handles in the cockpit. Here's a short video of a test traial. http://people.montana.com/~kaparich/101_0050.MOV I'm no good at posting movies, and this sure seems slow to load. Then we welded in the supports that will hold the twin fire systems.There are two bottles. One for the engine compartment, and one for the drivers area. Heres a look at how they'll fit in place.
Here's a look at the parachute tubes and the twin fire systems. One tank covers the engine compartment, the other the drivers area. Each tank is pull cable controlled. We decided to mount the pull knobs right behind the steering wheel for easiest access in a panic situation. We welded a 1/8 inch thick mounting plate to the steering mount. Here is a look at the cockpit controls so far. The parachutes are controlled by pulling on the two handles just to the right of the steering wheel. The red knobs just behind the wheel control the fire systems. The tab on the steering wheel will be drilled for a kill switch. Everything is within easy reach. After a lot of consideration we decided to add side windows to the vehicle. Here's Steve drilling out the corners. A sabre saw cuts the rest. Heres a view of a side opening. We all ageed it really helps the driver feel less "entombed" We have to order longer cables for the fire system, and install the spray nozzles. That'll be next week.
Chaz, I love watching the progress you guys are making. Keep the updates coming, please. One question, where do the shroud lines attach? Craig
The windshield and port holes meet this requirement? 3.U WINDOWS AND WINDSHIELDS: All non-stock windows and windshields shall be made of shatter-resistant plastic, such as polycarbonate (Lexan), and shall provide 120 degrees of adequate vision forward... DW
Actually we met that 120 degree requirement with only the front windshield... Did they change that spec yet again? It used to be 120 degrees and then in the last year or so I recall it just says "adequate" vision. I dont have it in front of me right now, its at the shop. Either way, we have it covered. Is that from the 08 rulebook?
Looks like you guys have your act together. One very small observation. I hate to see square corners on anything in the drivers compartment. Is it possible to rethink the box on the right side? Something with rounded or radiused corners would be less of a problem should things go ass over tea kettle. ps. We never thought Swamp Rat 33 would roll 7 times @ 200 mph, but it did! ! ! !
Right now we are thinking that the lines will come out of the tubes and attatch to mounts on the push bar. We have decided to weld the pushbar to the rest of the framework instead of making it removable and we are adding an upper and lower brace.
Well, back at it. Today we mounted the fire system for the engine bay. There are four nozzles provided with the Foxfire system. Two of the nozzles have two outlets, the other two have three. Heres a picture of a nozzle with one of the mounting brackets we fabricated from 16 gage metal. The nozzles look brass, but are actually anodized aluminum. The kit supplied quarter inch tubing is stainless steel. The tubing must be bent and flared to fit your configuration. We wanted two nozzles to cover the top of the engine, and two to cover the bottom. Heres a pic of Steve flaring the tube. When its all fitted to the firewall it looked pretty clean. All the fittings are AN type with a supplied bulkhead tee to pass through the firewall. On the inside of the drivers area you can see the line passing through to the tanks in the rear of the car. The drivers compartment system presented some fittment issues, so we decided to wait until we got some different AN fittings to make everything work neatly.
The fittings for completing the fire system in the drivers area arrived, but were wrong. I'd like to blame Speedway Motors for this , but I can't. I got exactly what I ordered. Sometimes I'm such a dumbass. Actually Speedway motors has been one of the best companies we've worked with on this project, and I'd actually like to take the time to thank them for being a great supplier of the stuff we use! I re- ordered the right fittings, but it kinda threw us off not having the parts we needed. Instead of the fire system we went back to finishing a few details. We wanted to add more diagonal bracing to the tailsection of the car so today was a perfect opportunity to do so. Here's yours truly welding in an additional 1 5/8 brace. The brace should add additional rigidity to the tail when the chutes deploy. The chutes will mount to the pushbar at the very back of the car . One on each side. We used a 5/8 inch rod passing through and welded to the pushbar. Here's a topview. The braces running forward allow chute removal, and keep the chutes captive on the 5/8 rod. Here's the same piece from a sideview. Next week if dumbass ordered the right parts we'll get back to the cockpit fire system Here's as far as we were able to get on the cockpit fire system with the fittings at hand,. We then moved on to mounting the rear axle. We decided to slip an additional tube insde the axle to add strength.. First we drilled holes 180 degrees apart along the axle to allow for plug welding. Then slipped the tube inside the axle. Here is the inside tube about to be plug welded into the axle Finally the axle haves were plug welded into the car We still had a bit of time left so we fashioned a brake pedal. Next week we attack the brakes.
This is very fun to watch. I don't know much about land racing so its great to have good explanations along with your really nice pictures.
Well we have not posted progress on this thing to the Hamb lately, so for those still interested here is a link to what we got done in January http://kaparich.homestead.com/bellyjan09.html
The Jalopy Journal
