Hot Rods The "Whatever" project

Build it like a WORLD OF OUTLAWS Sprint car and really have fun. Smiley and I have been best friends since high school almost 70 n years. I really miss him. Frank

 

That is the next one. Or two down the road. Seriously, I can’t even go to a dirt track anymore without getting an urge to get back into it. It’s just so addictive.

 

It’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on Smiley race car in high school # 1 car is one of the best looking 410 cars we had, the # 4 car is the 305 car that started the race savers series. I painted all his hot rods and sprint cars.

 

I’d love to run a Race Saver car. Those rules make sense for the low budget racer. But again, I would get addicted to dirt again. And I don’t know any young drivers these days. So, I’m going to p*** on that…

Besides, I’m having difficulty just getting a hot rod built. I’m just too old

 

Probably wouldn't hurt to have a 'rubbing block' on each so stiction is not an issue and wear is measurable. It could even be a saddle to keep the axle centered. Weld on a flat leaf spring mount to the axle with a nut under. Bronze or br*** block with a counter bore in the middle to bolt it on.
Dave, you aren't too old, just too experienced and knowledgeable!
As soon as you decide on a design, the past suggests 4 different alternatives. The kid would just go with the first idea!

 

You’ve gotten to know my MO so well…

 

You should Google French Grimes sone time he built ignition boxes for nascar and was the man behind starting Race Saver and Smiley just ran with it. Smiley started with 4 305 car and built it from there. Trust me keep up with 4 cars kept me busy.

 

Suspension is coming right along. Got the four bars in, finish welding in the future. Here’s a couple of pictures.


Random order, but I can’t figure out why I got them all out of order to begin with. Oh well, we’ll deal with it

First two pictures show the front arrangement close to finished. I still need to add cone spacers and big washers on the outside of each rod end, but that is a final ***embly step.

The third picture is an overall of the ch***is and you can see that I need to adjust the ride height. The panhard bar should be level! Not a problem, everything is adjustable.

The fourth picture is looking at the front k-member, which will be moved rearward so that it aligns with the tubes between the main rails and the bottom tubes. Just a couple of tacks to break and viola, fini!

I am in the process of finishing up the Reese load leveling bar spring mounts. Two plates and four holes to drill and that will be done. Later today…

 

Hey Dave. Hope you weld the shock mounts on. Will need with the bars and if the bars don't work out, coilovers.
@squirrel is doing a down 'n dirty freshening on his small block in the Pioneer Malibu thread. You can relive the ol racing days of gettin' it done for Saturday night!
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-̶b̶o̶r̶i̶n̶g̶-pioneer-malibu.1348049
Really hope you can get it up to roller status this year.

 

Right now I haven’t decided which set of shocks I will use, so I’m just leaving the shock brackets loose for now. Once ride height is set in steel, AND I make a choice of shocks, I’ll use a pair of adjustable struts I’ve started making to set the ride height length for the shocks and then weld the brackets to the tube. Those struts first are going to be used to set the rear ride height and I’ll know if I need to adjust the lower shock mounts. I made them to be adjustable, so again it’s just a matter of selecting which shocks are going on the back and setting the struts to the proper length. I’d just buy them from Speedway, but I have a pile of 1/2x1/2 rod ends, so I just have to drill and tap some tubing for the threads, right and left hand.

 

Looking good
Dan

 

Low buck tip, Some 1.5 inch tubing with a hole at each end will suffice for holding ride height!

 

But, but, but… it’s not engineered enough! BTW, currently it’s sitting on 2x6 blocks in the rear, and 2 short sections of, wait for it…












1-1/2 inch tubing in the front!

 

A little update. Pictures

A little grinding, a little welding, a little wrenching, and I’ve got a little different front suspension system

 

Looking good
Dan

 

Dan, your tag line says it all about the whatever project…

 

Real sprint cars don’t run wings!

 

Right out of the old racer’s hand book!

 

Yup! Go back a page or two and look at the pictures of my first modified, the coach. It used trailer bars all around. Worked well. And it was inexpensive, something that was good for a 19 year old building his first race car on blue collar wages. Just took a look and it appears that I posted those pictures a ways back. Here’s one repeated. Silver bar just inside of the F100 twin I-beam radius arm.

 

So what you are saying is this is reliving your youth?
Just so you know, you don't have to worry about collecting mud in the ch***is this time, unless your plans include hot laps during intermission!
https://www.ford-trucks.com/articles/ford-model-roadster/

 

That all came about from @Moriarity asking if driving the Dart without a dash was weird, I said not weird but not normal either then @RodStRace suggest I use that for signature. And the rest is history. Might cover a lot of us and our builds ha-ha
Dan

 

huh?

 

****o just a victim of his environment. Clay tracks not dirt. Impossible to get every single spot of clay off…

 

View attachment 6707462
****o just a victim of his environment. Clay tracks not dirt. Impossible to get every single spot of clay off…

 

****o has no clue what he’s doing

 

Rut - row are we supposed to know what we’re doing???
Dan

 

Reminds me of the 6th grade wisdom of a friend when I was in 3rd grade. His response, when asked what he was doing, was, "I don't know, but I'm not going to let it stop me."

 

Breaking news! Phlash! We have springs! And spring has sprung! Here are some pictures.

Here we have the rear suspension. It is a wonderful rear suspension. It’s missing the panhard rod, sort of. Disconnected because I had to jack the frame up until the axle tubes were touching the bottom frame tubes to put the coil over support tubes back in without removing the tires. I have to either bend the bar so it clears the driveshaft yoke, flip the brackets around and put the bar higher up to clear the yoke, or reinstall the Watts link, which you may remember from very early on in our continuing saga of “What the fudge is Dave doing now?” Fortunately I kept all of the parts and just have to tack the frame brackets back on if I have to use it again.

Left front corner, Reese load leveling spring bar installed and supporting the corner. The other side looks like a mirror image of this. See below…

And also note that the k-member is back in, tacked where I think it will be staying. I set the nose back on, to check out making a new support bar right behind the hoop that shapes and supports the nose. However it doesn’t add any support to the radiator. And I don’t want two support rods running from the radiator to the firewall. So I realized that there is room for a u-shaped tube just behind the radiator welded to the crossmember right behind the nose. I have to make two sets of flanges to make it removable, but that was going to happen regardless, to phasilitate removal of the engine and transmission as an ***embly, without removing the body.

The last picture? It is the proof that the suspension is holding up the ch***is. It is one of the setup spacers from the front end. Go back to the first picture and take a look at the fuel cell top. Those two blocks of 2x6 are the rear suspension setup blocks. Yeah, I did a lot better with the front ones…

Next steps, get the engine and transmission back in, the tub back on, the seat support and seats in, and get the steering system sorted. There is a clearance issue to resolve that should be easy, and we all know how that goes once we say something like that. And a brake pedal and master cylinder to install. These things need all of the above to make sure everything fits.

Now, for anyone who wants to chime in, I have a Turbo 350 transmission and I need to get a shifter for it. And I would like it to have a reverse lockout, just in case I take it to a drag strip sometime. Lokar talks about gated shifters. Does that qualify? People on here have in the past commented on the quality or lack there of of Hurst and B&M shifters. I don’t want to end up getting something that doesn’t cut it for NHRA. So I’m open to suggestions and recommendations.

Back to suspension, front shocks are still up in the air. Currently there is a setup for a pair of tube shocks, 3-position adjustable for damping on rebound, or a pair of similar shocks to the rear shocks, which I would just leave the coil over parts off. And the beauty of those shocks would be if I don’t like the trailer bars on the front, I can just put the coil over stuff and a pair of springs on, and viola, no fabrication just swapping parts. Both setups would work fine. However, I also have a pair of Armstrong lever shocks that came off of the rear of an MGB roadster. And they are already to use. Kind of a throwback to What was used in the early days of modern hot rodding. Just requires a simple crossmember to tuck them in the track nose and a linkage to the axle. For now I’m sticking with the tube shocks, but those Armstrong dampers beckon.

And on it goes…

 

Good stuff.
Dan

 

Wasn’t feeling it today, however I did get one thing done. I made an executive decision, because whom else should. And that is/was to just go with the shocks that were on the front of the car way back in the buggy spring stage. The bracketry is already done, with the exception that the upper brackets are just floating on the front frame extension/bumper tubing, waiting for the final ride height to be set in steel. I needed to accomplish something today, and this was in my capabilities currently. So go way back, probably around the second or third page of entries and you will see the shocks on the front. Or look at the most recent pictures and imagine how a pair of chrome Carrara shocks would look just in front of the trailer bars.

Go ahead, call me lazy, I can take it!