Hot Rods Top Banana Style Slingshot Dragster- Marty Strode-Chris Kopp.

Is that all English Wheel or power hammer?

 

Mostly Wheel, mainly because that’s the way he thinks Jack Hageman did the original.

 

Excited to see it in person Marty. Almost would be a shame to cover that beautiful work with paint.

 

We are going to leave it raw for at least one season !

 

I get quite the variety of work, like today's example. Sometime back, I mentioned the chassis repairs on a 1946 Italian Gran Prix Racer, Cisitalia D-46, with some history, as Zora Arkus Duntov raced the car a couple times in 1948. When bending the thin tube, it required packing them full of sand, and weld caps on the ends. The bends copied the sweep of the original lower frame rails, and fit quite well. One side down, and one to go, along with some crossmembers, and the X near the rear. The customer Ed Godshalk, finds the time to work with me on the projects, and we have fun.

 

Marty, when doing a restoration do you make the welds in the splices "disappear" by grinding? Or leave them to show that a repair has been made?

 

Wow!! That's quite a mess to straighten out Marty! I'm sure it will look like new once you're finished.

 

It will definitely be interesting to see how much gets replaced. Does a big dent warrant replacement? Or just rust out?

This is worthy of its own thread, you know?

 

I would struggle with a restoration. Knowing that you can do better would cause me grief to no end.

 

Jeff, some dents we can live with, as this will be a patina restoration, but we must fix the rust !

 

Dave, I am going the replace the section job in the rear with one piece, because the other side needs to be placed as well. There will be very few but joints, and they will be ground smooth.

 

Val, it won't look like new, but he should be able to make some laps.

 

It doesn't bother me, I did a belly tank for the same guy, and I love the character, of early construction, like this.

 

Marty......this will be a kinda dumb question. When I look at all that is going on with the chassis, I'm sure that there are easy decisions when tubes are actually rusted out or severely bent. But how do you determine the strength ?......inner corrosion?......true thickness ?..... of all the myriad of tubes and structures that you are leaving intact and adding your new pieces onto ? I love this project and please please keep us watching.......it is going to be a long cold winter here in Wisconsin and Iowa......we need all the entertainment we can get !

 

Alan, there are no "dumb questions" here, the problem was, it sat on dirt floor, in a barn in Virginia for a number of years. I learned from the muffler shop, to use channel lock pliers and gently squeeze different areas of the chassis. A lot of the tube used in this chassis is .035 wall, so it was mighty thin to begin with. The car will only be paraded around and never run hard into a corner. With the space frame design, and well braced, I think it will be okay. He has a reproduction frame, but prefers to stay with the one with the serial # stamped on it. The aluminum body pieces are in very good shape, and resemble and American midget from the same era.

 

Making progress on the GP Racer. With both lower frame rails and some crossmembers replaced the gas welding will start. We should be working on sheet metal next week.

 

Could you TIG and make a glob here and there to simulate a gas torch? All my TIG welds have globs.

 

I hope I don’t have to, but it is an option.

 

Coming along great Marty! A shame it was left sitting in the dirt, but it's at the right shop now and should be very cool once you're done!

 

I finally tackled the X in the rear of the chassis. Multiple angles and the need to be the proper length and height, but we got it fully tacked in place and ready to weld.

 

Geez, that's a complicated structure. Those early chassis guys were artists.

 

Wonder how many hundreds of feet of tubing went into that chassis? Nice work too Marty!

 

When we bent up the rear X, we had a piece of tube left, sand filled and capped it, and bent it from each end. We wound up with 3" to spare in the middle, to make the 2 pieces. It was a close one !

 

They certainly were, as this was one of the first double tube space frames, with some complicated angles.

 

Marty, your projects are fantastic, Be glad I don't live in yer neighborhood, I am sure you would ask me to leave, I would wear out my visit with you, just watching and learning.

BTW, are those Byman boys about the kindest guys, you will ever meet.... And the talent, and sooo many !!! All from the same Mom and Pop.... I have known Rich since he was sperm !!
Have him share the story of "THE RIDE " tells it so good.....

Bob.

 

Bob, the entire Byman family are talented, kind, and special !

 

Getting to the end on this one, perhaps this coming week.

 

Got it upright and a few more brackets tacked on. Better view of what it looks like with steering in place.

 

Do you remove the remainders of the cutoff tubes from previous versions? Try to make it look exactly like the original? Or leave those stubs as a reminder of the life it lead?

 

The 2 stubs at the front, are the base of a front hoop to support the nose. Once the car is together, and the nose mounted, I will install a new hoop. There are other places on the chassis, where brackets to hold the side fuel tanks,
will stay as part of the car's history. Ed is really sharp at what needs to stay and go.