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

Nasty build, thanks for sharing!

 

I sure don't. I have always loved cut-away illustrations but this is one of the best showing so much detail and never losing proportion or perspective.

 

https://www.antonioeiras.com/gallery

 

Thank you for that. I had never heard of him prior to this. Senor Eiras has one heck of an eye for detail.

 

For our Northwest car people, I got a call this morning from Dick Pruitt, letting me know that Roger Simonatti has passed. Roger built many cars of quite the variety, starting with a 38 Chevy sedan, that I read about in Al Drake's books from 1951. He chose great sub-contractors for the phases out of his realm, with solid results, and high quality cars were the result. He was 90, RIP Roger !

 

Look at what Justin Arias pulled out of the family photo collection. Taken by his Grandpa Nick, that looks like Bakersfield in '59 !

 

Mr. Simonatti had a varied collection over the years, I always liked this Phaeton.

Godspeed Roger.

 

Looking at the inside of the Left Front wheel I'm not exactly sure what I'm seeing. Is that the actual back side of the wheel or is it a spindle mounted full wheel size disc? That don't seem right for the wheel. Is it part of early airodynamics?

 

I'd say the second, since it's got a square cutout. The first page of this thread has a few more pictures.
No way that's the wheel!

 

Marty, I love the progress/build of this cool and slippery dragstrip warrior...especially the aluminum body!

Off topic for a second, I was on a 4 day cruising event this past weekend with some people that I had not previously met, including a couple gals in a purple '39 Ford sedan. As we got to know each other, it turns out the driver, Wendy, is the daughter of a local drag race legend, Jack Williams...of the also slippery Syndicate Scuderia dragster. The car has been restored, and she still has it. I thought that was pretty cool. Here's a photo of her being interviewed by Dennis Gage behind the car.

 

That is great it is still in the family. I remember seeing pictures of it in Hot Rod as a youth. Jack brought it to Fremont in the eighties when I was racing there. He had a problem with the chute and damaged the front end in the catch fence. It would be cool to get a photo of the two together.

 

Just and old Land Speed tradition, bolts to the backing plate mounting flange. They went to 12 spokes later.

 

Jimmy B sent me a photo he got from Ken Crawford, could be a sister photo to the 3/4 front view. Ken was a gifted man in many ways, including photography. Too bad he isn't around to see what we are building.

 

Skip Govia supplied this picture of the first version of the Top Banana ( before the Jack Hagemann body). The car was built at the City Garage in Hayward, Ca, shown in the background. Skip's dad Hillary, ran the garage and was part of the team, was also highly involved in boat racing in California. The cool thing is Skip still owns the building and the house next to it, where it all happened, and lives a couple hundred miles north of me and will be joining us at events !

 

I stopped at Chris Kopp's place to check out the belly pan plans, he is making progress. Picked up the injector, to shorten the stacks from 10 to 7".

 

I have been toying with the idea of shortening the 10" stacks on the Hilborn. So instead, I ordered a 6' piece of 2-1/8"- .049 wall stainless from Burns Stainless. After machining some tooling to support and keep the tube round during the flaring process, I am making some 6-1/2" long ones. It works well to first push one end over a 2-5/16 hitch ball, then install the support collar, and use the top of an Argon bottle to finish the flare. Next I will be making a fixture to hold the pieces while tack welding the mounting bosses on the bottom, of the tubes.

 

So much cleaner than my feeble attempts, Marty. Maybe I’ll send you some $$$ and have you make some more for me…

 

Marty, this is what I just made up the last two nights. I needed 2 1/16 4.5 long stacks for my Olds engine. It is adjustable for different lengths and the aluminum piece (jig) to hold the ears to weld them on. Now if I could just weld! I also used a trailer hitch ball to start and a welding bottle cap to finish.

 

I'm a rank dufus next to you guys, but if you have access to a lathe, why not have a center support dowel, the tubing and an outer collar with the bell shape (or a forcing cone in the tail), then turn or spin it like the moon tank halfs?
Is Stainless too hard?

 

You two are killing me! That’s it, I’m selling everything and getting a new hobby…

 

Well now, that's how it's done ! It would have taken me a month to make anything close to that. Yours are closer to original Hilborn. Are yours mild steel, or stainless ? I think there is a market for those !

 

Marty, they are just some exhaust pipe I had laying around, but pretty much the same specs as your stainless tube. I was just trying to see if I could do it and if repeatable. I did have one bent up original Hilborn tube, straighten it as best I could to try and copy it. I am happy with what I got so far, but I do see room for improvements. And yes there has to be a market, as nobody can find 2 1/16 tubes as far as I can tell.

 

Let me know when you get it perfected.Its head and shoulders above any set I have or have purchased.
Now if I can remember that article on how to nickel plate at home. You two are out of my league for sure.

 

Mine are a little bit different from original Hilborn style, but they will work. You two are both craftsmen, and yours look like what came with my set from the factory. And I agree with you Marty, there’s a market for them. I used exhaust tubing, and with the wall thickness it has, the tubes are just fractionally larger on the inside diameter than 2-1/16. Probably around 0.02 give or take a couple of thousandths. Once I see how you two attach the screw bosses, I’ll reconsider doing it that way. Currently mine have a flange and doubler plates, which are pretty good, just not as original.

 

If we can talk Marty into it, stainless would polish up almost chrome like, and wouldn’t be affected by anything we could throw at them. Aluminum could be polished pretty good also…

 

If I have enough tube left over, I can ship it to you, if you want stainless. You have quite the fixture!

 

Marty, how much did that tube cost, and how much did you get? Hope you don’t mind the question. Also does Burns ship anywhere?

 

I bought a 6 foot section for around $235, with shipping. They would ship to you.

 

I have not looked around to see if I can get stainless up here, I am sure I can at least order it from somewhere. This is my first attempt at anything like this. Probably made the fixture over kill but I didn't know what it was going to take to flare it. It went very easy! The fixture for welding the ears on is another thought to see if it will work. I think it will and be reuseable and repeatable. The original tube I have shows they were brazed on, not sure I want to try that or Tig them, either way I am likely to burn something up!

 

I would Tig the bosses with Silicone Bronze 1/16 rod, and a 1/16 Tungsten, for the mild steel. It flows great, with low heat. If you do use Stainless, I would brush the inside with Solar Flux, it prevents the run through you get when welding Stainless. I used it on this Airplane exhaust.