Hey Katuna you should be able to pull the toilet seat looking keepers out of the flathead and take the retainers apart out of the block. It has been years since I worked on a flathead but I never had any trouble taking valves out. Roy
Actually...LIFE is going on...today is my "second birthday"...two years since my open heart, valve repair surgery. Feeling great and looking for this to be the best year yet.
Rock on, go for it....great to hear that you enjoyed the car, 2nd time round should be much better (& quicker) this time do a build thread.... Cheers, Drewfus
Hey 17.. Did you know that your car is in the Clifford Manifold catalog on line,, Look it up, pretty cool...
Yeah I saw it on accident ! I was needing parts for a straight six project and seen it ! I about poop 'd my pants ! I did a build diary on that car . Will have to find it ,don't remember what the title was . I was going to build 3 but only got mine done . Then had too much fun ,to finish the other one I started , for a X-friend .I'm going to run a chevy straight 6 in the new one also . My old man wants to help build it ,so that will be kool since he is only 20 miles away instead of 2000 now .
Roy-The valve guides are very tight in the block. I have a guide removal bar and I can't budge them that way. I pulled the exhaust assemblies by lifting the valve stem, dropping out the keepers, pulling the valve out, removing the spring (only launched one!) then driving the guide down from the top. Got pretty fast at it after about three! The intakes all have rust and some are stuck off the cam lobe up in the guide. I've been soaking them and I'll get back on it next weekend. While I'm thinking about it, and it's been asked a million times, does anyone have or know of any spindle mount wires for Ford spindles? I've looked everywhere to no avail.
I've got a set of 19" wires, but they ain't cheap. I'd love to use them to build another HA/GR, but I don't know if I ever will. The Speed Merchants team is still alive. Brad is helping me build a 400 smallblock for my slingshot.
I know that they make them, but we are going the cheap way and just using Model A ford bolt on wires...found a pair of 21" cheap and they look great. Old6rodder is using 19" model A wheels on the Barn Job. They may weigh a bit more but I figure the weight will keep the wheel stands from getting too high.
Hey OldSixRodder , Does this warm ya winter jollies ?? http://www.nitrogeezers.com/images/CagleRED1_copy.jpg Too hot here to build racecars!!
That rear engine car was not Gary Cagles car, Nor did he ever drive it.. There is a possibility that Clark Cagle (No relation) might of had his hands on it, But thats it.. That thing was an accident looking for a place to happen...
One of the original Thunderbolt drivers died in Tulsa this week. Burl Hawkins 77. He had gone to the factory to pick up a thunderbolt in 1964, Burl was a Ford man, driving 406, 427, while running his used car lot in Tulsa, selling specialty cars, a lot of muscle cars. Then when the Hemi plymouths came out he got one of those, The tranny messed up and he crashed on the tulsa drag strip, and was in critical for a while, that was in 1965, that ended his drag racing. He was one of those guys that when you saw him he was smiling. On a different subject there was a 3.3 earthquake just north of Okla city at 4 this morning.
Dick, that's Red Case's ride, the (Clark)Cagle-Case-Callahan car. It was one of three nearly identical styled cars (two of'em not his) that ran open like that with hemis. It was no more dangerous than Speed Sport or Jocko's which were the same style, just with body works on'em. He lost one to Garlits at the first "California Challenge" (in Texas) east coast/west coast meet. http://www.teamtriumphtexas.com/nhra.htm .... and in Garlits' words (about half way down the page, "Showdown in Houston"); http://www.mybestyears.com/DonGarlits.html Case later died, in a slingshot car.
Dick.. I worked on Bob(Jocko) Johnsons car when it was being built (The first one) it was much safer than that car by a long shot. I can draw you a blueprint by memory of that car. Even to how the mold was built. It's true we didn't have the knowledge of how one should be built, So some were much more safer than others. And I knew Clarke, Whos machine shop was on the corner of Lakewood and Alondra in Paramount. He probably just built the Chrysler, As he did for many people for "B"ville, Drags. Boats etc. And he had a beautiful 32 street roadster with of course a Chrysler in it.. That thing still looks scary to me......
Right you are, Cagle did the engine. Never heard of the car being a handling problem though. The only one I recall having a problem with a short wheelbase middie using a straight front axle was Speed Sport's first build, they went to a dropped one right away and cured it. Sorry Dick, I'd assumed you were referencing the stability of the design. It occurs to me you may be refering to the lack of roll bar, cage or anything much in the way of that. In that you're quite right. But then, most cars were under protected in the early & mid '50s, not just the middies. Scary? You bet, that's what makes an open car (especially a middie ) fun, isn't it.
You mentioned Gary Cagle and I wonder how many people remember that he had B-Fuel slingshot with a Binks spraygun in front of the injector? He gave me spark plugs when I raced and Torco oil. Really a friendly guy.I don't remember him ever having a oddball car most of the ones he drove that I saw were pretty straight forward. I asked him about the spraygun and he said it sprayed in to keep it from leaning out on the top end. Roy
Roy,, I knew Gary quite well, Still hang around with his son Troy. And talk with Fran, his wife quite often..Just before he died, We were going to put together a copy of his yellow roadster (Newhouse Special) I was building the car, He was to furnish the running gear.And a 300" chrysler, But just as I finished the car, Thats when they found him dead in his motorhome right after a weekend at El Mirage.. The car is being run by another guy now..
You guys keep telling stories. Great information and entertainment while I feel too flu-like to go out to the garage.
Just thought I'd let all you northerners know that today it's gunna be 94 degrees and 'bout 98% humidity ,even more in my shop . you guy's complain about it being too cold to work on your car , well we think it's too hot to go out in the shop.Last night around 6.30 I did check all the wheel bearings and brakes on my trailer before we head off to the Nostalgia's in February
Addressing the original question, I was going to do a HAMB dragster, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it just a tad too restrictive. So I'm going off in another direction, building two altered type cars, although very similar in nature to a HAMB digger, I will narrow the rear ends a bit, and probably run automatics in them. I'm building them with /6's in them as something I can let my employees take to Beech Bend and play with whenever they want. Probably do one T and one Bantam.
I still have the borrowed JB2 tubing bender. At the steel yard yesterday I spied a quantity of 1 5/8" .134"wall tubing in the half price rack. There's a couple 292's in the corner of my garage along with a race prepped Powerglide. Almost makes a guy want to build a digger where the driver sits behind the rear end. You know, a companion for the HAMBster. Oh, and this is sitting in the trees behind the house waiting...
Hey,, I got one of them thar things (Body) on my other car...I think they call it a Torpalino or sumting like that.....hahaha...,
It's cold and windy and snowy so I needed a mood altering activity tonight. Watching ANRA racing on Youtube did the trick. I saw Rocky in the winner's circle with the Mav and Dick and crew there with the HA/GR. Your season isn't that far off. Good luck in 2010.
I've been lurking around the HA/GR forum for a while but never had much to contribute. I'm intrigued though and decided last Oct. to start a build that will pass NHRA tech so I can enjoy running it close to home as much as possible. I started a build thread... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=440083
Thanks alot, guys. I got the HA/GR fever. Can't sleep, thinkin and buildin in my mind.Let's see flat head dodge, slant, chevy6 or ford? What about corvair, nope engine hangs out back, what if i..........................
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