Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Mike, there used to be an old time truck repair shop in this town that had one of those spin balancers you are describing. I don't know if they still do it, but I might have to look them up. Years ago I had a Toyota Corolla that developed a terrible thump when going down the road. They tried everything to get it out, and finally one mechanic put the front wheels on one of those balancers that do the entire wheel assembly on the car. Solved the problem.

Jim: I suspect you are right. Our protractor was an old one and we found out it was reading two degrees too low, so it showed about 9 degrees on his car and when we bought a new protractor it read about 11 degrees. I have moved it back to about 6 degrees now and think that is a more reasonable number.

What confuses me on that is why then do they dial so much caster into a drag car front end? Supposedly to make it track straighter, and some of those cars are flying down the track......why don't they get the wobbles?

Don can sell the rotors and calipers to someone because the rotors are new and the calipers should be fine, but I think whoever modified the spindles took a tad too much off of one of them. The bearing is pretty sloppy on it, so I think we will just make a very pretty paperweight out of them. I wouldn't feel right if someone got them and had and accident or something.

Don

I've wondered the same thing about dragster front ends. I've seen some of them that flop from side to side when they turn; they must have 30 degrees or more of caster. The only things that I can think of is (1) the front end on a dragster is a lot lighter and (2) the wheels & tires are really skinny. Maybe Brian or one of the engineers on here can explain the difference...

A little update on what we've been up to. The new wheel came in for Don's car, to replace the bent one. Coker was very good about it, as they always are. Now we need to paint it and get it mounted and balanced. Don is ordering his Wilwood brakes this week, so sometime next week we should be able to install them and try the car out with all the changes we have made.

Dan has been making some progress on his car. He was going to punch lightning holes in all three round rear crossmembers and sleeve each hole with tubing, but after doing one he decided he wants to drive the car before he is 90, so he gave up on that and is going to just install the tube crossmembers as they are. He also built mounts for his panhard bar, and now only has to weld it all in place to be pretty well done with the rear of the frame.

The next thing he tackled was building '32 style frame horns to add to the front of the frame. He built these out of flat stock for the sides and cut them to shape, then put a curved piece on top and bottom to form a channel. I don't have any pictures of those yet, but will next weekend.

As for me, I have only been getting my T ready to travel to Don Garlits place for Billetproof. Dan and I are taking my car, so we have to pack light.

In the meantime, here are some shots of the rear of Dans car as it sits mocked up now.

Don

Dan had the day off today and went to the shop for most of it. I had some stuff to do so I didn't go except for about an hour, but I see he has made quite a bit of progress on his frame horns because he posted some pictures on the HAMB. So, I guess he won't get mad at me for posting them too.

He wanted to dress up the front of his frame with a cross between a Model A and a '32 front horn design, so what he did was first make some side plates out of 3/16 flat stock that he cut to shape on the bandsaw. Then he made up top and bottom plates out of the same stock.

Here are the early stages of the process. He first made a template out of poster board, then duplicated it in steel. The gap he left between the two pieces before welding was so that he could have a rounded corner after he ground it smooth, so that it would match the contours of his frame rails.

After welding and smoothing them out, they look like this. He tack welded them onto the existing frame to see how they would look, but he still has to C notch them for axle clearance.

He is also going to make up a round spreader bar and have it chromed. I think it gives it a much more finished look with the horns in place.

Don

Dr. Dan does it again. The guy is an artist! I like the earlier comment about getting it done before he's 90!
I agree it will give the front end a great finished look!

I kinda feel bad. He came in after working on it all day and I forgot to ask him how it was going. I was surprised to see the finished product posted on the HAMB. I'll have to say something to him tomorrow when he gets up.

Yep Steve, with the progress he's making lately he just might get this thing running by Summer, or at least by November for Turkey Run. I told him if he doesn't get it done by then I am going to put a tow strap on it and tow it behind my T.

Don

Are those his new air brakes?

Tell Dan its looking good, I want to see it before I turn 90.....LOL if I was to live so long. Going to miss billetproof, will have to plan for a later show.
BradC

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Are those his new air brakes?

Yep Bob, he got a little carried away drilling his backing plates ! You know, EVERYBODY does small holes, why follow the crowd?????

Thanks Brad, you are the kind of guy who one can never be sure when or where you will show up. We'll get to meet you yet.

Don

You know it took me a long time to figure it out but I know who Don looks like now, He looks like Red Forman off of THAT 70,S SHOW any body see what i see or what.

He just never tells anyone he,s gonna put a foot in there a$$

Originally Posted by ratatooly

You know it took me a long time to figure it out but I know who Don looks like now, He looks like Red Forman off of THAT 70,S SHOW any body see what i see or what.

He just never tells anyone he,s gonna put a foot in there a$$

I actually do all his stunt work!



I am one tired puppy today. Last night Dan and I went to the shop about 8 pm, and he has two playing gigs this weekend, it was his only night to get anything done, so we ended up staying all night. I had to get up at 9 to meet Don back there to paint the new wheel we got from Coker, so at 5:30 this morning I bailed out on Dan, and he stayed til about 9 this morning!

But, we got something pretty cool done. He was tired of doing frame fabrication for a while and wanted a fun kind of project, so we decided to make him a nerf bar for the rear of his car. It actually turned out pretty nice, and here is how we did it.

He decided to use 3/4 inch solid round stock instead of hollow tubing because we don't have that small of a set of dies for our tubing bender, and doing it without one would have probably kinked on the bend. So what we did was make up a simple jig to hold the round bar while we heated it cherry red and bent it up.

We needed something with a diameter of 4 inches to use as the shape to form the bend, and the only thing we had was a worn out holesaw, so we dropped a pulley of the right diameter inside it and welded it in there so the holesaw wouldn't collapse while bending. Then we made some angle iron stops so the bar couldn't move and to make it straight.

After heating and bending two u bends, we simply had to determine the width we wanted and fill in the gap with two pieces of straight round stock. We beveled the ends so the weld would go deep, and we also preheated each joint with our torch set cherry red before Dan mig'd it. This allowed the weld to sink down in pretty flat and deep, requiring less grinding to get it smooth.

Once we had the whole thing formed into the continuous loop, we then made up some flat strap mounting brackets, drilled some holes for the mounting bolts, and welded them to some 5/8 round stock, which we inturn welded to the nerf bar. Finally, he made up two flat little mounting tabs to put his license light and plate on to the front of the nerf. He says they are reproducing the Hollywood license lights, so he used one of my old originals to make the mounts in the right place.

Now all he has to do is drill and tap the frame rails for the mounting bolts, and send the nerf off to the chrome shop for plating. Not only does it dress up the rear, but it should actually give a slight bit of protection from parking lot bumps from some of the great drivers we have here in Florida.

Here are some pictures of the process, in case anyone wants to build a nerf for their own car.

Just got home from Don and I painting his wheel, so it's nap time.

Don

A few more pictures.............

and finally,

Very clever and simple looking to fabricate. I'm sure it wasn't simple. The welds turned out perfect. Dan and you make a good team!
Get some sleep, I need help with the brake booster today!