Nostalgia Dragster Rebuild

[Preen59]

The rocker covers are on for the final time before the first start..

I got to the workshop around lunch time today (I was enjoying remaining horizontal too much..). Dad had started on fitting the rocker cover breathers and a couple of other things..

Here's how they finished up when we were done..





Hot rodders would be spewing if they saw these pics! They all want M/T covers without breather holes. As you can see they had been welded up prior to my old man purchasing them from the states.


I got some die (press tool) springs from work for the blower pop off valve. They're the only thing strong enough to keep it shut. I actually had to put them in the lathe and bore out both ends to allow them to fit over the registers in the pop off plate and the spring keepers. Lets hear it for carbide tipped tooling! haha.



I started making the support bushes for the bell crank that will mount on the back of the supercharger for the throttle linkage.



Here's a pic of the linkages so far that Dad's made up including the bracket on the supercharger.



The starter trolley is almost finished, ready to be wired up and go to the powder coaters..

[Preen59]

While i was away in "sunny" Phillip Island, Dad was hard at it finishing a heap of 'little things' off. This included the breather for the fuel tank and finishing the fuel lines. As you can see from the pics, the fuel tank has been modified to accept the new fittings and the different outlet position.





This arvo, i finished off the throttle linkage pivot and bracket. Now we just have to make the pivot arms and cut the rods to length.

[dubbed]

Awesome mate. I didn't know that dragsters had a mobile starter system. Well there ya go! Shows how much I know about (hardcore) drag racing..

[Mrk_Mickey]

Woohoo for more progress! looking perfectly machined as always you lucky prick...

I want an apprenticeship!!

[Preen59]

Awesome mate. I didn't know that dragsters had a mobile starter system. Well there ya go! Shows how much I know about (hardcore) drag racing..

Yep. They were originally push started. Then came the remote starter.

Woohoo for more progress! looking perfectly machined as always you lucky prick...

I want an apprenticeship!!

Haha thanks man. Go and find one then!

[Preen59]

This'll show you what a push start entails.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPbDM3_9imI

This one's good too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu3yCRBEMA

[dubbed]

Very cool mate. I like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2qfE...eature=related

[Preen59]

Progress, progress..

I designed up a banner like the old Castle Reigh sign for dad, and got it printed by a mate..



One panel painted, and yes.. We're happy with the colours.



Today, Dad got the fuel system calibrated. After some slight modification by me, the leak down tester worked perfectly. It's now ready to be run once we hook the magneto up and set it.





Meanwhile, i set about doing the fiddly stuff getting the throttle linkage sorted out. With any luck, i should have it completed and working tomorrow.

[Jarred]

cool as Pdogg!

Cant wait to see this roar into life!

it would defiantly be worth the trip up just to have a cackle!

[fuzion]

ahh chris my freakin eyes hurt man
to much to read and look at

all you need is some english narrator reading everything out (dont ask me but in a pommy old mans voice everything sounds much more interesting on tv lol) and you could have your own video doco! lol

been reading/looking for ages but never posted lol .. your a bastard that you have so many things readily available to you! :p

[Preen59]

ahh chris my freakin eyes hurt man
to much to read and look at

all you need is some english narrator reading everything out (dont ask me but in a pommy old mans voice everything sounds much more interesting on tv lol) and you could have your own video doco! lol

been reading/looking for ages but never posted lol .. your a bastard that you have so many things readily available to you! :p

Haha thanks man.

We thought about that and tried to contract Ringo Star to do it, but he was unfortunately a little outside of our price range. hahaha.

You say i have so much equipment on hand, but i want so much more! I guess nothing is ever good enough for some people..


By the way, we're aiming for next weekend for the first start up. All we need is some methanol (easy to get) and to finish off a couple of small jobs and she's right to go.

[Mrk_Mickey]

By the way, we're aiming for next weekend for the first start up. All we need is some methanol (easy to get) and to finish off a couple of small jobs and she's right to go.

SWEET dude!!! Make sure you get a vid of it eh?

[Preen59]

SWEET dude!!! Make sure you get a vid of it eh?

Yeah we're going to get the camera set up with a tripod hopefully.. Just for you.

[Preen59]

I got the methanol idle metering unit made today.

This is basically just a flow restrictor to meter the fuel drawn from the start up bottle.





We've set this up similar to the way Bill Pitts runs the 'Magicar'.

How is works is, you start the engine like you would normally with a starter bottle squirting under the butterfly, but with the shutoff closed. The vacuum from the supercharger draws the methanol up from the bottle into the injector hat, and the engine can idle (and warm up) on straight methanol. When you are ready, you can open the fuel shutoff, remove the methanol idler tube, and the engine runs on nitro from the fuel tank.

It's a bit of a safety measure, but also it's a good exibition thing, because the engine sounds quite mild on methanol, and when you switch it over to nitro, the engine idles down, gets A LOT louder and the car starts kicking and bucking like it should.


We've also got the throttle linkage completed and working. When i say "we", Dad actually finished it because i decided to sleep in today..




We set the magneto up on our makeshift "test bench" (Patented TPR Engineering design.. )) to make sure it was working correctly.



To semi-quote Tim.. This thing's got enough spark to jump start a dead hooker!


After that we fitted it and set it up, fitted the plugs ran the plug leads.



It's now ready to fire.

[Treza360]

Good stuff mate. Looking forward to seeing/hearing about the startup. It's gonna be wicked (even if all you do is blow yourselves up).
Cheers,
Trent