Nostalgia Dragster Rebuild

[Blitzen]

As you say, great for tee shirt weather, saves you getting rayburnt upper arms.

Much cooler than a full jacket in summer too.

Pete

I hate Rayburn!!

I learned the hard way not to weld when you are wearing shorts, and if you must weld wearing shorts, ALWAYS wear underwear!!! Oh, the pain!!!

[GoLfMan]

I hate Rayburn!!

I learned the hard way not to weld when you are wearing shorts, and if you must weld wearing shorts, ALWAYS wear underwear!!! Oh, the pain!!!

is that a torch in your pocket or are you just happy to see me

Sorry had too, hehe

[Mr Messy]

What's rayburn?

[DubSteve]

What's rayburn?

Welding gives off a ultravoilet light, which if you stare at it whilst welding it can burn you, not to mention if weld spots jump up and get you in the eye!

[Mr Messy]

Oh so it's like sunburn or something. Cool.

(Being ginger I, therefore, can never weld as I'd get cancer after 15 minutes)

[Preen59]

Oh so it's like sunburn or something. Cool.

(Being ginger I, therefore, can never weld as I'd get cancer after 15 minutes)

Yes, copping it in the eye is called getting a "flash", ray burn is from the ultraviolet light and is the same as sunburn..


Now stop hyjacking the thread!

[Preen59]

Here's what i did this arvo with a drill and a scraper..




Stripped the cladding off the side of the trailer. Pain in the butt job it is. Cut the end on my thumb open. Not happy Jan! haha.

[Preen59]

We got the rear roof cladding and the two side sheets done this weekend. Aswell as cutting the first one up for the front of the right hand side too. Used a circular saw (wood saw) to cut the 3mm Alupanel to size and a jigsaw for all the other stuff. Worked out spot on.

The sheets are held on with Sicaflex. Just a couple of rivets in the top to stop the sheets sliding down while the sicaflex sets. We got the roof done yesterday and today when you push on the panel, the frame flexes. It's some really tough gear.







Alupanel is a type of "sandwich board". Basically you have two thin sheets of aluminium either side with urethane in between. It's very light and extremely strong. One side is matt (more of a satin really) painted and the other is gloss. It's not that cheap, but it's really good stuff!

[Preen59]

We got a bit more done this weekend (the tricky stuff..)






I also made a new new bracket for the new starter motor we got (a proper one that the big boys use.. $1800 worth for JUST the starter, and that's "trade" price!). The bracket that we got is magnesium and not exactly cheap either, so instead of buggering a good bracket, i made another one out of 6061 aluminium plate..



That's it with the "key holes" in it, finished, bolted up and given a quick polish.

[Treza360]

Updates please...
Cheers,
Trent

[Preen59]

Updates please...
Cheers,
Trent

Here we go then... Haha.


Aug 08, 2009


I worked today (and again tomorrow.. ), but this arvo i got one front side panel fitted. We peeled the wrong side off by accident, so it's now unprotected

You'll also notice that the front of the roof down to the 'front apron' i guess you'd call it is now attached. We basically did that in 3 stages...

First the roof..



Then the angle..



Then the front..



We did it that way so that we could glue a section down and let it set before moving to the next section. This is because we basically rolled the panel around the radius, which put stress on it causing the centre to sort of balloon up. By doing one section at a time we could keep it flat and allow the panel to adhere to the cross bracing and that way when we moved on to the next section, it would remain flat in the centre.

Dad was also lining the driveline up this arvo to dowel the engine to the engine plate, so i took a shot "just cause"..

[Preen59]

Aug 15, 2009

We got the panels back from the signwriter on thursday.. He's done a top job on them. Hand painted and brushed outlines. Just like they used to do it back in the day! It really looks the goods.







Apparently the real meaning of "Banshee" is:

In Irish and Scottish mythology, the banshee is a "fairy woman" whose mournful wail heralds an imminent death.

The "Shoes" are:

John Maher- John built the car in 1968, at 19 years old. He ran it as A/D with an injected 331 HEMI on Nitro.



Morrie Carlton- Morrie purchased the car less the engine in 1969, put a 354 in it with a blower and ran mainly A/FD (Supercharged, injected, methanol.. basically) extremely competitively and occasionally ran AA/FD (Top Fuel- Supercharged, injected, methanol/nitro mix up to about 85-90% back then) to help with numbers. Although he usually ran the car pretty soft in AA/FD he still went mid 7's at 190mph..





We have restored the car pretty much to the way that Morrie ran it.


Jim Kerr- Jim purchased the car from Morrie in about 1973 and ran it in BB/D (I think) with some success, although i think by that time newer technology had krept in and the car was no longer truly competitive..

[Preen59]

Aug 16, 2009


We've started on the trimming.. It all has to be done in the right sequence so that everything matches up and lines up. All the mitre joints we have to mark out by hand, cut with a hacksaw and file back, so it takes a bit to ensure you don't screw anything up.




Nov 19, 2009

Ok i haven't updated this for a while but here's what we've been up to...

We made new side doors out of 20x20 as the others were not going to work out.. Then had them powdercoated.

Here we are attaching them and working out the gas strut mounting positions. We worked it out with ungassed struts, which enabled us to compress them etc without too much hassle.





One door skinned.





I had to hand make all the corner pieces. I used 25x3 flat, hand formed it (used an empty argon bottle, actually..) and cut it to length. Then glued it on and marked out the side piece. I cut the side pieces with a jig saw and then filed them to size.

[Preen59]

Progress shot..



New rear door (20x20).



Dad couldn't help himself..



Rear door powdercoated. marking out the skin for it..



Side door handle.







Rear door fitted. Doing the Trim.





Round Guards.

[Preen59]

Side door trimmed.



One side complete, sort of.



Guard mounted.



Front door finished.



Front door catch.



Right side door done.



All the plastic off! (We've since cleaned up and painted the draw bar!)



Rear door done with lights, number plate etc etc.