Under a shady tree Down Under

[retroboy]

Howdy
Many many years ago I ran a little 160" C/D here in South Australia. It was a small block Ford with a 904 Clutchflight. It's fair to say I was one of the many who make up the numbers but didn't get that far - not for lack of enthusiasm.
Here's the old car -




Life family house jobs all got in the way so I sat it out for somewhere over 25 years until I started going to some 1/8 mile races to help a guy who was just starting out. Last year I stumbled across an old 185" wheelbase FED and with my wife's encouragement decided it's time for a second go.
Here I am helping Kymbo out. If you know 5% more than the other guy that makes you a Guru !


We dragged the remains I'd purchased home and found the the  back of the chassis while it looked a but rough and tatty was of legal size tubing but front was under dimensional and bent like a banana and it had a broken and welded front axle. The roll cage looked like it would have fitted some one from Wrestle Mania. Undeterred we just cut the front of the chassis and the roll cage off. So what I kept was the back 5', a 9" with aftermarket axles, a full spool will 4.30 gears and a pair of Convo Pro's with some worn out slicks.


Around we went to a mates who has a tig and a lathe. Two week-ends later and I managed to find a second hand set of front wheels with new tyres hanging in a guys shed and we rolled out into the sunshine with a new front half and a smaller but still giant cage.
At the end of that dream sequence :-






To be Continued ...

[GlennLever]

Great

[retroboy]

Going well so far – about a month after my wife said “why don’t you build another Dragster I’ve got a rolling car.  I’ve had Fords all my life but I have an open mind about engine choice because  to be honest I’m looking for Quick Cheap and Easy. Turns out I failed in that QCE quest. I knew where my old 904 Clutch-flight was so I managed to grab that and one thing lead to another and over the next few months I had two rebuilder 360 Chryslers in the shed, a Vertex, Racer Brown camshaft, two short 904 transmissions, and a whole bunch of sundries like old cable drive tacho’s, a couple of pairs of five hole mag wheels,  fuel tank etc.




Because I was now committed to Chrysler I needed some sort of induction and I’d been looking for one of two set’s of stack injection hand made by a local racer Jeff During  in the early 1970’s for his twin Mopar powered front engine car “Gemini”. 40 years since he sold them I did manage to trace one set down to about ten years ago but then the trail went stone cold so I purchased a new old stock single venturi set up not unlike a Rons except they were locally made about 25 years ago.

South Australian Jeff Durings Gemini twin engine small block Chrysler powered car from the early 1970's. Can you see why I was looking for his hand crafted fuel injection set up?

[rooman]

Is that a Magnum wheel that I can see in the photo montage?

Roo

[retroboy]

Yes indeed a pair of 15x10 Magnums a personal favorite and the offset is pretty well neutral so they worked out perfectly. They're getting a bit harder to find now days. A bit of a story while I'm in the mood. Sampson Engineering had a foundry where the wheels were cast at Henley Beach about a mile from home. When I was about 15 I was mighty impressed with Magnum mags I think it might have been partially due to the girls in Bikinis posing with  seductive looks in their advertising and I wasn't overly impressed with high school so I figured I'll quit and go and work in the foundry. Pure Genius.  Wiser heads prevailed as thankfully my Mum and Dad weren't going to have a bar of that idea. 

[retroboy]

I didn’t do my transmission at home.  I called out to a mate who did it at his. If you’re starting the think that I’m a bit resistant to professional help?  I’m not but good people are hard to find . Where I have them in my personal network I’m happy to pass the work on but otherwise I’ll have a crack at most things.
 Given I haven’t been near anything the least  bit racing orientated for 25 years I decided I didn’t need to re-invent the wheel I just followed the path to where Mopar went all those years ago -  Turbo Action Torque Converter.

[retroboy]

Now time for the engine.  After serving an apprenticeship as a mechanic in the early 1970’s and a life time around cars this is truly my comfort zone. I’ve had Fords all my life so this Chrysler small block was something different for me. Have to say overall they look like a decent thing. Block has plenty of beef, the rods look really good, and I like the shaft mounted rockers.
I just hand honed the bores fitted a set of pop top pistons fitted a set of decent rod bolts, a set of rings and chucked her back together. Added an old 1970’s profile Racer Brown ST21 solid camshaft, converted a set of hydraulic lifters to solids and that takes care of the bottom end. Undecided on which way to go with the heads I just fitted a new set of guides and bigger valves and cut the seats and faced them. Figured they were what they were from the factory so I might save up for a set of aftermarket heads later and use the money I didn’t spend now somewhere else.

[retroboy]

So now I have a roller, a trans and an engine. time to tackle an easy bit the body. It's aluminium so it'll be a snap right. Armed with a couple of round objects (a piece of pipe, an Oxy bottle and a short length of stainless tube) I commenced to make up my cowl. Spoke with Roo-man for a few tips 'coz he build a Corvette Funny car body out of aluminum with minimal tools years back when he still lived here and  presto- nearly got there. but then twisted the whole thing so ended up throwing a wobbly and chucked the whole lot out.

 

 Enter Chad Ackland. A few weeks later all's well in the world.