New Guy getting ready to build...

[shawnspeed]

Been lurking for a while...reading ALOT...Rooman's and other's post are a wealth of info....but , after looking at the torsion adjustment thread below, I have to ask...where did they originally get the bars from??? I know VW bug's had a torsion front end , as well as some early mopars, but I would think both those would be wayy to stiff...are these home /scratch made by the chassis shops that built the frame, out of say 4140 or something similar??I am wanting to build my rail from scratch...everything possible...I have already secured a steering box, and have a pile of 4130, a SBC & Glide, 9" rear, that I am going to shorten & re spline the axles....trying to do this as old school all in the shop as possible..also I have the tools & experience required to fabricate the car ..Have been building motorcycle dirt track & RR chassis for years, and have also done quite a bit of fab on roundy round cars, and door slammers....have a pretty well appointed shop as well...just looking for some back ground as to where they started with the development of the cars parts wise, as I know most stuff was re-purposed to start with....Thanks in advance Shawn

[wideopen231]

 Commend you on doing all you can in house.If read a few of my post you will see Im same way. IMO the guy who does it all is the truest form of racer,not offend those who can afford to buy stuff.

 On the cutting your axles IMO thats bad idea. I would recommend spending few bucks here for good set of aftermarket axles. Then its not my car or my work that can be slammed into wall because of axle breaking,the guy in other lane would appriciate it also. Not knocking the effort just the safety issue. Once you cut .020 or .030 past surface you have broken thru the hardened surface.

  Good luck and hope you have lots of moly you might be surprised how much it takes,I was.

[AF150]

I believe after- market axles are required on any thing that's quicker than 10.0 sec. and so is
chassis cert. Get the SFI specs before you begin so you can build a safe car that you can run
anywhere.

Laminated VW bars were used by Fuller and others back in the day.

[rooman]

As noted above most of the chassis builders started out using VW laminated bar segments in a 3/4" square format with friction damping via a tri plate that held the torsion arm in place and also supplied travel stops. Woody, Don Long and Kent Fuller all used this style.  Dragmaster were a notable exception as they used splined circle track style bars, one for each side of the front axle on their early cars.
  Roy Fjasted was one of the early builders to make a custom front crossmember that incorporated a hex style torsion bar with threaded ends to provide arm retention. Roy's SPE (Speed Products Engineering) also made the first billet steering boxes as prior to that the cast P & S box was pretty much the standard.
 Mark Williams still makes his torsion bar/crossmember package in two styles--dragster and funny car/altered.

Roo
 

[shawnspeed]

Thanks for the quick reply's...and I was thinking the VW bar was most likely the solution....And I hear you on the aftermarket axles...but I am starting out with a really tame 327..and small 4 barrel.....when I step it up it WILL get good aftermarket axles...  The SFI  specs are also in the house....I will be running this at a local outlaw track ...so no SFI certs are needed, but will more than likely get the chassis certified .....never know when I might want to travel more than 4 miles to the track...round trip....Thanks Again, Shawn

[Larry Gocha]

Shawn glad your building a car we used to run the red front motor car at Lapeer in the late 90s. I'm in Flushing if theres anything I can help you with give me a shout.

[shawnspeed]

Larry, you still have your car???Last time I was out there was when I had the shop open & we were selling VP out there...early to mid '90's....there was a guy I talked to several times that owned a rod shop over in flushing /burton  way...was that you???I almost bought a Loggee from the guys that ran the performance center in lapeer before they closed ....hindsight is 20/20....Shawn

[Larry Gocha]

Shawn the car belonged to Fred Green he owns Vintage Rodder in Burton. I drove the car and built the engine trans and Differentrial he stills has the car but don't race it anymore he don't do much at the shop anymore. I haven't talked to him in years. The car was 188"WB 408 injected Alky.