New project!

af2 · Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 11:26 pm Post subject:

Clay,
If you have it cert-ed and there is rust inside the tubing ,,,,, They will find it quickly.. Looking at the rust I see I am glad I live salt free..

clay · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:07 pm Post subject:

Got some progress pics. Everything is cleaned and primed or painted.

Pretty much a clean slate for frame/cage.

We were going to do the same thing with the front end that I did to my car - make solid bushings for the factory control arms. However after I had them all cleaned and painted we couldn't get one of the lowers back in with the solid bushings. They came out fine with the old rubber bushings but comparing them closer we could tell it had been hit at one time so my buddy went ahead and replaced all control arms with tubular.

Starting on the cage. My buddy has done all of this so far because I tried to ride and get competitive on dirtbikes again and I'm sitting here on the couch after knee surgery to replace my left ACL but that's another story. He decided to go all tubing instead of using the rectangle tubing for a main frame. What he has so far looks really good to me. Everything is just sitting there and some of it is tacked in right now.

He shortened the subframe beacause it wasn't really doing anything and it allowed him to tuck everything up to help ground clearance.

That's about it for now. I'll be back on my feet in another week and a half and hopefully I can start helping him a lot more. Luckily I've got enough car projects to do I'll stay off the dirtbikes for a while and when I get back on I'm only going to go fast on dirt roads and pull it back in the woods. Guess I'm getting older and slower😄. Clay

10sec.et · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 11:03 pm Post subject:

looks really good!! only criticism is the rear leaf springs. at this point, i would do a 4-link with coilovers in a heartbeat.

clay · Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:22 pm Post subject:

We debated going back with the ladder bar setup and four link before we settled on the leaf spring setup. The final goal is to sell it and hopefully make a little money. We thought if he could run down a title making it street able would open up a lot of potential buyers so that eliminated ladder bars. He had a 65 Mustang with ladder bars that saw a good bit of street driving and it can be a pain at times. 4 link solves that but we really don't know anything about tuning those. Calvert racing has come a long way with leaf springs plus we've got a decent handle on making them work so we decided to go that route. Clay

10sec.et · Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:43 pm Post subject:

cool. im exactly opposite. i cant get leaf springs to work to save my life.

Paul P · Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:41 pm Post subject:

Looks good. At least you did scrap that original pipe/frame. That was junk. Leaf springs? Hey whatever works. There are a lot of options and leaf springs are still used with the Calverts. What size tires are on that? They look like at least 28" x 15"?

clay · Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 6:57 pm Post subject:

We're going with Calvert everything - springs, Caltracs, shocks front and rear. Also going to build the rear to accept their wheelie bar if necessary. That's one thing I fought over the years on my car - not realizing how everything in the package works together. I thought I had shocks that should have worked, thought I had springs that should work, etc. but when I got a little guidance as to how it should and what I needed work life got a lot better. I believe the tires are 33 x 10.5W's and the wheels are 14" wide. They're what was on the car and we're using them for mock up right now. Probably stay with that height because of the gear. I'm not 100% sure but I believe it has 4.88's which will definately be for 1/8th only even with a 33" tire. Clay

af2 · Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2014 4:43 pm Post subject:

clay · Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2014 5:55 pm Post subject:

Both engines we have planned will be in the 7000 rpm range at the shift. I'm putting the Procharger back on my 374 and it will go about 7500 which is max rpm on the impeller with the pulleys I have. When we swap to his 540 and nitrous around 7000 would be about it. He might push it to 7500 but that'll be up to him. Using Smokes calculator mine makes around the 1000 mark and his with nitrous won't be far behind either so mph will be up there if we run the 1/4. I don't know how much tire growth will occur to help the gear situation. We're a ways away from that problem right now. Clay

10sec.et · Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:53 am Post subject:

what?! you getting rid of the turbos?

af2 · Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 6:52 pm Post subject:

Clay!!! As always you do some nice work!!!

clay · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:24 pm Post subject:

Added some more pipe. I'm back to walking so I can finally help some. On the rear we still have to add some smaller tubing between the upper and lower runs to effectively build a truss.

Starting to get the main hoop tied in.

We put this bend in the dash bar to miss the factory gauge cluster. Thought about a tach in one and maybe the shift light in the other.

I think he did a great job of the A pillar bars. He tried to put them far enough out to miss the dash pad but couldn't pull it off without running into the windshield.

Front bars mostly finished aside from one more small brace.

Paul P · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:27 pm Post subject:

Nice. These are all custom bent pipes?

clay · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 7:53 pm Post subject:

Yep. So far there's probably 120 - 130 feet in it. We're about to get to smaller tubing with some braces. About all we've got left in the larger tube is rear shock upper mount, a cross brace or two and the door bars. Clay

10sec.et · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:30 pm Post subject:

thats pretty cool. wanna come do all that to an Olds?