Sport's race car build

sport. · December 31, 2004, 10:03:08 AM

Bob Paulin wrote:
Yeah, but much of the technology that applied to the old four-coil-spring Chevelles in some of the earlier Steve Smith books STILL applies to the four-coil Metric car.

B.P.

Bob ,It's funny you should mention Chevelles,I seen something very interesting last week,My buddy, knows the TC point champion from Flamboro,Anyways I went over to my buddies house to pick my cleco pins,and He was just on his way to go see the other guy(point champ)...I asked him if I could tag along just to get a good look at the car.....We get there and the car is up on jack stands with the hood off....I get snooping around under the hood looking at the control arms...something just dont look right...The contol arms are long and flat like a Camaro,we get talking,,, It seems the sneaky bugger shortened a 75 Chevelle frame and dumped a 5*Star 87 Monte Carlo SS body on it,,I never could figure out why the track width always looked to wider than the rest of the cars out there,,,He is building a new car due to the point car being severly bent in the rear....You'll never guess wht he's building.........................76 Nova Full tube chassis, the thing looks like a latemodle(LOL) The guy does beautifull work .The body is a piece of art in it's self ...76 Nova body with a 1992 Lumina rear bumper cover and a 75 Pontiac Ventura nose,,,The tail pan fits beautiful...Just a nice car. The last thing he said to me is "How fast you go, all depends on how big your wallet is! "(LOL)

sport. · May 27, 2005, 04:00:12 PM

Well guys and gals ,I have a bit of an update for those interested, not too much because of the injury I sustained last year to my leg.I have had to under go 4 surguries to my leg and its still not correct.But anyways here's an update on the stock car scenario.I have the chassis fully prepped(still in the jig) with the X in the frame the lower control arms are all tied together,The rear frame is fabbed from just over the rear wheels,The 22 gal fuel cell is mounted,The main part of the cage is done the motor is all in and mounted(solid)The rear control arms are all prepped (Thanks to Bob's little trick),The rear axle is mounted with a new set of gears and spool,I have managed to find a set of aluminum break drums for the rear off a Buick GN,I am still trying to decide what body to run 87 Monte Carlo SS or a 64 Chevy II,I am starting to plum the breaks etc and some wiring,But I still cant get around to well yet tho,But I am going to the track tomorrow to hot lap a freinds car and see how my leg does.....

unklian · May 27, 2005, 05:56:19 PM

I was just thinking of your car yesterday.
Glad to hear you are making progress.

enjenjo · May 27, 2005, 07:36:58 PM

Thanka for the update, I hope your leg gets better soon.

GPster · May 27, 2005, 07:57:13 PM

Hey! If you guys stumble over a spare Saginaw 605 steering box while rumaging through those metric chassis let me know. Everyone around here was running them and breaking them til the well ran dry and they had to upgrade to the 800 box. The king has had the "Court Joshster" checking out the mother lode and none has appeared. I checked out my favorite spot again today and all I found was ticks. GPster

sport. · May 29, 2005, 09:00:25 AM

Hey Bob I have question for ya? When you build your rear hoops do you run a X down from the top of the cage to the frame or just 2 straight bars?I have seen both and I have used both.

I hot lapped the car last night and run one heat,boy am I paying for it today,I finished second in the heat....well really third the second place car jumped the restart so they docked him a position.It was a metric car.I had a REALLY hard time getting in and out of the car ,So I figured it was just best to stay out of it,incase I had to get out real quick.

GPster · May 29, 2005, 12:31:34 PM

Keep it up. You're starting to act like Jesse James. Next you'll have Sandra Bulluck. GPster

Bob Paulin · May 29, 2005, 05:02:52 PM

Quote from: "sport."Hey Bob I have question for ya? When you build your rear hoops do you run a X down from the top of the cage to the frame or just 2 straight bars?I have seen both and I have used both..

I once read that the "X" offered little structural enhancement, so I built some models with the "X" and an "N"

Fact is that the "X" will twist around the center of the "X" itself. It really isn't a compound of triangles as it might appear to be at quick glance. It is, simply, two triangles attached to each other at their points - not much strength there!

Two tubes from the corners of the main hoop along the side of the "X" effectively makes it a triangular structure containing four triangles, but it is an excessive use of material - contributing to unwanted weight.

The "N" (when viewed from the rear) seems, in my opinion, to offer better structural bracing. That IS two triangles braced against each other along their hypotenuse.

Two tubes straight back from the top corners of the main roll cage hoop to the spring bucket area, then a diagonal tube from the top of the left side of the roll bar to the right spring bucket.

Then you can build an actual hoop off the chassis kickup, tied into the downtubes, to surround the fuel cell and protect the rear portion of the car.

If you don't have much to do - which I believe is your case - try building a couple of different designs out of 1/8" or 3/32" gas welding rod, and twist them around yourself. The difference will be readily evident.

I keep such models of chassis with and without an "X" member in the chassis just to show my customers the differences.

Quote from: "sport."I hot lapped the car last night and run one heat,boy am I paying for it today,I finished second in the heat....well really third the second place car jumped the restart so they docked him a position.It was a metric car.I had a REALLY hard time getting in and out of the car ,So I figured it was just best to stay out of it,incase I had to get out real quick.

Besides the factor of exiting the car quickly if necessary, you are also taking a chance on a severe sideways shot messing up your leg even more - wrapping it around the rollbar upright or shifter, whichever side the defective leg it is......

.....not worth it, in my opinion......

....but, then again, there are a lot of things I did when I was younger that I simply do not consider worth the risk these days.........

B.P.

sport. · May 29, 2005, 06:39:23 PM

I kinda figured the "N" was better ,I know what you mean about the "X" twisting I have been looking at this alot lately.

I know I shouldn't have been in a car last night but,I wanted to see how far along my right leg was,Not very far thats for sure.When Rick asked me If I wanted to run a heat race, I couldnt resist.The car I was in is really really quick.And is set up really well.It was just a little loose through the center and a just a tad loose on exit, I was probably over driving it.Sure was fun.But I am not gonna do that again for a while

Their is a ton of camaros and novas this year.The top 2 were camaro's then a Nova then the metrics in the feature.I am not worried tho.It's only the second night

Bob have you ever played around with modifieds with stright axles? I got something going on the back burner right now.But wont happen for a while.It's called a Candaian Vintiage modified.They have a website if you care to check it out www.vintagemods.com I have had one of these things for quite some time and never done anything with it.I want to run the Thunder car for a while first tho....