The new OLD FTF gets a "Duesenberg DOHC 4-valve"

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PS: What I plan to do next is shape the metal body panels for the nose and tail and build a front-mounted dummy distributor to "power" the Duesenberg's eight spark plugs. That will determine the hood height needed.I envision a blister in the hood being needed to get the body lines to look right. Several local rodders expressed interest in helping with the body build. Stay tuned.
 
Hey, FTF,

I just stumbled upon another interesting web site. Seems there is a guy building vintage sprint car replicas in the Cincinnati area. Here is a link to his web site.

Shaw Hot Rods

It's neat looking stuff and there are lots of construction pictures in the gallery section.

:)
 
Asa":2ij88lke said:
THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER":2ij88lke said:

how do you plan on keeping the baffle in during driving?

Asa, the end of the baffle has a collar that will get drilled and tapped for two small machine screws - one on the bottom and one spaced 90 degrees away on the inside edge of the pipe so it will be inconspicuous.

Shmoozo, I have spoken with Mr Shaw. He and his father are real geniuses. I hope to visit his shop in the future.

6RE6
 
THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER":1gtt7enf said:
Shmoozo, I have spoken with Mr Shaw. He and his father are real geniuses. I hope to visit his shop in the future.

6RE6

I was noticing that it was within what I consider to be "driving distance" from where I gather you are, but it's a pretty good haul.

Hope it turns out to be a good trip.

:)
 
A couple of months ago a Shaw sprint car was on the cover of "Street Rodder" magazine. They do it all in their restoration shop regarding old sprints, midgets, and champ cars. And they have some neat old hot rods too. I'll work on them to consider a 300 powered rod.

6RE6
 
Hi FRENCHTOWN FLYER,

How is this project coming along?? Your kinda like me too many projects going on at the same time, so many people ask why I take so long to get my projects done I reply when you got a 100 projects going at one time there all going to be done allot slower than just working on one at a time.

Keep up the originality and the great craftsmanship!!!!!!
 
TCIC 300ci superbeast":16qbcnse said:
FTF what type of rocker does your cross flow head use....

I use Harlan Sharp custom shaft-mounted roller rockers. I mocked two up and visited their engineers in Cleveland with drawings. They were willing to work with me on small quantities I desired.

The original rocker arms were woefully inadequate for what I wanted to do.
 
Turbo F100":10t6ws7v said:
Hi FRENCHTOWN FLYER,

How is this project coming along?? Your kinda like me too many projects going on at the same time, so many people ask why I take so long to get my projects done I reply when you got a 100 projects going at one time there all going to be done allot slower than just working on one at a time.

Keep up the originality and the great craftsmanship!!!!!!

Its coming along great. I have a few decisions to make regarding finishing the chassis / axle mountings, but I think it will all work itself out. My biggest challenge is to make it look 70 years old but make it trouble free / low maintenance.

Regarding finishing car projects I have one basic rule: Do something on the project EVERY SINGLE DAY. Even if it is just making a drawing of a part or doing some research or phone calls, find something to do to cross off your list. (That is a subset rule of my basic rule: Make lists of things that need doing.) That way it will eventually get done.

Another of my rules for car building: Never put a 9-second motor in a 12-second chassis. Fastest recipe for disaster I know.
 
THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER":1j8uyafz said:
Another of my rules for car building: Never put a 9-second motor in a 12-second chassis. Fastest recipe for disaster I know.

Yeah, I can see where that would be true. It's the sort of truth that has a very nasty way of proving its point to anybody foolish enough to ignore it (or at least to those who happen to be watching when the inevitable disaster strikes).

On the other hand, putting a 15-second motor in a 9-second chassis might not be such a terrible idea from a safety perspective, but a proper 9-second chassis is probably not terribly well suited for the sort of application where one would be using a 15-second motor.

"Sorry about the door bars, grandma. Watch out that you don't bang your head on the roll cage tubes. Now, let me show you how to buckle yourself up in that aluminum racing seat using the 5-point racing harness and then we'll get you to the pharmacy to renew your osteoporosis prescription in a jiffy. Oh, by the way, the ride might be a little bumpier than you're used to, but ... "

:)
 
I did a little more work on the nosepiece. The fender sections from a '46 truck were so hard I could not work them, so I built a roaring brush fire and threw them in for a few hours. That annealed the steel so I can start to stretch and shrink them. Here is how far I got in an hour:
sr_053_2.jpg

sr_shell01.jpg

sr_shell02.jpg
 
THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER":1dqq8ci3 said:
I did a little more work on the nosepiece. The fender sections from a '46 truck were so hard I could not work them, so I built a roaring brush fire and threw them in for a few hours. That annealed the steel so I can start to stretch and shrink them. ...

Will that annealing process leave the metal in the nose soft and easily damaged or will other processes along the way (work hardening, for example) strengthen it again before the nose is finally installed on the car?
 
It is much softer than before. It will work harden somewhat with further shaping. The compound curve shape makes it very strong, like an eggshell is strong even though its material is inherently brittle. Being steel rather than aluminum I am not worried about its strength.
 
Recently I found this neat magnesium center section at a local scrap yard. It was erroneously tossed into a bin of scrap aluminium castings and I was able to buy it for scrap (aluminum) value. What I would like to do is marry it to my 9" roundback rear end housing to give me the strength of a niner and the look of a quickie. Can anybody identify the manufacturer? I would like to find a used / used up rear end cover for it but I don't know whose to look for. The single most distinguishing feature to me is the absence of a twelvth hole on the axle flange near the change gear case. If I have to I'll hog a rear end cover out of a billet of aluminum but the thought of a billet piece on this car makes me shudder.

Any ideas? Halibrand? Winters? Other?
sr_QC01.jpg


sr_QC02.jpg


sr_QC03.jpg
 
i believe speedway sells a weld on piece that looks just like that. you trim it to fit for the 9" to get that look. if i had to take a guess id say its a winters probably from a sprint.
 
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