Thread: 41 Willys Gasser project

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Originally Posted by roadster32

I'm starting to think they are out to get me !!!

I know the feeling!! Are you quite sure that Sue's not slipping out to the shop and swapping stuff in the boxes, just to see your reaction??

In all seriousness, another problem solved in a unique way, and yet another push for me to look for a metal lathe!! Thanks for posting!!

Originally Posted by rspears

I know the feeling!! Are you quite sure that Sue's not slipping out to the shop and swapping stuff in the boxes, just to see your reaction??

In all seriousness, another problem solved in a unique way, and yet another push for me to look for a metal lathe!! Thanks for posting!!

You got me wondering now Roger

Yeah a lathe is invaluable

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Well ain't gonna make the Hotrod Drags so decided not to rush the build now, will just plod on and get it done.

Decided to sort a couple of modifications I had planned for the winter.

First I have decided to go with solid motor mounts but wanted it to still look ordinary so I machined up some copies of the rubber mounts in aluminium, I'm going to paint them satin black so they will still look like rubber.










Next modification was to the ladder bars, The installation of double adjusters will allow me to preload the suspension and plant both tyres equally on launch, Out of interest i played with the adjustment to see what it would do and found 1 complete turn on the adjuster moves 1" at the end of the bar.

I thought about doing this when I initially made them but decided against it, don't know why because it makes a lot of sense really and makes it all adjustable.

I had to shorten the bar to accomodate the double adjusters which meant making up a couple new thread bungs, These were made from 1" steel bar, the ends are turned down to fit inside the tube snugly and rosette welded on all 4 sides.

Normally the double adjusters would be in the lower leg of the ladder bar but i didn't want them to show, they will do the same job.
















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Sorry to see you miss the drags, but now the decision is made and the pressure is off so you concentrate on all these things at your own pace. Great work on both the mounts and the adjustable links. Bought from a specialty vendor would probably not be nearly as good!

Steve, is having a rigid mount engine on a dragster, anything like a rigid mount engine on a Harley? I imagine you will get a ton of vibration through the frame if it is?

Originally Posted by rspears

Sorry to see you miss the drags, but now the decision is made and the pressure is off so you concentrate on all these things at your own pace. Great work on both the mounts and the adjustable links. Bought from a specialty vendor would probably not be nearly as good!

Roger here in England we don't get a choice so we have to make stuff especially speciality parts, I would say 99% of hotrod parts have to come from the USA

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Originally Posted by stovens

Steve, is having a rigid mount engine on a dragster, anything like a rigid mount engine on a Harley? I imagine you will get a ton of vibration through the frame if it is?

Not quite the same thing Steve as the Harley is a V twin isn't it ???
I have run solid mounts before and not noticed any big difference really.

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Well what a brilliant sunny day we have had here today, real hotrod working weather

First job was to rebuild my Land Rover steering box, you can get any small part for these and for peanuts too, armed with £12 ($19) worth of gaskets, shims & bearings the rebuild commenced, 1 hour later it was done & mounted.








Next up was to sort out the pitman arm, I had sorted these bits previously but now there is no rush i decided to get them chromed, the track rod end goes in from the other side on the LR box and I needed it the other way around, the answer was to drill out the arm and weld in a bung I had turned up earlier, this puts the rose joint i'm using back in the same plane as the trackrod end but on the other side, Pics of stock arm and my modified arm, I also removed the big lumps off it ready for chroming.












Next job was to make the drag link arm up in stainless tube, 2 threaded bungs were turned up in 316L S/S and threaded. Then they were seam welded and rosette welded into the tube, finally it got a quick polish.









Next I needed a steering arm, I've used a Speedway hoop arm and modified it to suit, as I have 32 spindles and the arm is designed for 37-41 spindles the arms needed to be slightly closer together, I warmed them up and tweaked them to suit, The threaded ends were cut off and holes were carefully drilled in the centre of each leg and threaded to take 10mm Hi Tensile countersunk bolts. Also added 2 small pieces of tube to the legs to give them more stability, i.e. larger area.








Made an infill panel to weld in next time the steering arm is off for chroming, this is where I got a bit carried away and forgot to allow for the thickness of the caliper bracket so a small shortening modification was done to the offending leg

Put it right quickly though
While the pitman arm and steering arm are being chromed I will paint the calipers etc etc.

Very nice work, Steve!!!! Sure is good to see someone making their parts and modifying what others make rather then just opening the boxes and putting the 'bolt on' in place!!!!! Looks good on you!!!!! Well done!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Very nice work, Steve!!!! Sure is good to see someone making their parts and modifying what others make rather then just opening the boxes and putting the 'bolt on' in place!!!!! Looks good on you!!!!! Well done!

Cheers Dave, I make stuff for 3 main reasons, firstly I don't like paying exorbinate rates for stuff you can easily make. Secondly I can't afford them anyway, and thirdly and most important to me that I have parts unique to my build and get the gratification of having made them.

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Somebody asked for a pic of how my discs are mounted on my spindle mount wheels, so here it is. Sorry can't remember who asked for it now








Nuts holding the disc to the adaptor are metal locking nuts.





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Steve have any luck with the E brake levers ?? I am not sure but I think all 9 inch have the same diameter drum on them . I should have have checked , there under the shelf .


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Originally Posted by bluestang67

Steve have any luck with the E brake levers ?? I am not sure but I think all 9 inch have the same diameter drum on them . I should have have checked , there under the shelf .


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I found one of my mates had one Bobby but never found the other side so last night I ordered a new pair from Currie axles, I thought $50 was a lot of money for them but at least I have them on the way.
I was surprised how difficult they were to find, I thought with everyone changing to discs there would be lots of them available.
Apparently there are 2 sizes for 10" & 11" drums

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Yeah now thinking of it they may be 10 inch diameter coming from a car .

Decided to give the drags a miss as the weather was going to be good this weekend and I could get a lot done on the car

One thing thats been bugging me was the underside of the body, its just finished in fibreglass and originally I was just gonna paint it black and call it done but its just been bugging me that it would look better with a half decent finish on it

The body is fairly light and easily turned by 2 people so Gomez popped over and we flipped the body onto its roof on an old mattress to protect it

Out with the DA and some 60 grit discs and the highs were knocked off the fibreglass, Next a thin skim of filler was put on and this was buzzed down with 80 grit discs then 240 grit discs, Next i put on 3 coats of satin black Epoxy primer and allowed it to tack off for an hour while i thought about which topcoat I would use

I had a choice of gloss black or gloss white, thought about it and the black was out as I hadnt been that fussy about the quality of finish on the floor and the black would show any defect, Thought about the white and thought that would be a bitch to keep clean

Thats when I remembered I had some Gravitex satin black stonechip laying around , This would give me a decent finish and would look tidy and be fairly easily cleaned and is very durable

I put on 2 coats of the Gravitex as the first wasn't very textured, Not a bad days work but took from early in the morning to 9pm in the evening to finish but i'm happy how it turned out



Epoxied








Here finished in the stonechip, the camera flash has made it look grey but its actually black










thanks for looking.

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