Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

One of the nice things about building this car has been the possibility to jump from one thing to another. After fighting with the steering mount assembly and now the shifter location , I decided to soothe some of my frustrations by doing something that is relatively easy and shows visible progress...

Most original track-T's had side nerf bars on them like modern sprint cars and midgets (track-T's were the forerunner of modern sprint cars). The purpose of side nerfs is to keep race cars from hooking or interlocking their rear wheels together when they are racing in close quarters. If you hit another car with a front wheel you might have your nose sent skyward momentarily and get a jolt when it comes back down, but the results are rarely disasterous. On the other hand, if you hook rear wheels, somebody usually goes end-over-end.

I fabricated the side nerfs from the same material as the front bumper, 3/4" O.D. tubing. First I cut two pieces 48" long and then bent them about 120 degrees on my trusty Harbor Freight tube bender. (Bending the small tubing is easy because it bends successfully without having to pack it with sand and cap the ends. ) After bending, some trimming of the lengths was necessary. The exact lengths and angles are unknown; I just did it by the "cut-and-try" method.

At the rear, I welded on a short piece of "sized" tubing so that it will slip inside a piece of 1" O.D. tubing. The two short pieces were drilled through with a 5/16" hole before welding. This is so a bolt can be installed through them. The 1" tubing is welded to the frame and becomes a receiver for the finished nerf bar. At the front I welded on another short piece of the 3/4" tubing so a bolt will fit through it. ( The pictures show this better than I can explain it.) The front of the finished nerf bar bolts through a 1/2" hole drilled in the radius rod bracket just under the body. There you have it. In just a few hours I have something that I can actually see the progress on.