Not a whole lot of action on the car this week, mostly because I was tied up over the weekend going to a Scout camp with my son. Of course, it rained like hell all weekend, and my tent leaked
I did manage to get a little more work done on Sunday when we got back, and am looking forward to Memorial Day weekend as the big bodywork thrash; I have the whole 3 day weekend free, and hope to get the car essentially ready for paint by next Monday.
In the evenings this past week I did manage to get a little work done on the hood of the car. Thanks to a lot of good comments regarding last week's update, I think I got steered straight on the hood scoop. I really didn't like the bulge in the foam scoop that I had put together for the car last weekend, and from the comments that were posted on this board nobody else did either LOL! I felt that a scoop that went straight back would be much better, and BB posted a picture of RWJ's old 69 Shelby that had a scoop similar to what I was envisioning, and it looked pretty good, so I think that when I get around to doing the scoop I'll make it similar to that. In the meantime what I've decided to do is to do the hood without the scoop, and add the scoop as a bolt on later, not only to save time but also to keep my options open. However, I did want to put the center scoop that I'd previously cut out of the hood back into place, but modified so that it would be wider at the back, to match up with the width of whatever hood scoop I eventually ended up with.
The bulge in the original foam scoop template was designed to clear the angle mounted throttle bodies on my intake manifold. Last Monday I decided to try to eliminate that part of the intake, and found that with some repositioning of the throttle bodies I could mount them on a flat plate and have the linkages work. I wrote a quick CNC program to machine the plate I needed, and cut it out, then bolted the throttle bodies on to check it. Here's a photo:
So now the throttle levers will be at the bottom, and will operate together, rather that in opposite directions like I originally had them set up. The only thing I don't like about this setup is that it is actually a little higher than the original design, because the throttle position sensor is now mounted on the top, and will require additional height to clear. But the advantages of a straight in design far outweigh this drawback, from the hood scoop perspective anyway. So, I'll modify the intake to put this plate on the front, angled down just a bit, and then I'll be able to use a scoop that goes straight back rather than one with the bulge in it.
With this problem resolved, I got to work on Tuesday night modifying the original center hood scoop that I'd cut out of the hood a week ago. I wanted to broaden the back end of this scoop to make it match up to the 9" width of the throttle body assembly, and what the new hood scoop would be. After thinking about this a little, I dug out some balsa sticks, cut the original scoop apart, and then glued it together in a modified shape using the sticks to space the pieces out where I wanted. Then I used some fiberglass matt to fill in the gaps. Wednesday night after the glass work had dried the center scoop looked like this:
Thursday night I got the hood cut to fit this new center scoop, and got it put into position; photo below.
After glassing the scoop in place from underneath on Thursday night, I didn't get back out to the shop until Sunday afternoon, but I managed to get the bodywork on the center scoop roughed in by Sunday evening; here's a photo:
At this point I'm not going to do any further work on the hood except to finish the bodywork around the center scoop and trim up the hole that is already cut in the hood for the sheet metal intake. I'll paint the car like this, and worry about making a bolt on hood scoop later.
Since the middle of the week I've been pre-occupied with another problem that has come up anyway. Hot Rod announced the new Drag Week rules this week, and registration for the event opened up. The new rules, unfortunately, may have an impact on this project. Since the Modified class started in 2006, non-stock strut front suspensions have been legal in the class. However, this year, for some reason, Hot Rod has changed this rule, and non-stock strut front suspensions are now NOT legal in Modified. Naturally with my strut front suspension I'm rather concerned about this. If Hot Rod won't let me run this car in Modified, the only other class it will fit into is the Unlimited class, and with a bunch of six second cars in that class it makes no sense for me to run there. I go to Drag Week for the fun of it, but if I wasn't competitive it would take some of the fun out of the event.
Right now I'm looking for a clarification on what Hot Rod means by "non-stock strut front suspension". The front frame rails of my car are intact, and the Fatman kit bolts on to the front frame rails, and uses 1994-2003 Mustang spindles and 1979-1993 Mustang struts. I have relocated the top strut mounting point to the roll cage, which makes it look like a race car strut setup, but no race car strut front end that I know of uses stock Mustang spindles and struts, and bolts onto the stock frame rails. I sent an email to the editors at Hot Rod and posted this question on the Bangshift.com board, to see if my setup would sneak in under the rules. So far I haven't heard anything back. It seems rather ridiculous to me that this car would be classified as Unlimited, since it is not a complete tube frame car with a full race suspension and steering setup. But I suppose the line has to be drawn somewhere.
If this car is not legal for Modified, I am considering several different options on how to get to Drag Week this year. I'd appreciate all comments and feedback on these options:
1. Go with this car anyway, run in Unlimited and just have fun, with no hope of winning the class.
2. Put the 585" engine back in the Galaxie, and go back with that car. Based on the new rules the Galaxie still fits in Modified, and the engine will be up in power (I hope!) thanks to the sheet metal intake and some other modifications. I really don't want to do this; I was happy with my decision to tune down the Galaxie to a ten flat car with the smaller SOHC installed, and I like the idea of keeping the stacks on the Galaxie from the EFI converted Hilborn setup. I also don't want to go back to Drag Week for a third time with the same car. But, I could pull this off without any trouble between now and the beginning of September, and the Galaxie might run in the 9.20s with the improved 585" SOHC. I could also remove the bench seat and put in some red fiberglass buckets, plus some Lexan side windows, to save some weight.
3. Buy a 1979-1993 Mustang that is already set up as a race car and legal to 8.50, and just stuff the 585" SOHC and Powerglide combination into that. One potential hitch here would be the rear end, but I could have the rear end I needed within two weeks if necessary, assuming the one that came with the car wouldn't work. There are several cars like this available on Racing Junk, and all I'd have to do is build engine mounts, headers, and exhaust. The car would fit in Modified, and get me to the lower weight that I was driving towards with the 69 Shelby clone. What I don't like about this idea is that I don't really like the late model Mustangs all that much. If I did, I'd have gone that route to begin with, because it would have been so much easier.
4. A Pinto! Or more precisely, a 1980 Mercury Bobcat, which one of my friends has sitting in his storage space in mostly rust free shell condition. Already has a cage, and of course it comes with a Pinto front end, which makes it legal for Modified. The firewall is already gone, so I could set the engine back (for some reason, engine set back is legal in Modified, but non-stock front suspension isn't). The windshield is also gone, but I could just put together a Lexan windshield (again, legal in Modified), or I could just replace it with a stocker. The cage is not ideal, but my friend also has a new chrome moly cage kit from S&W for the car, and he is retired and willing to do the work to put it in. I'd run the car as a leaf spring car, and the biggest issue may be stretching the wheelwell openings, moving the leaf springs inboard and mini-tubbing the car. But I'm looking at this project as a hack job; it would get a one day flat black paint job, an old snorkel style pro/stock hood scoop, and some smart aleck lettering here and there. It would be fun to show up with a POS like that and run really fast at Drag Week. The downside to this project is that I'd probably be scrambling to get done in time, but my friend would help me out, so I think it would be do-able.
5. A street rod! Or, more precisely, my friend Joel's 1931 Plymouth coupe. Joel would be willing to offer it up as a joint Drag Week project that we would both be involved in. It already has a Chrysler hemi installed, but we would just pull that out and stuff in the cammer/glide. We would need a rear end, brakes all around, a cage, headers, and lots of other stuff, but again I think Joel would be willing to help out, and we'd basically bring it as a rat rod project. I think it would be light, and it would be pretty cool running Drag Week with the SOHC hanging out in the breeze. This would be the project with the most work, and to be honest I'm a little concerned with running low 9s with the front leaf springs and steering box in that car LOL! But it is a possibility...
Hopefully I'll hear back from the Hot Rod editors and they will just let me run the car I've been building in Modified. But if not, I've got some decisions to make. What do you guys think? Any other alternatives that you can think of?
