61 Pontiac Drag Racer Project

Beaumont4008 · Uber Guru

RE: 61 Pontiac Drag Racer Project

vanherk1 · Member

A few years back there was a 50's Ford 3 ton or more at a scrapper that had the scoop. Guess what has 2 thumbs and grabbed it? This guy!

jim_ss409 · Guru

We test fit the body and engine onto the frame today.

By setting the engine back a little we found we could lower it about two inches. That should allow plenty of room for carb spacers and air cleaners.

The engine's pretty close to the firewall but everything clears just fine.

The steering rack also clears just fine.

We'll have to make our own headers but that should be pretty straight forward because they can go over the frame.

tin indian · Poncho Master!

lookin REAL good jim!

Elroy · Poncho Master!

This is going to be sweet and unique when finished !! Great work there !!

dualquadpete · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

That looks like a "roundy round" PLATE that we used to use to get the frame TRUE when building the chassis!!! WAY better than trying it on the floor!!!! NICE JOB keep it up.

gparis7 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

What a great job guys.

69ss · Addicted!

You guys don't mess around. Just excellent excellent work.your shop is every car guys dream. Most guys would love to have a shop like that.NICE WORK

jim_ss409 · Guru

69ss wrote:

You guys don't mess around. Just excellent excellent work.your shop is every car guys dream. Most guys would love to have a shop like that.NICE WORK

Thanks for all the positive feedback.
We're really lucky to have a nice shop like this. We do have to work on the big trucks most of the week but if all goes well we usually get a day or two to work on the car.
It's nice to work off a level steel surface. You can tack weld everything down to the table to keep it in position.

67SD396 · Poncho Master!

Nice progress pics! Really looking forward to seeing more. It's great to see all the work.

jim_ss409 · Guru

We've made a little more progress.
We went with a pretty big rad so we won't have any overheating problems. We made an aluminum mount for it and used roll bar tubing to tie it to the frame.

Much of the roll cage is done.

We got started on the rear frame rails. We're waiting for a new rear end and four link suspension so that we can finish the back end.

The fiberglass hood, fenders, inner fenders and bumpers came in. All the fiberglass put together weighs 63 lbs. The factory hood alone weighs 67 lbs so we should save a lot of weight.

We mocked up the front end but it's all held together with vise grips. The wheels are also just sitting in place.

57poncho · Uber Guru

Where did you get the glass hood and fenders. You guys will be racing by the time I get one floor pan in.

jim_ss409 · Guru

57poncho wrote:

Where did you get the glass hood and fenders. You guys will be racing by the time I get one floor pan in.

We hope to be racing by late May. We'll see how that goes, there's a lot of work to do.

We got the fiberglass parts from VFN. I'm just on my way out the door but I'll put a link to their site later tonight.

GLHS60 · Poncho Master!

long stroke wrote:

Darryl thank you for the proper info on the SUPERDUTY hood scoops. I knew it was Ford truck anyway. It is amazing to think that GM would ever allow such a thing. Can you imagine buying parts from the enemy and then putting your own part number on it and selling it as your own part. Amazing. I love all this great automotive trivia stuff. Cheers. George.

Lots of 60's GM cars used Ford transmissions when a heavy duty 3 speed manual was ordered.

Thanks
Randy

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

57poncho wrote:

Where did you get the glass hood and fenders. You guys will be racing by the time I get one floor pan in.

Vern, if you had Winston the bulldog helping out, you would be on the road by late May too!

Great job as always Jim!

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

GLHS60 wrote:

long stroke wrote:

Darryl thank you for the proper info on the SUPERDUTY hood scoops. I knew it was Ford truck anyway. It is amazing to think that GM would ever allow such a thing. Can you imagine buying parts from the enemy and then putting your own part number on it and selling it as your own part. Amazing. I love all this great automotive trivia stuff. Cheers. George.

Lots of 60's GM cars used Ford transmissions when a heavy duty 3 speed manual was ordered.
Thanks
Randy

To reciprocate, Ford put some Rochester carbs on their V8's!!!

gparis7 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

That car looks so good. Where will you be racing it?

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

This post, and your car, is of such a caliber I'm sure the entire web must be watching, no?

57poncho · Uber Guru

Pontiacanada wrote:

57poncho wrote:

Where did you get the glass hood and fenders. You guys will be racing by the time I get one floor pan in.

Vern, if you had Winston the bulldog helping out, you would be on the road by late May too!

Great job as always Jim!

I should probably know this but who is Winston the bulldog?

jim_ss409 · Guru

57poncho wrote:

Pontiacanada wrote:

57poncho wrote:

Where did you get the glass hood and fenders. You guys will be racing by the time I get one floor pan in.

Here's a link to the catalog from VFN, the place where we got the fiberglass parts.
http://www.vfnfiberglass.com/catalog.htm

Vern, if you had Winston the bulldog helping out, you would be on the road by late May too!

Great job as always Jim!

I should probably know this but who is Winston the bulldog?

Winston belongs to my race partner. He's getting old so he only gets to come to the shop about one day a week now but I always try to get him into the picture if he's there. Here's a picture I took today of him "helping"

That car looks so good. Where will you be racing it?

We mainly race with the Ontario Nostalgia Drag Racers (ONDR)
It's a really good group. http://www.fastpast.ca/ONDR/Welcome.html

The group has been going for about 5 or 6 years now and it gets bigger every year. I think there's over 300 members now.
All the cars are 1973 or older. Some are flat out race cars but many are mild street / strip cars. They have classes to fit most everybody.
There's not a lot of prize money involved so the racing is fairly laid back. Most of the guys are there to have a good time and if they happen to get a win, that's just a bonus.
Most of the races are at Grand Bend Ont. or Toronto Motorsports, formerly known as Cayuga.
Here's a link to a page with photos of some of the cars.
http://www.fastpast.ca/ONDR/Pics/Pages/ONDR_1.html

2drpost · Uber Guru

i see on the deck lid who the real owner is jim wink

-- Edited by 69 belair on Sunday 6th of February 2011 09:47:21 AM

jim_ss409 · Guru

69 belair wrote:

i see on the deck lid who the real owner is jim

-- Edited by 69 belair on Sunday 6th of February 2011 09:47:21 AM

I just get a red X on the attachment but I'm pretty sure I know what the picture looked like.

We mocked up the rest of the front end and built an aluminum air dam. We can make the air dam pretty much disappear by painting it flat black but if we like the way it looks when the car's painted we might leave it the aluminum color.

We also built a set of headers. They're just tacked together for now, we'll probably weld the up tomorrow.

I normally hate building headers but these actually went together pretty easily. There was a lot of room for the tubes and the car was at a nice height to work on.

tin indian · Poncho Master!

spectacular jim!

dualquadpete · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Wow, thats really coming along nicely!!! Sugest you use bolts to hold front clip on as the visegrips & clamps "might" come loose under full throttle pass!!!!!!

gparis7 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

What fantastic work! Love this car.