Build - 9 second drag truck #racegreen

I finally made a little progress on the chassis today. 12A (overhead/windshield/dash/A Pillar) was kinda a pain, I'm super rusty with multi plane bends, but once I got it tweaked just right 12B was cake. The rest of the tubes (11, 13, and 15) were pretty simple, with minor adjustments for slight converging angles, and some notches tuned to fit mid radius. I also took a few minutes to mock up the seat, and as always, measuring for shoulder harness height and helmet position by yourself is kinda a pain in the butt! Funny Car Cage bars tomorrow then onto the back half.

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Woke up to a major black out this morning, resulting from a pretty decent earthquake, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Several houses burned down, at least one explosion caused by a broken natural gas line, and one of our main roads broke apart pretty severely. We got really lucky and suffered no serious damage, but d@mn, I am gonna miss that mirror.

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But I did get the main portion of the funny car cage built! Why couldn't I just make everything perpendicular instead of just slightly out of square. 2.4 degrees here, 1.7 degrees there... Should look nice when it's done, but it's not making my life any easier. lol.

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At least you're not building something elaborate with harbor freight equipment. Difficult route.
 
Pretty crazy seeing this happen just a couple miles from my house.
 

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AHall said:
At least you're not building something elaborate with harbor freight equipment. Difficult route.
Click to expand...

Yeah, well... I am actually, but it's just the air over hydraulic ram. lol. I got a steal of a deal on the bender, it's not as nice as the pro-tools model I used to work with, but the price was right.

I am blessed to be able to now afford some nice tools. My first "tube chassis" was a back half on a 76 chevy. I did that entire thing with a decent bender that 3 other buddies and I bought together, 4.5" grinder, cutting torch, and a buzz box I bought for 50 bucks. That back half turned into a completely new back half, then a front half, then another new front half before it was all said and done.

Now I have several different welders, a pro-tools tubing notcher, a chop saw, battery powered porta band (AWESOME), Bend Tech, and a lot more experience.

Tools and hands on education (formal and informal) are the best things I have ever invested in. That reminds me... I gotta order another tubing die!
 
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Holy cow, I think I'll just stick with our tornadoes & li'l baby earthquakes!:hehe:
Glad you all didn't get to much damage. Trucks lookin good!
 
No earthquakes of any significance this week and not a single exploding house, and no small children were swallowed up by the earth! Back to the build :)

I think I will leave out the passenger side door bars until everything else is welded out as much as possible. Per SFI 25.5c, and in anticipation of SFI 25.6, the main door bar (16A) is the same as the rest of the main cage, 1.75x.095 instead of the required 1.625x.083. The secondary door bar (16B) is constructed from 1.5x.065 instead of the required 1.25x.058.

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More pictures :)

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Looking good. Keeping 16b low in the front will make it a lot easier to get in and out.
 
I hear that! I am super tempted to cut that bar off a few inches from the the front A pillar bar (12A) and the main door bar (16A) so that I may splice in the secondary (16B) once I break through the 8.50 barrier. If I don't go that route, I will probably bend up something that will make the truck much easier to get in and out of if I have enough material left over once the rest of the truck is finished. The way it sits now is the strongest, but damn, not easy to crawl into for sure!
 
I kept mine very low and it's still a pain to get in and out. That one may take some leg stretching first.
 
So true. I can just see myself now... crawling in from the passenger side. :rockwoot:

I'll have to look at your thread again. You guys are terrible. LOL.

I just want it to be as safe as I can practically make it. I got death wobble at 133 mph in my old crew cab, I'm not easy to scare, but that sure did it. These trucks are so heavy, bent tubes are just crumple zone, so I'd love to not break my legs again should I ever "need" the cage to do its job. But a bent 16B with a gusset bar might be just what the doctor ordered. I'll figure that out when I get the door bolted on and the truck sitting at ride height.

Thanks for all the input!
 
Also remember if you did want a 25.6 cert someday, you will need the full floor bracing. 4, 6c, 8a, 9, 8b, and 39.
 
Have you heard any updates on 25.6 yet? I'm beginning to think its not going to happen.


#racegreen
 
Didn't get a lot done today, but I thought I would post a quick pic or two showing part of how I am attaching the back half to the chassis. Nothing special, just a little different than the standard plate cap I have always used in the past.

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#racegreen
 
Spent all day mocking things up, drawing, moving, re-drawing, and just staring at stuff and thinking. If I wasn't such a nerd I'd probably be a lot farther along right now. LOL. Having never built a drag chassis before I find myself spending more time in this process than I do actually fabricating it.

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Nothing to it. I have a good 3-4 hours at least into every joint.
 
I spent most of the day doing "nothing" again. Dropping plumb bobs, checking levels, laying out centerlines on the floor, and tweaking the axle position ever so slightly to make sure its sitting square with the chassis.

I've ran some initial calculations to make sure I'm putting the link brackets in the correct place. As pictured I can run less than 0% anti-squat based on a theoretical CG height of 21". A few more calcs tomorrow and I should have the link brackets located and ready to attach to the chassis.

http://www.wcsaracing.com/StringChassis.pdf
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Based on a guess of a 21" CoG height, I can raise the front mounting brackets as much as 4" from what I have pictured here and still be able to run as low as ~40% anti-squat without putting the instant center behind the rear axle. Has anyone ever wanted to run anything lower than 40%?
 
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