Paul is bringing this famous street/strip Fordson up to date with a blown big-block and new, race-style chassis by CIRC. The car will look externally very similar to the classic stance and paint we all know and love, but the modern underpinnings will keep things straight and safe at the projected performance levels. This first tranche of work involves building the new, 7.50-spec rolling chassis.
Up on the jig, and time for the first new tubes to be installed.
Pronounced kick-ups at the lower A-post tubes will give clearance for the big diameter exhaust system required for this power.
The rear of the new chassis well under way now, plus the axle case and four-link installed.
The rear dampers on this car mount ahead of the axle instead of the more conventional rear-mounted position. This gives another few inches of much-needed space behind the axle for a street-sized fuel tank and the twin 4" exhausts. Spring and damper rates need to be slightly higher using this mounting position.
Also visible in the centre photo is the bolt-in tube above the axle which will take the rear anti-roll bar.
The first batch of work completed. The car will be coming back for the tinwork and exhaust fabrication plus other jobs.
...And here it is back in the shop. The photo at left below shows the car as it arrived back to us, sporting it's new 8/71 blower...
...Whilst the centre photo above shows the master cylinder mount, tied into a new floor support tube.
On the right is the beginnings of the tinwork.
The floorpans on this car are steel in order to help reduce dings and dents brought about by the street miles this car hopes to see. The floors 'kick up' underneath the seat mounts to give space for the intended 4" exhaust system to wind its way through the chassis tubes and exit from beneath the floor on either side of the propshaft.
The beginnings of the rear-mounted radiator ducting. The air is drawn up from just behind the 4-link chassis mounts into the top chamber (shown on the left, without the removable top cover in place), then is sucked through the rad by the fan and exhausted out above the axle as shown on the right.
The front bulkhead now completed., including set-back centre section for the distributor, blower and nitrous hard-lines. A fibreglass stock-type dash will sit in the original position inside the car.
The exhaust headers and 4" system under way. The right-hand shot shows how the big exhaust tucks up into the raised outer sections of the chassis (as shown in the 2nd photo at the top of this page) and allows the use of a suitably large pipe without everything hanging out below the bottom of the door. A good example of early planning leading to a nice package.
The rear tinwork section not only ducts air to and encloses the rear radiator, but also will seal the fuel tank from the passenger compartment. The hinged flap in the centre of the rear panel gives access to the fuel filler. Also visible in the left-hand photo is the battery box behind the LH wheeltub.
The finished tinwork including removable trans tunnel. The shifter is mounted onto a bracket bolted to the transmission, and the removal of the one central bolt shown in the shifter mount allows the shifter to be taken away for tunnel removal.
These photos show how the 4" stainless exhaust system curls its way between the chassis under the seats, then angles up and over the axle. There are two small mufflers per side in this system.
The second batch of work is completed. Next up will be items like fuel tank, wheelie bars and parachute mountings, plus some other small tasks to get the car closer to completion.
A brief re-visit saw the stainless, foam-baffled fuel tank fabricated and mounted along with the throttle pedal and linkage. Also done was a rear wing and a parachute mount, as shown here.
Due to the Fordson rear doors, we were unable to support the pro-stock style wing with small struts in the conventional style, so came up with the neat fabricated support bracket shown on the right.
Another issue with the rear doors is making a parachute mount which does not unduly interfere with the door opening, whilst retaining good parachute positioning both technically and aesthetically. We developed this swing-away pack mount, where the removal of one pip pin allows the pack to drop away from the doors and allow easy opening for refuelling, etc. The main chute attachment line goes to the lower bolt of the bracket, which remains in place at all times.
