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Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

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  • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

    The sagging of the mono tub with that big lump of Ford iron installed wasn't really a big deal to fix, after removing the engine and removing some of the mods we had done to make room for it. We also removed the fuel cell to have a better look down inside the structure. The front bulkhead was very substantial, the rear of the engine bolted up to it as well as the transaxle and front suspension. (remember now, this is a front wheel drive car, so the engine is installed backwards, making the flywheel end now the front , and the water pump end the rear.) The distance from this front bulkhead of the car to the bulkhead at the rear of the engine bay was quite long, as it also was used to mount the steering box, and brake and clutch petals, etc. All we had to do was add some steel tubing, and some steel plates between these bulkheads and then rivet the aluminum monocoque back together. As a precautional measure we also double skinned that section on the outside with some .062 aluminum. It was plenty strong now, and we hd not really added much weight, although a bit more weight was not of any consequence considering what we were going to be doing with the car at Bonneville. Mickey revealed to us that they were laying out a 10 mile oval course on the salt, and he would be going around and around , starting from a dead stop, then a 1 kilometer and a 1 mile timing trap would be set up, and then of course a 10 mile clock. The plan was to set a standing start 1 Km record, then a 1 mile record, a 10 mile record and then run 50 laps for a 500 mile record and whatever other records he could dream up in between. I seem to recall that Mick had said that these records were held by Ab Jenkins in a Mormon Meteor back in the late 30's. He had got Gulf Oil to sponsor this to promote a gasoline that they called "Gulf Good". We also had to use Gulf motor oil. Due to these requirements w had to run a 4 barrel carburator on the 427 Ford. Gulf's colors were blue and orange, so I had to get the car painted these colors. They sent paint chips of their colors, and we tried to match them. The car was mainly blue with orange trim. Jim Ward and I towed the "Gulf Good" car to Wendover, Utah. The salt flats were about 8 miles east of Wendover. We got organised, and Mickey flew in, and the Gulf people had arrived, and we all gathered at Bonneville. They had not seen the car yet, and when we unveiled it they were pleased, and were eager to see Mick make a practice run. Everything was going according to plan we thought. One of these "Bozo's" came up to me and said that it was the wrong color. He told me that I had painted it "Sunoco" blue instead of "Gulf" blue! I'm thinking, "how am I going to handle this?" I switched my brain into "Mickey mode", and convinced him that the color was correct, the extreme "white" of the salt and the intense sunlight at that altitude in the clear air made it look like that. He got a real confused look on his face, and agreed that was probably the case. "Mickey had taught me well!" Mick fired it up, and made a couple of laps at about 200 MPH, and the "Gulf" boys were impressed. We made a short day of it, and hauled it back to Wendover where we had made a deal with the local Texaco station to use one of his bays to work on the car. Ward and I wanted to check things over so that we could make a few hot laps the following day. Naturally the "Gulf" people were not pleased that we were working out of a "Texaco" station. but it was the only station in town. Wendover is split in half, the east side of town was in Utah, no booxe, etc there, but the west end of town was in Nevada, cassino's, booze, girls, and all. Mick took them all over there and wined and dined them, and filled them with all sorts of tall tales. They got all inspired, and decided that they would have a film crew brought in and they would do a commercial. Mick made a few laps the next day, and decided that we needed a taller/higher gear. This was not something I had counted on, but I had brought the box of gears anyway. When at Indy we did a gear chance, and it took us 36 hours to do it. The steering shaft, engine,and transaxle had to be removed to do a gear change. The FWD had inboard brakes, so they had to be removed, and the drive axles had to be unbolted from the transaxle. This was a major deal! We had been out on the salt all day long, and it was 123 degrees F part of the day. I told Ward to go on into town and get some rest, and I would spend the night on the salt unhooking things for a while. We had a good light set up with a big generator, lots of tool boxes, and a Cherry picker in case we would need an engine change. So, there I was, out on the salt ,all alone, and it felt like I was on the moon or something. It cooled off quickly after dark, so at least I didn't have to deal with the heat. I started taking things apart, then something told me that there had to be an easier way to do this. I went up to the nose of the car, and started looking at how the structure that held the oil tank, radiator, etc was made, and it dawned on me, just saw the nose section off! Easy to do a gear change then! I unhooked the oil hoses and capped them off, and drained the radiator and undid the hoses, and proceeded to saw the whole front end off. Getting late, will stop there, and continue this saga in my next post.
    Larry

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    • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

      I gotta say Larry, You got me hooked. I can't wait til the next installment. Great story. Your memory is so vivid and sharp. Thanks for sharing.

      Bill

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      • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

        This all needs to be in a book!
        Cheers

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        • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

          Most excellent reading!

          Comment


          • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

            I had this post nearly done, and my computer freaked out, and shut itself down, and I lost it. I will start over after doing a few checks on my computer. Larry

            Comment


            • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

              The structure from the front bulkhead was a semi- monocoque section that held the oil tank and radiator, and as I was sawing things apart I could see that re-attatching the front end was going to be pretty easy. I put a dolly on castering wheels under the nose, and after a little more sawing, it fell free. I rolled it out of the way, and proceeded to remove the rear cover on the gear box, and changed the gears, which only took a few minutes. Then I made four pieces to weld to the stubs that I had left when I cut through the semi- monocoque structure. This was going to be real simple, I welded these pieces of tubing that had a 1/4 inch ID and a 3/16 wall thickness to these steel stubs that I had left sticking out from the bulkhead. I made a little alignment jig so that these tubes were aligned vertically, and then made some plates that I had drilled a 1/4 inch hole through, and welded them to the tubing left on the semi mono structure so that I could just bolt the front end back on by putting a 1/4 bolt through them. Simple, and plenty strong! Them it dawned on me that if I only bolted one side, and put "quick pins" in the other side it would real easy from now on to change gears. Just unhook the radiator hoses and oil lines and then pull the "quick pins", and swing the whole assembly over out of the way. I had inadvertently created a hinge away nose section. I was very pleased with myself, I must say. I put it all back together, hooked up the oil lines, and radiator hoses, and went over to the truck and put my feet up, and took a nap, waiting for Ward to show up shortly after dawn. Jim showed up about 7:30 wth some breakfast or me, and looked at the car, and asked me why I didn't have it taken apart, assuming that I must have just slept all night,and now we would have to do all that work in the heat of the day. I smiled at him, and said that it was done, the gears had been changed. He looked over by the car and saw some gears laying there on a piece of cardboard , and went over to take a look at them and saw that they were in fact the set that needed replaced. He said "How did you do that?" I just said, "Go over and look at the front of the car." I thought ol' Jim was going to faint. He could see that I had in fact sawed the front end off, and re-attatched it. His only comment was, "You have been around Mickey Thompson too long, only Mick would do something like that to a perfectly good race car."
              Larry

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              • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                To continue after the sawing off incident, Ward knew that Mickey would not show up for quite awhile, and he had "an itch that he could not scratch", he had wanted to get a chance to drive the car, and Mick had said "no". We had put the nose cone on,but the rest of the body, hood, cowling, windshield and canopy were stashed under the trailer out of the sun. Jim climbed in, no helmet, goggles, and all that good stuff and we got it fired up, and away he went. Said that he just wanted to get some heat in the motor. It was a long way from the front straightaway to the backstretch, and you could barely see the car there, but the noise from the engine was easily heard, I guess maybe that was due to the sound echoing off the mountains or something. I could tell that he was turning some pretty high revs, that Ford was really churning away. He came off the turn and was coming towards me, and when he came by he was really flying. He made another lap, and pulled in. His face looked like he had been sandblasted, red, and almost bleeding, and his eyes were all puffed up. He had a big smile on his face, but there was no doubt that he was hurting pretty bad. Those big front tires stirred uo a lot of salt, and he was catching it full blast in the face. I asked him how many RPM's was he turning, he said, "only about 6500". According to my calculater, with the higher gear, that was about 210 MPH. Just imagine getting blasted with salt on your bare face at that speed! We had to come up with a story as to why his face looked so bad when Mickey showed up, and it was decided that Jim had gotten a bad sunburn the previous day. I had serious doubt that Mick would buy that story, but nothing was ever said. Ward was hurting, but this ol' drag racer was strutting round with his chest puffed up for the rest of the day. "He had done his thing, drove the FWD monster!" We had a lot of salt to clean off the engine, and in the cockpit, and get the rest of the body on before Mickey showed up with the "Gulf" guys. We got it handled, and as far as I know Mickey never found out about this episode.

                I've got to take a short break, and then I will attack the arrival of Mickey and the "Gulf" contingent. Larry

                Comment


                • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                  Larry,

                  You continue to amaze me... 18 pages of posts and responses, 27,192 views of same...

                  PLEASE keep it coming!

                  Most of us mostly only knew of the BMB crowd as "those car guys".... Your background information is PRICELESS fodder for us during this LONG "off season" while we wait for the new year (September 1, of course...)



                  Leme know if you need more help with the photos!

                  Wayne
                  Wayne Sagar
                  "Pusher of Electrons"

                  Comment


                  • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                    Larry,

                    You continue to amaze me... 18 pages of posts and responses, 27,192 views of same...

                    PLEASE keep it coming!

                    Most of us mostly only knew of the BMB crowd as "those car guys".... Your background information is PRICELESS fodder for us during this LONG "off season" while we wait for the new year (September 1, of course...)



                    Leme know if you need more help with the photos!

                    Wayne
                    Wayne Sagar
                    "Pusher of Electrons"

                    Comment


                    • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                      Wayne, Thanks for your response, that's a lot of views, I guess. I am enjoying posting this stuff,hope I am not boring viewers. I have the photo thing resolved, I think. I want to get through this Bonneville/ Gulf story, then I plan to post several photos along with an explanation of what they are. I know there are some who have interest in the turbine car, and others. I have gotten private posts to that effect. I just had another glitch in my computer after my last post, and just now got it going again. I have the "Vista" system, and it keeps sending me updates that screw everything up. I tried to post the follow- up with the Mickey and Gulf contingent, and it wouldn't respond when I clicked on "post reply". I will try to continue, and if it doesn't work right away, I will continue the story tomorrow as it is getting late. Had a busy day, got the F1 racer, Dancing Queen unloaded in the hangar today, and are going to start getting her ready for Reno 08. Larry

                      Comment


                      • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                        Larry,
                        I've paid good money for books that weren't nearly as entertaining as this thread has been. I really think you could sell this. You've got a nice easy style, and a great vantage point on some fascinating history. I hope you'll consider the idea.

                        Paul

                        Comment


                        • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                          Originally posted by bluffman
                          Wayne, Thanks for your response, that's a lot of views, I guess. I am enjoying posting this stuff,hope I am not boring viewers. I have the photo thing resolved, I think. I want to get through this Bonneville/ Gulf story, then I plan to post several photos along with an explanation of what they are. I know there are some who have interest in the turbine car, and others. I have gotten private posts to that effect. I just had another glitch in my computer after my last post, and just now got it going again. I have the "Vista" system, and it keeps sending me updates that screw everything up. I tried to post the follow- up with the Mickey and Gulf contingent, and it wouldn't respond when I clicked on "post reply". I will try to continue, and if it doesn't work right away, I will continue the story tomorrow as it is getting late. Had a busy day, got the F1 racer, Dancing Queen unloaded in the hangar today, and are going to start getting her ready for Reno 08. Larry
                          Larry, I feel your (vista) pain!

                          Have yet to use it but have been involved with the purchase of two computers lately (one mine, the other Beer Nazi's) we totally restricted our choices to those with WINDOZE XP PRO ... no Vista!!

                          Anyway...

                          Anything we can do to help continue the sharing of the history.. we're there!

                          Wayne
                          Wayne Sagar
                          "Pusher of Electrons"

                          Comment


                          • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                            Originally posted by Apteryx
                            Larry,
                            I've paid good money for books that weren't nearly as entertaining as this thread has been. I really think you could sell this. You've got a nice easy style, and a great vantage point on some fascinating history. I hope you'll consider the idea.

                            Paul
                            Paul,

                            It's one of those publishing realities that it's harder than hell to get the good stuff published in print (ink&paper) that we've been blessed with the fact that electrons are *somewhat* cheaper than ink and paper and much more, that Larry has decided to share here is just... well...

                            Friggin mind blowing!

                            Wayne Sagar
                            "Pusher of Electrons"

                            Comment


                            • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                              Mickey and the "Gulf contingent arrived shortly after noon, and Mick was surprised that we had completed the gear change. Ward could not contain himself, and said to Mick, "Yeah, go look at what Burton did to your car." It was hard to see my handycraft with the nose cone on, so Jim pulled it off so Mick could see what I had done. Mick looked at one side, and then the other, and climbed upon top of the oil tank and started jumping up and down, I reckon to see if it was going to fall off or something. He climbed off, and turned to me and smiled and gave me a wink of the eye, and walked off to speak to the group from "Gulf'. Jim and I had not been paying attention to what all was going on around us, we were concentrating on getting the car ready for Mickey to make a run. Suddenly, Jim said, "Who in hell are all these people?" I looked over in the direction Jim was referring to, and there were people carrying cameras, lights, microphones, and all kinds of other junk. I had mentioned in post 166 that "Gulf" had said something about a commercial. Overnight, probably with Mick's blessing it was decided that doing a commercial had become "Top Priority"! Oh boy, that's not what Jim and I had in mind. We had been out on the salt for several days in the 123 egree heat, and we just wanted to get the "record runs" done and go home. These people had scripts, and other crap, and one guy was strutting around with a clipboard giving his crew orders, he must have been the director or something that he thought was important. They had brought blue shirts emblazoned with big lettering that said "Gulf" and little emblems and such. These were Jim and I's costumes for the filming. They did a few walk throughs, and one shot was that Jim and I would be filmed pouring "Gulf oil" into the tank. Unfortunately they had not brought any cans of oil. Panic set in, and some snappy young lady walked up and said, "I have these" and pulled some "Gulf" oil can labels out of an envelope. Mickey told them he would take care of it, and jumped in a car and drove into Wendover to the "Texaco" station and bought 6 or 8 cans of oil, and we put the "Gulf" labels on them. So, when they did the "take", it was Jim and I pouring "Texaco" oil into the tank. Then we had to do another shot that would show Mickey pulling in for a pit stop, and Ward was supposed to pull a dip stick out of the engine, examine it and say, "The oil is fine Mickey." Man, how "hokey" can it get? I haven't a clue if they ever used any of this footage, but I hope not! Well, that's about as far as I can go tonight, hopefully we can get through the "record runs", next post. Larry

                              Comment


                              • Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

                                Bluffman, i totally agree with everyone here that this is an amazing story, i have been following it since the very beginning and hang out for each new post.

                                Wayne, i totally agree on the Lack of non vista options, so i did the best thing, i went a bought a mac, i am so over vista, i have to deal nearly everyday with customers who come into the camera store where i work with complaints that their 12 month old digicam wont work on their new computer, yet my good old 3 1/2 yr old Canon Digital Rebel works fine on my mac...... Oh yeah thats the other good thing, no viruses
                                race fan, photographer with more cameras than a camera store

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