OK, now that the cat's out of the bag it's time to bring you up to speed. I must give Charlie Burns credit for this because he was the one that gave me a taste of land speed racing. Last Aug. after our not to stellar performance at Bonneville I realized that I wouldn't have another chance at the "Brick"as Charlie had told me of his plans for a new LSR truck using parts from the '57 F-100. Land Speed Racing bug had clearly got it's hooks into me so what could I do, I had to build my own. Bigredtodd had hinted at an interest in getting involved so with a little coaxing (not much) I had a new partner to build with.



The new truck is going to be a '62 long bed Uni that will first run in E class then move up to some bigger engines and faster speeds and hopefully to the 200+ mark. After building a 478ci Caddy engine for Todd's '60 we decided that no money would change hands if he could just find me a good base for the project. This is what he found.







Of course this is what we would like it to look like when completed.







The truck went back to Todds place for some suspension mods so I will let him take it from here and tell you what he did.



Bla



bla

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

Tim,



Looks like an awesome plan. Also love the color scheme.



Do have one question though, why the long wheel base? Don't get me wrong, I love the looks but I'd imagine you are gaining a few hundred pounds and some additional drag.



Happy New Year!

My name is Greg and I am addicted to Y's.

High speed handling. A long wheel base is easier to keep straight.


Lawrenceville, GA

Amen to the long wheel base to help high speed stability.  The brick only has 110" wheelbase and it was a handful even at my slower speeds.  I also had a two hundred pound tractor weight bolted up under the bed which helped a great deal.

Charlie Burns Laton, Ca (South of Fresno)







BurnsRacing981@gmail.com

Tim and Todd, I've been following this project over on the other site and it's looking good. Some great ideas on lowering these trucks that could be applied to a street project. Keep us updated.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

I was hoping Todd would have posted by now, we've been working on this project since Oct. and Todd has done most of the work.  I didn't want to get ahead and have him back track in posts but I guess what I have been doing wont mess up the order of things.

Todd has already done the lowering and I went up to his place a couple of weeks ago to get the front and rear axles to rebuild them and then take them back for install, so I stripped everything and started cleaning parts.

With everything dissmantled it all went into the hot tank.

After cleaning I installed a new set of 4.11 gears in the rear, turned all the drums, installed new hard 3" studs all the way round and fit new king pins and bushings.

bla bla bla

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

New Years Eve day was sunny for a change so I had a chance to get out and paint the pieces for the front and rear axles.

New Years Day it rained again but I was able to do some assembly work in the garage.  I was looking forward to a visit from Frank Rice who had just spent the night at Charlies but I got a call from him saying that he missed my turn off and was almost to Bakersfield already. Oh well, next time.

bla bla, I'm still having trouble posting but I'm working through it. bla bla

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

Tim.  Thanks for the posts and keeping us up to date.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Okay, okay...clearly I'm behind the 8-ball here...

For those of you who are following elsewhere this will be a bit repetitive, but hey--it's a Y-block powered race truck, and you're kind of a weiner if you get tired of looking at Y-block powered anything on a Y-block site, right?

As Tim showed you above, we started with an amazingly solid, rust-free CA truck that had been holding down a tomato garden. Only rust through was the front edge of the hood. Tim had already sourced a replacement when we went to pock up the truck. I have to warn you, there are a TON of pictures, as I wanted to document everything if any questions came up, and since Tim wasn't here to watch me butcher his race truck

First was the lowering. The goal is a 6-7" drop in front, and a fairly aggressive rake.

Todd in Central California...about half way between Fresno and Sacramento

1956 Thunderbird - 1960 F-100 - 1961 Starliner - 1961 Imperial

Continued...

Anyone who has lowered a 1957-64 F-100, or a 1955-66 Chevy/GMC is probably familiar with this site. I will be moving the axle c/l forward 2 1/2". This will help with stability, weight distribution, etc. If it were no benefit, I'd still do it simply because it will look much better than this. The factory didn't do a very good job of locating the axle centerline, IMHO:


This is about where I finished off the weekend. There will be more to come as I have to finish welding the axle perch/mount, determine the final location and depth of the notches and install them, as well as move the steering box up approximately 6", and forward 2 1/2". This will cure any potential issues with bump steer, as the stock geometry will be maintained. If you've made it this far without posting a response already, that's probably what you were wondering about, right?

Here are a couple of shots of clearances as they stand right now. Keep in mind the weight of the front clip and a complete wet engine will drop the front another 1 1/4". I'll be fabricating new shock mounts (upper & lower to utilize shorty gas shocks) and installing notches and bump-stops:

May not look like it, but there's about 3" to the pan. This will increase when the axle moves forward, as the pan is sloped from front to rear:

Keep in mind the after will be dropping another 1 - 1 1/2" after the engine is complete, the front clip is reinstalled, and the shorter front tires are installed. But so far we have gone from this:

To this:
 

Here's a few close-up shots of the perches and boxing plates welded in...

Front:


Back:


That should do it:


Just going to round the sharp corners of the mounting plate, and call it good.

Todd in Central California...about half way between Fresno and Sacramento

1956 Thunderbird - 1960 F-100 - 1961 Starliner - 1961 Imperial