Triple Nickel inspired '29 Ford Roadster drag car

Over on the Vintage Drag Models forum we have a Little Pages Challenge going based on the 5.5 x 8.0 inch pocket-sized pulp car magazines of the 50’s and early 60’s. The last ones were published in 1962 so that creates the cutoff date. Things are a little quiet over there so I thought I’d share my Challenge project over here where things are a bit livelier! . For a while I was having trouble coming up with an idea until the current issue of The Rodder’s Journal came in the mail. There it was staring at me. I’d had a hankering to build a ’29 Ford roadster for a while but, for some reason didn’t associate it with drag racers. But the current issue of TRJ features the Murray & Waters Triple Nickel, one of the most iconic early drag cars to grace the quarter mile. Ultra light and very sophisticated for its time it was virtually unbeatable in its class. I’m no replica builder so I generally use an historic machine as inspiration for my own take on these cars. That will be the case here.

The thing that I’ve always liked about this car is that, as nicely finished and turned out as it is, it still shows its track roadster roots. It has a certain primitive funk that, as an example, Tony Nancy’s two 22 Jr. A roadsters lack. I think the key is that Murray & Waters chose to use a Model A frame instead of the ’32 rails that most people ran. At first it was because they were cheap and plentiful, but then they realized that properly set up they could make the car exceptionally light and yet rigid. One trademark of their A-bone frames right from the start is that they removed the stock front crossmember and ran a tubular member in front of the grill. This lengthened the wheelbase, effectively setting the motor back in even their earliest car, and saved weight and added rigidity at the same time. I’ll be doing the same thing on this car.

I’ll be borrowing other visual cues from the Triple Nickle, such as the roll hoop, the tonneau covers and the flat aluminum sheet wheel covers. Also, like the 555 car, my machine will have early small block Chevy power. And of course, I’m resisting the temptation to use a Deuce grill, which would destroy the entire point of the exercise. I haven’t totally settled on paint, but I think it will involve a cream two-tone with gold numbers. We’ll see…

To get started I tackled the signature bits to make sure I could do them. I’m trying to set up the tonneau cover up to be removable to show off the interior. The hood and grille shell will be a single removable piece and the grille shell will remain chromed. Below are pictures of the second and third Murray & Waters cars and a summary photo of the intial work. My car will sit more like the second version of their car since I’m not running a narrowed chassis and torsion bar rear suspension like the Triple Nickle had.

The second Murray & Waters roadster which became the first 555 car.



The Triple Nickel car as it stands today as featured in the current TRJ. This was the third car the team built.



The initial bits I made to make sure I could do it. Removable tonneau cover, tubular front crossmember, roll hoop and plain wheel discs. Donor kit is an AMT ’29 Ford Model A Roadster but most of it will be kit bashed or scratch built.



I made up the wheels and tires in their final form. Here's a composite picture showing the steps.

I started by finding some wheels in my stash that I knew would fit the tires I was going to use (Modelhaus T110B's at the front, and Firestone directional 7" pie crust sicks from Ma's Resin at the back). Since they would totally disappear behind the covers I could use anything of appropriate width and diameter. So I found some billet-ish mags from an AMT '36 Ford kit that I knew for sure I would never use otherwise and stripped them of their chrome.

The front wheels required more work because I had to make the little covers for the axle ends, so I'll describe the steps for those.
That's shown in the upper left picture.

First off I cut some circular covers of the same diameter as the donor wheels out of .010" styrene sheet.

At the front I started by drilling a hole through the center of the wheel. I used 1/8" styrene rod to make the axle end caps. I countersunk the hole I had drilled to fit the "cap" so that the proper amount of rod stuck out, then glued the rod in place. FGor the back side covers, I drilled a 1/4" hole to accept the post for the wheel mount.

For the rears all I did was cover them, and add some Monogram '40 Ford style brake backing plates.

Then I finished everything in Testors Metalizer Aluminum plate. The Rear and Front assemblies are shown in Metalizer on the lower right.



I've got the chassis largely completed including the front suicide mount and the inner tubular cage which is inspired by the 3rd version of the Triple Nickel. The basic frame, rear cross member and center 'member are from AMT '29 Ford Roadster kit. The front suspension is also from the AMT kit, pretty much stock with a cut down brake backing plate to model the axle bearing housing. The AMT kit offered up its rear spring but I'm still fooling with the quick change and rear axle. Once that's done it'll be up on its wheels! I also started in on the small block Chevy. It's from a Revell Parts Pac and will have Hilborn injectors. It's got a LaSalle gearbox courtesy of Early Years Resin.

Thanx for lookin',
B.

That's one very cool roadster in the making. 

Very timely - i'm just reading the TRJ article about this.
Is your Roll Hoop a touch on the thick side?

Look forward to this one, for sure.

zenrat wrote:Very timely - i'm just reading the TRJ article about this.
Is your Roll Hoop a touch on the thick side?

Thanx guys! Yes, the hoop's too thick. It was done with available materials to make sure I could do it. Ideally I'll do it in aluminum tubing, polished with Simichrome. Otherwise I'm off to the hobby shop for some smaller diameter styrene rod. In the meantime I've gotten some of the tin work done. I hope to have pics later this week.

Hi Bernard,
I've been meaning to comment on your inspirational builds for some time and this car finally nudged me to do just that. Love your work!

I am a big fan of Model A Roadster drag cars of this era, especially as I have a full sized full fendered Model A street rod in the garage. I have studied Tony Nancy's cars at length including photographing them at the Petersen Museum and I know what you mean, they are way slicker than the average grass roots racer of the day. I have already built his Buick, tube framed car and intend to do the blown flattie car later. For tonneau covers, I filled an AMT body with plaster of paris and then vacformed the whole unit. With a little trimming I had a tonneau cover that is virtually a snap fit on the plastic body.

If I could make a suggestion, a great way to make polished rollbars is to find some aluminium welding rods used for TIG welding. As the welder holds the rod in his hands, it gets too short to hold comfortably when it is between 4 and 6 inches long. If you can find a local fab shop that does TIG welding, chances are these little offcuts are all over the floor. They bend far more smoothly than tubing and they polish up a treat!

I will be very keen to see the finished product here - thanks for posting!

Cheers
Alan

Thanx Alan!

I grabbed some workbench snaps of the work I've done recently. This project is quite the challenge, I must say! Even more scratch building and imagineering than I had thought...

The original roll hoop was made from styrene tubing I had lying around just as a "proof of concept". It was clearly too fat. My plan has been to make it out of aluminum tube so I can polish it with Simichrome to give it a chrome finish like on the Triple Nickel. This is the final hoop made from 2 mm. tubing. I decided I would attempt to make it removable so I could display the chassis separate from the body. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull it off, but for the moment it's still removable. The tonneau cover will remain removable so much of the chassis will be visible regardless.

Once the roll hoop was in place it was obvious that it need reenforcing, so I added additional tubing to properly triangulate it. Also, showing in the pictures is the tonneau cover, which has been finessed and covered with textured masking tape in preparation for painting.

The next major step will most likely be getting the car up on its wheels. The bodywork has been trial fit to the chassis and I've begun cutting interior sheet metal, but I can't complete the interior without final fitting the motor and rear suspension. I hope to have pictures of a roller in a few days.

Thanx for lookin',
B.

getting there with it  

Very cool Bernard, looking forward to the rest

Will keep an eye on this one like what you have done so far

 

Excellent rendition Bern, can't wait to see this one on the shelf.   

I'm finally getting back to this. The chopped '36 Ford 3-window I built in the meantime kinda got in the way...

I layed down the basic paint. I'm currently working on the final inside tinwork and details of the drive train so I can get the car up on its wheels to take some properly proportioned pictures to design decals for it. The paint is Tamiya TS-31 Bright Orange and Duplicolor Wimbledon White. The radiator is in place only for mock-up purposes and will be replaced by either of two possible schemes: a) a plain panel finished in one of the body colors with some sort of graphics, or b) a transparent orange plexiglas panel. The bottom of the radiator shell has been removed to clear the front cross member. I plan to keep the shell chrome plated.

Thanx for lookin',
B.