Taters and Track Racer

Broke training the other night - not like I've been doing much of it anyway. I fried up a big, fat pork chop Tuesday night with some taters, green pepper and onion. I split the pork chop with the Missus, so the amount of meat was held to a minimum. I had some of the taters left over, so yesterday morning I fixed myself an omelet with the leftovers along with a bit of Mozzarella and a side of toast for brunch. Damn tasty, even if I do say so myself. However, I've got to get back on the program or this quarantine is going to have me ballooning up like a puffer fish. I did skip lunch due to the late breakfast and I put a couple of miles in on the bicycle prior to supper. So actually it was a pretty decent day, eating wise.

I worked on the nose for the track racer again yesterday. In the photo above I've got the outer piece clamped in position with the layout for the braces and the front stiffener clamped in place. After the photo I tacked the stiffener on and drilled the holes in it for the stay bolts. I then fit up the inner piece of the frame and tacked everything together.

Looks pretty good so far. I'll get all the inner pieces welded up and then I can make the top and bottom. I'll drill some holes in the top and bottom pieces where the inner pieces are so I can plug weld them to the top and bottom pieces. I'll also fishplate the inner and outer seams where the nose joins the frame rails for additional strength. It's supposed to be warm again today, so I'll probably get the frame up on the horses and get it squared up so I can tack/clamp the nose to the frame rails in the proper position. I'll be able to locate the front end when I get that done.

I'm going to split the wishbone on the old Ford front end to make them radius rods, but after I get that done I need to know the kingpin angle of inclination to get the brackets located on the frame rails properly. The brackets I purchased are designed to bolt on, so I need to get this all figured out before I weld the frame rails together so I can put them on the drill press to drill the holes for those brackets and to mount the steering box, etc. The material I ordered should be here in a couple of days. When that shows up I can finish the cowl/cab unit. I'll have to wait until I get a trans before I can locate that and that will have to wait until I'm out of quarantine. I'll go as far as I can on this one and then jump back on a couple of the motorcycle projects. No shortage of things to work on.