The Mad Hatter 1950 mud racer

[GBM]

I built a truck to race last year and stepped away as the driver. My 16 y/o daughter wanted to race. She did really well piloting our 1990 454ss mud racer.

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so after about 14 1st place finishes and 10-14 2nd place finished, she ended her season on top; the "girl" to beat in the mens and womens classes.

This year she needed a faster truck and with rule changes a different truck was in order.

Last year she ran a 5.07 sec through 200' of mud, 3-4 feet deep.

This years truck, she chose one of my 47-53 model trucks I have sitting behind my shop. This one I bought online with only the pictures shown. I literally drug it out of the woods after cutting the tree out of the bed.

I used a 78 cehvy frame and shortened it down to 122" wheelbase. then we stripped the old cab from its original frame and set it on this 78 frame.



my daughter does a lot of the work on the truck, she feels that it brings her closer to the truck and allows them to communicate better while she races.

[GBM]

One of the ideas behind this truck was weight savings. the rules state that it must all remain chevy if using a chevy body. last years truck was 600hp and 700ft lb torque. she runs the 454 to 7k rpm and shifts. she absolutely loves the BBC.

After setting the body over on the frame, it became apparent that we needed to trim the fenders. Luckily the body she chose had fenders with damage to the lowers all around. this all got cut out and saved some body work for later.





we chose to stay with a dana 60 front even though it was much heavier than a dana 44. we run a 38.5 inch bogger and anything smaller and you risk breakage. last season she only shattered 2 ujoints and broke 1 starter.

[GBM]

I wasnt happy with the set up of the last truck with all the wiring under the dash. Part of the rules state that it has to have full interior. since I love these old trucks, I decided to ditch the glove box and ash tray and put all the switches and guages and ignition box in their place.





when I build the cage, the steering and the seats will mount to the cage along with the shifter. I want to make this one much easier for her to drive.

[GBM]

She and I didnt have a very good relationship until after she started racing. She quit getting into trouble and chaser loser boys. She quit trying to be like everyone else. Now kids want to be like her. She is popular now because she beats most all of the guys in her classes.

It isnt just the truck that wins it for her either. The last truck was hard to handle once you shifted and sayed in the throttle. It was noce heavy and worked your arms.

That didnt keep her from taking home tons of trophies. People respect her because she doesnt talk trash and talks with all the racers. She asks them questions and even though she beats them, they offer her good advice and she listens. Not bad for a 17 y/o girl. I am a proud Dad for sure. In fact, my 10 and 11 y/o boys got into racing in the youth classes because of her.

It makes me feel really good that my kids have something that the whole familt gets into and supports. I think that it what is what it is all about.

[GBM]

When planning the body swap, I knew I wanted the body low to the frame. The grill had to be modified. Luckily I have a dozen or so grills laying around and cut the lower slat off the grill. This made a slammed look on the body but poses a problem with radiator clearance.

[GBM]

Last years truck had the fuel cell in the bed near the cab and the battery in the cab. While reviewing her races, the old truck had a nose down rake and with the suspension tune, I had too much force pushing the rear end down and not enough weight transfer at launch to keep the front tires out of the mud.

This new truck is lower and I decided on a tilt bed for ease of cleaning. We narrowed the bed 10" and plan to put the fuel cell and battery to the very back of the bed.





we run a 10 gal fuel cell because on average we burn closr to 2 gallons of 117 octane race fuel in a 200' pit. with the new truck, the added weaight behind the axle will help keep the front tires up on top of the mud.

this year we are running a 38.5 x 11 x 16 bogger to cut through the mud. these should work well at a few tracks we frequent. We will keep the wide boggers for bog style tracks and use them for the floatation aspect.

with the bed narrowed I am hoping to allow the mud to bypass the body and not stick. last year we would accrue about 300 pounds of mud on the truck and that slows her down.

[mr48chev]

Cool, It's great when your kids take a real interest in working on stuff and it has to be a great feeling for her that she is working on the truck she will race.

[Russell Ashley]

That is very cool. I love to see father/son and/or daughter projects. Not too many kids get off track when they have a close relationship with their parents.

Sounds like she has a natural talent and feel for racing if she already knows that working on her own race truck brings them closer and allows them to communicate better.

Keep posting pics of the progress.

[NEWFISHER]

Awesome!!!

[Coach529]

Very cool!!

[GBM]

I had planned on this truck going satin black with red and silver pinstripes and silver stickers for the truck name and our engine sponsor. I just lost the arguement.

My daught says the truck has to stay green, period. She states that is her color and she wont drive a black truck. We finally just came to an agreement. dark green satin, silver grill and bumper, silver firewall and dash, and silver lettering.

I just added another (per rules item) a drivers side mirror.



ups just came by and dropped off the gas pedal, throttle linkage, header kit, battery cables, fuel lines, fuel pump, regultor ,fuel filter transbrake, stall t/c radiators, fans and more. now to go get some more steel and use the plasma table to make a fuel cell mount and other mounts. i need to get some .075 aluminum and cut it out for the inside of the bed.

I wanted to chop the top 3 in the front and 2 in the rear, but that may have to wait till next winter. I have till the 6th of april to finish it before the first race of the season.

[mr48chev]

[QUOTE=GBM;5929076]I had planned on this truck going satin black with red and silver pinstripes and silver stickers for the truck name and our engine sponsor. I just lost the arguement.

Cool, satin black is way over rated and overdone to the point a satin black vehicle of any sort fades into the background to be unseen in the sea of satin/flat black vehicles. It's kind of like having a white Ford Taurus in an airport parking lot when you have a flat black truck at a truck event. They are everywhere.

Your daughter sounds a lot like my 33 year old daughter in that she is an independent thinker and a leader and not a follower.

That would have been a good truck to use a big truck nose on with the raised fenders, more sloped hood and having it be slightly longer than the small truck nose. I'm waiting to see the photos of her making her first pass with it now.

[GBM]

spent Wednesday working on the truck. A friend came down from over an hour away to help me catch up on the project. we mounted the fuel cell (still need to make tank straps) welded tabs to hold the bedsides, mocked up most of the cage, seat height, and built the steering. We also used an 87 chevy master cylinder and booster for this truck.

[GBM]

For the cage, I used 1.75" .120 walled tubing. I build a ton of rock buggies out of this and it will handle up to a 5000# vehicle with no problems. I decided not to run the "A" pillar tubes through the dash for several reasons.

1. I didnt want another bend in the "A" pillar tube.
2. the tubing comes down to the cab mount and in case of a roll it will exert forces directly to the cab mount (tied to frame as well) and push that force straight down. if I went through the dash the forces would be infront of the cab mount/ cage tie-in.
3. there is actually a ton of room in this old truck and the "A" pillar tubing gives you a grab handle to get in.
4. the way it comes down, the "B" pillar tube mounts the same in the rear and the tie tube, which the seats will mount to, come down and connect the "A" pillar tube.

I have used this style many times and had some viscious roll overs. I like how the cage reacts in this configuration. The last truck had 1.5" .120 wall tubing and I always had a worry about it holding up to a hard crash.

Since the roof has a nice contour to it, I used that to raise the cage and gain more strength up top. this also gives some much needed headroom space. I have a few mor tie-bars to make to gain the triangulation I want, but this cage is giving me the warm fuzzy and the security I want for my daughter. We plan to race some Hill-n-the-hole races and the chances of her getting airborne are high.



then RL Carriers showed up with some new shoes. 38.5 x 11 x 16 boggers. We will run skinnys up front and the wides on the rear and then skinnys all around when the classes call for it. These actually came with a "no questions asked" road hazard warranty. I made sure the salesman knew they were only going to be used for mud racing and he said they would still be covered "no questions asked" www.tirepackage.com is where I got them and cheaper than most places could get them for cost.

[Midgets50]

i almost want this truck for a daily driver. maybe take a different motor so i could afford to drive it but im drooling over how it looks especially the front clip

[GBM]

thank you for the compliments. this truck will be "street" legal. we have a friday night each month where the strip close to the dam has a cruise in. all the local hotrods come down and park in the middle of the road and everyone walks around.

I have a set of "tame" tires that I will throw on it and take it there. The looks of the truck are important to me. Almost more so than the performance. Since I robbed a fender off of my street rod build, I figure she can give up the truck a friday night for the cruise in. I will have to do some burn outs just to show off a bit.

I have plans for another 4x4 build out of a 53 5 window I have. Now that I have the cab mounts in my CAD program, it doesnt take long to put these bodies on different frames.

My daughter took the last truck to a local car show and took 1st place in the 4x4 division. I think it helped that I did a 200ft burnout and showed up a couple drag cars. She intends to take this one to some shows this year as well.

[GBM]

Finished up my shop logo for the door of the truck. I need to get the truck ready to paint soon. tons of work left.



list of things left to do:
plumb fuel
plumb cooling
radiator/fender support
build fenderwells
build fenderwell headers
plumb brakes
build cage
mount seats
build steering
build traction links for rear
body work
cut laminated grey glass for doors and back glass
cut laminated glass for windshields and etch the ansi stamp on them
order new windsheild and back glass gaskets.
wiring

short list, but tons of work to finish by the 6th of april.

[Do Work 93YJ]

This is gonna be a awesome mud slinger.
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[_Ogre]

a daughter that likes trucks, helping in the shop and can do a 200 ft burn out?
you must be in hog heaven

interesting build too!

[Bishops Trucks]

It's good to see your daughter interested in racing. I have a 16 yr old son that loves old cars and trucks. We are building a father/son project. Very nice work on her new ride, she should add to the awards with that one.

[ChevyBrad]

That's awesome! And 117 Octane? That has to be expensive. I think 122 Octane is about $10 at the track in NY. Ha

[Old Crow]

I saw in another build thread here that someone recommended spraying Pledge on a new set of wheels to help them stay clean, or make them easier to clean. Wonder if that'd work on the bedsides?
I can just see the other guys in the pits when your daughter's out there spraying Pledge on the side of the truck before a run. Ought to make for some interesting conversations.

[mr48chev]

That "no questions asked" might be considered sponsorhip when it's all said an done GMB. Quietly supporting your effort.

[mr48chev]

I've never quite understood that concept as to me the dings show up just as much in primer or satin or don't show the dents used car lot white.

But the satin look is in and her chosen dark satin green will look pretty good on the truck and look fantastic when the mud's flying and she is grabbing second. I wonder if they can mix Forrester green in a satin?

[GBM]

i have been trying to find some forrest green satin. There is a local orschelns and I was told that they might have some satin green tractor paint. if all else fails I will just get some forrest green paint and satin clear.