Here is a net find and the details only say its a "removable" 73 front clip,

Okay, i see dzus along the fender in front of the door, i have used dzus before and these look like they are along the return on the bulkhead where normally the fender would be bonded on, but wouldnt you want a backing plate there for strenght?

How would you gauge where to place the holes in the fender?

So if this clip is removable what holds the nose on up front?

Curious, any of you track rats ever dzus on body panels like this if so please tell me more and pictures are always priceless to me,

Many thanks,
Cheers
Bats

 

It is much like how a Top Fuel dragster is made. The dzus retainers are made onto the frame. Then the tin work is made and the fasteners/washers are installed to hold the panels on. When it is done correctly..as you know...the Top Fuel dragster can go 300+ mph and the panels do not fly off...and that is also when it can go through some really bad tire shake.


AS for the front nose..that is not an issue also due to the locking hinge/rod system that can be employed like how a Nitro Funny car gets the body set down on the frame in teh rear and then it is lowered and pinned to the frame at only one point in the very front....but there is some front under structure metal work that also sets down on the chassis to support it.

I can see it being done and by working on both types of drag cars. I can see that it WOULD NOT be impossible...it would just take time.

DUB

 

Dzus fasteners have been around for a long time, they were used on aircraft during WWII. My friends Dad worked on bombers in Europe and used quarters to pop open compartments for service.

I haven't bought any in awhile, I don't know if they have changed at all. The original company in West Islip, NY has long since been closed, I believe a British company had bought them out decades ago.

 

I don't know but that car is cool lookin

 

thanks guys,

guess all the old track rats have abandoned the forum,

My dad rip was a navy plane tech, and used dzus on everything he could he just liked them,
I find old ones in his stuff still...

as I was thinking of my reply I realized I was originally asking for speculation,
but that can be fun and lead to ideas,

take a look at the front clip, this doesn't look like a purpose built funny car or any racer part to me but rather a stock clip right down to the seam in the front bumper cap, this car has headlights and a hood,

I would love a pic or some pictures of a c3 set up like this with the front clip removed, see how the mounting is...

 

Your welcome.

I did not take your two questions as anything but questions. We can speculate on this forever and come up with ideas ( for fun)...but unless a specific set-up is being looked and and trying to find a way to figure it out....it is all a waste of time due to not directing thoughts to a specific issue. Unless some others choose to throw ideas out that may never be able to 'stick' and work due it imaginary scenarios and dynamics...and completely change when applied to specific scenario.

I did look at the photo of the front clip...

Think of this photo you posted as JUST LIKE a photo of a Western movie set out in Hollywood. The saloon, hotel and blacksmith shop ll look like a building from the outside...but when you walk around the front and look at it front the back.... it is all a facade and there is nothing behind it but structure to hold up the wall so it can be filmed. This front clip...regardless if is is a stock one that has been modified or if it is an aftermarket one. All you can see is what you can see.

I have worked on a front clip for first generation Camaro race car that when installed it looked original and the clip was all carbon fiber and light and all get out....so...it is often times an illusion.

The photos I have of my days of drag racing would not be worthy to post due to they are not what you are looking for.

DUB

 

I used that stuff on my race bikes in the late 80's early 90's

 

Being an old aircraft sheet metal mechanic, when I first saw it, I thought it must be a flip front front end. So, maybe it has a simple hinge on the front that allows it to be removed, such as the Top Fuel Funny cars do at the rear of those bodies.


I was a crew chief on a 65 Nova with a 1 piece front end, and it had Dzus fasteners by the doors, like this one. And, it came off in one piece. It was 165 MPH drag car, and the front end never rattled, or wiggled.


I have a ton of Dzus fasteners on my sand cars, and they haul *** through the dunes and the desert at over 100MPH and never looses a panel.

 

At your leisure if you have them and can would you post pictures of the inner structure where the dzus mount with panel removed,

I am guessing this threads car very well might be hinged up front but it also reminds me of a florida c3 tubbed with a blower the car is like a drag car on the street,
The guy would pull into a cruise, and havevthat front clip off and laying beside the car in minutes,
I wish i had paid more attention to it back then

Im interested in this as while i have no problem doing the 69 flip clip on my car, i have most of it worked out, i was going to do the rear part of the clip like most where part of the fender stays on the car, but might try just dzus it like this threads car, mine will have a full functional hood so i wont open the full clip each time,

 

theres probably a tubuler framework under it,and 2 tube ends on the car frame,and 2 tube ends on the frame work to fit into them,2 guys would just undo the dzus fasteners and unplug the wiring plugs and slide-lift-off the nose

 

I am not live in the area of the country that being out in the sand ....BUT I can imagine that I would really like to be strapped in the seat on the red one and go super GONZO on the sand. Nothing wrong with the other one....but that red one is calling my name for some reaso. YEEEEHAW!!!

DUB

 

Well airvet those are sweet, very jealous,
I dont have any buggys at the moment, well this one, but its a bit smaller with hopped up weed whacker engine,
Runs about 50mph,
Rc is another bat hobby,


This one is in the process of a fury road styling idea....

 

The red one is gone, as you can see in that picture, it had a for sale ad in the window. The orange one is just about as fast as the red one. The orange one has a T3/T4 turbo and makes just north of 300HP, and weighs in at 1800lbs.


Any time you wanna make the trip out to Tucson, we'll take off in the motorhome and go play in the sand. If you've never done it (or anybody reading this for that matter), I highly recommend it. It's a rush that's not repeatable any where I've found in my 60 years.

 

Yeah man, the orange one is in the garage for some fuel system rerouting, fuel regulator, pump and some new braided lines. I'm trying to squeeze a few more horses out of it. I'll take some of the panels off and take pics of the Dzus holders, and the tool that I use to weld them in place, it's pretty slick. It can be used for a lot more than just the fastener holders too!!

 

I can't tell you how the nose is fastened to the car pictured, but I can tell you how we use to Dzus fasten panels on our race cars.

Everything we raced had a roll cage that ran the full length of the car. We had posts welded at various spots on the frame and cage, with the female part of the Dzus attached to a tab on the end of each post. Obviously our tube frame cars were built that way, but so was our 1980 Corvette. The Corvette used a stock frame, but the cage had bars that ran to the front of the frame, ending at the radiator, and all the way to the rear of the frame, forming protection for the fuel cell. We had our body mounting posts, on these front to rear bars.

Basically, all of our race cars were held together with a combination of wire ties and Dzus fasteners.

I couldn't find any pictures of our Corvette with the panels removed, but here are a couple IMSA Corvettes from the 80's, with panels removed. You can see the female Dzus fastners around the front of the #68, and also a post for another Dzus, at the base of the windshield, above the cowl mounted reservoir. All of that "spindly" framework at the rear of the Sanyo car, are the supports and female Dzus fasteners, for the rear bodywork.







Below is one af the Camaros we raced. The first picture is when we first built the car in 84, and it's first body. If you look closely, you may be able to see a post and tab coming from below the reservoir mounted near the windshield. There is also a tab visible on the cage, just above the forward jack stand and another at the top of the door jam, at the base of the B-pillar.

The second and third pictures are of the same car, when we rebodied it with a new Kevlar, 85 Camaro wide body. The only panel we reused was the roof, so we had to remove and replace every other mounting post and tab on the car. This is one of the nice things about tube frame cars, it's pretty easy to rebody them to newer, updated body styles, and even change them from one brand to another.

 

'bats'. The technology of the RC stuff now-a-days is INSANE. I kinda wish I had one...but I know I would get hooked on the speed of them and then never get anything done. When I am at the dragstrip and TRAXXs are running in their test display track...so-to-speak....I almost pull the trigger and get one. They truly have SUPER IMPRESSIVE ACCELERATION!

USAFVeteran,

I see only one problem in me getting in your sand dune rocket ship...is YOU trying to get me out of it. That would surely be an experience that I would not want to end. I know that no matter how hard I try....I still probably would fall way short on actually being able to truly image how it feels. I have been on tracks going super fast...but something about flying off a dune into the air HAS to be something else!!!!

DUB

 

All VERY IMPRESSIVE cars. I can appreciate them greatly and the time they take to get to where they are at the time of these photos.

What I REALLY LIKE is in the photo below...how I can see a coolant expansion tank in the center of the engine compartment from either a mid-year or '68-'69. VERY COOL!!!!

DUB

 

Thanks gb, pretty much what i was seeking, i know how to use dzus but wanted to see how racers applied them, will dl and study the pictures,

Dub,
I was in the nightclub biz but also about 20 years back in its younger days did lots of r and d for enforcer weed boats, working under a guru bob preep rip, we were seeing how far you could take the single bearing homelite style engines, huge carbs, tweaked timing, tuned pipes, stuffed crankcase, and water cooled head just a few tricks, the pickle forks could hit 70 plus, very fast at the time for weed boats,
I stuck to weed car stuff, but most people have flipped back to electric, because of state of the art batteries and brushless motors, the speeds of the cars are insane, like get hit and loose a body part or get killed insane.

 

HOLY SMOKES. I did read what your wrote...but honestly it did not sink in until I re-read what you wrote. SO...that RC car is powered by a weed whacker...HOLY SH*T...that is truly AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! I was jealous before...NOW that just went off the scale. THAT has got to be SERIOUSLY FUN to mess around with.

And..YES...I wish I could have grown up messing around with the boats.. On water...that has to be a BLAST. I can picture massive rooster tails from those things. The closest I got to RC stuff was in the mid-late 70's when the guy across the street built RC helicopters..and I got to go to the large school yard and watch him fly it.

DUB

 

Look at this page. All the 1/5th scale are powered by a similar chainsaw motor, 4 stroke engine. They are pretty fast. I met a guy in Phoenix at the biggest RC race in the world, and he had 7 of those buggies, and his started at $1500 each, then he paid to have every one of them tweeked. New engines, shocks, etc. Talk about jealous..... I'd like to have one, but I can't justify $1000 for the HPI Baja 5B that I'd like to have.....
http://www.hpiracing.com/en/kits/CPEF