Salt Torpedo Chapter 18: Ready for Fiberglass

You know me, I can’t sit still and talk about old times when we’re burnin’ daylight. My grandson Frankie showed up with the lovely Em who is another well-known tattoo artist. Harold and I said hello and peeled for the shop. I had to monkey with the Torpedo exhaust system again. The turn-out was going to be an issue.

Frankie, me and Harold removed the exhaust system and cut off the turn-out. Tim, from San Pedro Muffler made us another piece of 4-inch exhaust with it expanded to slip over the existing pipe. With a C- clamp we were able to slip the pipe over Tim’s collector and we made progress.

About the time we were finished the chow was cooked and I carved the bird.

We’ve had an issue with ground clearance and reached out to someone from the SCTA.

The salt surface has some irregular pressure ridges off the prepared racing surface that can easily be two inches tall depending on preseason weather conditions. Your trike configuration with the wide track forward will need at least that two inches of ground clearance to avoid rubbing the body on the ground, add any suspension travel at either end to this figure if you have soft spring rates.

The aerodynamic drag would be reduced significantly if you could get the rider/driver down inside the basic diameter of the tank body farther. Some of the four wheeled lakesters that have used this body style actually have a Lexan formed windshield installed in the upper half shell and the driver is completely down inside looking out through the nose contour. Your tank looks a bit smaller than the traditional P-38 style, so getting clear down inside may be nearly impossible without a significant length stretch, but reducing the height of the cage and putting a windshield directly on top of the tank diameter with compound curved canopy enclosure above would reduce frontal area and drag a bunch.

I would also suggest the front hoop of the cage be sloped quite a bit more, bottom forward to provide more coverage and safety envelope, especially for the drivers hands and forearms. Remember that the bottom of the chassis under the seat and leg box must also be considered as part of the cage in terms of materials and size.

The rear shape can be more of a flattened fish tail that will wrap around the tank, engine, rear tire, suspension, and exhaust pieces. Carrying the height farther out behind the mechanical parts is a good thing to shift the CP aft and provide yaw stability. The lower surface can have an integral rear wheel pant that extends down closer to the ground, then blends into the trailing edge behind the rear tire.

How fast are you planning to go with this configuration? Nice looking fabrication effort so far.

–Tom Burkland

We have been working with Yelvington shocks, but they had manufacturing restrictions. Originally we wanted 6-inch shocks for the front. That’s a tough call, except for mountain bikes.

I called Pro Shocks regarding the front shocks. The guy said Brian will call me tomorrow. A couple of days later I spoke to Brian and Pro Shocks couldn’t give me what I wanted.

Thought we could use Adam Croft’s bracelets to create a battery strap.

I contacted Yelvington. They have bunches of 11-inch shocks for the rear and will send me a set ASAP. They arrived and set the rear too high. This is crazy, scary shit, but I decided to move the 9.5 inch Yelvington shock to the front. That forced me to move the swingarm and cut into the body more. It had to be done.

I always wait until Micah arrives before getting too crazy. He did. We did extreme measurements and made the bottom shock mounts.

As you know a new harness arrived.
I reached out to Kai from Easyriders regarding a fiberglass guy. He contacted me this morning with Radio Bob, a local guy. I hope to hear from him.

I sent an email to Kent Riches from Air Tech Streamlining. I may go to his website and just try to order the wheel covers, which I did.

I’m now working with Avon Tyres, but we are having a problem with the 2.50/17 fronts. They make them, but I need them 200 mph rated.

Micah and I got together on Monday and hammered at the firewall. We had a long discussion with Drew, who is a Bonneville AMA, and FIM tech. We kicked around the massive fire suppression bottles and whether we need two or one for both compartments.

We lost. So, we grappled with how to mount both. Those are sort of our last hurtles, the fire bottles and the fire wall. Oh, and the Fiberglass. Monday morning early, after a couple of aspirins and cups of coffee, I had a conversation with Gary Maur who explained fiberglass construction. We can do it, but I still wouldn’t mind some help.

I also spoke to the boss at Pro Glass about what we need to have a Poly Carbon windshield made.

I watched a strange 1941 movie with Gregory Peck the other night. He was a pilot in Burma. This woman, who was played by Wim Min Than saved his day forever. Amazing. I thought about using that name for a Cantina Episode. Hang On! I’m about to launch a new episode, Number 84. It’s launched, but another floater surfaced in the Marina. I need to meet Wim and see what she’s all about…

NOTES: More from the SCTA Official

Keith,

What are you using for power? Is there an existing class record for a three wheeled streamliner in SCTA? I know the FIM has a cyclecar category that is separate from the sidecar streamliners, specifically created for the triangular wheel layouts, either two steering and one driving line yours or the one steering and two driving like most of the H-D kit trikes.

Will your front wheels be covered or open? Pay close attention to the aerodynamic center of pressure (CP) in relation to CG of the race ready machine. You will want the CG to end up forward of the CP for optimum yaw stability. A three wheeled configuration with the wide track in the rear will tend to be more stable aerodynamically as the vertical surface of the rear tires (enclosed or open) is behind the CG. Your setup can work if you manage the other vertical surfaces and keep the CG far enough forward.

What tire size are you running? Fronts look like 17 inch Goodyear dragster tires.

–Tom Burkland

Before Micah left last week to haul ass with his Ugly brothers to Arlen’s funeral in the Bay Area, he mentioned torque on my Panhead heads and barrels, and I went after it. I had a mission to ride to Seal Beach, for a break from the Torpedo.

Okay, so we needed a fiberglass team and last week Kai, from Easyriders hooked me up with Radio Bob, a famous car builder, who worked with George Barris. I had a long conversation with him. He just won the Grand National Roadster show. He spoke about Andrew Ursich, the local magnificent builder who won the Most Beautiful Motorcycle trophy a couple of years ago.

Radio is in Van Nuys, so Micah, the SFV guy said he would check him out. I reached out to Andrew and he gave me a few suggestions. I hooked him up with my DMV guy. Again, the redhead surfaced with a local boat fiberglass guy, Lupe, who I met with on Friday.

Shit was flying. On Friday Jeremiah and I made a run to Aircraft Windshields in Los Alamitos near Roland Sand’s shop. It’s a family business since 1963 and they built shields for Bonneville cars, hot rods and custom applications. We found the source we needed, although I did reach out to Brian Klock at Klock Werks.

We needed to make a mold and I had another meeting with Lupe yesterday and we are golden. As soon as I finish this, I need to peel to a glass supply house and pick up the following:

Nine yards of special dense glass
Two gallons of Epoxy 105—slow setting
Two pumps for measuring the epoxy and hardener
A box of 6-inch paint rollers
Two Gallons of lacquer thinner
A box of plastic gloves
Five 1-gallon buckets
Five 1-quart buckets
A roll of 1-inch blue tape
A bunch of cheap 2-inch brushes
One gallon of Acetone
Four jumper suits, large
A sheet of thin veneer

I’m on a mission from the lord of the Piston Pirates. And Sunday I finished painting Jeremiah’s landing and built a railing for working on my roll-up door. I need a can of red Rustoleum paint to finish it off.

Okay, we rolled the Torpedo out of the shop for the first time, after I was able to tack enough tabs to hold the bottom of the belly securely in place. We hoisted the liner into the air and pulled the lift our of the way. It took some ramp building because the torpedo is so damn low to get the line outside the shop.

Lupe worked at Eddie’s Marine for over 40 years. He knows fiberglass, but he’s also sorta busy. Getting him over here is challenging, but we are making progress.

He cut panels of veneer and started to screw them into place. He told me to get some Bondo and start to fill the gaps. I called him over the weekend. I realized we were going to use the top pieces for a mold. We weren’t gone to fiberglass pieces together, but make them into a giant mold. I’m learning.

He also brought over large chunks of dock foam. We cut one and started to form the fin. I’ll work on this more today.

I’m blown away by the progress, when you least expect it. My son and grandson rode over yesterday and Frankie helped me cut veneer panels. I need to hit home depot today, clear an outside bench for the fiberglass work. We will take the top off, lay it on the bench and fiberglass over it. Hang On!