Comet Leaf Springs Measure

Today on muscle car altered egos back and gets tough enough. We'll give you an update on the Goldberg Super Bird and Rick tricks out one hellacious helmet.

Hey, guys, welcome to the shop. This week we're working on our 64 Comet A FX drag car altered ego. Now, last week, Brent got the axles mocked up and got a right height set. Now, all we need to do is build our rear frame rails and measure for our springs.

After we blew the Comet apart, we got the rear end moved up 16 inches. Then we revamped the center section of the frame rails, widened the tubs and started on the roll cage. We dropped in the mock up engine and saw the real thing turn 491 horses on the

dyno.

These frame rails are in the right position, but they're coming up a little short. So that means we got to stretch them out

once we get what's left of the floor trimmed out and cleaned up. We can plan out the back half.

Hey, man, I guess I got a game plan.

Yeah, I think so.

We're gonna take our two by three. Come out here.

We're going to put a pie cut in it to let it bend back so we can go straight back. We're gonna take us another piece right here, go across the back and then we're just gonna take some pieces right here.

Tie it into the back, thought about even just bolting it right here. So actually save all of this. All the sheet metal here.

Yeah. All this will be just untouched. Pretty much. We're just gonna have two pieces come back, catch it

right here.

So it's its own frame.

So then what we can do is add a cross member. We can drop our fuel cell here.

The tube will come back off the cage

through here.

Tie it in about where our spring perch is cool. That'll work.

Let's do it too, man.

After allowing for eight inches of the new rails to extend into the old ones, they come out to exactly 4 ft.

You too.

In order to keep the frame rails parallel, I'm making an eight inch pie cut so I can get the right bend.

Now. There's a lot of different ways to do this, but leverage can be your best friend.

Oh, man. How are you getting it in there?

I'm gonna need a big old hammer man.

Way ahead of you.

Once the rails are in place, Brent needs to check to make sure it's square.

It's easier to double check yourself now than to cut. The wells apart and correct it later,

these will get welded together out of the car. So Brent's just tacking them to keep the correct angle on the rails

before he makes any welts. He'll clamp it down and square it up to keep everything in place

these plates while they're not just there for looks, they'll help strengthen the entire rear structure.

I got it.

Now, once we get these rails mounted, the comet is going to have a backbone from front to rear. A stick around because coming up after the break, we're going to finish setting this thing up. Then we get to measure for our springs.

Yeah,

up next, learn how to measure for leaf springs.

Hey, welcome back. We got our rails welded in, we double check the location of a front, rear axles. Now, back in the day, a FX cars use parallel leaf springs, front and rear. Well, to keep altered ego, true to its heritage, we're going to use the same set up. Now, if you've never set up a leaf springs before, what's a little more complicated than you might think. But it all starts off with a basic set of measurements

ready to go. Let's do it.

We know a typical length for rear springs is 55 inches. So if we go 24 inches to the front, the mount will go right here.

We also need to note the distance from the frame to the ground

16 inches 16 even,

we'll mark the approximate location of the rear mount, 31 inches back from the axle. We'll also need the distance from the rear mount to the ground 23 inches

for right height. We'll measure from the bottom of the axle to the ground be 13 and eight

and from the top of the axle to the frame

nine

inches, all of these measurements are gonna determine the arc of the springs.

Now, springs need to be as close to parallel as possible. And that means that the mounts need to be the same distance apart from side to side. The back end looks pretty good. And that means we can move on to the front. The front spring needs to be a minimum of 40 inches centered over the axle.

So with the axle set where we want, it

will measure forward 20 inches for the front perch

and I put this way out here great out in thin air. Yeah,

right on. Oh,

we can always extend the frame, roll out,

bring it out and get a perch out there.

Probably just cut it up right here. Slide a piece in

plug. We it from the inside. Yeah.

Yeah, that would work.

That would work. My problem there is our bumper coming. Well, actually we could extend that out and move a bumper out to clear it. We might have a little bit of a gap to the front, but at least we wouldn't have to chop up that nice new bumper.

Yeah, I'm good with that.

We'll also measure the distance from the front perch to the ground 21 and a quarter

measuring 20 inches back from the axle. The rear mount will be right here, which looks pretty good

and we'll note the distance from the mount to the ground

17 and a quarter

for right height. We'll measure from the bottom of the axle to the floor 838

and the top of the axle to the frame 10 and a quarter.

Now, if these in hand, I can call the manufacturer and get the springs on order. Now, we're going to wait to make any mounts until we actually have the springs here because since these are being built from scratch, we don't know what the final dimensions are going to be until we actually have them.

Now don't go anywhere because later on in the show, I'll show you a project that'll make you want to put down your wrench and pick up an airbrush

after the break. Find out how the Goldberg Superb Bird built as a tribute to Richard Petty could end up in your garage.

Hey, muscle car fans. Are you ready for an awesome build for a really great cause?

Well, our good friend, Bill Goldberg donated his 1970 satellite to be cloned in a 70 super bird and not just any super bird. A very special one when it's done, it'll be auctioned off by Barrett Jackson

and get this. All the proceeds are going to the Darrell Gwynn Foundation. Now that's super. We caught up with the build team at year one in Braselton, Georgia to see how it's coming along.

Goldberg wanted to build a car that was NASCAR

for the street.

When it's finished, the Super Bird is going to be a faithful homage to Richard Petty's race car with some modern muscle and engineering thrown in. We ended up doing quite a bit of research into the early NASCAR

cars and, and what they had to modify to get them to handle and sit like they did

found out that they, they mini Tubb, the cars, they raised the transmission tunnels c notched the frame to get them to sit down. We're trying to stay true to what the early cars were like

back when these cars were raced. It was the height of the muscle car wars and the slogan was win on Sunday. Sell on Monday.

The 70 Superb Bird was the fastest stock car in its day

and dominated so many races. It was outlawed by NASCAR after just one season.

Plymouth built about 1900 of these for the street and survivors are scarce making this one here. A rare bird,

a crazy car. And then when you had guys like Richard Petty winning races on TV, and that's such a cool performance heritage.

The cars are magnets. If you're a muscle car guy you got to dig these cars.

The guys that year one certainly do when they plan to make this one even more powerful. Thanks to the team at

Ham Motorsports Ray. Ever

hand donated a brand new 358 cubic inch stock NASCAR

engine.

This puppy is rated at eight 100 horsepower. They also tossed in a NASCAR

four speed gearbox. A borg one or T 101 pulling a 390 gear with the tire size, the gear

on the transmission, it should be

capable of running 200. No problem with all that power on hand safety is a top priority. The cage is engine three quarter dom 120 watt tube and which is a spec tubing for SCCA and some of your uh

tle tray.

Some of the bars are in a certain place because of this. They make it look authentic to a seventies era superb bird

and some of the bars are put in for modern safety reasons. When Plymouth built these cars, they started with a road runner and added coronet fenders and of course, that huge wing on the back and the signature beaklike nose, the original pieces of were made of aluminum

and

they were

as such subject to damage. They had a vacuum motor that held them in the closed position for the clone. They're using a one piece fiberglass unit with a more reliable electric motor to operate the headlights.

In addition to the wing and nose Plymouth also modified the rear window to make it more aerodynamic.

A specially designed frame was welded onto the existing roof to improve air flow, vinyl roofs were added to the street versions of the super bird to cover up all that extra well.

But this build team is going to do some body work magic to make it look more like petty's car.

They even flush mounted the tips of the bumper to reduce wind drag just like the original race cars. Now, this bird is still a long way from leaving the nest, but you can already see it starting to take shape.

We're really proud to be a part of this one of a kind build. So keep watching the power block and we'll keep you posted on the progress of this super super bird

coming up flames, skulls, shadows and stripes, learn how to paint your way to a one of a kind creation.

Hey, welcome back. You know, we're showing you guys a lot of complete paint jobs here in the show. But if you're just starting out and looking for something a little less ambitious,

there's a lot of options.

I've used a single body panel, a scrap piece of metal,

even toilet seats. They're all great ways to practice before you tackle a whole car.

So today I'm gonna show you guys some things to get. You started on your own small paint project. I just need something to work on that brings us to our camera guy, Danny.

Hey there. Paint boy. What's up, man?

Well,

I figured as cool as I look right now, I'd look a lot cooler if my helmet matched my bike. I don't know if you could look cooler but flames on your helmet would look nice. Yeah, I figured maybe we could match that gun metal in black right there on the tank.

Maybe put a little ghost flame, some kind of fancy pants deal on there. Yeah, we could do that. We could match to the gray on here. You got a red pin stripe on here too. We could stripe it out in red. That'd be cool. Sound good. All

right,

let's do it.

So, uh, what do we do? 1st, 1st of all, we got to get all these smudge marks and all this grease and stuff off here. So we'll hit it with some pre cleaner.

So, what's this stuff?

Uh, I got some 330 on a rag for, you need to wipe it down without and clean it.

All right now while it's still a little bit wet. Take that one, wipe it all down.

All right. Now, usually the trim around the sedge right here comes off for some reason. This one's glue it off on the maske it. Well, I've watched you guys do this quite a bit

on TV.

So

we'll take, we'll take a shot at it.

There you go. Perfect. Looking like a pro

good job, man.

You want to see an easier way.

I'll take what you got.

Well, you can do it the way you're

having at it here and bring it all the way out to that edge. So what I usually do is put the tape to the inside

like that

and then bring this up to a little point

and leave it that way. There's no paint on there, so it's not gonna chip off when you snap your visor on.

I like to take a couple of fingers like that.

Set it down

and that way now you've got basically a curved sanding board,

like your fingers play down like that

and then work it

off like that and just pull it away and check every once in a while.

Don't ever use your fingertips like that

like that. All right.

Here we go.

Like an old pro

and I give her a good rub down check for any shiny spots.

Uh I got some gray Scotch Brite. Go ahead and hit the shiny spots

on here and Scotchbrite. It doesn't have an edge on it. Like the sandpaper does. You can get a little bit lazier if you're wondering why we didn't just scotch

bright. The whole thing is because the sandpaper takes down all of the uh orange peel and helps flatten off where the stickers are. Scotchbrite wouldn't do that.

Ok. Just got to drape some paper on it. We're ready to shoot

all Right. Well, you look like, you know what you're doing. So I'm going to get back to what I know how to do

here. Let me have this before we can lay down a base coat. We need to smooth down the scratches left by the sandpaper and scotch

by with a clear sealer.

That way when we lay on the high metallic color, no sand scratches are going to show through.

Well, the first thing I need to do is get my tape and lay it down over the top

and get a center line.

Eight inch fine line tape is the most common for graphics, but 16th inch, well, it works better on helmets because the designs are usually so tight.

Now, this is where my artistic side comes into play. I'm not working from a rendering or a picture. It's all in my head. I know what I want it to look like. And from years of practice my hands, they just know where to go.

The areas where the flames overlap. They need to be cut out. I'll redefine these edges later with shadowing and pinstripe.

The next step is covering the parts that need to stay gray.

The downside to 16 inch fine line tape,

I can be a bear to mask

with it all masked up. I can break out my favorite airbrush, the Ans

Iwa

custom MC M

Danny decided on a more sinister look. So I grabbed one of my Craig Frasier stencils from art tool.

I mean, stencil only looks like a stencil if you let it look like a stencil if that makes any sense.

So you can go back in with some freehand work and kind of loosen everything up and make it look a little more custom

in here where this is all connected to a space. You can come in here and choose a lead out, break it off a little bit more

kind of push that design back. So it looks like it's coming in from behind

a shadow

on the

show

a little bit.

You can put as much time into the detail as you want.

Just keep going until you're happy with it.

Next, I'll already find the edges of the flames with shadows.

Since this is all urethane base coats, the unmasking can be done within just a couple of minutes.

Pinstripes are next.

I'm using a Urethane so it could be cleared over.

I think it's pretty cool with a K.

Now, this is why I left an open area down the center of the helmet. A little freehand love.

And last comes a co of clear to protect all my hard work.

You guys may be wondering what I'm doing, painting a helmet on a show called Muscle Car.

Well, tell you every technique I've used today can be applied to a muscle car or any other paint project that you're working on

and don't be surprised when more custom paint techniques show up in future shows.

What do you think Danny looks pretty good out here in the sunlight? Dude. That's awesome. I think it's gonna be great for scaring old ladies.

I'm gonna go take her for a spin. I think we're out of time anyway. Yeah, we are for now. We're out of here.