VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER Chevrolet Speedsters 1928 sprint car

fired up my 1928 Chevrolet 4 cylinder sprint car today for the 1st time on over 60 yrs.

It started quickly and ran smooth. When I added water to the Whippet radiator no leaks not even the water pump.

All in all a damn good day, now on to finish the restoration.

brasscarguy

Any pictures?

Yes where could one find pictures. Must be a really interesting car!

Tried to post photos here with no success. So how do you post? I have a few of my 1928 Chev sprint car.

brasscarguy@comcast.net

I believe only members can post photos.

And only a few of them

I reached out to brasscarguy and asked if I could help out and post his pictures for him. He sent these back to me:

That is a very cool project! Shop is VERY clean and organized too...

( A bit off topic}I find it necessary to have a neat and organized shop due to age and forgetfulness. If I don't put it back I may never find it again. Far too much time spent looking for that "damn part or tool" where ever I put it down. So when I moved recently to my new facility I spent several weeks planning and organizing tools, equipment, supplies, and of course parts for current restorations.

I laid out placement of benches, lathes, milling machine, and cabinets and drawers for storage. I have saved countless hours of "search time" looking for things by using a tool and putting it back in its proper place. I had several hundred taps and dies collected over the years. I took 2 days to separate by size and thread count and then place each in separate bins. I did the same for the several hundred drills I had collected. Wow what a huge time saver. I also had all good drills sharpened. I found a professional mobile sharpening company that sharpened machine tools, cutting bits and drills for a fabrication firm near me. He came up to my shop and spent 2 days sharpening everything I could find. He did my drills up to 3". He even did all of my milling machine cutters as well. This was a bit on the expensive side but in the long run but cheaper than going out and buying a new sharper drill or cutter. All told, his charge was $300.00. All hand tools are on visual boards in plain site by type and size. Now when there is a blank spot I go looking for the missing tool don't stop until i find it and put it back.

Next job is to labor all drawers and cabinets with their contents for quick and easy locating again major time savings. When summer shows up my concrete floor will be ground smooth and polished and sealed for easy in cleaning and wiping up possible spills. My work shop is 30x30 and I added 800 sq feet for a dirty room some storage and a separate spray booth room. Have not finished them yet but will get to it in warmer weather. Hard to do construction work and car restoration at the same time. My intention is to finish the race car this April. I intend to drive and show the Chev/race car this summer and then sell it to start yet another old OFFY sprint car.
Just sayin'
brasscarguy

Here are a few more images that Howard asked me to share.

Looks like an early Whippet front end.

You are correct the radiator is Whippet, however the chassis is a early 20's narrowed Overland including front and rear axles, Budd wire wheels and the '28 Chevrolet engine with modifications. Magneto ignition, Winfield down draft carburetor, plus hi output oil pump and modified oiling system.

This car was built in the mid '30's. No racing history is known, It was as most were of that era, crudely built. When I restored this car I did improve much of the fabrication and welding. I built a new body copying the old one exactly with the exception of adding some inches to the cockpit for driver comfort. It sports Franklin center steering which is quite easy to steer both at rest and on the road.

brasscarguy

Can you tell us some more about the magneto?

The mag has a Hunt name plate on it but it was really manufactured by Wico, a well known industrial magneto. This was used on Welders, tractors, industrial motors for many years. Wico was sold to Standard Magneto in Chicago some years back and they now manufacture the mag in many different styles.

I purchased this mag at Hershey a few years ago. Got all new parts and rebuilt it. I machined the snout to fit the Chevrolet distributor hole in the block. I machined the input shaft gear to accept the Chevrolet distributor drive gear. This was an easy and quick modification to complete. My mag has a built in impulse coupling which makes stating quicker, if you buy a new Wico, be sure and get an impulse coupling.

You can contact Standard Magneto in Chicago and purchase a new unit around $400.00. I am not sure if they offer a end snout and input shaft drive, you will have to ask them about that. I think if you ask them if they have a distributor replacement mag that will get you going in the right direction.


Good Luck,

brasscarguy

Awesome information. Thank you!

Wow very nice, so did you keep the original metal work? I would have gone with the shiny metal body. Any Idea what was done inside the engine eg pistons , oil feed to bearings, valve lift ? Ray

The original metal was only for patterns, this car was run hard and beat to the 9th degree. I made the new body out of a lot of aluminum pieces and with all the welding it was not an option to polish the body. That is why I painted it.

As far as the engine Aluminum pistons, new valve springs, bearings are original, I inspected both rods and mains and they were perfect condition just took out a few shims out. I machined to fit a later style oil pump, and replaced the original pick up screen for more volume. The cam shaft had been ground to give a est 290 degree lift. I added new old stock rockers and shafts. As a final touch, I machined to fit a 4 cylinder Wico vertical magneto for ignition. The water pump was rebuilt with a new shaft and sleeve bearing.

I replaced the original copper oil lines with bradded stainless lines that offered a bit more volume due to the i/d being larger than the old copper. It idles at 10 pounds of oil pressure and at higher RPM, the gauge shows almost 20#'s.
I replaced the old clutch with a custom rebuilt one with heavier springs and a relined disc. I found a new old stock carbon throw out bearing and fork.

I'm sure I have not listed all the little things I did along the way. I am very pleased with the quick starting the rapid acceleration, the smooth clutch action, and the ease of shifting. All in all it has been a very fun project.

brasscarguy

Cool thanks for the run down, i modified my 28 Ute clutch 20 years ago , by removing the flywheel bolts and tapping a thread and countersink to fit cap screws to the crankshaft, thus giving the clearance for the springs in a later model 1975 Holden (GM) sprung clutch made it so much smoother, I'm using a repro 1929 vain type oil pump get about 30psi when running and a modern inline oil filter, Also running 12v as I like to see where I'm going lol. Ive yet to get pistons but have a plan for a set of high compression dished pistons Illl show the group when done.

You said 290 Deg valve lift ? does that give it enough time to breath and get over lap? Ray

By playing with the valve adjustment it works well and has incredible acceleration with no pop back. Starts quickly. By the way this race car will be listed for sale on BAT in the next 2 weeks, or contact me at brasscarguy@comcast.net

brasscarguy

Hi Brasscarguy, you did very nice work on that car, it looks great!

I've built a single seater Chevy racer and have a question about running a magneto, I don't see any advance/retard linkage there, is it built into the mag, or put on later, not needed at all on a racer?