Manky's Pop.

[panthershaun]

you been PM'd manky

[Manky Monkey]

PM safely received Shaun. Many thanks.

[Manky Monkey]

Taz & I drove to Thatcham in Berkshire this evening to see a man about a Pop axle. I was given his phone number by Jimmy of Valley Gas Speed Shop. It was a standard Pop axle fitted with disc brakes.
No good for us unfortunately cos it had Centreline wheels fitted on spindle mounts -one large centre nut to hold the wheel on, rather than the usual circle of 4 or 5 nuts. The discs actually bolt to the back of the wheel instead of to the hub, so that when you take the wheel off the disc comes off with it. I want to use my taxi cab rims, so would have to make up some kind of adaptor to either mount my taxi wheels to his spindle mounts or his discs to my wheels. Either way it was more expense & work than it was worth, so we gave the axle a miss.
Worth the hour's drive to get there though cos the guy turned out to be Jan Summerville & his Pop's the red, big block powered one pictured on the cover of Custom Car a couple of months ago doing an amazing wheel stand off the line at the HotRod Drags at Avon Park. It wasn't wearing the Pop beam at the time, but a straight tube axle, which bent on landing, as did the front chassis legs. Jan's sorted them both now in time for another season's racing. Interestingly, his Pop's running a boxed standard Pop chassis. I got to have a sit in the driver's seat. Must be a scary thing to drive!   

[madron]

ya mankiness i have a spare standard pop front axle yours for £10.00 thats what it cost me if you can collect (doncaster) or if not in a hurry could bring to billing    ron

[Manky Monkey]

I've still got my original one at the moment, but my brother Brock asked if I had a spare for his drag car. So yup, will take you up on the offer Sir. Thank you.

[panthershaun]

and if you don't want it Manky I'll take it

[madron]

ok mankey first if not panthershaun  pm to sort out   ron

[Manky Monkey]

I'll ask Brock to get in touch with you. 

[Manky Monkey]

We've decided to use the standard Pop front axle & steering set-up, but move the transverse spring from ahead of the beam to directly above it, to shorten the nose of the chassis & fit everything in behind the grille. I've borrowed a similar set-up from my mate Richard at Valley Gas Speed Shop so we can measure up for the new chassis more accurately. Picked it up this morning & Loony, PD & I spent the evening mocking up the Pop & working out dimensions. Taz was on coffee & Pot Noodle duty. 

[Manky Monkey]

6" of ground clearance under the cab will give us about 4" under the front grille. The frame needs to be Z'ed at either end to kick it up to clear the rear axle & meet the front spring. 20" off the deck at both ends.
PantherShaun's chatted to Kev the SVA guy & he reckons that to get the Pop through a commercial pick-up SVA, the pick-up bed needs to be longer than the interior of the cab. Apparently that's to discourage people from nailing a window box sized bed on the back of their rods to sneak through. This is maybe a little longer than I first planned, but it'll comply.
We'd assumed we'd need to narrow the Sherpa rear axle, but once we tried it in place, it looks spot on. Result.
Note the Reliant cylinder head propping up the rear panel!

[Manky Monkey]

We've pushed the front axle as far forward as we can to give more room to shoehorn the engine in. The inner wings have gone to give more room for that V8 -& also cos I just like the look. 

[panthershaun]

thats looking bloody good mate, so how much wider does the Sherpa axle look compared to the pop front? I may try and source a Sherpa axle to fit mine than I can use the Taxi wheels and only get wheel adapters for the front.

[VALLEYSBOY]

thats looking the bis

[Manky Monkey]

Thanks guys. Hoping to order up the new chassis tomorrow. Valley Gas are building a Gasser Pop at the moment so some of the basic measurements can be taken from the rails for that. The rest will be scribbled on a bit of paper by us -"build us a chassis round that lot please mister".
We weren't too concerned about axle width for the purposes of measuring for the chassis so didn't actually compare Sherpa to Pop, but it looked O.K, maybe just a couple of inches wider overall. Richard's Pop front axle's been fitted with adapted spring perches that relocate the spring directly over the beam. He had a new shorter bottom spring leaf made by a blacksmith for 12 quid. He's also fitted Morris Marina hubs so he can run disc brakes. I'd like to do something similar with mine. Only problem is, that gives you a 4 bolt stud pattern, rather than the Sherpa's 5, so you'd need adaptors, which would probably bring the front axle width out to match the rear.

[VALLEYSBOY]

i thought sherpa's had disks on the front?