As for the Woodward rack installation...its not for the meek. Woodward make the best racks in the business, bar none, BUT it is a racecar part and needs above average talent and resources to install correctly. You cannot order a rack for a 69 Camaro [or any other specific application]...their components are manufactured and sold by dimensional data.
On the 33 Ford we made the decision early on [after we discovered the inadequecies of the oem rack system] to do whatever it took to do this steering system right. This meant basically sawing off the front of the car and starting over. After the radiator and grille shell were out of the way, things cleared up nicely. Removal of a few more brackets and tubing cleared a path for proper placement. To determine proper placement we modeled the frontend digitally and ran the data through our suspension analyzer program. This told us exactly where the rack needed to be in every axis. We fabricated the neccessary mounts to put it there, ran the suspension through it's travel, and determined that there was less than .015" of bumpsteer through 6" of suspension travel. Winner!
This also meant fabricating a set of custom steering arms to get the ackerman and bumpsteer optimized. Not a huge deal if you have a CAD guy 25 ft away and a CNC mill in between the two of you.

Is it worth it? Obviously, because the alternative is that I have an expensive paperweight. [That would be a car that you can't steer]

I point all this out not to explain how smart we are [we're not...if we were, we would have identified and fixed this problem months ago] but to demonstrate that sometimes hotrodding takes a little perserverence, a little money, a little talent, a lot of help from your knowledgable friends. Something to consider when you have to round the corner on a bracket or enlarge a bolt hole to get some aftermarket part bolted on your Camaro.

Will we make it to Nashville Goodguys this weekend? I think so.

Tuesday night...stuff left to do:

make steering arms [they're already designed and drawn up]
build tie rod adjusters
finish steering shafts
design and build a power steering pump mount
build another crank hub to accept an additional pulley for power steering
design and build a power steering reservoir
design routing and build 6 power steering lines
design and build a new lower radiator hose
figure out if radiator and grille shell will fit or if it needs to be moved forward

That should keep us busy on Wednesday.

Bret,The 33 is turning out great.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Bret, these are the reasones that I like to let you guys design it and build it first then I can just buy it from you :thumbsup: Thanks for all the you and your guys do for our hobby. Ride Tech = class act :cheers: :cheers:

P.S. can't wait to get to the point to where I'm ready to do my front sub frame all RideTech going in there! :thumbsup:

Well summarized update Bret, always look forward to reading them. :thumbsup:

The steering rack and radiator are back on and it looks like its going to be at Nashville this weekend! And if not we've always got a backup (1969 Silver Mustang)

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/14/6.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/14/8.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/14/10.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/14/11.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/14/12.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/14/13.JPG

Killer.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Is this car going to get a set of Ride Tech Shock's.:thumbsup:

I need one of these also.:D I need to win the lottery :thumbsup:

Doesn't it already have a new set of adjustable Ride Tech shocks :rolleyes:

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/12/15.JPG

Looking forward to seeing this car next week!

That '33 is sweet! I got a chance to see you out there running it today at Goodguys autocross. :thumbsup:

Very cool car in person. Might need to throw in some ballast for autox. Looked like that gocart was a handful :)

Haha ^ true that.

We'll nothing blew up last weekend, which is always good ;) . The new steering rack worked wonders. We've found several tweaks we need to do to the car for the next event. But we're slowly dialing the car to where we want it. We were running 35 second laps which put us in the top percentile.

Here's some pictures of the car at Nashville.
http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/15/1.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/15/2.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/15/3.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/15/4.jpg

It looks great with plenty of contact on all 4 corners.

Congrat's on building such a awesome ride.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Well, we did make it to Nashville. The 33 ran well...nothing fatal fell off...the steering worked GREAT...and we generated a short list of items to address before the Midwest Musclecar Challenge next week.

First on the list is swaybars. I knew the car had some roll issues but simply could not get a swaybar designed and built in time, so we worked around the problem with excessive spring rate. Better than nothing, but still a compromise. We'll have that all fixed this week.

Second is tires. The tires that we had on the car at Nashville were old when we installed them for initial fitment 3 years ago. I left them on to shake the car down a bit. Now its time for some real rubber

Power steering vent - If anyone saw the run I made where I ran down 6-8 cones...it was because I saw some fluid hit the windshield and got...distracted. We band-aided itwith a shop towel and a zip tie, but will fix it permanently this week.

The last item is some kind of hood ornament. Why? Because I can't see anything out of the car...no tires, no fenders, no hood...nothing for a reference point to aim the car with. Rob McGreagor told me I was missing my apex cones by six feet! Anyway...I might just make something to bolt to the top of the grille so I can see where the hell the front of the car is!

Thankfully a short list.

Ballast? No problem...carry it with me...never leave home without it:)

A car that NEEDS a hood ornament. Now that is awesome. :thumbsup:

Another spot for the "V8/RideTech" logo!


--Eric

Maybe add another layer of seat padding in there Bret. :P :P :P

Loved the car and really glad I got the opportunity to met you and the rest of the crew ! Bummer on the truck though....

Jim

A little update on the 33: We had it out last weekend at the Midwest Musclecar Challenge, though it didn't get to run much. Recently, we whipped up a nice new custom made sway bar and an aluminum license plate holder.

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/16/1.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/16/2.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/16/3.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/16/4.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/16/5.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/16/6.JPG

Also we uploaded new video footage of the 33 making a lap at the GoodGuys Nashville autocross.
http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum.../autocross.jpg

Bret,The 33 turned out Great.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Put a gun site crosshairs on the grill

Well the 33 is on the Hot Rod Power Tour right now, traveling with our motorhome and 2010 camaro. It's slated to compete in the Optima Faceoff event this weekend at the end of the tour. Should be a blast :thumbsup:

Here are some pictures before the tour and at the tour:

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/17/1.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/17/2.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/17/3.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/17/4.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/17/5.JPG

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/17/6.JPG

That plate is perfect!

I agree. Awesome tag.

Are those the 295/40 18 Falkens by chance? Been looking at those and wondered how they'd look on an 11" wheel.

Yup new Falken tires! I think the sizes are 295-35/18 and 335-30/18.

I don't think you went too deep into the motor specs. What type of cam is it and do you have any specs on it you would share ?

I'm curious how rumpy it is, can you share your idle speed and vacuum ?

I think it's a Isky camsaft, not sure of any other detail yet.

The car made it back home safely from the Power Tour and the Optima Ultimate Streetcar qualifying event in Texas. The car placed in the top 5 in the autocross and top 10 in the speed-stop challenge at the optima event. We were very pleased with the results considering we ran the car against z06 corvettes, a GT-R, and even a Lamborghini.

One of our employees filmed the 33 at the Optima event, check it out:
http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/18/v.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/18/1.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/18/2.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/18/3.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/18/4.jpg

Little bit of an update. The 33 is back from the Motor State Challange, twas a blast. Got a little dirty as you can see :)

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/1.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/2.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/3.jpg

:drive:
http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/4.jpg

Here's a few pictures we got from Robert McGaffin at the Optima Faceoff event a while ago, some of the best shots we have of the car so far :thumbsup:

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/a.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/b.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/19/c.jpg

Great pictures thanks for sharing the build with us.

When you replaced the rack did you just swap the spindles side to side ? (and build new steering arms).

I just love this car!! :hail: :hail:

following this build

New shoes for the 33. We put on Forgeline wheels and Falken tires today for the NSRA Louisvile show this week. Went an inch wider on the front.

http://www.ridetech.com/33ford/wp-co...-streetrod.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/33ford/wp-co...ctory-five.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/33ford/wp-co...ne-33-ford.jpg

http://www.ridetech.com/33ford/wp-co...12/08/ff33.jpg

George those look awesome on there! Wow!

I love this car too and the wheels look great. Only thing I'd like to see is the token hot rod hood over the top of the engine, I think it would complete the car. But, I imagine a hood won't fit over the air cleaner anyway.

All tires and engine and no weight, that's as good as it gets !

Wheel's are awesome.:thumbsup:

Very nice the wheels complete the car, but I also agree with Preston you need the top section of hood and it will look finished up front!!

wheels look great guys :thumbsup:

Love it Love it loooooove it. Dream car right here for me. Been thinking about a roadster style light weight racer as you guys have put together. Super cool in my books.

Brett

Pretty well says it right there:thumbsup: