Thread: My 15 week rat rod build or bust.....

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I will have a few pics of what happened this week on the car, but for now I thought I would share a pic of my daily driver.

Zach

looks good. I like the steelies and WW's. very clean

Thanks man, what do the rest of you think?

Here is what we got for the mock up of the rear 4 bar set up. Donny made all the brackets and bars. So we have to finish welding the mounts and bolt it all togather. More to come.

I don't really care for mini-trucks but as far as yours goes it is clean and not overdone so props on that. I've seen too many that are just god awful which is most of the reason that i don't care for them. Now the rat-rod bit is something else, bring on the crazyness!

Man, we have swung and missed at 3 parts cars this week. Not cool, but we have a lead on a 79 Pontiac. This week we will have a bunch of other stuff finished up. The four link bushings will be in today, and that is all that is stopping us as far as the rear goes. I have to bite the bullet and buy a new set of tires from Coker. I just can't see this car looking right with out Bias wide white wall tires on it. So I guess I will be going over the 3 grand cap.....


Some pics are do, I know.

Zach

Zach, how are you coming on your timeframe? It seems like you guys are rolling right along and making lots of progress.

Don't worry about exceeding the $ 3,000 figure, once I got over trying to make that goal things got a lot easier. The bottom line is that you are coming in at a still very reasonable cost for a running, driving hot rod, and are doing a good job constructionwise.

Someone just posted Coker offered some prepaid shipping, I don't know how that worked because I have always paid the shipping. Maybe worth asking though. BTW, Coker offers a fantastic lifetime replacement guarantee for just a few bucks per tire, consider taking it. My understanding is that it covers any road damage you incur for the life of the tire, no questions asked. I don't have all the details just what my Son told me he bought when he got his from Coker.

Good luck, and keep plugging away.

Don

Why are you going with air bags? just wondering.

The air bags are plain and simple, plus they were 100 bucks for the pair. The old school spring, to me is not any good. And coil over shocks were too much money for the budget. Danny and I are huge fans of air bags for all applications, the cost, the adjustability, and the ride can not be matched.

I know it is not true to the "Rat Rod" theme, but neither is the 2x4 frame. When it is all done you will not beable to see them at all, so to me, air bags were a slam dunk.


Zach

Doesn't the airbag setup end up costing much more? I assume you have to add a tank, compressor, and some kind of regulator. How would airbag ride compared to a top quality set of coil overs with the proper spring?

I dont know anything about airbags and I of want to learn a little about it.

You can add air lines and valve stems {what I did } to the package for about 20 bucks.The air compressor and all the exspensive valving solenoids are for showing off.All you need to start with is the bags and a air line ,...like air shocks.You could do a install for 120 bucks in bags and lines per axel,...the only thing is the mounts ,you need to make or buy them .
Thats one reason a kit is soo exspensive is the bracketry for a specific application.
If one wanted to air it up manually you could do the fab work yourself and do both axels for about 250-300 bucks.Then you add the other stuff later ,unless you just have to air it out everytime you park now.
As far as the ride ,some of the smoothest riding cars ever build use air bags.

I will explain the bags soon. But for now.........

WE GOT A PARTS CAR!!!!!!

It runs real smooth.Guess that car? Here are some pics

Lookin' good so far. Nice to see a "rat" going together with some nice workmanship underneath.

Next time you're tromping around in the junkyard, look for a Cadillac that is equipped with "level ride". Somewhere underneath there will be a really nifty little 12-volt air compressor that is capable of putting out the capacity you need for those airbags. You should be able to get one for $30 - $50 or less.

We are looking in to it, but I am betting it will be set at the right ride height and left alone.

We are using a front drive shaft out of a 4x4 ford pick up with a uni fit u joint on the front side. The length is perfect and we know it is balanced. By now Donny will have the body and the front half of the frame all mocked up.

So the body fits down over the frame just perfect. The tunnel for the drive shaft is going to be lower then I thought. It will only be like 4-5 inches above the floor. And with using a front and rear frame we were able to set the tranny and drive shaft on the rear frame and move the front half of the frame to the right wheel base. We got shocks ordered, them and the tires will be in by Friday.

It has been a while so here are the #'s so far.

Body, stock frame, and stock front axle...$1900
Dropped tube front axle and brakes.........$350
Parts car............................................$400
air bags and 4 link parts........................$200
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$2850....So far, BUT,
I am parting out the left overs of the parts car, I got $100 back for the cat on it today. We will sell the stock spindels and front axle when we get around to it. I am hopping to get like 250 out of the parts car and 250 out of the left over model a parts. So that would bring us back down to $2250.

On with the pic's

It's going to be wild!