Thread: rat rod truck

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Man, seeing that thing chopped in half brought back lots of memories.......I've axed a few into pieces myself over the years. Glad to see it runs fine.


Here is the only ones I could find so far with flat beds or no bed.
Don

Post some of the "space truck" pics from the Hamb up Don........ looks to be alot of work on one of those,Dave would appreciate them choppin stuff up like that.

O.K. I'm here eating my lunch thinking about your project. What about a really cool custom Rat Rod Tow Truck. Somebody's always needing a tow
O.K. I'll keep my idea's to myself!
Ken

LOL! Ok, you guys are as sick as I am! Keep em coming! A tow truck would be a riot!

Y not take the dodge body, cut out the rear doors, then take the very front, and the very back, weld them back togther, take the extra roof that was removed, cut off the back, form the roof into the opening as a flat back. then make a stake bed. free body, just fabrication

I probably would try it but the body was a rusted pile of junk. It's already hauled off.

No pics today but I pulled the drivetrain over the weekend, powerwashed the frame, and cut off all the old body mount brackets and other unuseables. Also found a decent 54 GMC truck cab with doors and a clear title for $250, probably go get that next weekend. I'll post a few pics next weekend.

Well, I took a week off of work to get some garage time in. I hadn't had a week off in about a year so it felt pretty good. I picked up a 54 GMC cab that had sat in one of the local boneyards since 1974, and after a lot of patching, I got it set on the frame for trial fit. I was going to channel it but the clutch/brake/shift linkage is a nightmare on this so I just dropped the mounts a few inches and will lower the chassis a few inches. I got the old flathead painted and a lot of little stuff done. Here's what we have so far. I also bought a pair of 64 Chevy bedsides off of Ebay and will go pick them up this weekend. I was never a big fan of ratmobiles but after working on this for several weeks, I can definately see the fun of building a rod out of old junk parts. I hope to have it roadworthy by the end of the year.

I think the stake body would make it look real good. Sounds like you have some ideas to start with. Hope everything works out fine for you. Would also like to know where to get parts and hp parts for the flat six? Am looking at a 37 Plymouth with flat six that i am trying to get. If you could pass some info along it would be appreciated.

I just bought a couple of bedsides from a 63 Chevy but the I'll have to think about a stakebed. Thanks for the suggestion. There's a place that makes headers for these motors but that's about all I've found. They're not cheap; about $250.00. Type "stovebolt" into your search engine and you should be able to find them. I did find out that Dodge produced this engine all the way up to the late 1960's. It was such a solid, reliable engine that they decided to switch it over to industrial applications after they stopped using it in cars. Thanks for posting on this thread!

www.stoveboltengineco.com sells cast and tubular headders 4 the flat 6. tubular is cheaper, also have a dual carb manifold

falconvan,
What are you using to paint your frame and why did you stop at the front suspension? I'm in processes of tearing down my 55 customline and was thinking i should have the frame and parts sand blasted before painting, but it looks like you're painting right over the rust!

Also, are you planning on rebuilding the suspension (bushings, springs, shocks), steering and brakes?

Chris

Falcon that week give some really good progress . At this rate you should have it on the market by years end . Even though alot are not in to rats there is a spot for them in the car hobby.

Originally Posted by tys

falconvan,
What are you using to paint your frame and why did you stop at the front suspension? I'm in processes of tearing down my 55 customline and was thinking i should have the frame and parts sand blasted before painting, but it looks like you're painting right over the rust!

Also, are you planning on rebuilding the suspension (bushings, springs, shocks), steering and brakes?

Chris

I was using regular old commercial grade Rustoleum. I stopped at the front suspension because I'm going to take it all apart, clean everything up, and cut the front springs. I'll paint all of it then. I wire brushed everything with a drill and wire wheel, then I put a rust nuetralizer on it before I painted the Rustoleum on. It came out pretty decent; just trying to keep the budget reasonable on this one.

I've got a really cool steering wheel that came with this cab. Does anyone know a way to mate a GM wheel with a Mopar column? The size is close but the splines are different.

cut and weld. this is popular to do, to use the old big wheels on newer or diffrent colums. on ebay, you can buy the shafts sometimes, they cut them out of junkers, then you weld them on your cut off shaft Truck or car colum, up to '54 w/ trucks and '52 w/ cars, maby even '54.