3k-One Year-30's Ford-Rat Rod Build Thread

[stovens]

Keep posting, I like the creative parts collection!

[Dave Severson]

hmmmm and that would leave $2,070.00 to go.... frame, suspension, tires, wheels, radiator, lights, wiring......... the budget is dwindling fast and still a long way to go and a lot of parts to buy..... Good luck.....

[ford2custom]

[QUOTE=Wolfco]enought talk about cats...please.

Enough talk about Cat’s please did you take over? We are serious about our Cat’s if you don’t mind Please!!!

Richard

[Wolfco]

Hey Ford2Custom....here is a nice website if you want to discuss domestic felines. www.i-love-cats.com -this is a wonderful website on cats.

This build thread is for my rat rod build. I am allergic to cats...sometimes i dont dump the sweet tasting antifreeze from the drain pan....oops.

Onward to hot rod talk....
so I now have the donor ambulance/camper in my yard and need to get the parts stripped from it...so i sawzall the front bumper/frame/grill all in one pass and jerk the 350/350 turbo out the front with the Cherry picker. Cherry pickers are cool. I took the tranny lines, steering column, wiring, gauges...anything that might help keep the cost down on the rod project.

[Wolfco]

The engine was a greasy mess. It had a tough life in the ambulance but i am told they are well maintained during the ambulance life...it didnt smoke when i drove it home so i hope it has some power..kinda hard to judge the power as it was running a bit rough due to sitting so long. It was Sunday and i didnt have a nearby store for engine degreaser so i used a $1.00 can of oven cleaner, that stuff is potent (this is the old good stuff that makes your eyes water, not the new "water based" stuff)...i loaded the engine in the truck and took it for a pressure wash =-only 2 blocks away...back to the shop to unload the clean engine. It was black, blue and rusty...needs some flat black stove paint.

[Wolfco]

Time to recoup some money on the donor vehicle..!!

Cost of donor=$300.
price for scrap =$190 (it weighed 5000 lbs with no engine/trans)
engine/tranny cost=$110
Plus i got a bunch of other goodies.

My wife towed me 10 miles with a stretch rope to the junkyard! that was a trip!...at the junkyard the ambulance donor POS rolled into my truck and dented my thin Titan bumper...not good. The dude in the big loader fork lifted the beast like it was a toy vehicle.....off to the crusher...but first they needed to remove the insulation etc..I only got $75 per ton due to the "camper" additions of carpet, foam insulation etc...$190 is till better than this ugly beast sitting in my driveway!!!

[Itoldyouso]

Ah, I don't know........a build thread without cats is kinda like.......kinda like.....kinda like a build thread without cats!! How do you think I stretched my thread to 200+ pages?? Next we won't even have any of Bob P's good looking Chicks I bet!!

Well, good luck with the project anyway.

Don

[Wolfco]

I found another donor vehicle on Craigslist...this guy was 15 miles from my house..I was searching for a rear end-FOrd 8.8 rear end-FREE. I got the vehicle, and started measuring the width of the rear axle, unfortunately it was too wide. I removed some brake lines, good shocks etc and off to the scrap yard! I had a tow bar from my off road Samurai so took the gas ax and made a quick hitch from the ford frame, just cut n bent the tabs for the tow bar. off to the scrap yard ....it looked like i was towing a haywagon......i think i got $90 for it...i will doublecheck my receipt. Does this count at a -$90 towards the build?? i think so!!!

[Wolfco]

Itoldyouso...
no more bad cat jokes from me...just hot rod talk. (and some BS too! )..this is fun, addicting and a great way to spend 3k or less. stay tuned.

[Dave Severson]

Ah, I don't know........a build thread without cats is kinda like.......kinda like.....kinda like a build thread without cats!! How do you think I stretched my thread to 200+ pages?? Next we won't even have any of Bob P's good looking Chicks I bet!!

Well, good luck with the project anyway.

Don

That's why I don't do build threads on my stuff---I have a dog.....(and a cat, and a bird. He's a watch bird though!)


So the engine and trans just gets used as-is? Well, plus a bit of rattle can paint???? Sure would be a good time to at least do a leak down check on the engine and get some idea of the condition of the internals. The engine was all grungy, could be time for some new gaskets and seals.... IMO it's easier to fix the things that require attention now then after the car is built.... Or maybe use it to build the mounts, etc,,. then when it's out of the car again fix what needs fixing....??????

[Wolfco]

Hello,
I put an an on Craigslist last month looking for a 'wishbone' front suspension...a guy abuot 20miles away from me called and said he had one for $100. I basically got the entire front frame section. it has no brakes, but my friend informed me that the 1953-56 F100 brakes will work on this and they are the better "energized" type drum brakes. I thought of going to discs for safety reasons, but i am told these F100 brakes are pretty good, especially if my car will weight half the weight of the F100. The guy i bought this front end from is recently retired and is building a cool rat rod too. He has some shiny stuff too, but lives on gravel so he can now use the rat rod for grocery gettin'..

Jeff

[Wolfco]

The farmer i bought this axle from torched the frame so we could load it into my pickup truck. He was a very friendly guy and we talked for about an hour about hot rods.
When i got the axle home I torched off the good parts and will scrap the rest. I split the wishbones, man those bolts are tight!! I used the torch to heat the pins up...didnt want to over heat them...finally got the wishbones to widen out....It needs spindle bushings, i was hoping to use it as is...but now i need to place an order at Speedway for the kingpin kit.

The pic of the ford is my donor vehicle, i towed it like a haywagon to the scrap yard.....it turned some heads....i saved the rear steel wheels just in case i needed them, the front wheels were already mine..

[Matt167]

I removed some brake lines, good shocks etc and off to the scrap yard! )

Your not going to put used brake lines on your project are you?

[Dave Severson]

I think after all those years of laying around, or whatever use and abuse the front end went through a good magnaflux check of the spindles and replacing all the hardware with new grade 8 hardware would be in order....

[Wolfco]

This is the first day that i actually started working on the build. I removed the rest of the firewall, it was in rought shape and had been hacked back in the 40's i suspect...i used my friends Plasma cutter to remove the firewall...i also removed the galvanized tin roof. It was brazed on so i used the cutting wheel to remove it. now i have an open roof...cant wait to cruise next summer!