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

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Hey everyone I am new here, I have been watch this forum for a month now. I got the chance to do a complete 28-31 Ford Sedan build. So I thought, what the hell? Here is the story. I have had several cars in the past that were "show car's", one cost me 10 times what this car will....and it was a 89 VW! Show cars are fun, yes. But you never really get to use a real show car. And I will be just fine if I never have to trailer a car ever agin.
Here's the link>>>>>>>http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1763319


So the idea of a $3.000.00 cap on a build for a runing, steering, and stoping rat. On top of that we are planning on driving the car to the Back to the 50's in 17 weeks! After some screwing around on the net I found this guy Dan, He has 100's of 30's to 60's projects in his yard. So I talked with him a few times and went to see him today. What a nice guy, he helped us find one of everything we were looking for.
So when the day was done we had loaded a Sedan on the trailer with a few other little parts to start the build. Funny thing is, I don't remember what year he said this thing was? Not that it matters. So of the 3 g's I want to stay under......I spent 1900 today. LOL I have no idea how I am going to pull this off.

So I am going to do a pic by pic build of this car. Some of you might like it and some of you might not. I want to stay true to the rat rod theme, but safty plays the biggest roll. Love it or hate it!?! It will be built right here infront of you guys.

Zach

On with the pics!!!

So today me and Donny, the guy who has all the know how, started cutting all the fat out. I cleaned over 10LBS of crap out of the doors, and rear floor pan. We mocked up the body on the frame. We also got the donor door off the other cowl. Man did that suck, I hate thouse little pins! I cut off the right rear quarter we are going to use once we chop the top. We came to find that the body sat upside down for many of years. So we pounded what we could straight, and we will replace the pass side roof pannels when we get there.

Donny seems to think that we will have the body channled for next weekend!!! While I did the grunt work he made a 1x1 frame for the top of the body to keep it true.

ON WITH THE PICS
Here's the bad

Nothing wrong with eyeballing it for this cut

Yeah, my head is still ringing, the Plasma cutter was out on a job today

Donny is cutting the box for the roof

Here is Donny messin' with the door...

Check out the bottom of the doors.....

The rear pan is so nice....to hell with it! Were cuttin' it out!

This fire wall is not long for life.......

So here we are after Donny played with it a few hours today. I was only able to stop by for a few mins before work tonight. But it looks like he got the body ready to be channled. He was getting ready to weld the pass side 1x1 in when I was leaving. He also told me that he had found a 80's chevy pick up that would be a good donor car. I think it was 400 bucks for it, and it runs and drives fine he said. I would pull the parts I need and sell off the rest of the stuff I don't need. So maybe on Saturday we will go pick that up....






Yeah the Broadway Title stuff is a no go in MN, so I am just going to do it the old fashion...Lie to the DMV and tell them it's a kit car!

I will let the pics do the talking.....What do you guys think?

So today who worked on the front axle. What a huge PITA it was to take the large bolts out. We tryed to press them, but that was a big no way. So I spent almost 2 hours drilling them out. We got most of the brake parts off ok. Depending on the price of parts, we may use drums in the front....?

So Donny's kid found out that one of his buddies has a 60's chevy truck with a old Nail head motor. Yeah I know, who the hell would do that swap into a work truck..... But it runs and drives I was told....and the price is FREE!!!! So we can go wrong with that one. I hope it works out.

On to the pic's

And how about a Ford Niner that Donny forgot he had laying around!


Zach
More pics this week.

Looks awesome!! I am especially interested in this project because I am also doing a 3k build with a 54 chevy... AND I also just picked up a 31 tudor about a week ago. I think I'll start a thread here soon about my 3k project. Good luck with it and keep us posted!

Looks like a fun project and it sounds like you have a very knowledgeable adviser on the build. I really admire the safety first attitude you have on the build, things always come out better when your priorities are correct...

Where the heck is Zimmerman, Mn at??? I've got some road trips coming up in Minnesota this spring, wondering if it was along the route. Be fun to stop by and see the car.

Anyway, good luck and have fun with your build.

Zimmerman is just NW of Minneapolis on US 169. No, I'm not a geography nut or a former resident . . . I use Google Maps.

By the way, that's either a 30 or a 31.

If the rad shell matches the body, it is a '30. The '30 is flush; the '31 is recessed slightly if memory serves me.

Hey welcome to this site,you will reconize a couple of us from the killbillet forum on here, keep up the good work

Lookin good and keep the pics coming !!!!!I like to see progress .....!!!!!

Hey guys thanks for all the nice words, Yeah I came to find out that this body was a 1930. I just applied for a tittle at the DMV, man I hope this works. So I am hopping to have a parts car by next week, something RWD from the 70's to the 80's, and a GM. With 15 weeks to go.....this is going to be close.


Oh yeah, Zimmerman MN is 40 North of the TC.

Zach