Thread: Building a rat

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im building a rat rod out of a 1971 ford F100. a little new, yes i know. but ive never really seen any rat rodded trucks out there.

im looking for ideas, and also how dificult is it to put a full air ride suspension on something like that? and how much do you think it would cost?

any and all imput, ideas, hell, ill even take getting laughed at, i dont care.

Ive never done it , but i would say, its probably not to hard, and them bags are getting cheap, but please take your time and do a safe job, cause im seeing alot of real bad trucks lately.

Welcome to the forum. Actually, there are quite a few trucks being built rat rod style now. I've seen them on other forums too. Generally, the theme follows a lowkey flat painted body, simple interior, solid wheels, dropped stance, etc.

Hotroddaddy is right about the air suspension. It has to be done right to be safe and handle well. Take a look at AirRide Technologies and Suicide Doors. They are just two of the companies involved in air ride components. My Son knows more about bagging than I do, and I asked him whose system he is using, and he said he combined components from various companies to get the system he wanted. So I guess each company has a particular part that is more desirable than some of the others and you may have to mix and match.

As for cost.........wild guess would be in the neighborhood of $ 1500 - $ 2000 by the time you buy compressors, tanks, lines, bags , mounts, switches, etc. But that is simply a guess buy a novice. Much will depend on what you want the bags to do, and how much you can fabricate yourself.

Just understand that bags are not without their problems. They can leak and blow, although not something that happens every day. A certain amount of "engineering" is involved to get them to fit and work right, and also to last.

I'm sure others will be along who know more, and will give you better info.

Don

thanks guys, and i too agree on making a safe rod. mines going to be far from duct tape and bailing wire.

im only 16, but ive done alot of work on these style trucks (67-72), own two and know them inside-out. i hope to do all the work myself if possible. but if the fabrication gets out of hand, to the point of say, replaceing sections of the frame, im going to take it to a shop and get it done right.

my ideas are lowering it at least 4 inches, bagging later, probably. flat black, of course, and my particular year has inserts in the grill, wich i plan to do red. red solid wheels, a loud exaust, and maybe some light pinstripeing.

ive only seen one or two rat rodded trucks around my area (portland, Oregon) and im planing on attending the long beach rod run in september, maybe with my truck if i get it painted. hopefully, ill see more there.

Have fun with your '71. Just finishing up one of my own. I guess IMO everything sounds good except the flat black.....I like mine shiny!

On mine, I just put the rear end housing on top of the springs instead of below, and used some lowering coils on the front.... 275-60's and 235-50's will make it level. Might cut half a coil out of the front for a bit more drop.... Oh yeah, move the shocks outboard on the rear by simply moving the upper mount to the outside of the rail and a 3 hole lower mount from Speedway....

Sorry i did not mean you were gonna do bad work, i just mentioned it cause ive seen a couple lately were they cut a section out of the frame and just welded some crap on to keep it together.

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Have fun with your '71. Just finishing up one of my own. I guess IMO everything sounds good except the flat black.....I like mine shiny!

On mine, I just put the rear end housing on top of the springs instead of below, and used some lowering coils on the front.... 275-60's and 235-50's will make it level. Might cut half a coil out of the front for a bit more drop.... Oh yeah, move the shocks outboard on the rear by simply moving the upper mount to the outside of the rail and a 3 hole lower mount from Speedway....

Mine is not a rat but, Dave where did that put your rockers , " how high " w/the 275-60's and 235-50's .
Was thinking of using air bags this winter but ... " just wondering"

Originally Posted by treekiller

Mine is not a rat but, Dave where did that put your rockers , " how high " w/the 275-60's and 235-50's .
Was thinking of using air bags this winter but ... " just wondering"

Still plenty high, 9" or something like that...Have to measure them for sure. Wanted it a bit lower, but still enough height that is can be used for towing...

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Still plenty high, 9" or something like that...Have to measure them for sure. Wanted it a bit lower, but still enough height that is can be used for towing...

Thanks Dave , that may be my new route, when I get back around to that one.

i plan to do the same thing your doing to yours, dave. i think i talked to you on another website (FTE, perhaps?) about the same thing.

i am curious though... that axle flip... how much did you get out of that, about 4-5 inches?

and what did you do to the fron to make it match? just drop springs? or did you get drop i beams too?

ok so i went to a little car show and saw some chopped/channeled top cars. ive thought about doing it to my truck, just to be different. but first some questions arise.

how do you cut the glass affter you chop it?
will it mess with the geometry of the pillars meeting up?

You don't cut the glass, you sand the edge. A good glass man can cut it, but be prepared to have an extra windshield for him as they break very easily. Glass shops use a water cooled belt sander to work on windshields. The pillars do not line up, takes some extra pieces to fill in the gaps, a spare roof and doors is the best way to do it. Not too hard to find some spare parts, doesn't matter if the doors are rusted all the way to the door handle, all you'll need is the top frame of the door, and a section of the roof.... Ford pickups aren't a difficult chop, as far as chopping goes, but no chop is easy. An alternative to cutting the windshield is to lay the posts back and make the necessary changes to the windshield frame on the cowl and the roof... Lots of ways to do it, depends on how much fun you want to have!!!!!

And yes, I do hang out on FTE sometimes. The purists don't seem to like me!!! Imagine that!!!!!!

hmm... well, i think the chopping will be a school project, i go to a technical highschool. we have everything i need there. and my automotive teacher is a hot rodder. i gotta get focoused on getting it running, lowered and painted. (rattle-can flat black, oh yeah).

If you want it REALLY low, you are going to have to swap out the front suspension to something like a mustang II clip and step notch the rear frame rails.

well, i dont want it SO low that when i go over speedbumps it scrapes, i just want it low enough to look decent.