Hot Rods OT: Ratrod reckoning

[Flat-N-Low]

Originally Posted by Rick Sis

So, the new rules are.........you can post anything you want, no matter how off topic, as long as you post a disclaimer?

I'm seriously shocked. Never thought I'd see the day.

How about this:
Change the name of the thread to-
How to fix a fucked up abortion of a pile of shit in order to keep the financially butt-wrenched owner of said vehicle alive in case he ever decides to drive it.

Better? Now go put some ice on your swollen clam and have a Fresca.

[Colville]

Thats some good looking repair work sir!

[neilswheels]

Bet your heart kept dropping as you got further into this beast. Gotta say, your design work on the front end is amazing, as usual. Shame he didn't come to you first.

[TexasSpeed]

Originally Posted by Colville

Attachment 1647092

Ha!

[Tman]

Keep at it Steve, you got balls. I also feel that a few folks here have their feelings hurt since this car might be hitting a little close to home?!

[Big Nick]

The workman ship, as always, is amazing. I dont think I could have thought of that bag set up even after I saw yours! I am still confused yet figured it out. Outstanding!!

[willymakeit]

Not that ELP needs protecting. I see poor work in the const. Industry. It is nice to see someone show correction measures as this info is always invaluable somewhere in the future. My .02

[need louvers ?]

Originally Posted by Tman

Keep at it Steve, you got balls. I also feel that a few folks here have their feelings hurt since this car might be hitting a little close to home?!

Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!! As I said before, Steve isn't letting you guys in on the half of what is up with this thing. I'm not talkin' 'cause he does things his own methodical way as far as posting, and I would have just spilled ALL the beans in my first post. Let's just say I walked around this thing for a good hour when I first saw it and discussed the concept of criminal negligance.

[ELpolacko]

Yes thank you kind Sir's for the compliments. To the haters, I have no words to comfort you. I am truly sorry for your distress. I am sure there is very little here in these posts you will find useful in your future builds. Please accept my deepest apology for offending your sensibilities.


Forward chaps!

Mr Funk asked me to inspect every element of the car to ascertain the proper function and serviceability. While assembling the front suspension to set up the new steering arms, I needed to remove the brake rotors from the spindles. Upon pulling the dust caps I found blacked grease. I am familiar with the type of grease, it was Lucas Red Tacky and was gritty and burned. Not only that I noticed there was not a tang-washer in sight! This was a disc brake kit ordered directly from Speedway Motors and I would be a bit dismayed that the kit did not come with one. Regardless of whether it was supplied or not, there was a machined and zinc plated spacer between the outer bearing and the spindle nut.

I inspected the bearings, there was a liberal amount of grease applied to the spindle stud but superficial amounts were packed into the big end of the rollers. It also appeared as if the protective coatings the bearings were shipped with was not removed and this contaminated the bearing grease.







Moving on from that, I fitted the king pins to the new Model A axle and modified the Speedway caliper brackets to work with the CE bolt on steering arms and cut and threaded a proper tie rod.





It was about this time when I realized what type of vehicle these RadRodsters are trying to emulate, I think they are enamored with the Fuel Coupe but just miss the mark by a bit.

[Ole_Red]

Originally Posted by Dreddybear

The bag setup is genius. It would take me forever to render that up in SW, somehow I get the impression you're good at it

hell I am still trying to wrap my head around it all!

[hotroddon]

Originally Posted by ELpolacko

I inspected the bearings, there was a liberal amount of grease applied to the spindle stud but superficial amounts were packed into the big end of the rollers. It also appeared as if the protective coatings the bearings were shipped with was not removed and this contaminated the bearing grease.

the builder saw on NASCAR tech that the racers do that to make the car go faster in qualifying by not having as much friction, so if it works for Bubba ....

Originally Posted by ELpolacko

It was about this time when I realized what type of vehicle these RadRodsters are trying to emulate, I think they are enamored with the fuel coupes but just miss the mark by a bit.

By a BIT?

[jhutch713]

Wonderful fab skills, I appreciate your thread even though I don't necessarily appreciate rat rods. I agree with some of these guys on here, the guy that built that "thing" to begin with should be taken to court for carelessly endagering the lives of innocent citizens. Later on.

[Mike]

We can rebuild it...better, faster, stronger... nu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu...

[gassersteve]

girls are groady

[LOWBLAZERO1]

wow looking damn good. its gonna go from ratrod, to bad motherfucking hotrod! i like the way it sits, and the body. looks like thats pretty much all that you are keeping!

[slickhale]

[QUOTE

Better? Now go put some ice on your swollen clam and have a Fresca.[/QUOTE]

Still laughing at this.....

Someone please explain to me why Elpolacko's tech threads cause so much ass puckering? If ya quit whining you might learn a thing or two.....

[ELpolacko]

It was about this point where Mr Funk reached his ultimate frustration with the Scud-Hud. He wanted Dr Marvelus and I to remove the silly ammo box wiring control system, seats and expanded metal drive shaft tunnel to get the floor out. At the same time to investigate why the rear axle was offset to right by over an inch.

What we found made us quicken our pace at deconstruction. There was literally everything from a dollars worth of Nickles to exhaust U-bends, Rebar, All Thread and multiple layers of scrap metal that made up the floor. All manner of square tubing and plate was used to weld the rotten body to the frame. Two flex plates copped it for the seat mounts and they were cut in half so haphazardly that who I assume was Mr Puerile that had done this work, filled over a 1/2" gap with MIG weld to attache the half flex plated to the 16 gauge sheet metal floor.







Now we were getting down to the meat of the matter. Just how so much of this car got off track and why so much was out of square. The frame rails were tapered, narrower at the front than the back under the body. However, the builder squared the crossmember tubes to the right side frame rail making the cross beams not square to the centerline of the car. This mistake was further compounded in the rear kick up that supported the entire triangulated four link system. While the brackets were close to correct on the axle, the frame they were attached to were not.

My judgement was to cut the rear kick up off and the last rear cross beam and try to rebuild the frame from there back. After deconstruction it was clear that there was no saving what was left without many hours of laborious work and for little gain. It all had to go. Out came the Air-Arc to remove my clip from what was left of the sorry frame.

[Tinbender]

Thanks Steve for letting us have a look at your work. Outstanding as usual.......I just happen to be using a torsion bar suspension on my rear motored Falcon.......great timing thanks!

[Tman]

Public shaming would be too good of a punishment to the "builder"

Your description on the phone blew me away, the pictures make me laugh uncontrollably

[EnragedHawk]

Man, that's some amazing work! (and I mean what's being done now)