Projects OT: Ratrod reckoning

Yes, you did

I really appreciate what's being done here by our buddy elP. Not even the car in the topic, but the care to show that there's a way. To show that right and proper design are not things to fear, or things our cars don't deserve. A sincere thanks is indeed in order here so, "Thanks elP" for sharing this gig with us.

 

My search skills are broken this morning.... anyone got a link to the Chrysler thread?

 

Chip,
But that is what building a car is all about. Having a reliable, daily driver that is unique and doesn't look like every other car on the road. You know, all those a**hole cars the factories produce that all look alike. A car that handles, performs, and brakes better than when it left the factory and preserves our idea of a classic/traditional car. Your car is a perfect example of a HAMB car, one that is owner-built (albeit with a little help) and driven "like a teenager on a skate board". Catchy little phrase.

I commented about the Mustang II suspensions because Steve is always fixing someone else's mistakes on the installation. A Mustang II IFS has its place. Ford made it work on the Mustang II and now a lot of people have made it work on numerous other cars. Some correctly and some incorrectly. Yours is a correct installation, because Steve understands the ins and outs of suspension systems and he installed it RIGHT. That's the key, knowledge and experience and skill. That's why I chose Industrial Chassis to do the frame and chassis work on my F1 pickup. His Dakota IFS is the right suspension for a truck.

We would all do better to study and emulate more of those old-timers who started this hobby/profession of ours. They worked hard to self-build QUALITY cars on a meager budget that others would admire and say "great car".

 

Thanks for posting. I always learn something from your threads. I especially appreciate the 3d images and the the interactive pdf. As a 15 year self-taught 2d Autocad user I'm struggling with 3d. Seeing these make me want to work a little harder at it.
Thanks

 

Your prices are not very far off from reality. Lawsuit has been encouraged by other local shop owners that have seen the original car first hand.

Of course I need to drag you in,

I do get it, thank you Sir!

Respect brotha

We were just playing with the the chassis a few minutes ago, works flawless. I am going to get a few ball valves and Tees to mock things up, maybe a short video to show how things move about. I have messed about with different ways to mount the air springs, this is probably my simplest and best functioning rear.

And yes, this was done by a shop here in the Phoenix Metro area. Worse yet the owner of the shop is/was an instructor at UTI

You have a killer head start on a Studebaker

It was a blog on my own website: Rat Rod Repair

 

Amazing work, always enjoy going through your threads.

I do have to ask, roughly how many days have you been working on this? It seems you get more done in a day than most mortal men.

 

I took the car in on March 31. Finished a few other projects and did the LSRU in the mean time.

In all, actual hours on this, adds up to about four weeks worth of work.

 

What makes you think he is mortal?!

 

4 weeks to me is 160 hours and I can pretty well see 160 hours in what you have done on it.
I wonder how much time you would have had in it if he had just brought you the body two years ago and asked you to build a chassis that would get the body as low as it will go and drive good while looking a bit scruffy on top. There has to be at least 30 hours of scab removal on that thing just to get it cleaned up enough to work on.

 

Maybe he was going to smear some structural bondo on it to give it that "finished" look?

 

Worse... somebody actually took a lot of
someone's money for putting that crap out on the public roads!

 

Thank you ElP. Will you finish the car and give back a functioning vehicle (less paint & upholstery ?) or a semi finished piece (needing all the plumbing, full electrical, flooring, etc., etc., etc..)? Also how much was really used from the original?

Some people pooh poohed my estimate, but as you said in the beginning, you have to earn a living, pay your bills & employees, and invest in the future. So you sometimes take jobs that don't fit in a certain specific category. As long as the finished product is done to the best of your abilities, within the budget agreed upon, who cares what that product is? Course, haters gonna hate and opinions are like belly buttons, everyone has one, so you KNOW there will be differing opinions here.
Every board is run differently and this one can be a bit restrictive. It is what it is. As long as there is a good amount of give and take in the exchanges it can go on. Kinda like a family. There is always something to argue about. People must remember that this is a place to share opinions, a public forum.

I look forward to your next installment.

John

P.S. With all the publicity generated here, perhaps an article in a major
magazine could happen. That is, pertinent to the car.

 

Steve, are the torsion bars on this set up a spring, or more of a linkage to the air bags, with the bags acting as the spring? Or are they both?
And have you set up any torsion bars with other methods of adjustment, like screw jacks or hydraulics?
Thank you, I couldn't have gone any where near as far as I have on several of my projects without you sharing so much info for all these years.

 

A thread like this is truly inspirational! It has made me, at 63, go out in the garage and start burning up wire in my MIG! I want get to the point where my welds no longer look like boogers. I want to progress to where my peers will look at my beads and penetration, and say "Mike has finally become a welder!".
I can't imagine pushing something I made OUT OF PIPE WRENCHES for critessake, out of my shop and being proud enough of it to take someone's money.
I'm watching ELP take this pile of parts flying in formation and make something to be proud of. Not my style, but it sure won't have to make any excuses. A job well done!

 

I really don't understand how it got to that point in the first place.

How little would you have to know about cars to look at that original piece of shit....pay for the work...and then drive away in it?

Or for the builder to claim he was a builder? and actually accept money for that giant heap of Rat Rod lawn art.

It baffles me...

It's painfully obvious that there's alot of lessons to be learned here....among those lessons are....

DON'T BUILD CARS FOR PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO BUILD A CAR!!!

DON'T BUY A RAT ROD, JUST BECAUSE YOU THINK THEY'RE COOL!!!

IF YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT CARS....REMEMBER....YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT CARS!!!!

TAKE SOMEBODY WITH YOU WHO KNOWS ABOUT CARS WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO BUY A CAR!!!

 

Tinbender, the lift shafts are 1045 steel so they should be pretty stiff. The air springs will do all the lifting duties.

Outside of working with friends that built Midgets and Sprints my torsion bar experience is limited. I do intend to build a "Special" with front and rear torsion bars when I get a bit of free time.

 

You turned a screaming metal death trap into a slick fine peice of machinery. I have never seen anyone with as much talent as you have ELP!! Keep the pics comin!!

 

Thanks, my torsion bar experience is zero, but I'm using one under my falcon anyway Can't talk about what its out of, the OT police might be listening!

 

^^^^^Torsion bar tech goes back before WWII, traditional enough?

 

it's not the 3d that is difficult for most but rather the constraints that have to be applied to sketches in a history based solid modeler. then come the parent-child relationships in the feature tree. history based solid modeling can be a real pain in the ass.

 

Incredible design and fab work. I can't do anything like this and I'm in awe of the skills shown here. I feel bad for the owner. I can't believe that anyone would hand over their hard-earned dollars and say, "Build me something that could kill me in a heartbeat." (And just think what a nice real hot rod he could've had for the money he'll have "invested" in this project once it's done.) Same thing with the guys that build their own RRs, I don't think they set out to build something unsafe, they just don't know how dangerous some of the stuff they do is. OTOH, no free pass for the shop that put this thing together. If you've never packed a parachute before, don't decide one day that you're going into the parachute packing business. Where this thread would do a bunch of good would be on a RR site, showing why some of the practices are potentially deadly and how they can be avoided.

 

Subscribed.awesome job turning lemons into lemonade. I think revealing the original builder might prevent some other poor bastard from spending money with them...and maybe save a life or two ..

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Steve just plain rules.

 

probably a entire thread could be devoted to whether one can really get a quality, well rounded education at expensive schools like uti or if one is much better off teaching themselves. sad state of affairs technical education in the us has become.

 

MMI and UTI turn out some of the biggest morons I've ever met here in Orlando, I think they were morons to begin with but become bonafide pros at it upon graduation.

 

Ditto what everyone else said...Awsome (re)build, top notch engineering, mind-blowing fab skills...as I can say is...

I AM NOT WORTHY!!!

I AM NOT WORTH!!!


Chris

 

i love the new frame. alot of thought went into it

 

Great job Steve! I'm glad that instructor wasn't from WTI

 

Just because something is taught, doesn't mean it was learned.

 

Just had a rambling incoherent conversation with one Mr Tman. Some say his elbows aren't where you expect them to be, but we did concur that one could argue a 1948 Chevy coupe, Pro-Streeted with a 305 and a B&M 144 supercharger and splash gumball graphics could be considered a traditional car...........but all we really know is he's called the stig