So after years (literally) of not being able to touch my truck for one reason or a couple hundred I'm hopefully going to be able to get back at it this summer. Currently its temporarily together as a roller because I thought I was going to have to tow it on a dolly. I've built it 100+ times in my head and changed it around an equal amount. I will be most likely tearing it down to almost nothing and basically starting over. I got a lot of advice on my previous build thread as well as a lot of flack. I listened to it then and made plans based on the advice. What I'm going for is something like the Rudy truck. I will have to have at least cycle fenders thanks to WV laws. I want to keep it cohesive. I want to have a flow to silhouette. I know that a lot of people hate on this style truck and that is fine by me. I think what I want to build belongs here because what I want is something that incorporates various aspects of hotrodding. I have this truck and I want to improve on it. It is basically impossible for it to be wasted since I pulled just a cab and doors from a scrapyard in NC. I love the old look of a solid axle out front. I want it stripped down to the essentials stop, go and turn. Even though most will call a 40's truck built like this a ratrod (Ohhh I said a badword lol) its still being built in the style of a hotrod. Now that my preamble is done..... Here's a list of changes to be made to start it out. Pull the cab, cut the frame off the rear, start over. I want to shift the wheelbase rearward so when I find or build a bed I have an equal distance front and rear of the rear tire in relation to the bedside. I think this approach will even out the rear proportions the best. The "bed" that is on the truck now is just something I put together to get an idea of what was going on with it. I didn't have a good flat table to work on so I built it on the truck which is why it is soooooooooo high. Don't worry the final bed will not be this high haha. The keg gas tank isn't gonna work out for me, I like the idea but not the application. I've yet to decide if I will run a normal width bed and a moderately wide tire setup or narrow it and run a true wide tire rear. Once the wheelbase is shifted further back the front tire when viewed from the side should just cover the front of the motor. I've wanted to run a rear radiator from the start and I still do but I'm struggling with running a grill or not. I love the dragster look of no grill no radiator but for the asthetics of the truck I feel like some type of grill is a must. This is just a short list of what I'm going to do to start out as far as changes go. If you have any input towards this goal then I'd be happy to read it. If you just want to come on here and bash my idea then that is fine too but don't expect me to listen to ya.
Looking for opinions on a rear suspension setup. I'm leaning towards a truck arm suspension. My other though being a ladder bar setup.
I want to go with a cowl steering setup as well. Was thinking of using something like a 70 Ranger box to do this with. My question is would it be best to build a frame under the dash that bolts to the trucks frame or to come direct off the driver frame rail with a mount for it? I feel like just having a frame under the dash that doesn't bolt to the chassis wouldn't be a very solid mount for the box.
The Jalopy Journal
