33 dodge rod rebuild..

Well basically i got this car in a trade for my c5. And im not some idiot who just stumbled upon a rat and thought it was cool. I've build fabricating, building, racing since i could understand how things worked.


Im basically rebuilding the whole backside of the car. Fixing alot of flaws and sheet metal the interior.

When i pulled the sheet metal off the inside of the rear i got a stomachache from what i saw. crooked ladder bars that were cut and rewelded, upper control arms that were barely being held on. crooked air bags mounted on the ladders. Just poor work. Its all gone now. i cut everything off and everything will be new. It had a 8.8 rear with ladder bars welded on but builder welded the bars in crooked so he compensated by putting upper control arms and forcing the rearend over more. Obviously never thinking about geometry of how suspension works.

My new setup is a 04 crown vic rearend shortened ~3 inchs on each side. using boxed upper and lower control arms along with the stock watts link setup but boxed arms also. i will be using the original shocks and mounting the airbags over the axle with a bridge between the frame.

BEFORE:

HUGE PICTURES... sorry. But anyway all that ****ty metal work and wiring in the rear is GONE. I will get some updated progress pictures tonight. it is already looking way better.

Annoying Eric said:

HUGE PICTURES... sorry. But anyway all that ****ty metal work and wiring in the rear is GONE. I will get some updated progress pictures tonight. it is already looking way better.

Click to expand...

Definitely some cobble going on there.
Nice looking ride.
Get it right and drive it!!

POPS

WOW-hard to believe a car that looks that good on the outside could be that bad underneath it all. It's a killer looking car-get those updated pics posted and get that beast on the road!

That is crazy that it is that different underneath... scary...
Glad you are sorting it out and making it right, that is a great looking car!

yeah that doesn't look so hot..

if I were you I would get it high up in the air and crawl around and look at everything... welds on the frame, body mounts.. engine mounts.. steering..

make sure you don't have any surprises while your driving down the road..

like

cool, l think it looks like a good starting point.

l am partial to those body styles, got one sitting in my shop.

Later

CORPO said:

yeah that doesn't look so hot..

if I were you I would get it high up in the air and crawl around and look at everything... welds on the frame, body mounts.. engine mounts.. steering..

make sure you don't have any surprises while your driving down the road..

Click to expand...

I've actually had the car about 3-4 months already. I daily drove it on any day i could. LOL. Now the weather has dropped into the single digits and some snow so im giving it some love.. Other then the rearend and the fact there was no thermostat in the engine. everything is pretty good.

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little! Scary bad engineering followed closly by sub par craftmanship! It will be nice to see how it comes out all cleaned up. [P

[P

It's strange what some will do that looks so good then botch it up like that.
I'm looking forward to see your work.

Yeah, i couldnt believe what i had seen under it also. i'll get some pictures tomorrow. its all cut out and almost cleaned up. Im changing my setup a little and im actually going to use 90-97 honda accord aftermarket rear toe arm and LCA. Theyre a good length for me to use them as upper and lower control arms and will give me some pinion angle adjustment. Im in the process of shortening the axle tubes.

I also located the ORIGINAL builder of the frame and part of the body. He did a good job on the frame. lol. He is a member on the forum. Guy i got it from is the one who killed it who apparently is turning out to be a fraud and rip off. He told me he built the frame. Also told me that the rear was a trac-lok with 3.73. after tearing it down, its an open diff with 3.27.. I hope he never shows up to a show cause me and him will have some dialogue.

[cl good for you finding the builder and confronting the fraud when time comes[cl
Some people who can't do things will claim others handy work and most of the time will not get caught [P

Sorry for the lack of updates. I work on cars all day long and to be honest even with the heat on the garage im working in doesnt get the warmest. Its easy to loose motivation for a few days. lol










Finished shortening the new rearend. Whittled away some custom 4 link brackets. boxed the stock uppers and using Mustang shelby gt500 lower control arms. I rebuilt the rear portion of the frame as well and have a bigger and better fitting fuel tank..

Damn, cant catch a break. Got the rearend all built. slid it under and realized the driveshaft that the previous owner shortened was welded back together so crooked. I have Denny's driveshaft building me a new one as we speak.

Everytime I look at that pic of the original suspension I cant believe it!!!

I know!! I dont know how anything thought that was ok to build. Obviously that guy takes no enjoyment in his quality of work or putting any effort into it.

Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy working on the car.

ALL DONE!!!!



My buddy wanted to fix the door so i said go for it. That is as far as he got. now i need to finish it.lol

Looks good man! Ride on, ride on.