1951 International L-112

Picked this truck up for free thanks to a guy at work seeing me looking at RRR and asking if I had a project yet, the answer was nope I wish. Well then he tells me about this truck sitting in the woods behind his house he wants gone. I couldnt get the tow truck there quick enough. The plan is to build a pretty extreme looking safe driver. This is my first build so it seems to be taking me forever to get going. I have been basically just sanding off bondo so far and trying to read as much as I can about building a rod. I got the new grille off a international tractor from a yard sale. I'm leaning towards the open wheel look because the front end was all bondo and patches.

I got these lights from a 1928 chevy at the local swap meet the other day too. Oh and here is the engine, trans, and air-ride donor I picked up today. Its a 1991 lincoln lsc with a ford 302 H.O. in it

FREE!!! sweet!
Great to have another binder on here. Keep the pics comin. Chk outmy wild 54 below on my link. Goodluck buddy. RR

free

free is a great price, keep the updates coming

Later

man rr your build is crazy I like it alot another build with a ton of good ideas. My biggest problem is lack of experience on building rats and this is going to be pretty much a ground up build so its gonna be a challenge but one im more than willing to take on

Nobody would take on projects like rat rods if they weren't looking for some sort of a challenge

looks like I will be working on the rat next weekend again but I'm not really sure where to go from here and what to attack next... Is there any real ryme or reason to what you do first? I'm thinking I should keep gathering parts and start from the ground up aka the frame and suspension then on to getting the engine and drive train all set then move on to the cool/fun body stuff. Reading all these builds on here is giving me ideas but its also got me thinking all over the place haha I guess rat rod adhd or something like that

markjeep9 said:

looks like I will be working on the rat next weekend again but I'm not really sure where to go from here and what to attack next... Is there any real ryme or reason to what you do first? I'm thinking I should keep gathering parts and start from the ground up aka the frame and suspension then on to getting the engine and drive train all set then move on to the cool/fun body stuff. Reading all these builds on here is giving me ideas but its also got me thinking all over the place haha I guess rat rod adhd or something like that

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I worked a little backwards on mine. I pulled the frame out and got rid of it. I knew I wanted a chop, so I did that first just cause I knew I would have to be all over the cab and didn't want the frame in the way.
Then I got the frame I wanted, then made the body fit for the look I wanted. I didn't have to deal with designing suspension though so that was easy.

I'll tell you this much. Even if ou "think" your doing it in the "right" "order" your still going to have to pull the body off the frame at LEAST a dozen times to get everything just right! I focused hard on getting the body to sit on the frame just as I saw in my head, then take it off to run all the lines. While it was off, I built my crossmembers and motor mounts then reinstalled the body to make sure it looked okay. Then took it off again to finalize the mounts, and run all the brake lines.

I usually put it back on, cause, well, it just looks cooler with it in place
I've had to force myself to leave it off so I can focus on this or that and make sure this or that is completed before putting the body back on.
Catch 22 really.

The pros here will likely have better advice, and I'd be interested to hear what the right way is.

got bored last night so I rolled out my spare from my jeep to see how big a 35x12.5r18 tire would look back there. I'll have 4 of these when I get new ones for the jeep so I could run them as my back tires and have 2 spares once those get to be like slicks. Kinda a wierd idea but I think I like it the more I think about it

markjeep9 said:

got bored last night so I rolled out my spare from my jeep to see how big a 35x12.5r18 tire would look back there. I'll have 4 of these when I get new ones for the jeep so I could run them as my back tires and have 2 spares once those get to be like slicks. Kinda a wierd idea but I think I like it the more I think about it

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Not a weird idea at all! I did the exact same thing with my 35" Goodyears off my dodge 2500
I was going to go fenderless so it would have looked beefy, but i opted for fenders and smaller tires.

yeah the fenders are almost pure bondo and more patchwork so Im thinking of going fenderless and run them so it has a really agressive look and I already have them so thats a huge factor too, less money spent to get it going. I feel like this is going to get expensive even if I do take my time and do all the work myself,just tools alone are pricey. I'm going with lincoln electric to the indy 500 so I'm gonna try and talk to our sales guy about possibly getting a set of torches and or welder for the garage... hopefully they can get me a sweet deal.

markjeep9 said:

yeah the fenders are almost pure bondo and more patchwork so Im thinking of going fenderless and run them so it has a really agressive look and I already have them so thats a huge factor too, less money spent to get it going. I feel like this is going to get expensive even if I do take my time and do all the work myself,just tools alone are pricey. I'm going with lincoln electric to the indy 500 so I'm gonna try and talk to our sales guy about possibly getting a set of torches and or welder for the garage... hopefully they can get me a sweet deal.

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I've found I've spend more $$$ on tools and grinder wheels then the materials for the truck too.
You get yourself a Lincoln rig, I will be quite envious! I'm working with a el cheapo harbor freight welder cause that's what I can afford. I've built my whole truck with mostly carpentry tools. Angle grinde (key tool) sawzawl, tape measure, levels and a square.
I would LOVE to have some "real" tools to do more detailed work with.
Someday.

Yeah exactly I have alot of small time tools like the kits from lowes or sears lol not nice full mechanics sets but like you said someday we'll have all the tools after years of collecting

markjeep9 said:

man rr your build is crazy I like it alot another build with a ton of good ideas. My biggest problem is lack of experience on building rats and this is going to be pretty much a ground up build so its gonna be a challenge but one im more than willing to take on

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Tnx man.
Wish i had yer gumption and could take full credit but mr gussett is the fab guy on my build. I do help wat i can but im just not that great soooooo hes the main man. RR

I vote fenderless with the hood and the big meats on the rear. Chopped. Maybe even run all 4 of those tires - might look cool! (might not?)

I like the grill you got for it!

thanks for the input, I am hoping to get working on it soon again, I am definitly thinking of chopping it down so I will see how that grille looks once theres more to the build to judge it on, I like it but with the whole front empty it looks small. That would be wild to possibly have a 4 mud tires on a fenderless rig hmmm another thing im gonna have to look at.

well after days of going out and sanding and clear coating. It seems like alot of hours going into this and I'm not getting anywhere fast. Finding tons of bondo all over this truck. So I think I'm gonna focus on moding the 28 headlights I got to accept a set of 6k Hid's I have in the shop so I feel like I've actually accomplished somthing. I give anyone building or who has built a ride a ton of credit cause this is proving to be a huge test of patience!!

markjeep9 said:

well after days of going out and sanding and clear coating. It seems like alot of hours going into this and I'm not getting anywhere fast. Finding tons of bondo all over this truck. So I think I'm gonna focus on moding the 28 headlights I got to accept a set of 6k Hid's I have in the shop so I feel like I've actually accomplished somthing. I give anyone building or who has built a ride a ton of credit cause this is proving to be a huge test of patience!!

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You are 100% correct! These things take much more time and thought then an outsider of first timer think. I know cause imma first timer
I have spent about 3x more time on mine then I first expected.
I work on on a handful of tasks that take a lot of time or effort, that way when I get burned out on one thing, I can take a break and work on something else. The best thing about doing it that way is at the end of a few weeks work, suddenly a few large tasks get completed so moral goes through the roof for a while.
Hang in there. It'll all be worth it in the end!

Ha being a newbie I thought 2years was a good goal but the way its going and the fact that I'm trying to buy a house sometime soon It could be like 4 years. My biggest set back will be no garage so winters and crap days weather wise put a hold on progress too but I'm really looking forward to the challenge still