birthing a rat

http://s1310.beta.photobucket.com/user/rudetoad57/library/looking for a direction/rat at first i had no direction....a '30 A frame Z'd in the back and finished with a 49 ford rearend...together with a 77 pinto front end.....than the changes began.....this is the first few pics when i'd justed started this project.....if they come threw by clicking on the addy than i'll continue my story.

Yep, I see pics when I click the addy, so carry on good sir! [cl

By the way if you want the pics to show up here in your build thread just scroll over the pic and click on the little gear looking thing in the upper right hand corner, then click 'get media links' and a menu of links pops up, now click on image code and the code is copied, then paste that into the reply box and the pic will show up like this..........



Gotta love a T-Bucket, good luck on your build.

birth of a rat

I had tryed everything to make the turtle deck work without cutting my Z up and moveing it in.....but when i found that my 11 gallon gas tank wouldnt even fit under the turdle...than i decided to go with a pickup box.S after channeling the body down to where it looked good i nixed the deck and bought a sheet of cold roll and started fabricateing a box.The dash i put in was a peice of aluminum cap that was left over from a job i had refaceing the local sears store.This pic is just before i nixed the turdle

Th e box turned out to be the ticket...it easily housed my 11 gallon tank and my battery box both...its all reinforced with 2x2 steel tubeing and for the top i bent the metal to the right angle than welded a 3/4 pipe along both sides.I also took 1/2x1/2 steel tubeing and fabricated my radiator shroud that had to cover the 56 chevy radiator that i used......because it was the only radiator i had that had automatic tranny cooling outlets on it.

The head ers were off an old camero i had and wouldnt fit inside or outside the frame so i bought a length of pipe a smidge bigger and cut it into 8 inch peices than cut the headers and welded the chunks in to extend them past the frame....the engine was a mild 350 with a wiend tunnel ram.topped with a 650 edelbrock and a vintage B&M scoop

Be ing in the beer busness for 5 years i collected alot of old metal beer signs and decided they would make a colorful floor.I had made my floor out of 1x1 steel tubeing do i just rivited them down every which way.....except for the blonde.....i was careful not to take away from her looks with a wayward rivit.

I took some more of that aluninum from the sears job and put rivited it inside the radiator shroud after i got the shape i wanted....than useing a 2 inch hole saw i perferated it to get the air in and rivited a little steel skull that i bought off the internet to the front of it.

I bought a few sticks of 3/16 round bar and sat around one day welding up little spider webs for around in the nooks and crannys and the dash...useing a 3/4 nut and a couple 1/2 inch nuts and some stiff wire i welded up few spiders to weld onto the webs....it was kinda fun...and i figured i could always take those off if they started lookin too funky.

I had some old hickory flooring left over from the hallway and foyer in my house so i used it in the box...and made a trap door where my battery hides

The windshield frame was a '20 dodge that my daughter got off ebay for me for xmas....i cut it down and narrowed it to fit useing '23 stancions that my wife got me for xmas from speedway.I went to the glass shop i used to work at and they let me cut my own windshield glass.....and just charged me 12 bucks for the lammie.

Could have made it look like the headlights were on...

rudetoad57 said:

Be

ing in the beer busness for 5 years i collected alot of old metal beer signs and decided they would make a colorful floor.I had made my floor out of 1x1 steel tubeing do i just rivited them down every which way.....except for the blonde.....i was careful not to take away from her looks with a wayward rivit.

Click to expand...

Oh wait....looks like she had a flashlite in her hand....either way...that floor looks cool....

Finishing it off with a pair of 34 chevy headlight buckets and aftermarket tail and breaklights, a B&M ratchet shifter that i added an old curved wrench and a skull handle to and some kool old antique material i found at wallmart for the seat......its pretty much done....i've drivin it several times and its a kick in the ass....i built it for under 2000.....so theres no reason why every guy shouldnt have one of these rats going in the corner of their garage ....click on this next picture...its a video

It looks so little next to the '57 huh?

looks like a pretty fun little ride!! Any future plans??

Hey Neverdone......as a mater of fact I have started another......heres a pic of the front of the cab off a '28 chevy sedan....from the B piller forward to the firewall......no doors or windshield.....but pretty straight.After digging around there i found the back doors to the sedan and the bent up flipout windshield frame...so i spent the afternoon dragging them threw the woods to my pickup.

birth of a rat

If ya look behind the 23 in this pic the front of the 28 chev sedan is sitting there with its whole backside exposed....and doorless.....but i had a plan

birth of a rat

In the same place that i found the peice of 28 chevy sedan there was the back half of a '30 model A sedan...as seen in the next pic.....so i drove a couple hundred from it ....with a generator in my pickup i drug extension cords and a sawsall threw the woods and cut the very back of the model A off and dragged it back to the pickup.....my idea was comeing together.

I took the '28 back doors that i found and reversed them to the opposite sides and found they fit good so i chopped the cab 4 inches and did the same to the doors....than i straightened the tipout windshield frame and chopped it down too.....the little cut out at the bottom of the doors where the rear fenders were i filled in with 2 cold roll peices that i cut out and welded into the door notches.After everything was welded back and solid i brought the model A back over and sat it up against the back of the 28.....it was wider but it still looked pretty good.....so i took 5 ratchet straps and wrapped them around the B piller on the 28 and around the model A back. Slowly i ratched it in till it was tight against the B piller.....i cut off the excess and spotwelded it to the 28 B piller.And there you have a pickup cab made from 2 different year,make,and model sedans.The doors shut tighter than they did from the factory.The flipout windshield works with one finger.....its all comeing together well......so far......

Looking good! Not a '28 Chevy though... '27ish Dodge Brothers... [cl

28 chevy?

Hey Bell....thanks for the insite I was going by the dash and the operateing vent in the cowl....everything was pointing chevy.....heres a pic of the dash.....if i am wrong for sure....let me know for when it comes time to title it .....thanks again Bell.....RRR