1946 Ford Pickup

[Calgarymale86]

Well with the price of oil so low and layoffs rolling through Alberta, I thought it would be a good time to get back into the garage and make some headway on a now 3 year long project. I've spent quite a bit of time visiting antique stores, talking to friends, and collecting a handful of parts to get me somewhat started. I still don't have a clear view of where I'm going with this build. I told myself I wanted a true "rat rod" but after visiting some car shows and seeing some sketchy builds, I decided safety's gotta come first! I realize I may offend some die hard rat rod builders and may not be true to form when purchasing new parts, but let's be honest, I want to finish this build sometime in the near future safely without travelling the whole countryside waiting to find the perfect part that isn't totally trashed (which I've come to understand is few and far between, or completely overpriced).

Anyhoo, onward with the actual build!

I started out with buying a aftermarket 4" drop axle with disc brakes from Lucky 7 and am planning on doing a 4 link to tie it to the frame, and possibly a pan hard bar if need be.

For the rear I bought some coil over shocks and am planning on a triangulated 4 link to tie in the Dana 70 which has 4.10 gears.

The engine is a 1993 12 valve VE cummins, turbo'd and innercooled, with if I remember correctly a 46RE?

So far I've been in the garage last week messing with the frame getting all the proportions where I think I'll need them to be. I'm not planning on putting a box on the truck and using a piece of 16" casing pipe as a fuel tank.

 

[Calgarymale86]

Rough cut lightning holes and frame kick down

 

[Calgarymale86]

16" casing used as a fuel tank

 

[Calgarymale86]

Tig welded frame rail. I had to use a little heat to straighten it once it was welded up to get both of them straight and true.

 

[Calgarymale86]

Welding the baffle into the fuel tank. I also spent the time and ground off the mill scale from the inside of the pipe and baffle.

 

[Calgarymale86]

I also back welded all the bungs inside

 

[Calgarymale86]

I tig welded everything on the fuel tank with 70S then capped it using a bronze tig rod I picked up for a old shop I was working at when they were cleaning their shelves. I actually quite like the colour contrast and think it might change some of my design plans in the long run

 

[Calgarymale86]

I got the frame rails squared up and spent a lot of time going back and forth tacking in a spreader bar or cross brace and resquaring it time after time. I was told this would be near impossible without a frame jig, but I got it within 1/16 cross square and completely level within 1/32, sooo I'm pretty stoked about that! I also put repads on the fuel tank where I welded it to the frame and where I'm planning on mounting the coil overs.

 

[Calgarymale86]

Ok I gotta stop here and ask, how the hell do I post more than one picture at a time!? It gives me a option to upload numerous picture in a single post, but only one picture actually gets uploaded. Is it possibly the fact I'm using a iPad?

 

[Todd]

I use photobucket.

[cl I salute you wanting to build a safe vehicle [cl

Now get back in the shop, [[P

 

[forbigpicture]

Hey Cal, those are some nice looking welds[cl[cl[cl
and agreed, safety first.....

 

[Country Misfit]

Looking good. Nice ride.

 

[TIMOTHALE]

front fenders into a nose

My son used the front fenders to make the nose, used the back half, the front was crashed, trimmed and welded together, turned around to have a track roadster look. When Chris boggess, the instructor of the UVU street rod Fab program stopped by the shop He first said it looks line you have been doing a lot of forming then figured it out

 

[clamor]

Ok I gotta stop here and ask, how the hell do I post more than one picture at a time!? It gives me a option to upload numerous picture in a single post, but only one picture actually gets uploaded. Is it possibly the fact I'm using a iPad?

I post more than one all the time from my phone.
You have to make sure they're less than 220 Kb, first of all.
Secondly, you can only upload one per browse button.

I've posted a couple pics of the upload interface so you can see what it looks like as you add more than one.

-Chaz

 

[Calgarymale86]

Thanks for the compliments, I guess if I'm gonna charge people to weld their junk, the least I can do is make mine look decent.

Thanks clamor, I also signed up to photobucket but think emailing the photos to myself is easier since I use a iPad more than my laptop.

 

[Calgarymale86]

Just a picture of the repad welded to the fuel tank

 

[Calgarymale86]

Finally got the engine nestled between the frame, where she'll live for the next little while

 

[Calgarymale86]

Used a energy suspension isolator for the tranny mount. I tried using the original tranny isolator, but after 4 hours of fabbing, I scrapped it and decided to KISS it.

 

[Calgarymale86]

It's a little hard to see, but I put a gusset inside the hss under the tranny mount to prevent the hss from deforming too much from any torque or vibration.

 

[Calgarymale86]

Also went and used energy suspension isolators under the engine mounts. I did some research and kept hearing how awesome these isolators are under the cummins engine. The originals on the donor truck were almost ripped in half, and if I juice the engine up the way I plan on I don't think OEM parts will keep it in its cradle.