Lead Sled? Rat Truck? What the hell is it?

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Greg@RME

Active member
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
36
Location
Fruita, CO
Just picked this up today, it was too much to pass on!

img00012200912311315.jpg


img00013200912311315.jpg


img00008200912311313.jpg


img00006200912311312.jpg


img00009200912311313.jpg



It's a 1953 Chevy 210 4 door that has been converted into a truck. The bed looks to be from about the same year pickup. Looks like it was built back in the day.

It's awesome... the builder grafted the back wall of the truck cab right into the car, and it matches up pretty well. The bottom half of the rear doors are still there, just welded up. The bed has the old wood flooring... Tailgate still says 'Chevrolet' with the old school chain and hook for the tailgate. The interior is pretty decent actually, I love the lines of the dash and how simple it is. It's a manual, 3 on the tree! It has some old plates on it, all the hub caps are there, man... it's perfect! Well, almost... the floors are see thru. Will take some patching to seal them up from the elements.

Some more fun info... both doors open and close just fine, although there is about a 1/2" of slop in the door, once closed. Probably due to the fact that the weatherstripping has rotted out? The drivers side window rolls up and down fine, the passenger side doesn't budge. The wing windows work... with a crank, just like the big windows! The front glass is intact... no cracks, chips, etc. The rear window is shattered and I like it.

The bed of the truck fit perfectly into the opening of the trunk. Looks like this was meant to be! The bed of the truck is SOLID, it was mounted to the car quite well. The wood on the bed floor looks pretty weathered, but still in decent shape. I may sand it down and re-seal it.

It has 'truck' license plates... There are 97k miles on the odo, unknown if it has rolled over, but I doubt it.

I really want to try get it running with the stock drivetrain, we will see how that goes. And it's 6 volt... would be nice to convert it over to 12v.


The Plan?
I'm going to leave it as-is, for the most part. No body work besides the floor inside, I don't want to disturb that patina.

I want to put some good wide white walls on it, drop it about 3" and just drive it. Bagging it would be killer, but I don't want to spend that much on it. I would love to do it cheaper, if possible. Any ideas?

If I can get it running with the stock engine & trans, it will get driven as it is. If not, a hot SBC and manual transmission will find their way under the hood.
 
That thing is....uh....um....well, I like it. [S

Definitely leave it as is, maybe a little customizing eventually. As for the bagging it cheap, I have a few ideas if I ever bag another one. Use a motor driven compressor, manual valves, and make the bag mounts yourself. After that about all you'd need are the bags, a tank, and a few pipe fittings. Find somewhere that deals with junk semi-tractors and you might be able to find everything you need dirt cheap.
 
That thing is....uh....um....well, I like it. [S

Definitely leave it as is, maybe a little customizing eventually. As for the bagging it cheap, I have a few ideas if I ever bag another one. Use a motor driven compressor, manual valves, and make the bag mounts yourself. After that about all you'd need are the bags, a tank, and a few pipe fittings. Find somewhere that deals with junk semi-tractors and you might be able to find everything you need dirt cheap.


That was my initial reaction... I liked it, then decided I had to have it. :eek:

Great ideas on the bags, I love the idea of a York under the hood, a couple semi air tanks and a few semi air bags and it's almost there. Thanks for the idea!
 
Well how about this, somebody actually sees a project the same way i would! Or almost :) it would always have a straight six if i were doing it. Keep the pix coming please and welcome to the board.

:D Thanks for the welcome! I'll update this thread with pics as things progress.
 
It's different, I like it. For me I'd fill the doors all the way, skirt the rear fender-wells and put a pair of lake pipes hooked to a split 6 cyl. header, but that's me. But its very cool. I like the idea of a engine driven compressor too for air bags, might be a cool idea to have one of those a/c electric clutches on the air compressor and when the tanks are full it would cut off just like a regular shop air compressor. That's gonna be cool man.

Regards,

Rev. D.
 
Very cool and a great score on a totally unique car/truck - rat rod, or whatever it is.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of it in the future.

T1
 
morn n, great look n ride. some time back seems i talked to a fella out of kansas that told me of builds of this type but pretty sure he was using buicks. then about mid summer of this 09 year i saw one in the crawford colo. area for sale. 53/54 buick. luck to ya. gw
 
I like er tooooo.. Ya might unsieze that window regulator wif a little WD40. Just pull off the handle, drill a small hole, (wire bit size) next to the cog and squirt in some 40. After ya get er to move a little keep squirtin till it frees up. I've done this on several old window regs. works good.......Ya gotta luv dem ole chebbys......[dr
 
The one thing that looks way out of wack (besides the bed stuffed in the trunk ;)) is the trim on the doors - the cab back and sides don't blend well. Remove the chrome trim from around the side windows and it'll look a lot less glued together. Might need to do something about the drip rail too.

So you know about Yorks then. I've seen pics of guys using mostly copper tube and lever valves for controls. Doubt semi bags would work - but a new set of 4 Slams are about 300$. Not cheap, but quality.

Really like the spare tire carrier - looking at the pics again and that thing is a trip! Man I wish I had one now.
 
Good to see you guys like as much as I did when I first saw it. I dig it, although I will admit I woke up this morning thinking, "what the hell did I get myself into?"

Sam_Fear, great ideas on cleaning up the look around the cab, I think you're right, a little work will make look much smoother. I'll pull off the chrome and see about the drip rail. I know nothing about bagging a car, so if I go that direction this will be a good learning experience for me. I have done a good deal of reading the last bit and I'm considering either the York or perhaps a CO2 tank for air. I already have one CO2 tank for the 4x4. I'm still learning about bags and I'd much rather do it right so it's safe and reliable. Thanks for the suggestion about the Slam bags.

Good call on the WD40 riverrat44, it would be nice to get both windows working. I was surprised that the wing windows worked as well as they did!

gww, very interesting about those Buick's! Really makes you wonder if this was one of his projects. I'm trying to learn more about the history of the car from it's former owner, but I think that may be a dead-end.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top