Slant 6 with a 4-speed. I have questions.

You may have seen my frame thread, I am pulling the money together to buy a 1947 Ford F-3 Panel Van. I am going to stick with the original front suspension and brakes and z the frame to lower it. For the rear I need to find a slightly more modern rear and and z the frame back there as well.

For the engine I am picking up a slant 6 with a 4-speed on it. It's a 3 speed with overdrive to be exact. I know, some people think it's horrible to put a Dodge engine in a Ford, but it's a quirky engine I haven't seen much. It's got an aluminum intake on it with dual 1 barrel carbs.... it's kinda cool.

Anywho, I am so new to building a rat rod that I have some questions that may sound stupid.

Working with a manual transmission now, where is the best place to source out a pedal assembly? Is there a popular vehicle to grab these from? And should the pedal assembly be a Dodge to match the trans or is that not needed?

And I have only worked on more modern hydraulic clutch systems. How does the clutch pedal connect to the trans on this set up? Is it a cable that I can make or is it some sort of linkage?

I know the questions may sound dumb, but I am collecting parts and need to know what I need to find.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Chad, If you go to the "Builds" section and look near the top you will see a "Sticky" entitled "I'm Gonna Build A Dragster!" Look at page 9 for some clutch linkage pics. I used a Model A pedal but many pedals would work.

my 71 dodge dart with a 225 slant 6 and 4 speed and 8.25" posi got 20 mpg.
I got lucky and found a 225x from a 67 belvidere. it had higher compression, solid lifters and a bigger cam than in the dart.
dodge i think had some slant sixes in big trucks that were bigger than 225 but i never found one

If your truck is a '47 it is not a F-3. The F-series designation did not begin until 1948.

Just some advice here, take it for what it's worth. I'm not sure why you are talking about Z'ing that chassis. That will totally mess up your floorpan as well as radiator & fender mounts, etc. You can get it plenty low with a dropped axle or MII. The rear you can simply flip the axle, install blocks and C-notch. No need to completely cut apart your frame & re-engineer the truck if you don't have to.

Pedals come from whatever works for your particular setup. You can do a Z-bar with manual linkage or use an aftermarket slave cylinder in either a push or pull configuration with a fabricated bracket.

Be careful buying to many parts too early. You can often wind up with a bunch of stuff that either can't/won't work, or you just plain don't like. Builds are very organic in nature. If this is the vehicle you really want, then get it and go from there. It's not easy or cheap (if it was everybody would do it), but it can be manageable. I was told some advice long ago that often seems to ring true - "Take the amount of time you think it will take and double it, then take the amount of money you think you are going to spend and triple it". I'm sure some of the seasoned builders here will agree.

Excellent info here. Thanks.

I'm not trying to buy EVERYTHING in advance but I do need to pick up some of the key pieces right away to help figure out my game plan.

I didn't know about the F3 designation either. This is a bigger truck though so I kinda just figured that's what it was

I'll try to post photos of the engine soon