The Bonehead Truck Build

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The drivers door had given me a hard time since I got the truck, it had not opened and closed good before the chop, and seemed a little worse after the chop. My answer was to re-work the hindges and make some adjustments. The old pins were really hard to get out. It amazes me how well built these old trucks were. Here I have a shop full of tools and tons of knowledge, and these hindge pins nearly kicked my butt. Finally got the pins out, and bent the hindges a little, and angled them up some too. I used old antique door pins to put the door back on, you know the ones with round balls on top.
 
Last edited:
The Bed: I built the bed from 16ga steel. I was making this build on the cheap, and used the metal I had on hand. Which as it turns out was not big enough to make the full bed sides, so I made each bed side with two pieces. I broke the angles, and welded on capped pipe for the roll. Everything was ground off nice. I made the bed to come off around the cage if I need to.
The tailgate is a combo of rectangular tubing and flat steel, and is welded solid in place to the bedsides. Since the cab is on an angle the bed had to follow the lines. The frame is level, so the bed depth is deeper in the back and more shallow in the front. ( by about 5 inches ).

The door: Working great, when I decided to use a jack and pop the dent in the roof out. It popped right out, and looked great. But then the door no longer opened. sooo, I popped the dent back in and opened the door. So the door still opens but the roof is not level, call it "charm". It does have that lived on look. I guess that is one of the things I have always liked about the truck. You can sit on it, or set a beer down on it, and it retains it's original charm.

The shocks: When I saw them at the swap meet I said those are the ones for me! Old shocks that were never installed and had been sitting in some shop for years.

Take note of the driveshaft hoop which ties the frame at the bottom of the Z, also note the offset of the Ford 9 inch.
Also note, I have started painting, while I am still doing body work. I get tired of the same part of the project every day.
 

Attachments

  • bed reduced.jpg
    bed reduced.jpg
    147.5 KB · Views: 301
Last edited:
I mounted the big tires on the rims I had picked up from E-bay. They were an old set of Jeep rims from a sand dragger guy. So I had to see what they looked like. The clamp that holds the bed on is soon to be replaced by bolts.
In the last picture you can see the flow in design I had been planning. The angled bars that make up the frame come up and meet the cab body lines, and those continue to the angle of the bed. And you thought I was winging it.

By this time I had taken the bottom of the body off below the door and in front of the door.
 

Attachments

  • back resized.jpg
    back resized.jpg
    156.1 KB · Views: 265
  • back resizes2.jpg
    back resizes2.jpg
    79.4 KB · Views: 265
  • ratterside22.jpg
    ratterside22.jpg
    54.4 KB · Views: 386
Last edited:
It just keeps getting better. I like the big N little look. And that's how the rear in my prostreet toyota looks. I had to offset it since the pinion is offset like a ford 9".
 
oh... it ran out...

Thats some good **** there bonehead. I can see my truck being built somewhat the same way with the bit here, bit there kinda thing... and your truck is a lot of inspiration for mine too. I love your pipes :)

keep it up, I'm really enjoying seeing how you put it all together.
 
like an old song title

In the 70's the drummer for the delaware destroyers worked on my crew. The lead singer was George Thorogood,his best song was BBBBBBBBAD TO THE BONE !!! Need i say more!!! LFE
 
Thanks Guys, I built the headers, I found some flanges on E=bay, which was a surprise. I just went on and looked and there they were, and nobody was bidding. I have looked off and on since and have not seen them. That saved me alot of time and trouble. I always like the funny cars, when they raised the bodys up, the pipes stuck out to clear the body. Thats where the pipes came from. You can also see the wides, and skinnys. You can picture, the SS, or Camaro, some of the Dodges and Plymouths sitting on these same tires. Thats the way they were when I was in highschool, so that is where that look came from. The shackles, although very short, hang down in the back, another look right out of the 70's. I think the top of the passenger door is finally done, but i was still sanding on the roof. The advantage of spray can paint jobs, is you can do small sections at a time. It was a Duplicolor satain black, that every auto part store and chain store had run out of by the time I bought it all up for the paint job. The Tie rod would not work in it's plannned location. I had to move it up front. I had seen it on dragsters, and fourwheel drives forever, so I figured it would be okay. A little research, and I came up with a fellow named Acherman. His thoughts on this method frowned on what I had to do. But I really had no choice. Driving it is fine, but I notice a scrub, or push on U turns, and when parking. So the major effects are at full lock on the steering wheel. I can't help but think the posi in the rear helps push the truck in that kind of turn as well.
I picked up some salt style discs for the rear. I know, they don't generally go with skinnys in the front, but the deep steel Jeep wheels really needed something. So I got the "look" I was after. It takes something, I don't know what, to combine all these little things and end up with what you are after. If you start with no plan, and are not following a blue print you really never know until it starts to come together.

 
Last edited:
With the car show about a week away I had a buddy who really knows his electricity help me with the wiring. This means I stood there and watched while he wired my truck. This is also when the fun stuff starts being added to the truck. The Grill, front turn signals, tail lights, and that sort of thing.
1grillandskull.jpg
 
Seats were an issue from the start. I built it with those cheap plastic race seats. I made the steering wheel, so it would come of, with a quick disconnect wheel.. But it was still too tight. So to go to the first car show, I used plywood, with foam and fabric, and built a quick bench seat. The floor is aluminum sheet. The brakes are under the floor. The clutch was a bear to make work, but I finally got it. Built from scratch, the linkage for the clutch pedal, works well now after several spring changes. The 292 ran well and sounded great. It was a big hit at the first show, and drew crowds away from the Camaros, and Mustangs. The first show is about 2 hours away from my house. Out here there is still plenty of wide open spaces, with an 8 gallon tank, and no stations between here and there, I decided to trailer.
Once there the trailer was parked, and I got a good feel for driving in some traffic with it. until then I had just been on the road near my house. In really slow traffic it would warm up. I had to use an electric fan since the lower radiator outlet would have been hit hard by the fan. Night crusing was better for the temp. It was nice to see the people enjoying what I had come up with for a truck.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top