My Model A RPU project

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
More good stuff! I like the even shorter rear end. ...because your garage is too small.... classic!

Which is why we have just started building a new bigger 20' x 26' garage. :D

I can weld that back end on again I guess......


f3fee6db.jpg


ec008b04.jpg
 
The garage is moving along apace, but the rod not so fast. All I've done is start to widen the rad shell and add some brackets.

4103c2c8.jpg


82f1c3b7.jpg


14490a03.jpg
 
By those pics, you must really like the look of cinder block. Any thoughts on a lift or gantry?

The whole thing will be rendered smooth inside and out, with 1" of concrete. Like plastering, except tougher. :D

Wooden construction gets eaten by termites, unless you use hard-woods. Doors will be solid mahogany.

I've left the height for a possible car lift of some sorts, though I'll probably have to build it myself as shipping a proper one would be too expensive.

Half of my facebook friends are in davau (sp) province. they tell me the economy there stinks. If they are to be believed, you are getting an amazing deal on labor.

The locals earn peanuts. Our builder guys wages vary from $12 a day for the foreman, to $5 a day for a general labourer. Which is above the average salary, but necessary to retain good craftsmen, which is what some of these guys really are.

The cost of living here is not as cheap as you'd like to think, and I really have no idea how most ordinary folk can even afford to live on the money they earn.
 
Garage is coming on strong, walls are being plastered, slab is being poured in four sections.

40a1af27.jpg


97a9bd9a.jpg


Hot rod, I got the steering 'column' and Corvair shaft splined to take a U/J, saves messing around with DD joints, which don't actually seem to be available in 5/8". This saved messing about welding something on, and the splining only cost about $20.

e04377d5.jpg
 
Just a couple of little things done lately, as I've been busy with loads of other stuff.

Started to glass the body to the stiffening frame:

3c7d9dec.jpg


9774bd11.jpg


Various seat belt mounts welded in:

8435a600.jpg


Got to work out the doors too, they are pretty basic:

53c2ff54.jpg
 
Got back from work in the USA a couple of days ago, so wasted no time hugging family or stuff like that, straight into the shed. :D

Painted my new steel front wheels. hard to believe I couldn't find a simple straightforward 15" steel car wheel over here, but had to buy them in the US. Only about 25 quid each though. Need to buy matching rear ones next trip, but they'll be 10" wide.

ab48d5bc.jpg


New T bucket classic style headers. I'd like to have made these myself, but the price is so good it ain't worth the hassle of all the bending and cutting, flange making etc. They're not much over $200 from Speedwaymotors.com They do look good though, and I wish I'd bought the chrome ones, but they were nearly twice the price.

c3d28f1b.jpg


810aee42.jpg


Rear disc brake conversion. I simply could not find the correct drums/backing plates to fit this axle, so rather than spend a couple of weeks running round mixing and matching Jap parts I bought a conversion kit, again fropm Speedway. I went the DIY route with the front end and it was interesting, but time consuming and not exactly cheap.

These have the built-in handbrake. Or emergency brake as they are called in the USA.

fddb7a30.jpg


9b6ba3de.jpg


389453f7.jpg



I also bought a proper US 1" brake Master Cylinder, again from Speedway, to replace the metric thing I fitted a while back.

I now have a bunch of work to do to finish getting the doors mounted and some sort of dashboard in, some brake line brackets, headlight brackets, then it might be time to pull it down for finishing welding/grinding and some paint.

a3ed3c25.jpg


270a1d21.jpg


a4ace799.jpg
[/quote]
 
I made a nest for the 9" diff, to make it easier to clean up, bloody thing is heavy!

cdf74789.jpg


Got the casing all cleaned up, ground a bit, coat of rust converter on:

3e548a6b.jpg


Cleaned up and sprayed the wishbones, axle and a few other axle related gubbins.

0267da7b.jpg


Threw a really embarrassingly crap coat of red oxide on the chassis, as I'm sick of looking at all that gash ugly white powder coated tube. I'm looking for black Hammerite, but nobody seems to stock it over here.

ad10a529.jpg


I made a sort of handle thing for both ends so it can be rested between two trestles for painting etc.

d952a439.jpg


Blagged the motor and trans off my mate, stuck them together, can't wait to get it bolted in place:

1366c277.jpg


The shed is getting no bigger either, with all these parts kicking around:

4c41b614.jpg
 
More paint going on, just rattle can black gloss.

3cb9a770.jpg


Chassis was brush painted, but I should probably have just rattle canned it as it took forever to paint, even with my trusty apprentice helping.

5aa1afb0.jpg


40afd54f.jpg


I had a bad thread on one of the bolts that hold the hairpin to the axle, and they don't exactly grow on trees round here. A local hardware shop sold me a 5/8" UNF die nut and folder for about £8 and the job was a good 'un. :D

95301397.jpg


I then decided to cut and grind a bunch of the surplus metal off the actual bolts themselves, an old hot rodders trick from the old days. Before and after pics below, but there was some more grinding to do to smooth it all out.

627cf309.jpg


The poly bushes for my front shackles were too big, so instead of going to the machine shop and paying good money, waiting for a week, I decided to turn my bench drill into a lathe. A 1/2" bolt as a mandrel, with a spacer for clearance and a nut to hold it tight, and an old boring tool out of my junk box....

a02312a8.jpg


I had 8 to do, took about 30 minutes altogether, cost nowt.

9b60a173.jpg


Everything is piled up, in the way, in the shed now as it is monsoon season and raining cats and dogs all day every day, and the paint doesn't want to go hard, and I have no room to work....... :(

193d5ffe.jpg
 
Probably don't have access to an electric heater either or you could close off a small area for the frame and heat and dry it out in there.I like the "old school" brush paint job. :D

I have a 1000 watt spotlight that I have turned on a couple of times to try and get temps up. It works. :D

Hard to believe it was 90+ degrees here two weeks or so ago. [S

The brush paint looks a bit embarrassing but I'll dry it and I can flat it a bit and touch it up in places. I don't want that high mirror gloss epoxy show finish, but dribbles and runs are a bit too much.:eek:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top