Low Buck, Long Term F-5 Build

A couple years ago at a local antique tractor event my son and I happened across a Model A tudor hot rod/rat rod. After looking at it a few minutes we came to the conclusion that we could build one too.

After some web searching through the various rat rod sites and some indecision about what direction to head I came across a '49 F-5 sitting in a field not too far from home. The owners were ready to part with it so we were able to bring it home in June of 2008, complete with a valid Ohio title.






The hood had blown off in a windstorm. The passenger side door came off at some point too. Both have had too many close encounters with the cattle. Some of the rear brackets seem to have been at a great height for an itching post as they had been worn smooth.

In this thread I'll catch you up on where we are to this point, but I'll warn you ahead of time; progress comes very slowly. I spend great quantities of time trying to figure out how I want to move forward. I also seem to have far less available time than I thought I did. I guess when you've got a job, family, house as well as other interests and things you're involved in time can become a rare commodity.

Since projects don't get done in a vacuum I'll post some of the other stuff that's going on periodically mixed in with the progress of the truck.

After we got the truck home the dis assembly began.





Since my has a '49 F-3 he was able to see a few parts I wouldn't need that would go on his truck.

Since the barn is already full of other junk we moved the truck around to a concrete pad on the end of the barn. Worked out pretty nice as it had been used to raise fair pigs on and we came to the end of doing that in 2007. It was handy to have a level solid spot to work on that I didn't have to worry about it being in the way or needing to mow around it.



My goal was to have the front end stretched out while bringing the rear axle forward some.

After a little cutting we could get an idea of what we had to work with.






Against the barn you can see a '47 Ford pickup frame we had bought when we started thinking about a rat rod. Don't know what I'll do with it now, but you just never know when you might need a '47 Ford frame...

The next step was to start to figure out what kind of suspension we were going to use. I like the idea of a different looking, odd suspension. This truck will never be a high-speed, long distance touring machine. We're building it for the fun of building something.

To back up a little bit, here's some of the thoughts and goals for this project:

• Keep the price down. We don't have bushel bags of $100 bills laying around, so we wanted to use what we have or can get without spending loads of cash.
• Make it reasonably safe. Some of the stuff I've seen pictures of or actually running around are not something I'd like to ride in, or have any of my family ride in. Someday I hope to have grandchildren & I'd like to be able to take them a ride without worrying about them getting hurt.
• Make it different. We also collect old snowmobiles. I tend to like the stuff that's odd, heavy, ugly and slow. Kind of like me.
• Make it "there and back" capable. I would like to have a better than 95% odds of going an hour away from home and be able to make it back under it's own power.

With the way things were located as far as the frame and front axle I decided to try some different trailing arm layouts.





There is a pile of plywood and plastic trailing arms laying in the barn from where I successfully came up with designs that clearly wouldn't fit or looked pretty bad (not bad in a good way either).

Im with you soo far...

Looks good.

Right on these larger rats are taking over and they look good

i like the idea and the "rules" for safety

i hope to see more of this "monster-rat"

keep us posted-we'll keep you encouraged!

I've already posted some stuff on various thoughts of how to lay out the front suspension in another thread:

http://www.ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5789

When cold weather hits I get distracted by snowmobiles, so not much of anything happened last winter. When spring hit there seemed to be a few things going on so it was late April before I accomplished much of anything.

I ended up making some temporary brackets to allow me to hang the truck from it's axles. In the rear I made a couple simple hangers that bolt to the frame and hook over the top of the axle. On the front I made a couple plates with some carriage bolts to put some tension on the springs. Nothing fancy, but at least it's sitting on the tires again.




Those pictures were taken at the end of April. About that time I was fortunate enough to contact "myoldtrucks", who is making his own Ford truck rat rod. Since my wheels were looking pretty rough I was able make a deal with him to get his left over wheels;Thanks Bill!

At the beginning of May I had one of those times that make your projects sit on the back burner for a while. My oldest daughter graduated from Malone University. My back had been giving me some trouble before I went up for the graduation ceremony and to move her home. I had hoped that there would be all sorts of guys around to help load a sofa sleeper. Well none were close so my son, Levi got one end and I got the other. The first lift went OK, but the second one didn't. I knew things happened that shouldn't have, but being a guy I carried my end out to the truck anyhow. That was Saturday, by Tuesday I found out I had a ruptured disc. So now I'm pretty much immobile and Levi's High School graduation is at the end of May. We also sold our family business, effective May first. So my second week with a new employer and I'm out of commission. Long story short; not much happened on the truck this summer.

On a happier note; Levi & I were able to meet Bill "myoldtrucks" and Mr Gusset" at Goodguys in Columbus this summer. I was able to pick up the wheels from Bill and also looked around for a while. While we were there we went through the swap meet area and found some headlights. Obviously they came from different cars, but hey; it's a rat rod. They are marked Buick and I forget what year they are from, but $50.00 sounded good to me.



Since we went to Goodguys the only day that it rained just about all day long we ended up looking for somewhere to get dry periodically. We happened to go into the area that the guy from Fat Man Customs was giving a talk on suspension design. I learned more from listening to him talk for 15 or 20 minutes than in any other time in my life (about suspensions). The biggest thing I learned was that my front suspension design looked cool, but it wasn't going to work very well. I still haven't quite decided what I'm going to do about that.

Last week we pulled the rear axle & loaded it up on the trailer. I took it to a friend of mine that has a big impact wrench and a Budd socket. I found a couple of the wheels I got from Bill and stuck the axle back under the truck with singles on the rear.


After pulling it into the barn to tinker with for a while I started getting more and more concerned about the shape the cab is in. My plan had been to chop the top off, shorten the windshield and make a roadster out of it. I think the fact that the truck left little piles of rusted sheet metal every time I moved it was a clue about it's condition.



When I first started looking at rat rod stuff I came across the following thread.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/journal.php?action=view&journalid=17166&page=4&perpage=5&reverse=1

I went back and looked through it again this morning. After thinking about it I decided that I just need to bite the bullet and build my own RPU cab.

I decided to do some measuring and staring so I pulled out one of the items I wanted to use. When my parents bought the house my mother still lives in, 40 some years ago, there was an old Chevy radiator up in one of the sheds. We've kept it around & it looks like if I make my own cab I can make it work (as a grille). I also dug out an old tractor side curtains to use to mock things up.

I also decided to see if the headlights I bought would look OK by the Chevy radiator.




After standing and staring I'm feeling a little more excited about getting going on making a body.

This week I also got the engine and transmission about ready to pull. Amazingly every bolt broke loose. On the other hand; an evening spent working stooped over the truck earned me a trip to the chiropractor on Thursday.

I didn't think it would work,but it's starting to look cool........

Looks good, and I am glad to hear you are getting back on your project!

On a side note: Springfield swap meet is next weekend...

Good to hear from you, Bill.

Where is the Springfield swap held? We are taking Levi down to Troy next weekend where he'll be staying for the next 9 months. He's going to be going to school at Hobart. Maybe I can stop in since I'll shouldn't be too far from the swap meet.

We're cut/broke apart the cab today. Got a couple more things to unhook & we'll get the cowl off.

Are you going to keep the dual rear wheels? I have a 48 international i want to do the same thing with. Your start looks VERY promising and i really like the direction its going in.

Todd,

I sent you an IM on the swap meet...try to make it if you can...

I'm planning on running singles in the rear. I haven't decided what I'm going to stick with as far as wheels. I'd like to put a different set of rims on my rear centers so I can run 10.00-20's on the rear. I'll probably stick with 7.00 or 7.50-20's on the front.

I like how you did your front end.. thinking outside the box always a good thing.. do you have adjust-ability in those trailing arms? or did you set your axle for the appropriate angle for proper steering? (usually like -7 degrees back)

keep it up!

I was thinking the same thing CORPO but you could use wedge shims to get proper angle. If we're talking about the same thing.