50s Ford F1 Build

[Neverdone]

Its a good idea, and I do like it, however, with how small the cabs are, I need room for chairs, cooler, etc to go to shows and such, so it will probably remain a real functional trunk...

BOOOOOOOOOOOO HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Fine...... lets do everything that you want to do!!!!!

Still am interested to see how this turns out! Really like the poncho rear on it!

 

[Dirtyrat]

BOOOOOOOOOOOO HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Fine...... lets do everything that you want to do!!!!!

Still am interested to see how this turns out! Really like the poncho rear on it!

Heh, yea, I do like the suggestions, and I wish I could use them, but when you have a 60+ gallon round tank, its gotta go somewhere =)

I'll work more on the rat this week, and maybe even later tonight, I have a car show to go to, and I have to take my fathers car there this morning since he has other AM plans.

 

[Neverdone]

rook sounds like a good spot,trailer maybe

 

[Dirtyrat]

We are going to pull a small trailer with it, and probably a popup camper when we go camping.

 

[Z.Z.Rat]

DR, Did you have to chop(narrow) the rear clip to tuck it in behind the cab? Looking at your pics it doesn't appear it's cut.

Our 39' cab is very narrow & we will have to chop our clip. I was wondering if you did how it came out for ya.

We will have to get them together sometime. The FIN Bros. !

 

[Dirtyrat]

DR, Did you have to chop(narrow) the rear clip to tuck it in behind the cab? Looking at your pics it doesn't appear it's cut.

Our 39' cab is very narrow & we will have to chop our clip. I was wondering if you did how it came out for ya.

We will have to get them together sometime. The FIN Bros. !

Back 5-6 pages I had a couple pics, I narrowed it 8" to get it narrow enough to fit behind the cab. Yes, I would like to see your ride when its rolling too!

 

[Z.Z.Rat]

Thanks for the pic. Need to keep up a little better on the build page!LOL

 

[CORPO]

how have I been missing this? Awesome!

 

[Dirtyrat]

You know I do the same thing, somehow I miss certain builds if there are not updates, or somehow I just miss them, not sure why sometimes they dont come up in New Posts!

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Dirtyrat]

Major update: transport supposedly picked up the donor Van in SC for me today, and should be here tomorrow or more likely thursday!!! I'm starting to feel like a lot of the major pieces to this build will finally be within my reach, and at my disposal! All things i have to have to build the frame and floor of the cab, etc... Today was a good day.

 

[sgtpontiac]

What did I miss????

Donor van......what else you got going DR?? [S

 

[Dirtyrat]

if you go back a bit in pages, I listed it but here is a short synopses:

Originally I wanted to run a Hemi, I went to autorama, 75% of the cool rats had a hemi.
Obviously if you look at my build and some of my other cars I've done, I don't like following anyone's lead or path much. (I love hemis, but I don't want a carbon copy either)

So, for many reasons other than just being different, I decided I wanted to build a truck that runs off propane, not the fork truck / car conversion style vapor system, but the roush style liquid injected kind. So, I kept my eyes and ears peeled, and also had help from my father who works for roush help me find a wrecked truck or van, and I made a bid on the van in order to get the motor, trans, and everything else that is on it to run the propane already installed.

Now, I know this is not a typical rat engine, but I probably paid less for the van & transport than anyone has into a rebuilt motor of any type so I feel its fair for the build, and I can recoup some of that by selling off the parts I'm not using like the dana 60 rear end etc..

So, propane is like $2-$2.50 a gallon... the 5.4L gets a few miles per gallon less on propane, but the same power output. So vs running gasoline, this really makes sense to me, I'll have a vehicle that weighs roughly half of an E250 van or less so should get decent mileage. This is something I really want to be able to drive and do it afford-ably. The other benefit is that it burns way cleaner than gasoline, so I can have a rat rod, and still be a little green with it... something you don't see much

So I'm hoping to maybe use a lot of the parts from the van in one way or another, there are so many things I don't have with the cab, even simple things like window regulators, etc. And even though this is a rat, I want my interior to be real functional, and real comfortable for me and my family, because it's something I plan on driving, not just to shows and such... so no sweet looking aluminum bomber seats for me =)

I have some long term goals as well for it including supercharger, etc...

 

[SJR]

Back 5-6 pages I had a couple pics, I narrowed it 8" to get it narrow enough to fit behind the cab. Yes, I would like to see your ride when its rolling too!

I like the narrowed 60s car rear, if there a thread started with a bunch of narrowed car parts? I like what your doing I have a 62 T-bird rear section and will start a thread when I have something to share Scott

 

[Dirtyrat]

Small update, I changed the delivery of the Van to my office were we have equipment to unload it off the flatbed trailer... I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow night.

Tonight I did some more welding on the passenger side wheel well... started cutting the passenger side quarter panel cap as well, but I need to get some more cut off wheels...
Most of the welding is done, I did some metal finish work too, its getting there I guess...

I'm also hoping to tack some more of the rear section of the frame together maybe after work tomorrow...

 

[sgtpontiac]

DR....makes sense to me....

We used to run our patrol cars on natural gas but semco moved up to Port Huron and we had no local refueling stations.....they ran on both gasoline and natural gas....so we finished our run on these vehicles on gasoline...
Mileage was less on NG than on Gas but like you said only a couple miles per gallon.....good luck with the propane thing..build is looking good....

 

[skull]

like it

Later

 

[Dirtyrat]

Van arrived mostly with everything...

Just missing the fuel tank, and trying to sort out with who I bought it from why it was removed. Anyhow... looks like the motor and trans are ok, at least from the outside, only thing that took a hit was the starter solenoid got knocked off by the control arm.

Going down to a Roush car show tonight to chat with one of the techs, and see about the cost on a tank...

On to the pics:

 

[Gus]

Really, I agree y copy others and besides a NG motor will last a LONG LONG TIME Joe, LOL and besides there is nothing normal about ur build. I love the trunk on ur truck LMAO "something in that just dont sound right".. LOL .. Anyway good score on the van

 

[sgtpontiac]

Man.....that cable truck has done some serious

Just missing the fuel tank, and trying to sort out with who I bought it from why it was removed. Anyhow... looks like the motor and trans are ok, at least from the outside, only thing that took a hit was the starter solenoid got knocked off by the control arm.

Going down to a Roush car show tonight to chat with one of the techs, and see about the cost on a tank...

On to the pics:

OFF ROADING......quick question....is this van powered by propane or you are going to convert it??? Sorry, I've probably missed that somewhere while I was out attending to children matters.....

 

[Dirtyrat]

Van info

The van was already converted to liquid propane injection by Roush, TWC had it done, and then the van was rolled at 38,xxx miles...

Anyhow, its not NG, its propane huge difference safety wise, NG = 3500PSI tanks, Propane is around 350PSI...

Took a couple more pics, I removed all the racks from the inside of the van and cleaned up as much of the dirt, debris, and glass as I could tonight... Anyone need any racks or the divider wall or lock box or what not?