'36 Chevy Sedan "The PackRat Rod"

[RimSpoke]

Hi All,

Here's what I started with:

The name was mentioned to me early on because that's who the PO was (literally) before we drug it home:

I often wonder about the poor souls who go through their entire lives having never experienced the smell of burned rat pee while flakes of rust & whatever else fall on you as you're torching, beating, & welding.

None-the-less, here's where I am with it so far... Chopped, channeled, converted from 4dr to 2-suicide, rear wheelwells reshaped:

If I were going to keep the fenders, I would've left the rear openings as-is, but I really, really didn't like all that open fenderwell behind the wheel.

Here's a link to a 3min video on the channel:


and a rather candid look at the chop:


Enjoy!

 

[skull]

cool lookin'

good looking ride[cl

Later

 

[michael-moore]

i like it what direction are you going with it chop, lower,channel open hood?

 

[Dirtyrat]

Who needs a chain-fall.... That was pretty entertaining...

 

[Neverdone]

Looks like you are doing a heck of a nice job!!

 

[RimSpoke]

It was easy to reinforce the area behind the hinge, but since the third,
outermost bolt would be through-bolted, I wanted to reinforce the outer area
as well. I slid a 3/16" piece of flat steel that extends 3"-4" on either side into
the opening:

Had I not reinforced the area, the third bolt could've crushed this part of the
door when tightened:

Four-door front doors are much smaller than their 2dr counterparts. It
would've looked stupid IMHO if I just welded the back doors shut, so I moved
the "B" pillar back when doing the chop and extended the front doors 9".

Looking through the windshield to the passenger-side floor, you can see
where the 4-door center post was and how the sill binds when you
attempt to close the extended door that last inch:

What's a guy to do but cut things, pull them to where you want it, and weld
it all back together?

And with that out of the way, I ended the evening with one solid, suicide
door swinging and closing completely:

Next up - Replace the rusted-out bottom of the drivers door, weld-up the old
hinge holes, reinforce the new ones, finish the window channel, etc etc

 

[RimSpoke]

i like it what direction are you going with it chop, lower,channel open hood?

Thanks Michael, I'm liking it too

Since it's already channeled, it'll sit as low as the stock frame will reliably allow. I'm not doing any rear kick-up but there's plenty of room to work with. I'm also altering the front parallel-leaf suspension a little. If it sits too raked, there's always the option of a C-notch, but I'll hold off unless it's necessary.

I have the complete hood w/ sides. The sides have a sweeping arc cut-out on the bottom to clear the stock fenders, so you may still see some of the eninge with them on. I intend to use the whole thing, but haven't lowered the grille shell yet. I'll make up my mind once I put it in place and see it outside of my mind.

 

[Neverdone]

Wow this thing is coming along nice!

Keep up the good work!! [P

Got a motor and trans figured out yet?

 

[Tim...Ok]

Looking really good, nice work!!

 

[Old Iron]

I like everything you've done and doing.
Top video was funny as all get out

 

[Shea Laking]

This car doesn't hardly look customised at all! Which is, in fact, the hallmark of truly successful customising. To whit, the finished product looks like it was born that way. The modifications enhance the proportions instead of destroying them. People who didn't see the build-up ask "What's been done to this car?!"[S

Kudos, man. Great work so far. Loved your videos. Also props for sharing shop time with your young 'un.

...Oh yeah. Props for putting those pieces of a-pillar back in there. Most would have just left it out for "shock value." Looking forward to more as it comes.[[P

Regards,
Shea

 

[MacGyver]

A lot of cutting and welding going on here...the videos were great. Nice work! I just sold a 36 chevy 4 door slantback last summer.

 

[RimSpoke]

Thanks all, for the input & compliments. They're greatly appreciated.

I like everything you've done and doing.
Top video was funny as all get out

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm serious about what I'm attempting to accomplish but sometimes we've got to be willing to laugh at ourselves.

This car doesn't hardly look customised at all!

That is the best compliment I could ever hope to receive. My hope is that any work other than the obvious (chop, etc) goes un-noticed. The final product should look like someone ripped the fenders & running boards off to make a hot-rod.

 

[RimSpoke]

Now that the hinges are solidly mounted to the doors, it's time to take the flex out of the other side of the equation, the "B" pillars.

While a lot of builders will generally add square tube steel when the time comes to replace the wood originally used to stiffen these and other posts, I don't think it's obligatory to add all of that extra weight to gain the required strength. Similar to boxing a set of frame-rails, strength also comes from the shape of a beam, not simply from it's thickness.

However, boxing the pillar in this instance necessitated leaving access to the suicide door hinge mounting bolts:

 

[RimSpoke]

Looking from the front at the rear side windows, it’s easy to see how the
body narrows towards the back in this area. When the car was a four-door,
there used to be a post here that allowed two separate panes of flat glass to
make the curve (one in the back door, one in the sail panel). With the post
removed I have a couple of options: either find a piece of curved glass from
some unknown donor vehicle that matches the contours of the body – or –
adapt the body to allow a full length piece of flat glass… making it roll up and
down would be a plus for the back seat passengers.

No brainer, right?

The first order of business then was to form a straight extrusion for the
bottom of the window that would fill-in the body’s curve. The piece will also
have to serve as a mounting surface for the lower rubber window seal. It
isn’t “over bent”. The top needs to be a little more than 90 degrees to the
bottom to match the contours of the window surround. I made the piece long
@ ~24″ and would cut it to length once I was ready for the installation.

After getting that piece fitted and the corresponding curve up the back, I
set about building the frame that will ultimately receive the side & upper
window channel and incorporate a mounting surface for the interior trim. The
bottom of the inside isn’t finished in this image, but it does show the exterior
weatherstrip extrusion. The last 3 headliner bows are pushed out of the way,
but they come down & will be secured to the frame with screwed-in clamps.

By now I’ve bent and installed the balance of the opening’s bottom with it’s
subsequent curves in the back. I plan on adding more sheetmetal under this
to mount the regulator with an opening for the window to be installed &
removed from the bottom channels. To make sure I leave sufficient access
when adding that structure, I’ll cut-out a pattern for the window from thin
wood or cardboard.

I’ve left the actual 1/2″ x 1/2″ rear channel structure out from the back and
intentionally didn’t bring the sheet metal all the way down here. The channel
is 1/8″ thick & will adequately support itself. When complete, the upright
channel will be screwed to the back with a mounting bracket holding its base
to the wheelwell. If you’ve ever seen the inside of a car door, you’ll know
what I’m doing.

On to the other side...

 

[Shea Laking]

Car's coming along nicely![

Little stuff like the window opening and channel mods you've just detailed are what elevate this beyond the level of a "rat rod" in my honest opinion. This has become a home-built car done within traditional guidelines to a high level of quality.[cl[P

I can remember seeing photos of rotten old truck cabs on steel beams for a chassis, with plywood floorboards and axles welded to either end.... That was back when rat rods were "new." Glad to see many are taking it to the next level of evolution.

Thanks for sharing your project.

Regards,
Shea

 

[zzrodder]

Great work !![cl[cl This is so like the work I went through to convert my 34 Caddy from a 4dr. to 2dr., except you didn't have to deal with a wood framework, that was hateful. I see you also lengthened the doors to keep the proportions right. Kudos for making the rear windows functional - I made mine fixed since I didn't see enough room for a power motor to fit.
Keep the pics coming ![P

 

[RimSpoke]

I’ll generally sit and stare at a project car for a good, long while before I ever start cutting into it and this one was no different. Subsequently, I’ve had it in my mind to raise the top of the windshield before I ever made the first slice to chop the top. These body styles have quite a bit of curved metal above that opening, the proportions of which become exaggerrated when the lid is lowered… so much so that the “bald guy’s forehead“ phrase was coined to describe the look some time ago.

Taking a styling cue from the Hirohata Merc, I marked a one-inch span across the top of the windshield for removal. I had already initiated the vertical cuts along each side of the opening when the top was first removed from the car. I knew it would be a lot easier to start these cuts and get them straight (inside to out) with the center of the pillar readily exposed than to get it going from the middle after it’s all been welded back together. The eventual “going to cut back into all of it” was also the reason these posts have not been much more than tack-welded together until this time; and with the slits in place, it was an easy matter to slide the saw in now and keep going.

A look from the inside shows the gussets supporting the upper corners. Since they were designed to connect the other structural grid-work, they’re much heavier gauge steel than the body sheetmetal and also thicker than most of the bent-to-shape metal that forms the underlying structure. These need to be cut free from the sides, allowed to lift with the rest of the upper windshield frame, and then tied back in. The intended cut-line in white, up the pillar and back through the side of the gusset, is more easily visible on the right post in the image.

Now it’s just a simple matter of sliding the top up that magic 1″ with everything cut free. Since there’s no easy access to the back side of this line, I’ll be using a simple but effective trick I picked-up from Gene Winfield, creating a divot along the seam to keep the weld below the sanding/grinding surface. The only part that should require any real massaging is the peak in the center.

Although it was the best place to make the cut for the rest of the alignment, removing the inch here required the removal of some the peak’s gradiant fade. Small matter. We’ll either build this detail back in to match the original or smooth it out altogether… whichever I decide I like best when I step back from it and look at it again for a while.

I still have to make, fit, and install the two little pieces to fill the resultant side gaps but they’re best left for my next set of days off.

As you might imagine, the video also shows a little more:

 

[old man dave]

I cant watch any more of this professional quality work. LOL You make metal work look easy. How many other cars have you built? Do you have pics of other finished projects to share with your RRR buddies?

 

[rainman]

Cool vid., hope you made those boys put their tools away!! ha ha
Great work!![cl[cl