51 F1 Rat Rod

[Rat_Coon]

Sawwweeeeeet bed fins! Are you channeling the box? If so, how much?

 

[roddguy1]

Thanks for the cudos guys, I'm likin how it's turning out. Wasn't to sure till I finally got the box mounted though.

I can hardly wait for a running video of this thing myself, but I'm afraid that's still a long way off judging by how much time I get to work on it.

The box won't be channelled down any further. the bottom of the box sides are now level with the lowest part of the main frame rails and will stay that way. I've made it with the box sides high so that most of the 58 Buick 1/4 panel chrome can be seen behind the wheels. I think it's going to look crazy cool once I have all that mounted along with the upper fins , tail lights and rear bumper bullets that fit under the tail lights.

As I already mentioned the cab still has to be channelled down to meet the bottom of the box, plus the hood is going to have a wedge cut out of it to give it a bit more rack. So there's lots of metal fabing left on this project.

 

[junkmagnet]

Here all the welding is finished and the box floor is in place. (pic 1)

Getting the box screwed back together for it's first test fit on the truck.
(pic 2)

The last three pics are the truck back on the trailer as we were headed off to a local car show of which we were a sponsor.

There is still so much work left to bring things into proportion. Such as the cab needs to be channeled down 2" more and the lower back of the box needs to be trimmed up once the bullets under the tail lights have been fitted. However, you can start to see where I'm going with this now.

awesome bed!!!!

 

[hotrod preacher]

that thing is looking cool...amazing vision, talent, and determination...thanks again for sharing the build!

 

[Corsair]

Yup, this is a beautiful truck - I am digging this thread. Stick with it, the bed is one of the coolest I've seen.

 

[Sam_Fear]

Rodguy - is the bed the same width as the frame?

 

[roddguy1]

The bed floor was made to the same width as the original box from the truck, had been shortened. So no, the box is wider than the frame. The Frame I built has similar dimensions from the original frame because I built it to accept the original leaf spring rear suspension. However I'm thinking of switching to a 4 link and coil overs instead.

 

[roddguy1]

Got some more updates for you guys on my truck. Last March we had a booth at the Performance World Car show in Toronto. Last year we took the bar steal body of the 38 MG and my truck box. This year we took the completed MG and my box again. But this time I added all the chrome to one side so people could see what it would look like.

 

[roddguy1]

Here are a few pics of how it looks on the truck.

 

[rainman]

Fits real well with the slanted windshield posts, love it. I would like to find 57 ford to do the same but have had no luck.

 

[roddguy1]

When I mocked up the 58 bumper bullets that go under the tail lights I felt it was starting to look a little long behind the rear wheels. So now I'm using the bumper ends from a 69 Buick front bumper under the tail lights. This follows the angle of the tail light down and duck tails into the rest of the box. Effectively shortening the look at the back of the box and bringing it more into proportion. I'll have to get some pics of this for you later guys. Sorry.

 

[roddguy1]

I'm moving back to working on finishing up the chop now. The inner A-pillars need to be re contoured to match the new shape of the roof. I started with temporarily installing the header panel. You can clearly see the shape of the old roof line. The green tape shows where the bottom of the window will be once the doors are built and installed.

 

[roddguy1]

Because of the way I laid the A-pillars back I had to remove the dash and inner portion of the A-pillars. I then changed the shape of the upper cowl in order for the A-pillars to lay back. Now I needed to separate the lower portion of the inner A-pillar from the dash and section it as well to begin reshaping it back into the cab.

 

[roddguy1]

The first pic shows the open lower area that needs to be reshaped. The next few pics show that section being test fit.

 

[roddguy1]

The lower section was then trimmed to length and a 14 gauge reinforcement u-channel bent up and added to the inside. This was then plug welded in and the seam welded up.

 

[roddguy1]

The inner section needed some minor reshaping and was clamped into place. A small filler strip was needed to close up a gap left by the new shape and then all was tack welded together.

 

[dmw56]

Looking good! Good to see you back on it.

 

[roddguy1]

Then it was on to reshaping the upper section of the A-pillar. A few re-leaf cuts were needed to allow this section to straighten out. Then I bent up another u-channel reinforcement, and shaped it to run inside this area to hold the the proper curve.

 

[roddguy1]

Now there is a problem that occurs with this type of a chop. As the back of the cab was move back 4" to extend the doors the A-pillars wind up leaning in more at the top than the B-pillars did. If I were to leave this I would end up with a twisted door window frame and needing a twisted piece of glass. The cure is to push the top of the A-pillar back out about 3/4". To do this I trimmed back along the top of the drip rail almost to the back of the door frame which allowed enough re-leaf to move it out. Kinda hard to see in these pics but I think you get the idea.

 

[roddguy1]

But after pushing out the inner A-pillar I'm left with another problem. No enough roof to close the gap........ what to do, what to do!! [S
So I start with a paper pattern and proceed to make me a new roof section to fill that gap.