51 F1 Rat Rod

[roddguy1]

Lots of mallet work on the sand bag and into the English wheel and some shrinking here and there with lots of test fitting and I'm left with this spanking new roof panel.

 

[roddguy1]

Here it is all tack welded into place. In the last pic you can see how nicely the inward angle of the A-pillar now matched the angle of the B-pillar. I'm very happy with how this turned out. [cl

 

[roddguy1]

The only thing left now was to make up some filler pieces to close up the gap in the door frame left from stretching the cab and the change made to the shape of the inner frame.

Now just rinse and repeat on the other side.

 

[roddguy1]

Well I just looked at the date of my last post......holly crap this update is waaaaay over due. Sorry guys, Riotz Creations has been keeping me extremly busy. I'm also proud to anounce that we have moved and expanded the shop yet again. I will get some pics of the new place up soon. For now I will show you guys what I've done on the truck lately.

I decided it was time to get my lower front cab corners rebuilt and get the cab properly mounted to the frame.

This first pick is where I started.

 

[CORPO]

glad to see you back at it!

 

[roddguy1]

So what I wanted to acheive here was to have the bottom of the cab be level with the bottom of the frame. So using the temporary support frame that I already had built into the cab for the chop I squared up and welded the cab to the frame at the proper hight.

Pic 1 Cab corner cut out.

Pic 2 Test fitting the lower cab corner.

Pic 3 I neglected to get a pic but I did replace the lower section on the hinge post.

Pic 4 Fitting a section of firewall.

Pic 5 Showing new lower hinge post in and firewall repaired. I'm now ready to start fitting the body mounts.

Pic 6 I used Gm body mounts in the original positions of the Ford mounts. To clear the 5" box section of the frame, the body mounts and the U-channel floor braces I used the floor had to be channeled 7" up into the body.

Pic 7 Sorry for the poor pic, starting to fit the U-channel to the body mounts.

Pic 8 Cab corner and front firewall brace being welded in.

Pic 9 Finished. You can see the front brace a little better in this pic.

Pic 10 Close up shot of the left front body mounts

 

[Sam_Fear]

Been awhile. I was impressed with the rook panel you made, and then you disappeared! Glad to hear you're doing well.

 

[roddguy1]

Pic 1 A shot of how I dealt with the rear mounts. This U Channel material you see here came from the Honda plant here in Ontario. My dad had scoped a bunch of ends from the scrap pile while he was on contract doing maintenance upgrades there. He managed to bring home a lot of cool odds and ends at that time. The cup you see under the body mount was one of them.

Pic 2 More of the same.

Pic 3 Right front body mounts and cab corner.

Pic 4 Begining the foot wells and floor boards.

Pics 5/6 Just a couple shots of how it looks so far.

 

[klink]

This thing is looking great! I really like the chop!

 

[62ChevyII]

Not sure how I missed your build thread before now but I dig the chop! I have a 49 F1 I have thought of chopping it and laying back the windshield instead of cutting the top in pieces. After seeing how much work that was, not sure I wanna open that can of worms, lol. Nice work![

 

[maverickmk]

Very nice work. I usually don't like the car fenders with a truck cab look, but I have to say you nailed this one. Looks awesome. Keep the pictures coming.

 

[GJunktionMike]

Nice work, like the year of truck.

 

[roddguy1]

Been awhile. I was impressed with the rook panel you made, and then you disappeared! Glad to hear you're doing well.

Thanks Sam, I have been following your build as well and must say I'm very impressed with what you have done there.

This thing is looking great! I really like the chop!

Not sure how I missed your build thread before now but I dig the chop! I have a 49 F1 I have thought of chopping it and laying back the windshield instead of cutting the top in pieces. After seeing how much work that was, not sure I wanna open that can of worms, lol. Nice work![

Yes doing this chop the way I have with stretching and laying back the front window has brought some interesting challanges with it. The best part is it I end up with a lot of leg room.

Very nice work. I usually don't like the car fenders with a truck cab look, but I have to say you nailed this one. Looks awesome. Keep the pictures coming.

Nice work, like the year of truck.

Thanks everyone for your nice comments. I hope to be able to have more regular updates in the new year.

 

[Snake Farm]

.......... I hope to be able to have more regular updates in the new year.

[S So where are these updates you speak of *

Looking forward to seeing more progress on this awesome F-1 [P[P

*Pay no mind to the update remark.......I'm just trying to draw attention away from my own lack of progress

 

[roddguy1]

Well Snake it just so happens that I do have a small update. I have promised myself at least one weekend a month to work on the truck. So here is what I managed to get done in Jan.

I'm back to finishing up the right side A-pillar. reshaping it from the roof chop. So just a reminder of what I have done here. I started with stretching the cab 4" through the doors, chopping 4" out of the roof at the back, leaned the roof ahead by cutting a 1/4" wedge out of the B-Pillar at the belt line. Which netted me a 5" chop at the front. Now because of all this shape shifting the top of the A-pillars have to be move out 3/4" so they will match the angle of the B-pillar as you look down the length of the cab. Other wise I would end up with a twisted side window. Yes this truck will have all it's glass, a heater for those cold Canadian nights, and posibly even AC. We'll see.

The first two pics show how much the A-pillar has been move out, and where I will have to add in a piece at the top to fill it in.

The second two pics show the relief cuts needed to get things to move too where I wanted.

The last two are just a reminder of what it all looks like once it's all tacked back together along with the section I had to make to replace the part of the roof that needed to be widened to match the inner A-pillar.

 

[hotrod preacher]

wow! [cl

i am just too lazy n untalented to attempt what u r doing on this one...

but i love the look!

 

[roddguy1]

So I've been puttering away on this a bit more. I hamered out the filler panel for the roof and got it tacked in. The biggest trick was to get both side to match. I think it came out pretty well if I do say so myself.

Pics 1. 2 and 3 show the fitting and triming needed.

Pic 4 is my step son holding the trimed panel ready to go over the old.

Pic 5 with the old roof section trimed out and ready for a butt joint. I left a few tabs in place for screws to hold the panel in place for welding. The tabs will be cut out later so it is entirely butt welded.

Pic 6 7 8 All tack welded in, and looking even from side to side.

Pic 9 Just and over all look at things so far.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looking damn good!

 

[klink]

The chop looks really good, the winshield lean is perfect! I like the show car blocks under the tires too... lol.

 

[roddguy1]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It really feels good to be getting something done on this project again. Sometimes it feels like the longest build ever.

The chop looks really good, the winshield lean is perfect! I like the show car blocks under the tires too... lol.

Yes klink, getting those blocks just right was a heck of an engineering exercise. lol. Actually there great for getting things up to working hight so I'm not killing my back.