Black Rat 55

[zzrodder]

Must be nice to have all that space. My wife still thinks I have to much sapce as is.

All that space?? Geez, and I thought I was roughing it!! [SMy garage is 20 x 20 and a major part of that is taken up by my junk collection, haven't been able to actually work on the workbench for years.... Someday a bigger shop would be nice, but it seems no matter what space I have, the crap pile expands to fill it quickly, one of those Murphys Law things..

 

[zzrodder]

Got it back from upholstery, they knocked it out in just 2 days and the price was right too. Got some new outdoors pics to share too, box wood is in and I painted the tailgate letters silver.

 

[Motorhead]

Beautiful! [dr

 

[ratdog]

When I first saw your build of this truck I knew it was going to be a step above most builds I have seen,but now that its all done,it looks even better than I figured it would. Its amazing,the craftsmanship and details are unreal ,your setting the bar way too high for us too have any hope of following with our own builds.The interior turned out great,looks very suitable for the truck. WOW!

 

[Motorhead]

Quick question, what are the two black knobs that are coming out of the shift boot?

 

[bob w]

That's it! I'm selling my crappy hot rods and giving my tools away.

Of course, I'm joking. But this is my way of saying your build is world class.[cl

 

[zzrodder]

Quick question, what are the two black knobs that are coming out of the shift boot?

Those are for the exhaust cut-outs, in the outside pics, you can see the cables running to the header collectors. I built in a butterfly valve in each side, so yank the knobs and and it's wide open.
Now for the bad news - they just don't seal properly and since I made them angled in the tube to direct the flow better to the downpipes, the exhaust pressure also adds to the problem. As much as I like the noise, the cops do not and after any more than 15 minutes with the windows down, neither do my ears.
I think I'll weld a flange a couple inches inside the collectors and put in a single bolt block off plate with a wing nut so the option of running wide open is still easy to do - thats what I did on the Caddy engine in my 33.

 

[roddguy1]

This truck is absolutely stunning. Thanks for sharing this build with us.

 

[hotrod preacher]

that truck looks really good--old school all the way, and top-notch all the way--interior looks good, to BTW....[cl[cl

 

[truckster]

Absolutely exceptional...way outside the rat rod envelope. It is going to have everyone scratching their heads trying to figure out what it is. Looks like factory something or other that has been given a small chop and had the bed shortened. Only clue is the Chevole'. [cl

 

[andreasklapp]

really nice. good job.

 

[zzrodder]

Thanks for the comps fellas , I'm happy with how it's turning out too. Sometimes in the middle of a build I get to wondering if it will come out anything like the picture in my head [S so it feels good see it come together.
Here's a few more pics of the interior, also I welded in a flange and put a cap on the collectors, couldn't take the blowby noise anymore.
I also scraped off the PlastiCote Hi temp silver paint - that stuff is crap, always flaking off no matter how clean it is . Resprayed the headers with VHT Flameproof flat silver, it's the best I know of, nobody has it around here anymore, got it from, where else, Ebay.

 

[Z.Z.Rat]

Nice! Compliments on your work!

How long have you been at this build?

 

[CORPO]

as i have said before.. you do great work... It turned out awesome.. How does it drive?

You will have to let us know what people guess it is when you start taking it places

 

[Donuts1]

Can't say enough about this build!!! Great ride!!!

 

[zzrodder]

Nice! Compliments on your work!

How long have you been at this build?

Thanks ! I started on it in November of 2009, it took longer than I expected, due to all the body fab plus making extra things like the fenders , and 3 tries at the aircleaner, etc[. Worth the effort I guess..

as i have said before.. you do great work... It turned out awesome.. How does it drive?

You will have to let us know what people guess it is when you start taking it places

Thanks again. Drives great !! I haven't driven on skinny bias ply tires for a long time but they work great, not too much tendency to tramline. At normal ride hieght - about 3" up from what you see in the pics - it only needs 30 psi front and rear so it makes for a nice ride.
With the 30" tires, 3.00 rear gears and 700R4 trans it's only turning about 1800 rpm at 60 mph ! So most of the time around town it's pretty much just idling and with the lumpy cam it has a tendency to load up the plugs. Since the engine is fresh, I haven't been thrashing on it, what it needs is a good highway krooze....

 

[zzrodder]

Nice! Compliments on your work!

How long have you been at this build?

Thanks ! I started on it in November of 2009, it took longer than I expected, due to all the body fab plus making extra things like the fenders , and 3 tries at the aircleaner, etc[. Worth the effort I guess..

as i have said before.. you do great work... It turned out awesome.. How does it drive?

You will have to let us know what people guess it is when you start taking it places

Thanks again. Drives great !! I haven't driven on skinny bias ply tires for a long time but they work great, not too much tendency to tramline. At normal ride hieght - about 3" up from what you see in the pics - it only needs 30 psi front and rear so it makes for a nice ride.
With the 30" tires, 3.00 rear gears and 700R4 trans it's only turning about 1800 rpm at 60 mph ! So most of the time around town it's pretty much just idling and with the lumpy cam it has a tendency to load up the plugs. Since the engine is fresh, I haven't been thrashing on it, what it needs is a good highway krooze....

 

[Shea Laking]

This truck is just plain beautiful. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to share your craftsmanship with us.[dr[P[P[P

Regards,
Shea

 

[madman]

Simply stunning! Congrats on a truly unique truck.

 

[zzrodder]

The engine just hasn't been running right and a couple rockers keep getting out of adjustment so today I got serious and tore it apart. Bad news for sure - two cam lobes wiped out !! I used lots of cam lube and did the proper break in routine, 20 min. @ 2000 rpm and still this happened. I have to wonder if this Speedpro cam was a dud from the get go. The springs are regular Z28 ones so not too stiff - has anyone else had trouble with Speedpro cams and lifters?? The lifters also were tough to adjust right - zero lash hot, not like regular Chev lifters where you add 1/2 turn to preload them.
Of course I went too radical on the duration to get the big lumpy cam sound and that made the bottom end power lousy plus the single plane manifold didn't help there either.
So today I ordered a new Comp cam and lifters with less duration hopefully will have better luck this time...
I'm also suspicious of the Demon carb, it was cheap but just seems to run ragged on part throttle and generally runs rich even with the idle screws turned right in. I might toss it and go with what always works for me right out of the box, a good ol' HOLLEY. Anybody else had bad experiences with these Demon carbs ?